We work across many industries, each with their own brand challenges, but it can also be interesting to look beyond the sector for a fresh perspective.

That’s why I was interested when I heard a successful restaurateur had some tasty tips for the real estate industry.

Property and hospitality might seem very different worlds but both can be extremely cut throat and there’s a winning recipe that needs to be shared.

In a recent interview, Chris Smith from Inman News, spoke to Danny Meyer, New York City restaurateur and best selling author, about what the real estate industry can learn from the restaurant industry.

For some time, we’ve been saying that doing things the way you’ve always done is virtually guaranteed to get you less than you always got – but it’s not about just about doing something different.

Danny believes that the explosion of the digital world means that even great ideas are not enough; as the world is moving so fast it is forgotten before you’ve had time to claim it.

The real differentiation comes from how you make your customers feel.

“The more high-tech we get, the more high-touch companies need to get”, explains Danny.

Danny Meyer Interview (click here for external link to interview)

For me, this is a bit of reality check. Short-term attention grabbing tactics can actually dilute your message. While it is important to continue find innovative ways to deliver your message through digital (and traditional) channels, everything you do needs to deliver a consitent and compelling brand experience that your customers will cherish.

In a tough market, such as the one we’re currently experiencing, making sure you have the right brand expertise to ensure your brand continues to cut through but also truly connects emotionally with your customers is more crucial than ever.

Michael Hughes
Director of Brand Strategy

Retail Magic in the Hood
Recently I came across a great example of retail driven urban renewal. As a branding agency we have a particular soft spot for retail brands and the role they play (good and bad) in the lives of community. For me POPUPHOOD reflects the very best of the role retail can play in re-invigorating urban communities.

POPUPHOOD is an urban initiative and small business incubator revitalizing Oakland in San Francisco where — despite a thriving bar and restaurant scene — retail continues to struggle. POPUPHOOD is the embodiment of an innovative strategy for breathing new life into the city’s retail sector in downtown’s hip, historic Old Oakland neighborhood. Similar in many ways to our own Renew Australia’s efforts to connect artists and community projects with vacant buildings to revive derelict areas, POPUPHOOD started in the historic neighborhood of Old Oakland, filling five previously vacant store fronts with five new retail shops, including a jewellers and art gallery. The project’s main focus is to support the local community, providing them with a vibrant shopping area and giving local artists, designers and retailers the opportunity to open their own store for six months, rent free. By building cross-sector partnerships with state and federal governments and economic development professionals, POPUPHOOD plans to incubate small businesses and create a dynamic community-centric neighborhood, optimizing empty retail space block by block.

POPUPHOOD Oakland retailers include: Manifesto Bicycles, Marion and Rose’s Workshop, Sticks + Stones, Piper + John General Goods, Turtle and Hare, and Crown Nine – each business having a strong sense of integrity, craft and personality. Tellingly there are no $2 shops, discount stores or big box retailers here – the strength of the POPUPHOOD concept is community, with all businesses involved providing a real sense of connection with and back into the local scene.

The video below explains POPUPHOOD in more detail:

Click here to view the embedded video.

When we talk of retail brands typically we think of the large chain retails and the manner in which they create a clearly defined proposition with a broad and active brand communications campaign to connect with their markets. But here we have an example of the other side of retail branding; small, high integrity crafts people with an absolute passion for what they do, connecting with members of their local community in order to trade. This is retail old-school. I believe this approach to retail and retail branding is connecting on a powerful, emotional level with a part of the modern urban mindset that craves intimate, communal relationships within our communities. The branding as it exists here is intuitive, the brand design of visual language is not corporate, or strategically considered, but authentically driven by the retailer’s own passion – and this is the strength.

If the POPUPHOOD concept proves to be as successful as I hope it does, it will not only provide a blueprint for similar urban renewal programs throughout the cities of the world, but perhaps also an insight into a new category of old school retail opportunities based upon single store brands with a real passion and integrity for their product, who see themselves as an integral part of a community.

Dave Ansett, Brandamentalist
Retail Brand Designer
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This short film documents the founders and participants of POPUPHOOD, and was created by Oakland photographer Eva Kolenko in hopes of introducing their inspiring stories to others and in some way improve the community in which she lives and loves. All the music featured in this documentary was created by Oakland musicians, Beat Rock Music, Precipitate Records, Gummybear, and James + Evander. Also Special thanks to Kate Ellen of Crown Nine for conducting all the interviews and for all the additional assistance in filming this short documentary.

