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.
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.
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.
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.
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’.
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.
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.
Australia day is here for another year, along with painted faces, flag flying, boxing kangaroos and, of course, companies trying to leverage patriotic feelings for their brand’s benefit. Coles and Woolies are fighting it out to prove who is ‘more Australian’, Vegemite has renamed their famous spread to ‘Australia’ and Lamb has again released their annual Lambassor, Sam Kekovic, for another ripper viral session – this time trying to get him the number 1 on the pop charts.
But this year, it is Wine Australia that has caught my attention with their idea to ‘de-stride’ those drinking foreign vino.
A feel-good Burger Brand
South African fast food brand Wimpy Burgers have come-up with a promotional brand gesture that has both underscored their inclusive positioning and created a real buzz. The story goes that Wimpy wanted to let visually impaired people know they offered braille menus. So to spread the word they created braille burgers that blind people could actually read.
Baked-in Brand Differentiation
I was having lunch before Christmas with a bunch of Australia’s best young business dynamos and conversation turned to our latest and most interesting projects – as it often does. One of the lunchers was Brendan McKeegan, a serial entrepreneur based-out of Melbourne, Australia. Brendan was filling us-in on a business he’s involved-in called Emue Technologies and a great piece of innovative technology they have created and sold into global finance behemoth, Visa. We love nothing better than brand innovation – and even more-so when the differentiation is built into the product.
