Aaron Keller, Managing Principal, Capsule

image001We appreciate brands with personality. From our studies of brands, there are way too many living in a pool of vanilla ice cream and wondering why their customers don’t engage. Brands need interesting, engaging personalities and they are most effective when coming to life within the experience.

The Jimmy John’s experience is seeping with personality. Instead of a pool of vanilla ice cream, they’re scooping out Italian Nightclub, which oddly enough is a sandwich name and could easily be an ice cream. And, if you haven’t spent some time in a Jimmy John’s, you’re missing a treat for sandwich lovers and an appropriate amount of cheeky personality. The experience leaves you feeling like someone took the time to consider all the details surround a “freaky fast” sandwich.

Consider our admiration for this brand when this little private shed of awkwardness showed up on the job site outside our office. The name is slightly different and someone could perhaps argue you’re not going to have an issue with confusing Jimmy John’s with this blue plastic experience. But, if my job is managing the Jimmy John’s brand, this would make me pull the legal equivalent of a “hey, hey, hey, we know funny and that’s not funny.” Just doesn’t make sense to allow someone to pull your brand down into bowels of a portable potty.

Then we discovered that DuetsBlog had already spent some time sitting on this stool of a subject matter in a previous post. So, we’ve got an answer for the Jimmy John’s creative director John Kraynak who may be “grinning and bearing it” as the previous post put so eloquently. It would appear that Jimmy’s Johnny is the senior user of this brand name. Though, this might be an opportunity for this wickedly smart John Kraynak to take a positive, brand driven approach. Here it is: if you’re growing a strong, creative brand you might want to approach the blue shed people and offer them a rebranding. It wouldn’t cost much compared to the damage this comparison has and will have on this coveted franchise brand.

Though, this may just be me. For those who know me, I appreciate a witty poo/brand joke. I’ve already considered buying a copy of History of Shit and leaving it inside the Jimmy’s Johnny. So, this “Likelihood of Confusion” comparison might just be my scatological sense of humor showing up again. Perhaps you have a point of view. Or just a poo joke to share.

Either way, all’s good in the porto.