To learn more about POPUPHOOD visit popuphood.com

As with all designers I have a soft spot for info-graphics, something that pares down a topic to the salient points and presents them with great visuals to better explain what could be a comlicated topic. So naturally I love this beauty by Linda Dong. She explains the issues with Fracking, a very poignant topic in Australia at the moment, in such a simple and economic style, it’s beautiful.Check it out here : dangersoffracking.com

It’s a reminder that while our personal and business brands always have a story to tell, finding the perfect format for that story telling is always vital, to quote Marshall McLuan “the medium is the message“. So next time you’ve got a point to get across, stop and think, what’s the best economical format for this. Maybe give us a call, it’s the kind of thing we love to chat about.

Derek Carroll
Design Director

Has The battle for Brand Differentiation Gone Too Far?
As brands and branders struggle to cut through the information-flooded lives of their customers, the search for new and different ways to connect with markets is becoming more and more extreme. Automotive brand Mini recently took the innovative step of sponsoring the weather – a cold front in Europe to be exact – with disastrous consequences.

In a branding campaign designed to literally reinforce Mini’s ‘cool brand’ status, they sponsored a storm cell in Germany that has killed more than 70 people and put another 500 in hospital.

UK Newspaper; The Independent reports Mini paid €299 ($AUD368) to sponsor the weather system, a practice that is allowed in Germany and the US. Mini named the cold front ‘Cooper’ to promote its Mini Cooper product before tragedy struck.

The death tolls from the freezing weather were highest in Poland and the Ukraine where at least 40 people died, the newspaper reported. Temperatures plummeted to as low as -33C as the cold front from Siberia headed west over central and south-eastern Europe. The mounting fatalities lent a “sinister” aspect to Germany’s practice of allowing companies to sponsor high and low pressure weather systems, the Independent wrote.

As brands look to new mediums to express themselves the risk/reward balance changes – this is the side of innovation rarely discussed. We typically recognize brands who create fresh, new communication campaigns without acknowledging the courage required to risk the new, and also the potential downside if the risk doesn’t pay-off.

For Mini – one of the worlds more adventurous branders – this one clearly didn’t pay-off. The negative sentiment associated with this branding exercise will no-doubt be felt by the brand – especially across Europe. The challenge for Mini in the short term is managing the fall-out with humility, integrity and genuine sentiment – qualities most large organizations struggle to display. In the mid to longer term the challenge for Mini is to continue to innovate, to not shy-away from exploring the brave new world of brand communications – it was reported that the brand was planning to sponsor another cold front to be called ‘Minnie’ later in the year. I hope the brand manager and branding agency involved in this disaster are not reprimanded too harshly.

Photo AFP

Photo AP

If you’d like some assistance in innovating your brand’s communications –  why not get in touch. We’d love to help you develop a successful go-to-market strategy and brand campaign.

Dave Ansett, Brandamentalist
Designer of Brands – cool and not-so-cool
For monthly updates of our thinking, click here to receive our free Brand Newsletter

The Power of Storytelling and Imagination
As a brand designer working in Melbourne, I constantly search for inspiration, unique experiences and creativity that keeps my mind fresh and active. In a world where we are so used to our routines, financial concerns and limited daily time, I see it important for everyone to sit down and re-evaluate what they are really doing everyday. As we go about our busy days, with everything we have and everything we have to do, we are often blinded to the wonderful things around us.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In a way this cute short film Out of Sight calls for all brand owners and marketers to spend some time in their imaginary world. To explore their market context from a totally different perspective to see what it may trigger in terms of more evocative story telling or customer engagement. Try creating a fantasy script for your brand. One where there is a villian, a hero (…yes your brand) and a wonderful uplifting narrative playing out. Let your imagination loose and I am sure you will find a way to add some depth and magic to how your brand engages….oh and don’t forget the dog!

Tim Wood
Design Creative

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Yet again, Coles and Woolworths are set to battle it out in a price war. This time its fruit and vegetables with Coles trying to steal the “fresh food” crown with its new campaign; ”There’s no freshness like Coles freshness”.  Woolworths, badged “The Fresh Food People”, is expected to counterpunch in the coming days to protect its brand.

