THE BRAVE NEW WORLD OF RETAIL BRANDING.
Last month we wrote an article for The Melbourne Review that explored the direction of market focused specialty retail. In the article we mentioned a client we’d worked with many moons ago who had a concept for an all male retail store. Well, the innovative, revolving retail space STORY is presenting HIS Story for their summer concept, an installation of 140 brands focused on men’s fashion and grooming products.
Last month Boston Consulting Group’s Perspectives publication had a great little article titled Rethinking Corporate Philanthropy. Its main thrust focused on the fact that so many companies lack a strategic underpinning when it comes to their philanthropic giving.
From a brand perspective we have always encouraged our clients to ask themselves how their corporate giving is enhancing their brand, as well as the causes they are supporting. They should be mutually reinforcing, not discreetly different objectives. To this end brands should ideally seek out social causes that have some relationship to the purpose of the brand.
Facebook has recently announced the introduction of clickable hashtags (#). Hashtags are not a new concept as they are currently being used on other social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest. In fact you will probably already notice hashtags in posts on Facebook as people have their content from other social media platforms linked to their Facebook wall. The only difference is now you’ll be able to click on the hashtag and view a feed of what other people are saying about the same topic within Facebook.
A hashtag is used to link conversations about the same topic e.g #gameofthrones #olympics #fashion. People also use them to describe how they are feeling #happy #love. A hashtag can be anything you like with the # symbol at the front of the word with no spaces.
Last year when we created the brand and identity system for the guys at Bounce we had no idea it’d be quite this epic… (Watch the clip after the jump) Read the rest of this entry »
As I continue to get inspiration from Eric Schmidt’s new book, The New Digital Age, Reshaping the future of people, nations and business and the great quote I posted on Facebook “Information, like water, will always find a way through”, it’s time we all made a case for more open data so the information we long for is ready and waiting for us.
Promises are easily made but delivering on them is a constant challenge for any brand. One of the biggest tests for a brand is not in making the sale – it is in how they respond when the customer has a problem.
How you treat customers and how willing you are to make amends can be the difference between not only losing a customer but also using the opportunity to create a brand advocate.
Just a week after I last wrote about The Rise and Potential Fall of the Tom Waterhouse Brand, Tom publicly apologised for excessive use of advertising. In the same breath that he apologised he justified the former over use of his advertising campaigns because of the need to keep up with overseas players in the market and that competition is good for punters. He went on to say “Because I stand up as the bookmaker, and do not present as a faceless corporation, I also have, somehow, become the public face of the entire Australian gambling industry.” An obviously intelligent young man, it’s surprising that Tom didn’t see this coming.
The wedding industry is a fairly unique retail category, with short-term customers who, whilst being ultra-committed, are generally inexperienced in the area and unlikely to bring repeat business. Brands in this sector are notorious for exploiting these short-term relationships by overcharging and often under-delivering. Read the rest of this entry »
At the time of writing this blog on 6th of June 2013 VW Australia were seemingly refusing to address pressing safety and quality issues with its vehicles. In March this year VW in China took responsible action and recalled 380,000 vehicles and Singapore has more recently embarked on a similar re-call. But currently in Australia the hundred plus people who have contacted Fairfax Media with stories of dismay over how their VW vehicle had simply lost power, often in dangerous circumstances, is failing to stimulate a murmur from VW, let alone some action.
Behind Every Great Agency Is…
Often we are asked what makes our branding studio ‘chug’ along like a well oiled machine? Our agency is no different from any other well run business, the secret to our success is organization, systems and processes. We’ve compiled a list of our top 10 tips for best practice in a creative practice to share with you.
