Mercedes Benz has developed their latest F-Cell model vehicle which emits zero emissions. Boasting an electric motor that produces 30 percent more power while consuming 30 percent less fuel compared with the last F-Cell development, Mercedes has pushed themselves again in an attempt to provide “a future of mobility that’s unconstrained by range anxiety, nonrenewable fuels or worrisome emissions.”
Nike is no stranger to controversy surrounding the brand but this time, it is self-inflicted due to a lack of research.
Launched to celebrate St Patricks Day, Nike’s ‘Black and Tan’ sneaker has been labelled insensitive and offensive. What should have been a clever brand gesture has turned into a crisis management campaign for the shoe giant.
Communicating the Vision
As a brand strategy and identity design agency who has worked for a number of years in the property development space, we understand the challenge of creating a sense of the promise and vision of a place that will one day be a vibrant community, but is most likely currently a barren field. The same challenge is faced by developers and development marketers whether they are creating a one hundred apartment shanghai building, of a ten thousand home community – how do a create a powerful sense of our vision so that a customer is drawn inexplicably to our project and not to one of our competitors?
The Kiwi Sceptics is part tourism campaign, part airline campaign and part dig at stubborn Aussies. The premise is to take Australians with unfavorable opinions of New Zealand and trick them into traveling across the ditch to change their minds. It is a lovely case of well executed brand story telling, twisting cliches and misconceptions, all told through the eyes of characters that are easily related to and reflecting stereotypes that are at times scarily honest (for an Aussie). The campaign is by Air New Zealand, but you would be forgiven for mistaking it for a New Zealand tourism piece, which is an interesting platform, leveraging creative brand positioning, Air New Zealand is promoting and supporting their own national identity, their own people and their own culture, which is a lot more than some national carriers some can boast.
Dominos New Eat-In Concept Store
Domios Pizza are set to introduce an all new menu featuring organic ingredients and fresh salads. The new menu has been designed to suit a shift to eat-in restaurants with open kitchens so you can see everything being made. Each store is being carbon audited – so a design approach that included recycled materials was part of the brief. With the Dominos share price continuing to climb, it seems that the worse the economy gets, the more fast food people eat – Dominos is trying to make fast food healthier.
In Australia, retailers continue to struggle. A two speed economy and continuing frugality amongst consumers looks like being around for some time into the future. Data released by the Reserve Bank at the beginning of this week indicates that credit and debit card transactions shows the average credit card limit grew only 0.7 % over the past year, the slowest growth on record over the past 17 years. The Age on March 13 also reported Commsec’s Economist Craig James as stating ‘…the new age of consumer conservatism shows no signs of ending. Consumers are likely to maintain their preference for value shopping, keeping the pressure on margins.’
AGDA Question Time Series 06:30pm 20th March 2012
QUESTION?
Every second month, three creatives will be invited to sit beneath the spotlight, be poked and prodded by your questions on all things professional.
We aim to promote open, stimulating dialogue between students, young designers and established professionals.
Over the past weekend and the coming days I will be enjoying all that is glittery and glamourous at the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival and as such, I couldn’t resist writing a blog dedicated to it. Earlier this year, I posted a blog on the truly brilliant MADE iPhone app, and last week I noticed that LMFF in partnership with Westfield shopping centre have gone one step further with their Shop the Runway app.
Last month we began writing a regular column on branding for The Melbourne Review. This first of our articles begins an exploration of the state of ‘brand Australia‘.
Yes, we escaped the financial meltdown of 2008 relatively unscathed – but to a large degree, this was gifted to us by the strength of the current resources boom. However, the resulting two-speed economy is, by default, shaping significant industry re-structuring.
The booming resources-fueled Australian dollar is also beginning to shape our future. Exporters and import competing businesses are finding it more and more difficult to compete, simply because whatever previously defined their competitive edge has been significantly discounted. In terms of foreign trade, the two star performers, education and tourism, are being seriously squeezed.
Less is More Branding
As a brand strategy, brand identity and brand communications design agency when spend most of our lives helping brand owners gain clarity around their most effective positioning in their market and how to communicate that positioning to those most responsible for their business success. One of the most common issues we uncover are brands so intent on being relevant, that in their attempt to mean something to everyone, they inadvertently end-up meaning nothing to anyone.
The 80:20 Rule of Branding
Much of the process of strategic brand definition is about deciding what your brand will not be – which customers are not worth attracting in order to focus your proposition on those who will deliver the most value to your business. In these times of amplified brand importance, often the only substantial differentiator between products A, B and C is their brand perception in the minds of the consumer.
The concept of a clear and targeted brand proposition is simple enough, but as a manager of brands, do you have the discipline to avoid the temptation of being all things to all people?
Photography: Terres Compromises’ by Matthieu Gafsou, 2010