As Chief Executive Mr O’Brien said, Woolworths had worked hard over the past 25 years to become the market leader in fresh produce and ”We’re not going to let it go”.

The price war is becoming all too familiar to Australians, with prices constantly getting slashed across the supermarket shelves.

This new battle began on Monday when Coles announced it would reduce the cost of selected products by up to 50 per cent.  If Woolworths follows suit, fresh produce will become the latest product to be heavily discounted by the supermarket giants, following price cuts to milk, bread, toilet paper and washing powder by both companies in the past year.

During the coming weeks, Coles shoppers will see weekly “super specials” on five to 12 items across the fruit and vegetable section.  The specials will involve slashing regular costs by up to a half.  The latest stoush comes as shoppers cash in on the best fruit and vegetable supply in a decade.  Superb growing conditions after years of crippling drought, flood and cyclones has driven down prices for many goods in recent months.

In true PR form, the General Manager for fresh produce at Coles, Greg Davis, said the company had worked closely with growers to transform their fresh fruit and vegetable prices, investing in new growing techniques, quality control, store displays and now lower prices for customers. A spokesman for the company, Jon Church, said it had invested millions in the campaign but had worked with suppliers on an agreed price.

However, according to Nicky Phillips’ article posted today in The Age, the peak body representing vegetable growers, AusVeg, said the announcement was ”concerning” because, while an oversupply of produce this season meant some growers would benefit in the short term, it was unclear what impact the price reduction would have on the industry over time.  ”By giving growers a commitment that we will take as much of their crops as we possibly can we have provided them certainty that they have a market for their product,” he said.  But a spokesman from AusVeg, William Churchill, said the push by the major retailers to capture market share would put pressure on other growers who did not supply Coles, as competitors tried to replicate the offer to their customers.  ”We can see that the supermarket wars have well and truly arrived in the fresh produce industry and this fight will get savage,” Mr Churchill said.

A spokeswoman for Woolworths, Claire Kimball, would not comment on whether Woolworths would follow its competitor and drop its prices, but said fruit and vegetables had been depreciating for the past 12 months due to the volume of product on the market. She said the lower prices would continue for some time.  Woolworths will announce its second-quarter sales today, and analysts from Goldman Sachs expect the company will report lower growth in food and liquor sales compared with Coles, which will make its announcement on Thursday.

With Coles and Woolworths determined to compete with each other on price at levels unsustainable for their smaller counterparts, it is imperative that smaller retailers and suppliers look at their brand and work out how they can add value.  They need to offer something unique, something that will make consumers choose them despite the price difference.  Are they better quality? Do they have a unique brand story that can be leveraged? Are they Organic? Whatever their unique value proposition is, they need to make sure the market knows and understands it.  It’s not worth having a strong brand asset if no-one knows about it.

If you want help determining how best to market your brand, why not give us a call?

Nikki Williams
Director of Brand Projects 

Brand Envy Pure and Simple
Yeah I know we bang-on a bit about Lego and the extraordinary level of loyalty, even obsession the brand creates. But we wouldn’t if there weren’t so many great examples of passion for the brand, a level of passion most businesses can only stand-by and admire with envy.

A US film maker has recently created a Lego stop-animation film to… you guessed it – propose to his girlfriend.

Walt Thompson has spent 22 hours shooting 2,600 pictures along with unmentionable hours of editing to create a Lego inspired marriage proposal for his girlfriend of four years. Like all good love stories, the film captures the moment they first met, as well as highlights of their time together, and reportedly depicting the couple in Lego outfits which match the clothes they were dressed in when they met.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Of course the short film concludes with a wedding ceremony. Notable guests actors include in the film include Indiana Jones, Luke Skywalker, and Han Solo in carbonite, on hand to officiate the nuptials. The big question is, was all the work worthwhile? Reportedly, the answer was ‘yes’ and the couple plan to get hitched in 2012.

Can there be a much higher tribute to a brand than to be woven into the most important and valued moments of our lives?

Dave Ansett, Brandamentalist
Creator of Brand Obsession
For monthly updates of our thinking, click here to receive our free Brand Newsletter

A Proposal in stop motion by Firepit Productions
Music; ‘Don’t wait too long’ by Madeleine Peyroux
Spotted on cnet and Design Boom.

