Standing-out In-store
With Brand Design for retail it’s so much about the customer experience in-store. Creating unique and compelling brand theater in your stores is as much about the merchandising as it is about the actors (your staff) and the environment. As retailers continuously look for a new edge in store design, technology continues to inspire fresh and potentially rich opportunities to create remarkable in-store customer experiences.
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.
London’s aBuzz About ‘Unpackaged‘
London has long been one of the worlds greatest retail cities – a place where new concepts are launched and sunk every day with barely a ripple to mark their passing. As they say in the classics – ‘If you can make it there, you’ll make it anywhere…’. Into this buzzing retail landscape, old school food store ‘Unpackaged‘ was quietly launched four years ago as a market stall and over the ensuing years has grown to become a much loved and powerful little retail brand in a charming shop at 42 Amwell Street, London.
The Power of Brand Voice
Every brand could do with a spokesman like Big Bad Sam Kekovich – Hell, every country could do with one too. Ex Australian Football player Sam has been promoting Lamb as the fair dinkum Aussie dish for a few years now – and this time he’s taken it to the world. As our unofficial Lambassador, Sam has presented his case for the whole world to celebrate Australia Day this year by coming together to throw a lamb chop on the barbie – and in so-doing has connected-to our sense of National Pride.
I have never experienced the pull of an authentic brand quite like I did years ago when I purchased a pair of riding boots. At the time I was an Economics teacher at a Melbourne High School, commuting to school on a motor bike and feeling the need for some foot wear that was a little more robust. I have a few frugal genes in my DNA (you would only have to have met my father to understand where they had come from) and as I ventured out on a buying excursion for some boots these genes kicked in. I arrived home with a pair of elastic sided riding boots that I had purchased from an Army disposals store – they appeared well made, looked a lot like the famous Australian boot brand RM Williams and were, you guessed it, a lot lot cheaper than RM Williams boots.
However, from day one I new that I had made a mistake. The boots I acquired were simply a cheap imitation of the brand I truly aspired to own. They made feel like the great pretender, when what I really wanted was to share in the romance of the rugged outback image of the RM Williams brand. The boots I had purchased delivered functionally, but they stood for nothing at an emotional level – in fact worse than that, each time I pulled them on I felt emotionally depleted. In branding there is no substitute for authenticity, no matter how good the imitation the wearer always feels a little second rate!
When it comes to updating a brand finding the right look and feel for the brand is, naturally, vital. But finding the key expressions for the brand is just as important. Whether it’s for your customers, staff or the general public knowing what the highest value expressions your brand will make will go a long way to ensure the new brand is both well received and a success. Here’s the tail of a brand evolution we did for SAGE Automation:
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.
The Rising Tide of Brand Strategy Speak
It seems the brand and marketing industries are no more immune to the rising tide of ‘business speak’ than any other industry. Over the last year I’ve collected examples from around our brand agency and the web and researched the trends to bring you a list of my favorites. The good news is I think you’ll find them as imaginative and entertaining as they are informative.
100% Barcelona
Recently I spent a week in Barcelona attending a learning university with a few hundred of the worlds most exciting entrepreneurs. The event was held at a spectacular, but typical business-style hotel in the Port District. The day the event finished, I switched hotels as I was keen to immerse myself in a richer vein of the Barcelona experience. And where better to stay in order to do that than Casa Camper.
I have to admit from the outset that I’m a brandaholic. I’m addicted to brands with soul, authenticity and rich, unique personality (sounds like it could be a description of Barcelona itself). I’ve been a Camper fan for some years. Camper make shoes, but they’re not just another shoe company. Camper fuses design, materials and marketing to create a brand story that is movingly summed up by two of their mantra-like positioning lines: ‘The Walking Society’ and ‘Imagination Walks.’
Continuing the theme from an earlier blog, which sang the praises of enduring storytelling of the comic series Archie, here is another example of superb creativity expressed through a comic series. What is interesting here is that this particular comic series truly drives brand preference. It is a Japanese Manga comic series with a very novel plot. Called “The Drops of the Gods” it follows the main character Shizuku as he learns about wine, allowing the reader to do the same.
At the start of the series, Shizuku has rebelled against his father, a famous wine critic, by refusing to drink wine and working instead for a brewery. Suddenly, though, his father dies and leaves in his will a description of 12 wines he considers the world’s best, comparing them to the disciples of Jesus. Pitted against his adopted brother, who happens to be a sommelier, Shizuku must catch up in his knowledge so he can find the 12 wines mentioned in his father’s will and inherit his father’s vast cellar. Read the rest of this entry »
There is more and more being written about the power of brand storytelling and compelling narratives. Even politicians are referring to the need to develop narratives that connect with voters. However, sometimes when you are working with clients on their brands you sense that they at times feel that it is too difficult to keep evolving a meaningful brand narrative, that they will run out of inspiration and ways to keep it interesting and engaging to their customers.
To all brand owners who may have such a mindset, I encourage you to take heart from one Mr Archie Andrews. Archie is the fictional character in the American comic book series that has been running since 1941. That is a long time to keep a fictional character alive and interesting. And trust me Archie is in the prime of his life, as is evidenced by the high media profile he has had in recent weeks.
For those who missed it, Archie has decided to end his love triangle and choose between Betty and Veronica. Archie has chosen rich bitch over girl next door type. Archie has proposed to Veronica and by doing so has moved away from a plot that has provide Archie Comics with such an enduring narrative. Where to next? An affair down the track with Betty? Veronica leaving Archie and declaring her love for Betty? The birth of Archie Junior? Who knows, but with the same creative genius that has kept Archie alive for close to seven decades, there is no reason why the narrative will not evolve.
Continuing the theme from an earlier blog, which sang the praises of enduring storytelling of the comic series Archie, here is another example of superb creativity expressed through a comic series. What is interesting here is that this particular comic series truly drives brand preference. It is a Japanese Manga comic series with a very novel plot. Called “The Drops of the Gods” it follows the main character Shizuku as he learns about wine, allowing the reader to do the same.
