Now 8 years after that fateful day, limited progress has been made on the completion of a memorial and museum at ground zero.  Courtesy of Brand New, the image above shows a recent decision to shorten the lengthy name to simply “9/11 Memorial”.  From a branding standpoint, this makes it much easier for the public to “remember” its name.  The new logo solution is bold and simple, leaving the simple element of the blue towers as an impactful reminder of what actually happened.  Check out the official 9/11 Memorial site for tons of information on what’s coming.  We salute our fallen heroes.

How much is YouTube’s brand worth?  In late 2006 Google purchased them for $1.65 billion, even though after almost 3 years, they are still not profitable.  Recent estimates place YouTube’s annual expenses between $174 – 470 million (as estimated by RampRate and Credit Suisse).

Many people do not realize that there are hundreds of other video sites with very similar features.  In fact, many of their competitors started several years before YouTube.com even went live.  So why has Google dumped more than $2 billion into a website that they could easily reproduce for a fraction of the cost?  Simple…brand name value.

With smart marketing, impeccable timing, and arguably a lot of luck, YouTube has become THE standard for video sites.  Their brand name has been used so much now that it is synonymous with “video site”.  It’s a phenomena shared by few brands.

Here are a few more examples.  I think you’ll be surprised how many brand names on this list you use to describe these items.  Is YouTube the new Kleenex?

According to the 2008 report from www.brandz.com, Google’s brand name (not company assets) is worth $86 billion dollars. Uh, yeah, that’s a “b” not an “m”. This report has some interesting facts about brand value. For example: Publicly traded brands from BrandZ’s top 100 brands outperformed the rest of the stockmarket (S&P 500) by 22%. Wow. That’s solid financial proof that branding plays a major role in a company’s success.

Matt always jokes that “Dressbarn” tops the list of the worst brand names. I couldn’t agree more. I finally had to see for myself what they are all about. On their company history page they claim they are “extremely sensitive and focused on the needs and desires of women in the 21st century”. Hmm, I didn’t realize the look, smell, and ultimate purpose of a barn was so close to the heart of women in the 21st century. I’ve never been in their store, but I wonder if they have signs like “Cowpie Corner” and “Piggie’s Picks”.

To their credit, whatever they are doing must appeal to some women. They have been in business since the 60′s and are traded on the NASDAQ.