So, yesterday, Heathen HQ was running low on some office crap, so we ventured forth to acquire binder clips, paper clips, printer paper, etc. There’s an office supply store not far from our lair, so we went there.

We looked at phone systems there, too. The sales drone was unable to tell us anything about a particular model of phone, so we figured we’d check out the web site. Once back in the office, we fired up a new Firefox window and realized something that we’re sure makes marketing idiots and advertising charlatans cringe:

We have no idea if the store in question was an OfficeMax or an OfficeDepot. We know that the one on West Gray is of one type, and the one on Kirby is the other, but we can’t tell a difference. It gets worse: we know one of them has (had?) a fairly slick “rubber-band man” ad campaign, but we can’t for the life of us remember which one it is. Nor do we care.

We’ve worked on projects that including branding and corporate communication tracks. We know people spend lots of money on this stuff. What boggles us is that these two apparent competitors have spent money on branding and advertising with so little to show for it. Maybe they know people don’t really care which store they go to, but other businesses faced with that same commodification problem have found solutions (think airlines and frequent flier programs). It seems foolish that they persist in essentially the same namespace with no differentiation to speak of.

Are the folks at OfficeMaxDepot HQ just braindead? Or does it really not matter to them? Does the larger of the two (Depot) feel that its smaller doppelganger isn’t enough competition to worry about? What’s going on here?