Lately I have been thinking a lot about retail brand loyalty and what it means to brand owners, employees and retailers. Brand loyalty is a strange thing, you can’t hold it or visibly see it, but the value that should be placed on it, for any brand, is paramount.
Brand Loyalty. Have you got it?
Giving kudos to brand messaging and communications!
All clients want their advertising to make an enormous impact, generate an increase in sales (ideally far greater than the amount invested for a particular campaign) and create plenty of conversation and hype not only within the consumer market but also (and sometimes as importantly) between the competitor brands.
In case you haven’t heard the screams from Bourke Street, one of the biggest fashion retail names has opened its doors in Melbourne. Following its successful launch in Sydney, Spanish brand Zara, now has flagship stores in Australia’s two biggest markets. It has been publicised as one of the most exciting and eagerly anticipated launches this year. For some, it is as exciting as a new Apple product launch.
So what is it that makes Zara such an impressive and highly sought after brand? Is it just a new fad that will fade within a few months or will it really change the way fashion savvy Melburnians and indeed Australians shop? Is it just the cultural cringe biting again or is the brand truly special?
I was reading with interest recently that Samsung Electronics has taken the wraps off a new, larger version of its popular iPad rival, the Galaxy Tab. The Australian Financial Review was suggesting that many see it as the biggest challenge yet to Apple’s dominance in tablet computers. It was this comment that really got my attention, because it was suggesting to me that for the Galaxy Tab to be competitive it must have some real ‘functional smarts’ about it.
Read the rest of this entry »
The Evolution of the English Language
After a meeting earlier this week with the executive team at Melbourne University’s Ormond College, I found myself thinking about two things. One, why I didn’t attend the college myself, and two, how many brand specific words I use in every day language.
An Insight into the Future of this Brand Leader
Last year Apple was granted 563 patents. Apple’s track record as a genuine industry leader suggests some of these ideas will flow through to influence the consumer technology landscape in the same way the iPod, iPhone, App Store and the iPad have.
Today it’s more critical than ever for companies to differentiate themselves from their competitors and make memorable connections with their consumers by creating unique, recognisable brands. Every touch point of a brand plays a vital role in brand recall, but the brandmark is the heart and soul of a brand’s image. 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. In today’s tech-savvy society a website is a main touch point for a brand.
There are Orangutan ads, and there are Orangutan ads. They can help to create connection with your brand or they can make you feel….. well weird. I find the two ads on TV at present polarising.
The Most Comprehensive Trend Report on the Visual Language of Brand Identity
Trends in the visual language of brand identity are driven by many factors from the ‘me-too-ism’ of designers and their clients mimicking the visual language of market leaders, to new and emerging trends such as ‘sustainability’ that draw a similar and en-mass visual response from designers all over the world. Over the past 12 months we have collected more than five thousand different brand expressions spanning almost every major industry and category of the western world.
Our 2010 Trend Report has been picked-up and re-published in blogs and marketing publications around the world – so by request we’re providing the report as one, complete pdf download (even if it is a whopping 6.8mb in size).
The very best brands are those that have their differentiation – the thing that grabs the hearts of their customers and wont let go – built right into the product. Apple is a brand renowned for its ability to do just that, with the result being fiercely loyal brand advocates – not just customers. Another brand who take the same approach is Mini. Owned by BMW, Mini understand that the emotional pull in their products is as much in the styling and what’s under the bonnet as it is in the brand messages it builds around its products. Sounds simple – but few brands really live by this credo.
When brands ‘bake’ their differentiation into their products, the release of each new model or innovation can build to what we call ‘brandticipation’. Brandticipation is the heightened sense of anticipation some brands command (create) around the launch of their products. Car makers have released photos of prototype concept vehicles for years in an attempt to build this very sense of excitement about new model releases. Mini is no different in their ‘concept car’ strategy – except that they have the edge in brandticipation, and their new Coupé Concept is a case in point:
