MUJI is a highly successful Japanese retail company that sells a wide variety of household and consumer goods. What is interesting is their ‘non brand’ market positioning. They decree for themselves the status of not being a brand, but paradoxically it is the great clarity they have around who they are and who they are not that makes them such a distinctive and compelling brand.

MUJI works very hard at claiming its non brand positioning. It’s name was derived from the first part of Mujirushi Ryohin, which translates into ‘No Brand Quality Goods’. It’s website declares in the very first sentence ‘… MUJI is not a brand.’ Instead it claims that MUJI creates products with a view toward global consumption of the future. That it does not create products that lure customers into believing that ‘this is the best’ or ‘I must have this’. Instead they like their customers to feel the rational sense of satisfaction that comes not with this is the best, but this is enough. Best becomes enough.

But the ‘enough’ principle is certainly not a near enough approach. MUJI manifests its offer to the market with an amazing attention to detail – all devoted to creating simplicity and minimalism in its designs and operations. The desired end result for MUJI is quality products at lower than usual prices. Every element is streamlined from the  selection of materials through to the manufacturing processes used, from the colour options available to level of packaging, MUJI lives minimalism. This also extends to its environmental footprint.

But regardless of what MUJI says, all of this adds up to a superbly managed brand. Sure there is no logo, but customers know they are buying a MUJI product. It is a case of where less is best from a brand presence perspective, the minimalist aesthetic of MUJI makes it distinctively theirs. Yes, their communication focus is purely on functionality and price at a store level, none of the soft fluffy stuff that may be directed at image and emotional levers – but do not be fooled. MUJI delivers a real emotional pull to its customers simply because it openly declares its philosophy on consumerism and respectfully invites them into their world to share in this philosophy. When you shop at MUJI you are therefore saying something about yourself and what is important to you. This is exactly what the best brands deliver to their customers, a sense of community built on shared values.

MUJI’s non brand positioning has simply claimed some white space for where and how to position itself in the market. It is immensely considered and it is extremely well executed. It is a great brand!

Having clarity around how you wish to position your brand is fundamental, and we thrive on the fundamentals, give us a call.

Peter Singline
Brand Scientist

Working with Local Government has it’s challenges, but so does working with any organisation. They have no market, no competitors, you can’t pick another council to empty your bins or maintain your park. But they have a vital need to successfully communicate their brand to all their constituents. They need to clearly communicate where every dollar of rates has been spent. These are my 5 keys for successfully branding a Local Government, but they could apply to any organisation.

1, Talk to the Head.
Successful branding is rooted in belief. Belief works most effectively from the top down. As with any other entity having the key stake-holders onside can make or break the re-branding. Naturally with a Council that would be the Mayor and Councillors. Most Local Government Marketing Departments are terrified to do this, fearing they will lose control of the branding process. The truth is, without these stakeholders on board, you have no control. It was a key step in the successful re-branding of the City of Stonnington, as is key step in any successful branding.

2, Prioritise the messages.
This is the really hard part. Local Governments need to say so many things, to so many different groups, in so many different ways, it takes a tailored approach. Normally for a commercial or corporate brand, we’d drive thinking to distill a single overarching idea. An idea that would then drive the branding process. With the stakeholders involved in a council, this would become like herding cats, it can be difficult to get them together, in one place at one time, and impossible to get them to agree as to what should take priority. To get a handle on this the marketing team a couple of the key, senior stakeholders needs to prioritise the messages. At least this way there is clarity about what the brand needs to say and we don’t end up redesigning the stop sign.

3, Focus your energy
Use the 80:20 rule, all brand comms aren’t equal. Find the key opportunities for the new brand, they will get the brand the approval it needs. These are the pivotal expressions for your new brand. Start with one of these, for the City of Whittlesea, it was the newsletter. Then use this as a vehicle to get your idea across the line. You now have the cornerstone of your new brand in place. Keep building.

4, A Look, a Feel, a Voice
Just one. One idea, one look, one feel, one voice. These are the strategic foundations that support a healthy brand. Consistency is the only route to a professional brand image. Not that everything has to look the same, there is opportunity to ‘dial’ the visual branding up or down on each communication. But to start off with consistency is vital. Create tools and templates for staff to use, they become part of the branding process, their comms become consistent and you stop time wasting redesigning PowerPoint presentations.

5, It’s a group effort
To keep the brand alive and growing it must be an inclusive process. You must keep the right people involved, but you must be selective about whom it is and how involved they get. Keeping the key stake holders involved, even at a distance, will help reinforce the belief the brand needs to thrive. This will then continue to grow the critical mass of belief across the organisation and belief is everything.

