Branding Corn

Morton did it...
Why shouldn't corn growers?

And that is just what they are going about doing.
The Corn Belt: Farmers All Ears to Branding?

It's interesting to note that not all commodity markets utilize similar tactics.
For example, the milk industry with it's infamous award-winning Got Milk? campaign, initiated by the California Milk Processor Board in 1993, branded the actual commodity rather than any specific brand in effect constructing a powerful constraint that will weaken "brand" branding campaigns for the foreseeable future. For an excellent history of the Got Milk? campaign and some valuable links see the Wikipedia entry.

See also Branding Commodities for a good discussion and some ideas on branding commodities.

Dunkin' Donuts - Mom & Pop Shops grows into Global Brand

Dunkin' Donuts, founded in 1950 by William Rosenberg in Massachusetts as a Mom & Pop shop, has leveraged its brand over almost sixty years to grow into a global chain spread across more then 30 countries.

Brandchannel.com has published a great overview of the Dunkin' Donuts brand.

Bubbes, Beads, and Baby Boomers (Life Stage Marketing)

Most every marketer on the planet is pretty much busy right now either trying to figure out what to sell to baby boomers, how to sell to baby boomers, or how to sell even more to baby boomers (what's a baby boomer?). The hearing industry sure is, anyway...with the average age of first time hearing aid buyers hovering around 69, those in their early 60's are a key and very attractive demographic.

But, most companies are getting it all wrong.

As Virzi (2008) points out in Life Stage Marketing, most baby boomers did not smoke grass, wear beads, or drive a VW minivan...

Marketing to baby boomers - or to any demographic - needs to focus on what individuals can identify with NOW, today, rather than on what they may have identified with 10, 20 or 30 years ago. Nostalgia does have a role in marketing, but nostalgia is not a strategy...