In Australia the department store sector has surrendered almost one third of its market share since peaking in the mid 1980’s (Herald Sun November 8, 2011). They are between a rock and hard place, with online and specialty retailers earnestly chipping away at their customer base. For the financial year just past Myer suffered a 5.5% decline in sales and David Jones a 3.2% contraction. Interestingly during the same period many luxury brands reported growth, so it is not all being driven by the new cautionary consumer mindset so prevalent in Australia.
Archive for November, 2011
11.29.11
The power of unique brand gestures
Musical duo Ritornell have worked with designer Katharina Hölzl to create business cards that can be read by a music box to play out different tunes. Ritornell — comprising of composer Richard Eigner and pianist Roman Gerold — is an experimental music group that combines electronica with a range of extraordinary acoustic instruments including a music box, egg whisks, toilet brushes and chopsticks. They wanted a business card that matched the creativity of their live show so they approached Hölzl. Hölzl told Wired.co.uk: “The music box that plays an integral part in Ritornell’s concerts seemed to be the perfect medium that could add an acoustic layer to paper and also represent the playful, improvised character of their shows.” As an integral part of their set list, Ritornell invites the audience to bring along their private musicboxes. Arranged in a big circle, the players’ speed of turning levers is conducted: the results are as shimmering as you would expect.
The Very Best Brand Experiences are Integrated
One of the problems we see with most online brand expressions is that they’re seen as only that – online brand expressions. It’s when online brand communication integrates seamlessly with the brand in the real world that the magic kicks-in.
Australian Marketing & Design Industry Mag B&T features our recent rebrand project for the Jean Hailes Foundation
Melbourne-based brand agency Truly Deeply recently created a new corporate identity for not-for-profit women’s organisation The Jean Hailes Foundation. The organisation which is devoted to improving the health and wellbeing of women has a new tagline -‘evidence inspired positive action’…
To read the article on B&T click here.
To read our case study click here.
To visit the Jean Hailes website click here.
Nothing’s Colder than an Ex.
The Truly Deeply brand team were enjoying a Friday arvo pub lunch up at The Clarendon a couple of weeks ago when one of our guys spotted a point of sale promo for Ex-wife Bitter. The brand name was so brilliant, at first impression we assumed it to be a made-up brand. But we were delighted to discover there really is a beer brand called Ex-wife bitter, and the brand language just got better with the tag line of ‘nothing’s colder than an ex’.
As we enjoyed our chicken parmas and pub steak sangas, we reflected on the brand building power of an extraordinary brand name. Few brand names create the memorable talk-ability as inspired as Ex-wife Bitter, and for a consumer brand like a beer, talk-ability goes a long way to launching a new brand and building market share. Especially for small brands lacking substantial marketing budgets, the ability to create a powerful brand asset like a name with this much kick is an opportunity to really punch above your weight. In the modern blokey world that is the majority of the market for beer brands this piece of inspired brand naming was always going to be a winner.
Dave Ansett, Brandamentalist
Creator of Brilliant Brand Names, not ex-wives
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A Case Study of the Pitfalls of Branding with Social Media
Iconic Australian airline Qantas can’t seem to do anything right just now. Hot on the heels of grounding the airline to break-up an industrial dispute and leaving thousands of irate customers in the lurch, Qantas came up with a nice little social media campaign idea to help restore its battered reputation. The thing so many brands continue to fail to grasp is that social media is no free kick. As a channel for communicating with customers, social media interactions follow the same rules as every other human interaction. If it seems like a dumb thing to say to your customer face-to-face, then it’s going to seem just as dumb in social media, only the damage can be a million-fold greater.
Twitter continues to set the news agenda and prove how fast the message can spread and galvanise public debate. It also highlights the importance of monitoring and participating in the conversation about your brand and being ready to respond appropriately, particularly when you are caught up in the cross-fire.
More and more, it seems consumers are holding brands accountable and judging them on the company they keep. Brands need to be ready to protect themselves from the attack and use the opportunity to strengthen the relationship with their audiences.
We have been banging on for a while about the need for retailers to move beyond seeing themselves as channel specific marketers. They need to develop an integrated mindset that moves beyond seeing online and bricks and mortar offers as being mutually exclusive. Likewise they need to stop seeing digital technology as the domain of online marketers only. The rules have been re-written, with the emphasis being on imaginatively engaging with customers in whatever format matches their needs. Technology, personal service, physical or virtual, the new game is simply wow the customer.
When it Comes to Brand, few Not-for-Profits Really Hit the Mark.
As a rule, not-for-profit organisations fall short of the mark when it comes to sophisticated brand development. Given the hugely competitive environment they play in, a clearly differentiated brand proposition provides a critical platform on which to build an effective brand. Then there are the organisations whose brands operate on another level altogether. These brands don’t see themselves as part of an unsophisticated market, but have a sense of who they are and how they’re unique within their very DNA. For these organisations connect with their market at the level all great brands do, and as a result, are the real bright lights in this category.
Benetton Unhate Campaign Features Kissing World Leaders
If there was ever any doubt of the effectiveness a powerful image can have in building a brand, the latest visual brand campaign for Benetton makes a most compelling point. Benetton have long been loved for building a brand around the higher themes of compassionate thought and tolerance. In the fashion world of young, sexual and anorexia driven visual language, the Benetton brand has always traversed the high road. In choosing this path, Benetton have built many campaigns around a contentious thought, illustrated by a powerful image.