If you’d like to hear how we can help get your council branding take the next step, give us a call.

We’d love to talk, even to share war stories.

Derek Carroll
Director of Design

Here’s some of the work we’ve done for Victorian councils over the years:

As a member of the global Entrepreneurs Organisation, I was a guest at a recent event with sister organisations YPO and WPO at the home of our kind hosts and was lucky enough to be selected to tee-up on-court before we all sat for dinner and listened to stories, thoughts and McEnroe musings. As it turns out, J-Mac delivers exactly to order. As a tennis super celebrity we feel we know the John McEnroe brand well – part achingly talented, part imperfectly human, supremely confident, sometimes laid-back, sometimes fired-up, a little grumpy, yet charismatically charming – and that’s exactly what we got that January night in 2010.

Not All Tennis Players Are Created Equal
Anyone who witnessed by performance on court can attest that all tennis players are created equal, and the same holds-true for brands. Those brands that are designed with intent to stand out from definition to image more often than not become the leaders in their markets. So what is it that those brands share with one of the greatest tennis brands of all time?

• Personality. Just like J-Mac, brands that have a strong personality create stronger emotional connections. Personality brands are more memorable, more believable and more like-able.

The John McEnroe show complete with brand personality

• Love/Hate. Love him or hate him, it’s tough to have no opinion on John McEnroe. Many brands attempt to be all things to all people, and end-up meaning nothing to anybody. The lesson we take from McEnroe is for brands to have true believers, passionate advocates they must stand for something and stand proud.

John McEnroe charming his true belivers and passionat advocates

• Excitement Potential. One thing you know you’re going to get from McEnroe is excitement – and plenty of it. Whether it comes from his racquet or his mouth, his actions on the court or off-it, you can bet something excitement is going to happen – more-so than with any other player in the history of the game. Whilst excitement for brands is a relative term (Something exciting in the financial services market will likely not have the same thrill as in the extreme sports market) how many brands in any market can boast that McEnroe level of excitement promise?

Click here to view the embedded video.

• The Product. We know that great brands are built on great products and the same holds-true for the McEnroe brand. Whilst his game was often overshadowed by the drama his package included, those who saw John McEnroe play will attest to his sublime talent, skill and touch as a tennis player. Brands that seek to build their reputations on their image and messaging alone rather than focusing on their actions and the way they live day-to-day lack to substance required to achieve greatness.

Great brands are built on great products - like J-Mac's backhand

• Brand Image. When it comes to brands, many struggle to master a unique visual language of brand identity. By design and natural genetics, McEnroe always stood apart from his contemporaries. Whether it was his individual body shape, dress sense, hair style, or court demeanor, at a glance you could pick J-Mac out from his contemporaries. Through the bespoke design of a brand’s visual properties such as brand mark, brand type design, brand colour, store interiors, product packaging and the crafting of every visual brand delivery point, a brand needs to create a similarly unique image to stand out in their market.

The John McEnroe style, more refined but still unique

• A Tag Line. How many sports-people own a tag line – a unique statement that is universally identifiable? “You Cannot Be Serious!” J-Mac has one. It’s a line packed with emotion, with meaning and with memories. It is a line that has a unique place in his market, it even has a unique pronunciation to those four words. In-fact we love John’s line so much we printed-up my limited edition ‘Yes John’ T-shirt just for the night – the rest as they say is history. Similarly market leading brands seek to create and own statements that position them favorably and inextricably in the hearts and minds of their market. Nike’s ‘Just Do It‘ comes to mind as an example of just such as successfully seeded positioning line.

You cannot be serious - Yes John, I am serious - tennis touche

As I sat the next morning reflecting on my once in a lifetime experience with John McEnroe, trying to picture just one shot I’d hit that I could etch into my mind as a winner I was reminded of how full and rich life is when it comes to lessons on brand. The highest order of brands are those we weave into our the fabric of our lives because they so naturally fit with and enhance the way we live. Brands who understand this true-ism seek to constantly learn lessons from the school of life.

If you’d like to learn more about our framework for creating brands with market-leading DNA, give us a call. If you’re after some help with your forehand maybe you should look elsewhere.

David Ansett, Brandamentalist
For daily updates of our brand thinking, follow me on Twitter
Brand Designer

John McEnore Vs the three Davids

Dave getting a lesson in brand design and even tennis from the Great John McEnroe

John McEnroe delivering his unique style of brand experience

The Cadillac Seville, introduced in 1975, was Cadillac’s answer to the rising popularity of luxury imports in the U.S. from Europe, such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

In 1979 an agreement with Gucci was made to produce a limited edition “Gucci Seville”. Available in only three colors – white, black, and light brown, the exterior featured many indicators of the Gucci brand. A vinyl top covering only a portion of the roof and featuring the famous Gucci interlocking double “G” fabric pattern, the interlocking “G” on the spoked wheel covers, the famous red and green stripe running across the bottom of the doors, rear panels and boot and again the interlocking double “G” mounted proudly on the front of the bonnet.

Inside, the headrests had the double “G” pattern with the red and green stripe, the door panels also wore the pattern, and the instrument panel displayed the iconic Gucci script above the glovebox and wait for it – inside the boot was a full set of Gucci luggage!

So what makes this brand expression so remarkable and why so Gucci? For me it’s pretty simple, the style, the mood, the feel, the attention to detail and of course the choice of car. Let’s face it what better car could Gucci have chosen in that era? It’s just so Gucci and so on brand! Every day we see your standard delivery vans, trucks and to a degree your moving billboard on the odd Smart Car emblazoned with company logos and brand messages but they’re don’t have that unique something that makes a brand expression remarkable. On the other hand, take for example this brand expression from FHM, whilst certainly not the Gucci Seville at least there has been some consideration in making this brand expression memorable.

To me the three simple rules of a remarkable brand expression are;

1. Finding the right brand message – and it’s got to be remarkable
2. Differentiating yourself from your competitors – say it in a way that stands out and is ultimately memorable
3. Sending the message at the right time – make sure your audience is ready and receptive to what you’ve got to say

If you’d like to talk to us on how you can take your brand experiences to the next level why not give us a call.

Dominic Guthrie
Client Account Director

Colour in Brand Design
Every touch point of a brand plays a vital role in brand recall, but the brand mark is the heart and soul of a brand’s image. Whilst it’s the interplay between colour, typeface, and symbol that creates a brand mark, colour is registered by the brain before either images or typography. A University of Loyola, Maryland study recently found the correct use of colour could increase brand recognition by up to 80%.

Standing out from the crowd
As awareness of branding grows and more businesses invest in their brand’s identity, colour is becoming more important for companies looking to differentiate themselves visually. Consider the success of Heinz Green ketchup. In the first seven months following its introduction more than 10 million bottles were sold. The result was the highest sales increase in the brand’s history, all because of a simple color change. Apple introduced colourful iMacs into a marketplace where colour had not been seen before. The Apple brand was the first to say, “It doesn’t have to be beige”. The iMacs reinvigorated a brand that had suffered $1.8 billion of losses in two years.

A World of Colour
Colour also provides communication cues for brand attributes such as traditional or cutting edge, calm or excited, as well as cultural cues, cues about environmental credibility, cues about political affiliations and a plethora of other meanings. In the world of brand design, choice and use of colour provides the potential for a wealth of carefully crafted and powerfully communicated messages about your brand.

Recognisable Brands Test
Most of the most recognisable brands in the world rely on colour as a key factor in their instant recognition. Below are snapshots of twenty of the world’s most recognisable brand marks cropped to show a clear representation of their brand colours, but only a fraction of their logotype of symbol. Test yourself to see how many of the brands you can identify with colour being the primary visual driver.

The answers
01. Heineken
02. adidas
03. Toyota
04. British Airways
05. BP
06. Google
07. BMW
08. Vodafone
09. Ford
10. McDonald’s
11. Coca Cola
12. Olympic Games
13. Microsoft
14. IBM
15. Nike
16. Pepsi
17. GE
18. Qantas
19. Nokia
20. Virgin

So how’d you go?
18 or more correct: You’re brand obsessed (you’d fit in well around here)
15-17 correct: You’re pretty brand aware (and probably addicted to TV)
10-14 correct: Observation skills are not your strength – likely to leave home wearing different coloured socks
9 or less correct: You’re suffering brand avoidance – might be worth getting checked-out for colour blindness

If you’d like to talk to some people who spend way too much of their life eating, sleeping, thinking about the role of colour in developing a highly recognisable and unforgettable brand identity give us a call.

Cassandra Gill, Design Director.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Combining augmented reality technology on their packaging with an in-store display, when customers hold the Lego box-up to the display, it shows an animated 3D model of the completed set on top of the box. Talk about bringing the product to life – this POS literally allows the Lego to sell itself. The combination of interactivity and unexpected wonder are guaranteed to wow anyone under 10 (and some of us well above), pushing the ‘pester your parents ’til they buy it for you’ button that comes standard on all kids.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Two things stand out for me in the stacks of videos of these Lego boxes on the internet; the first is that they are all posted by customers – consumer’s who’ve been knocked-out by the in-store experience, and the second is the number of adults who are playing with the POS. For every over 10 who’s moved to snap a video on their phone and post it to YouTube, there must be hundreds of under tens whipped into a frenzy of Lego obsession.

