Branding for Local Government
We’ve been recently working with a regional Victorian Council, over the years we’ve worked with Local governments all over Victoria, from the City of Melbourne to the Moira Shire Council. We’re working developing their brand, evolving the brand mark, creating a visual language. and creating a brand system, they can use to easily communicate on brand. It reminded me of the key steps we’ve taken over the years, with our Local Government clients, that have delivered a successful branding project. I thought it’d be good to share them.

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.

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Like bumping into an old friend
Currently I’m in the market for a new TV, so last week whilst I was shopping at Victoria Gardens, I popped into Dick Smith to see what they had on offer. On the way in I was greeted by a familiar face, Dick himself. See they’ve yet to rebrand this store with the new identity. As you may know, last year Dick Smith rebranded (some stores anyway). Now much has been said about the design of the new brandmark and I don’t mean to get into the issues it may have or lecture the designers who created it – what I do want to talk about is the brand personality and what I see as a missed opportunity. Seeing the old identity in all its glory reminded me of what has been lost.

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Branding a place or a region is no different to product or service branding – you have to own something that is distinctive and compelling to your target market. However, when it comes to regional branding there is an added complication. You have to balance the competing needs of a diverse set of stakeholders because the people and businesses that make up the region simply do not always see the world through the same lens. Different mental models, different types and sizes of businesses, different levels of self interest and all that before one even layers in the different egos at play.  A lot of stakeholders and lot of emotion makes for interesting branding.

With such a diverse range of stakeholders, the developers of regional brands need to adopt a strategic and pragmatic approach. For a start there needs to be recognition that not all stakeholders will be of equal value in building a world famous regional brand, that the 80:20 rule is well and truly alive. Certainly the team we worked with on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia understood this point. Led by the regional Development Board, the regional branding process started with identifying those businesses that were considered mission critical to being on-board. Clearly your preference is to have everyone on board, but it can also be a very liberating feeling if instead you identify the 20% of stakeholders who will give you 80% of the bang, you can then immediately narrow your focus. And of course the law of attraction always works, enlist the shakers and movers and others will want to jump on board anyway. Once you have the right people involved there is a need to explore what makes up the region, what makes it a special place. Is it nature’s gifts, is it food producers, is it the unique experiences on offer, is it wine, is it a combination.

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Mission Impossible
Could there be a more difficult market segment for brands to differentiate themselves than water. On the surface it would seem to be brand mission impossible, but over the last fifteen years we’ve seen water become a hotly contested market place. In this time we’ve seen an evolution from water brands battling on the purity of their product both sparkling and still based on geographic heritage, then water brands positioning around brand personality, and most recently the launch of a new category of Vitamin waters.

Another Bloody Water
A new competitor launched into the fray a few years ago with the apt brand name of ‘Another Bloody Water.’ Launching with a brand strategy that included a bold brand personality and the lovable brand personality attribute of being able to laugh at itself and the market it belongs to, Another Bloody water successfully grabbed a share of the retail bottled water market.

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Word on the Web
Social Brand Snapshot provides a visualised cross section of current blogs, tweets and social mentions of Tiger Woods, providing an instant view of current brand sentiment.

David Ansett, Brandamentalist.
Brand Agency & Graphic Design Melbourne.

From the mind of Illustrator Scott Campbell.
As creative director of a brand strategy and brand design agency, one of my most critical functions is to protect the fragile spark of creative ideas, nurture them through initial client introductions and assist clients to recognise the long term value to their brands.

This challenge faced by all brand agencies, graphic design studios, illustrators and photographers has been beautifully, poetically and elegantly illustrated by US designer illustrator Scott Campbell in his ‘8 Ways to Kill a Creative Idea’:

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Man in a Beret 1895 Pablo Ruiz Picasso

A Lesson from the Master
Last week I was lucky enough to find myself in Barcelona, one sunny afternoon at the Museu Picasso. Walking the halls of the gallery, admiring the craftsmanship and creative evolution of one of the greatest artists of all time, I was struck by one thing more than any other; Picasso’s ability – even from a very early age – to put paint onto canvas with life-like accuracy.

When we think of Picasso, we typically think of his colourful and imaginative cubist work. Those paintings are without doubt what Picasso is most famous for and most widely remembered by. But what I was reminded of as I walked around the gallery, was how much Picasso’s painting style had evolved through his many years of painting. The art Picasso created in his early years under the tutelage of his art teacher father was of a distinctly classic style.

Learning to Paint
The young Picasso’s ability to capture realism, detail, texture, light and mood was astounding. But what struck me most was the realisation that before he was able to express his vision in a new and unique style, Picasso first had to master the basics, to capture the essence of his vision with absolute clarity. Read the rest of this entry »

Director of strategy and all things clever and witty here at Brand DNA, Peter Singline was quoted in this article in today’s B&T about the new City of  Melbourne brand identity. Pete also penned a sharp article on the matter which has been faithfully reproduced in today’s news (see below), complete with a pic of Pete’s handsome scone. Click on the pic to view the original article.

In his article Pete questions the motives of our great Mayor in selecting an interstate brand agency to create a new brand mark for our fair city. He poses the question, was Cr Doyle in fact smarter than the rest of us and the decision a masterstroke of strategic genius? We think probably not.

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