Archive for March, 2010

03.12.10

You are a Brand, regardless of what you say MUJI

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

The 5 keys of Council Branding

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.

City of Whittlesea Banners

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03.08.10

A Lesson in Brand from the Great John McEnroe

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

A Lesson On Old Skool Brand Design

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

The Power of Colour in Brand Design

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

Lego Fires-up the Imagination (a Lesson in Point-of-sale)

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.

YouTube Preview Image

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