Good Week/Bad Week in Branding

Good Week: Patagonia – As part of its “Vote the Planet” initiative, the high-end outdoor apparel maker (aka “PataGucci”) will close its retail stores, corporate offices and other U.S. facilities on Election Day to allow its employees to vote at their convenience. See the hundreds of other companies that are doing the same.

Bad Week: GoPro – The film-your-own-action camera manufacturer saw its stock fall off a cliff – down 20% – on the news of slower-than-expected Q3 sales. While still a hit with the gear-obsessed Patagonia crowd, the brand has yet to expand beyond that niche.

Worse Week: Wells Fargo – The Volkswagen-esque fall from grace continues as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission becomes the latest federal agency to launch a probe of the sales practices that landed the bank in its current state of woe (or “whoa,” given the whole stagecoach thing).