Kudos to Lego – I consider that to be a remarkable point-of-sale experience.

If your brand lives in the world of retail and you’d like to chat about how you create a stand-out presence in-store, give us a call – we’d love to share our thoughts with you.

David Ansett, Brandamentalist
For daily updates of our brand thinking, follow me on Twitter
Brand Designer

Some of you will know the Dennis Family Corporation and many of you will not, but regardless I would like to share with you some of Bert’s philosophy to business and life. Firstly, integrity is sacrosanct. Bert spoke with great pride about how his early contracts were sealed only with a handshake. Meet the man and you would be very happy to always work on that basis. From a property perspective, Bert’s view is that you only buy in a down turn and interestingly the business has purchased no major slabs of land in the past 5 years (but the GFC is starting to ease some opportunities into the market!). Never borrow as much as the bank is willing to lend, as according to Bert, it typically results in a gearing ratio that becomes a millstone when the market dips. My take is that Bert has a great read on greed, and that is: don’t be seduced by it.

On a personal basis, Bert may in fact be a great match for Gen Y’ers, in that he has always endeavoured to have a sense of balance in his life. For example, his office has to be 5 minutes from home, so that daily lunch (and nap?) can be enjoyed at home. He puts his personal health at the top of his list of priorities, unusual for males, but probably why he is still actively engaged in the business in his 70’s. He places family next on the list, followed by sport and then business/work in fourth place. An interesting sequence, and begs the question, what are your own priorities? Finally, on the personal philosophy front, Bert believes that one’s life style should always cost less than one’s earnings. That there should always be a surplus available, to be saved and allowed to expand, through the delights of compound growth. At this point of Bert’s ponderings, I was forced to squirm a little….savings, what a brilliant thought!

Bert’s insights on the evening were a treat. But it was also a reminder to me that it was whilst working on the brand charter for Bert’s business more than a decade ago that I first worked with my now business partner David Ansett and his design studio Storm. Dave’s team followed our brand positioning work with the development of a new corporate identity. As an identity, I think it was a very elegant and powerful on-brand expression. Importantly, it has a very enduring quality about it and has stood the test of time exceptionally well. And it is on this note of endurance that will I close my little reflection on the Dennis Family Corporation. The other evening Bert also shared with us the significant mental shift that he and his four children (who are employed in the business) made when they decided that their mission in business life is to create an enduring business for future generations of the Dennis Family. It is, that the business is not about them, it is about the future. The third generation is now being introduced to the business, and one suspects, that they cannot help but have some of Bert’s expansive thinking in their genes – they certainly have some big shoes to fill.

If you want to chat more about enduring brands, or Bert’isms give us a call.

Peter Singline
Brand Scientist

adidas Vs Nike
Today we compare the brand associations of spots apparel icons adidas & Nike.

A Snapshot of Brand Association
The clever people at Brand Tags have been busy collecting a comprehensive list of more than 1.7 million associations that people from around the globe have with brands. The result is a unique opportunity for those brands to compare the meaning and messages of their brand communication strategy with the brand associations of a cross section of the market.

A Comparison of Brand Associations
As to be expected, both brands have a high level of association with terms such as ’shoes’ and ’sports’, but interestingly, from their they depart into some interesting and differentiated territory. Both by design and through unintended association, the two sports apparel brands have quite distinctive meanings with the market. Interestingly adidas‘ German heritage has a strong association, where-as Nike is seen as a global brand without a clear link to any particular country.
What I find most astounding is given the insane amount of investment these two brands, but especially Nike plow into endorsements for the highest profile athletes on the planet, only Nike with Jordan at No.8 retain any significant brand association relative to these other more dominant associations.

The adidas Brand
adidas is clearly associated with soccer. The predominance of the association with the word ’soccer’ suggests the associations have a North American (and possibly Australian) skew as most of the globe refers to the world game as football. Perhaps as a result of its European (German) heritage – certainly be strategic design, adidas (always spelled with a lower case ‘a’) has a stronger link to football than to any other sport. adidas’ German heritage too is recognized with a strong association, linking the brand to the positive aspects of quality and European history.
The first association with adidas‘ visual language comes-in at brand association No. 7 with the word ’stripes’. This suggests adidas has the potential to strengthen the role their stipes plays in theri brand communication to increase the level of association with their proprietary visual property.

