Archive for February, 2010

02.26.10

Brand: Enduring by Design

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

adidas Vs Nike – A Battle of Brand Association

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

Trust… Easy to Say, Hard to Live Up To

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

Brand Design – 2 New Breathtaking Mediums for Retail

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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02.17.10

Everything Changes

Creating Experiences

Over the holidays I indulged in a little self expression. The Town Hall Gallery in Hawthorn accepted my proposal to stage my first solo exhibition. I wanted to explore convention and human interaction within an art space. The installation was to cover the gallery floor with canvas and then use pigment to write words and draw pictures directly onto the canvas. As people came into the space they would spread the pigment across the floor.

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02.16.10

Mercedes Design Powerful Brand Story-telling

What Makes a Compelling Brand Story?
In a recent spot created for MercedesBenzTV the German luxury car brand designed a wonderful piece of brand story-telling. As neatly defined by Chip & Dan Heath in their book Made to Stick, the most appealing (‘stickiest’) stories are those that are: • Simple; • Unexpected; • Concrete; • Credible; and • Emotional. When you apply these five principles to stories that align with your key messages, you deepen the emotional bond between your customers and your company.

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02.15.10

Old Values = Fresh New Retail Brand

London’s aBuzz About ‘Unpackaged‘
London has long been one of the worlds greatest retail cities – a place where new concepts are launched and sunk every day with barely a ripple to mark their passing. As they say in the classics – ‘If you can make it there, you’ll make it anywhere…’. Into this buzzing retail landscape, old school food store ‘Unpackaged‘ was quietly launched four years ago as a market stall and over the ensuing years has grown to become a much loved and powerful little retail brand in a charming shop at 42 Amwell Street, London.

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02.12.10

Toyota Brand : Accelerate or Brake

What a shocker of a time Toyota has been having! Over 8 million vehicle recalls world wide, and just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it gets a lot lot worse. Toyota has now moved from an acceleration problem to a braking problem. The number of new recalls may be a lot less, but we are now dealing with the model that they have been backing their future on, the hybrid Prius. Add the Lexus HS 250h to the recall list and we are also playing at the prestigious end of their brand portfolio. The big question is will it put the brakes on the brand?

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02.11.10

Coming Soon – adidas’ Augmented Reality Shoes

Your Shoe will be the game Controller
adidas Originals is launching the first Augmented Reality experience in footwear. The adidas Originals AR Game Pack is a set of 5 shoes, each printed with an AR code on the tongue. When you hold the code in front of your webcam, you’ll gain access to a virtual version of the adidas Originals Neighborhood. Each month between February and April, they’ll launch a new interactive game within the Neighborhood and your shoe will be the game controller. The experience launches next week on February 10th at http://www.adidas.com/originals

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02.10.10

A Missed Design Opportunity for the Dick Smith Brand

Like bumping into an old friend
Currently I’m in the market for a new TV, so last week whilst I was shopping at Victoria Gardens, I popped into Dick Smith to see what they had on offer. On the way in I was greeted by a familiar face, Dick himself. See they’ve yet to rebrand this store with the new identity. As you may know, last year Dick Smith rebranded (some stores anyway). Now much has been said about the design of the new brandmark and I don’t mean to get into the issues it may have or lecture the designers who created it – what I do want to talk about is the brand personality and what I see as a missed opportunity. Seeing the old identity in all its glory reminded me of what has been lost.

Old Dick Smith Logo

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