The Power of Brand Voice
Every brand could do with a spokesman like Big Bad Sam Kekovich — Hell, every country could do with one too. Ex Australian Football player Sam has been promoting Lamb as the fair dinkum Aussie dish for a few years now — and this time he’s taken it to the world. As our unofficial Lambassador, Sam has presented his case for the whole world to celebrate Australia Day this year by coming together to throw a lamb chop on the barbie — and in so-doing has connected-to our sense of National Pride.
Archive for January, 2010
All Logos Files are Not Born Equal
After recently explaining yet again why the jpeg of a logo, taken from the website, can’t be used for a brochure, I thought it might be useful, valuable and insightful for someone to write this down. So here we are. Trying not to get all technical, I’m going to explain as clearly as I can, the difference between the different kinds of files. Hopefully this will save both clients and designers lots of time and heartache.
Different File Types
Most popular image files break down into two basic groups Bitmap or Vector.
We Love a Good Blank Canvas
As a brand agency, there’s not much we love more than a great blank brand canvas that’s been spotted and transformed into a glowing gesture of brand communication. When we talk to our clients (and anyone else who’ll listen) about sharpening their brand strategy, we are always big-on identifying the blank canvases that provide the opportunity to leverage your brand in remarkable ways.
We Love a Good Delivery Truck
Whilst there’s nothing new about well branded delivery trucks, there are still few examples of these moving billboards being used as canvases for brand expression. The cost to transform even a single delivery truck for a small business into a bold brand gesture is minimal, yet the investment in creative brand expression has the potential for grand pay-off.
01.08.10
G Star — A 5 Star Brand Experience
Fashion is one of those things that’s in our lives everyday and I must admit I don’t mind my fashion nor fashion brands, especially when one is so on brand and the experience you get (brand and all) is so memorable! Which label I hear you ask? G-Star!
Aside from the G-Star corporate image being so powerful and recognisable, the whole experience you get from the moment you walk into a store to the moment you walk out with your new purchases is just magical.
Little Red Riding Hood never wore red, she wore grey. Roses are light black, lemons are dark white; and Italy, Ireland, and France share the same flag. A glass of orange juice is a glass of grey juice. Blood and petrol look the same. I live in a black and white world. I am completely colourblind. I am achromatopsic. I am also a painter.
Neil Harbisson is a man who always viewed life in black and white, he has achromatopsia, a condition which means he is unable to see colours. Using a custom-made device called an ‘eyeborg’, Harbisson can translate hues into sound frequencies, he can hear colour. A scale of musical tones represents the spectrum of colours – light hues are high-pitched, while darker colours sound bolder. It is like a hearing colour wheel. Where we see the sky as blue, Harbisson hears it as C sharp.
The brands we choose reflect how we see ourselves
Each day we make thousands of conscious and sub-concussion decisions about the brands we wish to include in our lives. Our choice of which brands we choose to connect-with is often a reflection of how we see ourselves and how we wish the world to see us. Some of these brand associates are more overt than others, but when mapped as a whole they create a sense of personal brand identity. ‘Brand Mapping’ as we call it forms part of the Insights process we use on our commercial projects. Brand mapping helps us to immerse our thinking into the lives of target markets our clients’ brands wish to connect with truly and deeply.
Here’s my brand map for Christmas Day 2009.
I have never experienced the pull of an authentic brand quite like I did years ago when I purchased a pair of riding boots. At the time I was an Economics teacher at a Melbourne High School, commuting to school on a motor bike and feeling the need for some foot wear that was a little more robust. I have a few frugal genes in my DNA (you would only have to have met my father to understand where they had come from) and as I ventured out on a buying excursion for some boots these genes kicked in. I arrived home with a pair of elastic sided riding boots that I had purchased from an Army disposals store – they appeared well made, looked a lot like the famous Australian boot brand RM Williams and were, you guessed it, a lot lot cheaper than RM Williams boots.
However, from day one I new that I had made a mistake. The boots I acquired were simply a cheap imitation of the brand I truly aspired to own. They made feel like the great pretender, when what I really wanted was to share in the romance of the rugged outback image of the RM Williams brand. The boots I had purchased delivered functionally, but they stood for nothing at an emotional level – in fact worse than that, each time I pulled them on I felt emotionally depleted. In branding there is no substitute for authenticity, no matter how good the imitation the wearer always feels a little second rate!
