The Pulling Power of Brand Rituals
To be successful, all brands must develop a culture that builds-upon their differentiated proposition with all they do each and every day. Brands able to create unique and engaging ‘rituals’ performed by their people create an indisputable brand property to leverage in the battle to win customers and their loyalty.
A Stylish Brand Experience from the Founder of Facebook
As a specialist branding agency based in Melbourne, Australia we work with clients across many categories, but one of the consistent rules of brand is – you only get one chance to make a first impression. Get this right as a brand, and you set-yourself-up to build ongoing, positive and mutually rewarding relationships. Get it wrong and it’s a long hard journey to convincing customers you’re as wonderful as you know you are. It’s no coincidence that it’s often the leading brands who are the best at delivering these ripping first (and then subsequent) impressions. As any Facebook fan who’s ever received a letter back from Facebook founder mark Zuckerberg will attest, Mark and his branding buddies are masters at making these grand impressions.
Question: When is a Restaurant Brand more than a Restaurant Brand?
Answer: When it turns into Gastrontainment. A few weeks ago I enjoyed a brilliant brand experience at the recently opened St. Katherines restaurant in Kew. St Katherines is the latest restaurant (that makes five so-far) to be opened by celebrity chef and much loved local food figure George Calombaris. When you already have four hugely respected, booked-out-for months restaurants – what do you do to make the latest addition to the portfolio stand-out? The answer is ‘theater’.
FebFast asks Australians to take a month off alcohol and fund raise to help reduce the impacts of alcohol and other drugs on young people. We worked with the FebFast board to define their go-to market proposition and how they could attract more supporters to raise more money for their beneficiary organizations.
A lot has been written about Iconic US clothing brand Gap and its speedy decision to abandon its new brand mark in favour of its comfy old blue box. The back flip came so fast that the celebratory launch champagne had barely stopped fizzing. But then US consumers hadn’t just spoken, they had screamed disapproval.
Recently I came across the stunning image below created by artist Emma Hack, an Australian-based artist with a thing for Florence Broadhurst inspired body painting. In March 2001, Emma won 1st prize at the CIDESCO World Congress Professional World Body Painting Championship in Hong Kong. We ask; ‘how is it we can have such a creative world champion with so little public awareness?’. We love the pics Emma – talk about a personal brand statement. Painting naked people must be one hell-of-a-chore, but we salute you.
Every now and then we see works of art that are truly amazing and make you take a second look. When you think of pencils in art, you’d generally think of beautiful drawings brought to life by amazingly artistic fingers that worked the pencils used, but imagine if the pencils themselves were the base objects of the art itself?
Applying branding frameworks to politicians and political parties is a very much established practice. In fact, some may even argue that politics is increasingly about symbolism as opposed to policy implementation, image rather than content. A little harsh perhaps, but certainly in Australia we are seeing our major political parties trying to position themselves on populist mandates over political ideology. They are trying something we strongly advise our clients against, and that is to try and be all things to all people. It never works in commercial settings and it is of highly dubious value in politics – it simply gives strength to the brand positioning of minor parties (eg. the Greens) and independents.
The great Muhammad Ali was the inspiration behind this project. We were asked to design an invitation to an open studio night we conducted as part of the AGideas Conference. Projects like these give the studio an opportunity to engage in creative, for creative sake. Our audience was predominately design students who spend a lot of time discovering the discourse of design.
I recently received my first ever, personalised business card due the launch of our exciting new agency brand for Truly Deeply. Up until this point I have been representing myself in meetings without a business card, believing my personality and designs skills would carry the day. The difference is amazing. A business card is nothing short of an essential first contact when meeting a client, or anyone else you’re going to be doing business with for the first time. It is an expression of you and your brand. It also has an enduring role as a reminder for clients of who you are and what position you have within a company.
Here are our 4 key tips on the art of business card design.
