Archive for the ‘Brand Agency-Australia’ Category

property brand agency

The Art of Creating Evocative Spaces
Each June I look forward to clamping my eyes on the work from this year’s Venice Art Biennale. The breadth and quality of work represented guarantees there’s always something inspiring to be seen. This year as I admired the installations I was struck by how the Biennale differs from most exhibitions – and that is by the nature of art created for installation. Art installations take-on an empty, neutral space and create an evocative and meaningful experience for those who enter.

Having worked in the property category, creating brands for apartments, residential developments & larger planned communities for many years, I was struck by the relevance of the Biennale’s work to display execution of property projects. Display suites and larger display centers are first and foremost meant to be spaces that inspire, that move people – spaces that create an emotional response. Yet the universal approach of the industry is so one dimensional – to reflect the interior design of the product, with a brief tip of the hat to local amenity. Having worked on a few, I know all-to-well the consistency of approach – map of community/apartment, house layouts, list of local amenity, location map with local landmarks, photos of happy families/hip young apartment dwellers/empty nesters enjoying their new life style.

What an opportunity there is to take inspiration from the bold, emotive gestures of the Venice Art Biennale and turn your displays into surprising, memorable and striking spaces that move people.

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not for profit brand identity

Creating a Great Brand in this Tough Market

In all our years of creating brands, we’ve never come-across a tougher category than not for profit. High on passion with a gazillion competitors battling for the philanthropic dollar, not-for-proft organizations are typically well meaning, but poorly branded. Not-so Movember who have had a clear view of who they are as a brand, and beautifully communicated that to their market of hairy bros and sistas from day one.

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integrated retail agency

Creating Relevant, Cutting Edge Retail Branding Doesn’t Mean Reinventing the Wheel
In 2012 fashion retail brand Burberry launched their remodeled store at 121 Regent St London. But what at first glance looks like a traditional retail re-fit is -on closer inspection – a blueprint for reinventing a brand experience inspiring for retailers across every category.

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CUB Victoria brewery

We always stress the importance of protecting your brand by trademarking the name, identity and its associated positioning but what if that is not enough.

This week, an interesting case of brand security is in the Australian courts. It is a David and Golliath fight between CUB and Thunder Road Brewing Company to restore shelved beer brands and for once, I am on the side of the giant.

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brand trends

Why in the world of brands, heritage aint worth what it used to be.

In the world of brands, consumer trends will over time create a tipping point, changing the way markets engage and respond. When this occurs, established brands see their market share eroding and at the same time opportunities appear for new, competitor brands to successfully launch. Potentially one of the strongest and most influential trends we’ve seen in the last five years has been identified by trendwatching.com as ‘clean slate brands’. This trend has been the result in a shift in consumer behaviour with the potential to disrupt a wide range of brands, especially those in B2C categories. This shift is demanding established market leaders sit-up and take notice, as it provides significant opportunity for also-ran and start-up brands to gain ‘fast mover’ advantage.

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shizens

Walking through the shopping centre at the weekend, I couldn’t help but think this must be a joke – unfortunately it’s not.

Malaysian cosmetic brand Shizen (now in Australia) must’ve thought they were on a winner with this name.  The Japanese word conveys much of the brand’s positioning of natural beauty and they secured the dot-com.

The trouble is, as they expanded from Asia to Australia they didn’t consider how the name might be understood.

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not for profit brand agency

Livestrong’s Bold Re-branding Strategy
In the competitive world of not-for-profit, the rules of brand apply just as they do in the corporate universe. As cycling’s black sheep Lance Armstrong continues to discover his personal brand, tarnished by drug cheating, continues to be cut-loose from the organisations who previously leveraged it so enthusiastically. The most recent, most graphic and I’m sure most heart rending for Armstrong has been the re-branding of his own Livestrong Foundation, which has seen his name removed from the brand.

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greater purpose

Big Brand and Big Heart?
US Mega-retailer Walmart, seen by many small town business owners as an enemy to community and local business in general is working overtime to turn the tide of public sentiment. Store for Good is a program Walmart is developing in order to connect consumers with products that do good for other people, for themselves, or for our environment, and hoping to be seen as a good citizen on the way through.  Plans for the Store for Good program include a range of eco-friendly products and healthier food options.

The latest feather in the cap of the Store for Good program is a new initiative called Empowering Women Together, launched last week in time for International Women’s Day.

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online marketing strategy

Proving the Digital Experts Wrong
Much has been written over the last few years about the role of digital marketing and social media for business, yet the subject remains one viewed by most executives with skepticism bordering on derision. Like any other new channel to market, there are plenty of myths and equal measures of hype surround the subject, with an as-yet poorly defined roadmap for how companies might navigate the medium for commercial benefit. This conundrum becomes less clear again when applied to the B2B categories and professional services firms in particular. Our own experience four years ago was consistently sage advice from the experts that social media simply wouldn’t work as a driver of new business inquiries for a professional services firm in our field of brand strategy and design. There was a firm view expressed to us that the nature of the projects we worked-on, and the investment required which is typically in the tens of thousands of dollars meant that there was little benefit in investigation the resources and budget required to implement an ongoing social media strategy. Thankfully we had a firm belief that this commonly held view was incorrect, and our experience with social media as a business acquisition tool has proven to be a positive one in every sense of the word.

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