03.12.10
MUJI is a highly successful Japanese retail company that sells a wide variety of household and consumer goods. What is interesting is their ‘non brand’ market positioning. They decree for themselves the status of not being a brand, but paradoxically it is the great clarity they have around who they are and who they are not that makes them such a distinctive and compelling brand.
MUJI works very hard at claiming its non brand positioning. It’s name was derived from the first part of Mujirushi Ryohin, which translates into ‘No Brand Quality Goods’. It’s website declares in the very first sentence ‘… MUJI is not a brand.’ Instead it claims that MUJI creates products with a view toward global consumption of the future. That it does not create products that lure customers into believing that ‘this is the best’ or ‘I must have this’. Instead they like their customers to feel the rational sense of satisfaction that comes not with this is the best, but this is enough. Best becomes enough.
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03.10.10
Branding for Local Government
We’ve been recently working with a regional Victorian Council, over the years we’ve worked with Local governments all over Victoria, from the City of Melbourne to the Moira Shire Council. We’re working developing their brand, evolving the brand mark, creating a visual language. and creating a brand system, they can use to easily communicate on brand. It reminded me of the key steps we’ve taken over the years, with our Local Government clients, that have delivered a successful branding project. I thought it’d be good to share them.
Working with Local Government has it’s challenges, but so does working with any organisation. They have no market, no competitors, you can’t pick another council to empty your bins or maintain your park. But they have a vital need to successfully communicate their brand to all their constituents. They need to clearly communicate where every dollar of rates has been spent. These are my 5 keys for successfully branding a Local Government, but they could apply to any organisation.
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03.08.10
A Game of Tennis and More.
I’ve been lucky enough over the past year to have had several truly once in a lifetime experiences, the most recent of which was a hit of tennis with the Super Brat, John McEnroe. For the sake of my reputation as a man of the world I’ll continue to pretend playing it cool but did I mention I had a hit of tennis with John McEnroe? Now I’m not much of a tennis player – I’ve maybe dusted-off the racquet once over the last decade – but fortunately I wasn’t there to provide a demonstration. In-fact the hit-up and eight games took just 40 minutes and seemed to be over as quickly as they’d begun. It was only the next day as my adrenaline eventually subsided that it occurred to me I’d not only been given a lesson in tennis, but also in branding.
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03.05.10
We all love a unique brand expression and I can’t help but acknowledge one of the most remarkable brand expressions I’ve seen in recent times (albeit dating back to the late 1970s) from one of the most iconic and well know fashion brands in the world – Gucci.
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03.03.10
Today it’s more critical than ever for businesses to differentiate themselves from their competitors and make memorable connections with their audience by creating unique, recognisable brands.
Colour in Brand Design
Every touch point of a brand plays a vital role in brand recall, but the brand mark is the heart and soul of a brand’s image. Whilst it’s the interplay between colour, typeface, and symbol that creates a brand mark, colour is registered by the brain before either images or typography. A University of Loyola, Maryland study recently found the correct use of colour could increase brand recognition by up to 80%.
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03.01.10
The Point of Point-of-sale
Recently we wrote about adidas’ augmented reality campaign for their Originals product line. Augmented reality is fast becoming a ‘must-have’ for any brand designing an integrated campaign – especially those with a customer interface such as retail. Lego has recently launched an augmented reality point-of-sale system that blows traditional POS out of the water. We’ve coined the term ‘Brandticipation’ – which describes a sense of heightened anticipation created by a great brand experience or a brand’s reputation. If the role of point-of-sale is to engage the customer at the point of purchase and create brandticipation to positively influence their decision to buy, Lego’s new augmented reality POS must be one of the snappiest examples anywhere in the world.
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02.26.10
This week I had the pleasure of joining in the celebration of 50 years in the property development industry by one Bert Dennis, founder of Australian property group, The Dennis Family Corporation. I have always found Bert an inspiration and it was a delight to hear him in full flight reflecting on his time in the property game. He came from very humble beginnings and through his talents, resilience and integrity has created a very successful business turning over $300 million plus annually with an exemplary model of an enduring family business.
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02.22.10
All Brands Have Meaning
Whether carefully and strategically considered or by default, all brands hold associated meanings in the minds of the market place. Well considered brands establish a competitive brand proposition (their brand strategy) with layers of meaning to both differentiate themselves from their competitors and to connect with their audience. These brands reinforce their meaning through all of their actions or brand touch points and their brand design. As a brand agency we help brands to define their meaning and create their unique brand design for all their communications in order to create a consistent association with these layers of meaning in the hearts and minds of their customers.
adidas Vs Nike
Today we compare the brand associations of spots apparel icons adidas & Nike.
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02.18.10
If you speak to most brand managers I’m sure you’ll find that a brand attribute they all strive to own is Trust with a capital T. Trust is fundamental to the success of obtaining and keeping customers. With this in mind its been interesting to watch some of our major banks over the past few months as they try to convince their customers they can be Trusted.
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02.18.10
Standing-out In-store
With Brand Design for retail it’s so much about the customer experience in-store. Creating unique and compelling brand theater in your stores is as much about the merchandising as it is about the actors (your staff) and the environment. As retailers continuously look for a new edge in store design, technology continues to inspire fresh and potentially rich opportunities to create remarkable in-store customer experiences.
Two remarkable examples we’ve found are the interactive mirror by Alpay Kasal of Lit Studios and Sam Ewen of Interference Inc and the digital ship window from Russian designers Supreme.su.
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