Last week I attended agIdeas International Design Week, one of the largest and most prestigious design events in the world. Part of the week’s program was agIdeas Advantage, a business breakfast promoting how good design and design thinking are essential elements for businesses to succeed, enter the global market and have a real point of difference in our ever competitive markets. One of the speakers I was lucky enough to catch at this event was Mauro Porcini, Head of Global Design at 3M.
Sowing the Seeds of Great Retail Brand Design.
At first glance this retail store in the heart of Boston’s fashion precinct looks like any other until you notice that the windows are not filled with stock, but with antique sowing machines. On a strip where almost every inch of store frontage features one brand of fashion clothing after another in a kilometre long parade of well dressed mannequins, this approach creates a compelling and magnetic point of difference. But this is more than different for different sake.
To show that Camp Nectar’s fruit juice is all natural Brazilian creative agency ageisobar created a real life fruit juice box. Brazilian juice company Camp Nectar appointed AGE Isobar to demonstrate that its products use ‘all natural’ ingredients. The ad agency came up with a clever idea to naturally grow fruits such as guava, orange, and lime, into the shape of Camp Nectar juice boxes. After two years of experiments on a farm in Paranapanema, the agency was able to pick fruit from the tree in the form of a Camp juice box. Plastic molds covered the fruit so as it ripened, it would grow into a rectangular shape with the brand embossed on the fruit. Around 1,100 of these clever all-natural fruit boxes were produced and are used as promotional products around supermarkets and fruit stalls.
Our newly launched identity for Turnbull Bros. Orchards, revealed last week at the Footscray wholesale market, has already achieved an increase in distribution for the premium fruit brand.
“Our aim from this rebrand was to hit eight to 10 premium grocers – those that also stock high-end retail products such as Maggie Beer. After only three days at the market, we’re already 50% there,” says Phil Turnbull, Managing Director of Turnbull Bros. Orchards.
The Magnetic Warmth of a Strong Brand Proposition.
I came across this pic today and it gave me pause to reflect on the nature of dogs, people and markets.
We as customers are not too different from these lazy mutts sunning themselves on a Sunday morning. In many ways, humans are not so complex. There are many behaviors, rituals and habits that we enjoy sharing – deep down most of us are happy to be part of a tribe of PLOs (people like ourselves).
Premium Private Label through Packaging Design
Recently whilst exploring the retail landscape in Singapore I came across the Food Store found within a Marks & Spencer. I was immediately struck by the premium aesthetic from the mini bakery through the traditional food categories and into the selection of wines on sale. Every element was carefully considered from the perspective of visual language. The shelf fittings were well crafted, the signage well designed, but above all the packaging design of the products stood out on-mass.
Ever since the launch of Facebook in 2004, brands have been relentless in their search to find a solution to the issue of how to connect their online community with the offline world. Global fashion retailer C&A have, as part of a large-scale brand reinvigoration of their Brazilian retail outlets, launched a stunning new social media focused campaign, ‘Fashion Like’, that tallied the votes of its near 300,000 strong Facebook community’s opinion of particular items and then displayed the results directly on the coat hangers of that item in store.
One of radio’s most anticipated but worst kept secrets is the re-launch of 91.5 and 95.3FM as Smooth FM. The new format went live this week with a significant marketing blitz to convince Melburnians and Sydneysiders, that Smooth is their new place to relax.
But is this just another music station, or is DMG really committed to making ‘Smooth FM’ a powerful brand?
A Creatively Integrated Brand Sponsorship.
One of the greatest challenges for every brand is to create a deep connection with those most critical to their business success. It’s not necessarily a matter of making a deep connection with every single person in your market, but about choosing those select few who will allow you to leverage that success across your customer or client-base. Coke have come-up with a creative approach which has done just that with their integrated brand sponsorship campaign with football club Benfica in Portugal.
Nike, a Brand Making it Count.
Youtube film maker and HBO series producer Casey Neistat was asked by Nike to make a short film about what it means to #makeitcount. Instead of making the movie, Casey spent the budget traveling around the world with his friend Max until the money ran out – it took ten days.