Design is the Secret Ingredient in Successful Green brands of the Future
My attention was hijacked recently by marketing images of this new concept car from VW. Concept cars pop-up at every motor show, and alone the sleek lines of the next big auto-thing is not usually enough to tickle my fancy, but this one hit my sweet spot. The new ‘e-bugster’ from VW  is not just the  beautifully designed evolution of the famous ‘VW beetle’ – but it’s also ‘green’.

Breaking through the Green Ceiling with outstanding Brand Design
The e-bugster combines both genuine green credentials (it’s an all-electric coupe) with may favorite of all brand attributes – outstanding design. For me, this mindset is most often the missing ingredient for the customer value proposition of environmentally-centric brands. Being ‘green’ just isn’t enough to move any but the most environmentally conscious of consumers.

As a branding consultant I’ve been privy to many product and business briefings with an environmental brand proposition. For most the products main attribute is its green credential – it rarely compares with its competition on design, functionality or more importantly cost. As the dust clears from the initial cloud of interest around green brands, consumers are demonstrating that even though they may be ideologically predisposed to environmentally friendly products and services, unless they are of equal or better quality and design, and unless they are of equal or better value price-wise, in most cases they will fail to motivate customers to purchase. Good intent unfortunately rarely translates into good business. I call this the ‘Green Ceiling’.

Which takes me back to this impressive piece of brand design from our friends at Volkswagen.

The ‘e-bugster’ concept car provides zero emissions and a range of 100 miles (160 km) with 114-horsepower, the vehicle uses an 85-kilowatt electric motor powered by lithium-ion battery pack, mounted under the rear bench in a layout similar to that of the original beetle. The battery is rechargeable via a plug located at the front below the logo, charging to 80% capacity in 30 minutes. For car lovers – the sporty look of the coupe is enhanced by its low, streamlined roof, widened C-pillars, contrasting black A-pillars, and 19-inch alloy wheels.

Call it Green Plus, it is those brands that pull the pants-down of their competition through design, functionality, performance and price who truly lead the charge for saving the planet. Like it or not we have evolved as a marketplace to expecting it all and more – we face the no compromise generation of consumers regardless of the colour of our brand proposition.

If you’d like some assistance is developing a sharp value proposition for your brand – green or any other colour – why not get in touch. We’d love to help you develop a successful go-to-market strategy and brand design solution.

Dave Ansett, Brandamentalist
Designer of Green Brands
For monthly updates of our thinking, click here to receive our free Brand Newsletter

More then ever, honesty is vital for brands as consumers become more switched on, less naïve and ready to boycott those brands they don’t trust. Brands have the ability to have relationships with their audience and like any good, successful relationship, they should be built on trust and honesty. Brands are built on perceptions. You can’t just say that your brand is honest in the hope that the public will believe it. You need to earn this trust in every transaction, interaction and experience your audience has with your brand.

Being an honest brand comes down to practicing what you preach, being transparent about your business practices, what you have to offer and how you offer it. With the likes of the internet and social media, if your brand crosses any line with its audience, if it’s anything but honest, they will retaliate by posting, tweeting and blogging about it ‘til the cows come home. The power is in their hands. They have a voice. It’s loud and you need to listen to it.

The funnier side of the public taking things into their own hands comes in the form of advertising spoofs such as this hilarious and clever take on the cosmetic industry by Jesse Rosten, a filmmaker out of the States.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In recent years we’ve seen the likes of brands like Dove using more realistic models in their campaigns in an attempt to raise their brand honesty and earn trust from the public. Sarah Murdoch also featured on the front cover of Australian Women’s Weekly in a completely untouched image, encouraging women to embrace the beauty of ageing. She went on to say that she doesn’t like retouched images of herself – it challenges her authenticity when people meet her in person and are shocked that she has wrinkles and looks older than pictures of her in magazines. This essentially compromises her brand image and integrity. On the contrary, by being one of the first to promote untouched images in Australia, Sarah did wonders for her brand image as woman and men alike from across the country applauded her for her ‘bravery’ and ‘honesty’.

More recently, in the last year we’ve also seen the introduction of a voluntary code of conduct that encourages the fashion and magazine industry to use unaltered images to promote a healthy and realistic body image to our public. The alternative for those not brave (or honest) enough, is to have a disclaimer letting us know when an image has been retouched.