The most distinctively unique associations with the adidas brand flow from the fountain of cool. With the association of ’sneakers’ and No.4 and ‘Cool’ at No.6 we get a sense of the level of cred adidas has developed strategically over the years. Further association with Rappers Run DMC is reflected further down the list of brand associations due to the preference of Run DMC for wearing the sports shoe and their track; ‘My adidas’.
adidas continue to imbue their brand with cool through creative collaborations with musicians and artistssuch as longtime partner, French artist Fafi. Using adidas products as the canvas for her well-known, whimsical graphics, Fafi brings her street styles to an adidas range of footwear and apparel for girls.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Nike Brand
The association of the Nike brand are enough to make any brand designer proud as punch. The two strongest Nike brand associations are ‘Swoosh’ and ‘Just do it’, reflecting just how effective Nike has been in establishing and owning these two unique brand properties. Regardless of what follows, we have to acknowledge any brand who achieves that level of recognition of identity and positioning.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you’d like some help to define the meaning for your brand and create your communications in order to create a consistent association with these layers of meaning in the minds of their customers, why not drop us a line?

David Ansett, Brandamentalist
For regular updates of our brand thinking follow me on Twitter.
Brand Designers

Click here to view the embedded video.

ANZ is currently on TV with a set of ads that seeks to differentiate them from the competition with the line ‘ We live in your world’. Using flat, uninspiring images of a ‘competitive’ bank, and a comedy sketch format,  they paint a picture of the competition as slippery,economic with the truth and unaccountable. ANZ by contrast is none of those things. Cue bright branch environment, smiling staff member to welcome you. At ANZ they understand you because they live in your world.

Similarly Westpac was recently on TV promoting its approach to banking by using their managers to tell us about the new branches that are opening. These were real, named, Westpac people, talking heads, all in open neck white shirts, who nervously delivered their one line pledges to customer service. In there own way both ads are saying the same thing – trust us, we understand you, we are you, we have your interest at heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC58URpEqn4&feature=related

Do they work, are they worth the marketing investment? I started my working life in bank marketing and since then I’ve worked with a number of major banks and financial services organisations, in the UK and Australia, on their marketing and communication strategies, so I feel eminently qualified to comment (frankly, as does any bank customer!)

My advice is it’s as simple as this – actions speak louder than words and  when it comes to banks many of their actions over the last few years have been Trust breakers.

Consider branch closures, the demise of the local manager as a trusted community advisor and the way the banks have behaved (or more correctly misbehaved) over passing on interest rate rises in recent times.

While the ANZ ad made me smile and does a good job in caricaturing what  the customer would see is wrong with banks it still felt like a big bank telling me it could be trusted – am I going to believe they are any different just because they say they are?

Whilst the managers on display in the Westpac ads seemed nice enough people, and I applaud the effort to increase frontline contact as a step in the right direction, I didn’t get the feeling they would be able to do anything about my  ’Trust’ issues. Significantly Westpac was being hammered by the media (and the government) for its interest rate policy at the same time they were on TV. negating any positive feelings I might have for what is in fact my bank.

So what can the banks do to build Trust?

The latest ‘Eye on Australia’ report by Grey and Sweeney Research has found Australia’s 10 most trusted brands were :

1. Salvation Army 2. Google 3. Australia Post 4. Medicare 5. Bunnings 6. Cadbury 7. Sanitarium 8. Uncle Toby’s 9. Kellogg’s 10. Nokia

One things all these brands have in common was that they touch the lives of Australians every day  - the lesson they teach is don’t tell us what you stand for, show us what you stand for.

Storm and Brand DNA is a creative brand agency that works with many clients to help them define and demonstrate what they stand for . If you’d like to know how we could help your brand give us a call.

Malcolm Harvey
Client Experiences Director

Two remarkable examples we’ve found are the interactive mirror by Alpay Kasal of Lit Studios and Sam Ewen of Interference Inc and the digital ship window from Russian designers Supreme.su.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Designed as a way to ‘dive deeper into HCI (Human Computer Interaction)’, this interactive mirror by Alpay Kasal of Lit Studios and Sam Ewen of Interference Inc has a touchscreen interface that enables you to ‘paint’, view photos and even play games. These mirrors have untold potential to add remarkability to the customer brand experience of any fashion retailer.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The potential of Supreme’s Digital Shop Window has flexibility enough to put any brand designer’s mind into a tailspin of creativity. When commercialised, this technology turns will turn the visual merchandising world on its head, turning the store front into a branded cinema experience.

If your brand lives in the world of retail and you’d like to chat about how you create a stand-out presence, give us a call – we’d love to share our thoughts and experiences with you.

David Ansett, Brandamentalist
If you’d like daily updates of our brand thinking, you can follow me on Twitter here.
Brand Design.