Legendary Japanese Sushi Chief Jiro Ono is considered the world’s greatest Sushi chiefs. Japan has declared him a national treasure and his humble 10 seat restaurant located in a Tokyo subway station has been awarded 3 Michelin stars. At 85 he is the subject of a documentary film by David Gelb. A story of working life, family and the quest for culinary artistic perfection.
Victorian Clinical Genetics Service (VCGS) is a subsidiary company of Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and delivers both clinical and laboratory services. They do this through a multidisciplinary team of clinical geneticists, genetic counsellors, laboratory scientists, metabolic physicians, social workers and support staff.
In the past, confusion existed both to internal staff and external patients regarding who VCGS were, what they did and how they linked to MCRI and Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH). The brand has been through a handful of identity and name changes since its inception in 1986. However these changes added to the confusion as there was a lack of one clearly articulated brand. Marketing efforts had been unfocussed and piecemeal and past identities failed to reflect the invaluable work that the organization does.
Regardless of the size of your business, you need to create and build a brand.
I know that’s easy for me to say, but even the smallest home-based enterprise can use some of the same thinking that goes into building brands for some of the world’s largest organisations.
The Undervalued Power of Employer Branding
Recently Truly Deeply was invited to join E3 – the premier global network of independent brand strategy and communication agencies. E3 consist of thirty specialist brand and communications agencies with offices in thirty five cities across twenty six countries — a truly global presence.
Whilst in Prague at the E3 Annual general Meeting recently we met many of the E3 agencies as we began to explore the array of talent and experience represented by the network. Of particular interest was an agency called BBC, located in Antwerp, Belgium. BBC is a specialist B2B marketing agency with a particular bent for HR and Employer Branding.
Building Flexibility into your Web Site
There are so many digital devices on the market today that one can get swept away quickly trying to provide various website versions to cater for the vast amount of screen sizes; especially when we are trying to provide a Mobile version of a website for clients. Enter ‘Responsive Design’ where you design/develop a flexible website and control how it reacts depending on what size of browser window that is trying to render it.
Each weekend my wife Sal and I retreat to the country in North East Victoria to reconnect with our horses, nature and ourselves (the bonus!). Nearby is a town called Alexandra with a population of about 2,000. The winters have always been long and the fogs thick. A feeling of hibernation annually descended on the town and for local businesses the outcome was less than ideal.
Too Little Too Late?
As Microsoft enters the mobile hardware market with its first tablet, ‘surface’, my first thought is; ‘why are they here?’ At a glance there’s nothing wrong with their offer – it looks pretty cool (kind of like an iPad), the built-in kickstand and cover that doubles as a snap-on keyboard are smart and functional – but all of that misses the most important point. Apple owns the tablet category – full-stop, end of story. For most consumers the category is the iPad and every other offer is an iPad copy. I find myself questioning the size of the category available to the me-too brands. I believe a big chunk of the market is only available for Apple – there are ‘iPad buyers’ and then there are ‘tablet buyers’ and I know which of those horses I’d want to back.
This is a tough place to play for any brand wishing to forge their own position in the minds of the market. There’s a strong case to make that if you are a technology brand with a genuine desire to build long-term differentiated brand equity, the tablet horse has bolted and you should look elsewhere to make your mark. This is even more relevant for Microsoft. In the minds of the market, Apple stand for ‘technology that makes life cool’ (my consumer-centric summary of their brand promise not theirs), Microsoft still stands for ‘Software‘ – and even more specifically ‘Windows Software‘. A little while back we compared brand perceptions of Apple and Microsoft in an interesting post you can find here: Apple Vs Microsoft. Beyond the question of whether the consumer will see Microsoft as a relevant player in this space, the launch of their first, generic looking tablet so far after the mark, can only reinforce perceptions of the brand as a follower.
For mine, the race for supremacy in the tablet space is all but over, and Microsoft have done their brand little favor by jumping into the game in the fourth quarter.
Dave Ansett
Brandamentalist
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In an innovative approach to consuming with minimal waste, Harvard Professor David Edwards and his team have developed WikiCells, self-contained, edible packaging for liquids, mousses and emulsions. The membrane that houses the various WikiCells flavors is made from vegetal elements, with a taste deliberately paired to match its contents. What started as an experiment to reduce the waste from packaging on food delivered to impoverished areas in Africa has expanded to focus on the significant impact of food packaging on pollution caused by mass consumption. With such far-reaching ideas in mind, the company launches today with the announcement of the newly introduced WikiCocktail and Wiki IceCream.
Is there anything more defining of a city’s attitude than response to an Earthquake? Hitting twitter last night in the wake of the quake I loved the natural response of Melbournians – to take the piss and see the light side. More tweets after the jump…
Recently I came across this (very) graphic representation of the social media landscape from the digital gurus at Buddy Media. Little wonder that brands who try to navigate this tangle of platforms struggle to get a return on their investment of time and energy.
In response, we’ve been busy developing our own framework to assist brands in understanding where to best focus their social media activities. Our recent appointment to the prestigious E3 network of independent brand and marketing agencies also gives us access to some of the world’s finest social media agencies.
You can also check out the brilliant digital services of Buddy Media here.