In a fashion first, Make Up Forever, a French cosmetic brand has refrained from using retouched models in their HD Complexion advertising. This has become their unique selling point, with very few (or possibly any) others in the industry having the guts or smarts to do such a thing. With the tag line, ‘With HD Complexion, there is no need for retouching’, the campaign has earned them much free media attention and respect from audiences around the world.

Click here to view the embedded video.

But back to the subject of honesty; what does it mean for us other brands? By creating and sticking to solid brand values, you are cementing what it is your brand stands for. Not staying true to your brand promise often means a huge loss in trust from your audience. Colleague, Michael Hughes pointed out a good example of this late last year when NAB failed to deliver on their brand promise; more give, less take and accompanying campaign, ‘You’re dumped’. Initially NAB’s actions were on brand. But with one ‘off brand’ move when they were the only of the ‘big four’ to fail passing on the Reserve Banks interest rate cut, the campaigns good work was almost all undone.

So how can you make sure that your brand stays honest?

1. Be clear about what your brand values are, both to internal and external stakeholders. If these are clear, then it’s easy for staff to honestly promote the brands values in the work they do and clear for the public to understand and trust.
2. Having brand values isn’t enough though. You actually need to deliver on your brand promise and offer something of value.
3. Ensure your marketing efforts are in line with what your brand stands for. Don’t say one thing and do another.
4. Be consistent at every touch point.

If you need advice on how to refresh your brand values or consolidate your brands communication to ensure brand honesty, we’d love to hear from you.

Sandy Muir
Director of Brand Projects
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The 26th of January each year represents Australia’s official national day and marks the anniversary of the first fleet sailing into Sydney back in 1788. For many it brings great joy, largely because it provides a day off work to share time with families and friends, not to mention the odd cold beer – and if Sam Kekovich and the Meat and Livestock Authority get their way a good feed of Australian farmed lamb. Given we are in the midst of a lovely summer, and for a sports mad community enjoying the Australian Open tennis and a test cricket match against India, along with the fact that most Australian’s have a job to return to the next day (with unemployment running at about 5.2%) one could be forgiven for feeling pretty good about life down under.

However, if you did choose turn off the cricket and put your cold beer down for a moment, and ponder what you believe will underpin the prosperity of the next generation of Australian’s, what would your answer be? We all have an awareness that we are currently living in a two speed economy where the resources sector is booming and the rest simply limping along. We have a strong dollar riding the wave of this resources boom and as a result an export sector that is struggling and many domestic businesses doing it tough against imports. Amongst this we have raging public debates about whether the Government should or should not be subsidising the automotive industry, while Toyota goes about dumping 10% of its labour force in Australia. We are seeing an ever greater dependency on our employment being derived from the services industry as companies simply seek to have their manufacturing done in lower cost developing economies. The world is getting smaller by the day and the the level of interdependency between countries around the globe more and more intertwined. We are all watching the dramas surrounding sovereign debt issues play out in Europe, all the time understanding if there is a defaulting country somewhere out there, we will feel the ramifications. Our world is changing and we have to change with it.

So what is our future? Commentators like Alan Mitchell, Economics Editor for the Australian Financial Review (24/1/2012) believes the answer resides with Australia making better use of its highly educated work force. That we should continue with the mindset of the Hawke and Keating Governments of the 70’s and 80’s when they opened up Australia to the withering blast of international competition and hoped industry would rise to the occasion, which it did. Mitchell suggests that instead of concerning ourselves with imminent job cuts and plant closures we should rejoice in the prospects of better paid jobs in businesses that have yet to be formed, producing goods and services yet to be developed, for customers still to be identified. I get Alan’s point, but we do not have to face such a vague future.

Surely, we do not have to leave the future of Australia’s prosperity solely in the hands of market forces. We could choose to adopt a brand mindset, and proactively determine what our proposition is to the world and disproportionately invest in driving that proposition to shape our destiny. We need to shift our paradigm of nation branding from one that is largely image and tourism based, to one that is founded on defining the economic and social endeavours that will fuel our prosperity. We need to commence an enlightened and imaginative national dialogue around what Australia’s future will be built on.

Peter Singline
Brand Scientist

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