Applying branding frameworks to politicians and political parties is a very much established practice. In fact, some may even argue that politics is increasingly about symbolism as opposed to policy implementation, image rather than content. A little harsh perhaps, but certainly in Australia we are seeing our major political parties trying to position themselves on populist mandates over political ideology. They are trying something we strongly advise our clients against, and that is to try and be all things to all people. It never works in commercial settings and it is of highly dubious value in politics – it simply gives strength to the brand positioning of minor parties (eg. the Greens) and independents.

However, one would never suggest that political party strategists simply enroll in a ‘Branding 101′ course. Politics is in a league of its own when it comes to branding, as is being witnessed in the current Australian Federal Government election campaign. I have read a lot of branding books in my time and some are pretty good at advising on strategies to combat competitors. But none offer advice on how to combat dissenters (read leaks to the media), from within your own brand team, deliberately attempting to give your competitors a leg up.

But on the upside what I did find interesting is that when the Prime Minster, Julia Gillard, was forced to defend her position from the damaging leaks she seized upon an important brand attribute, that is she reclaimed a degree of authenticity. The daily newspaper ‘The Age’ (Michael Gordon) suggested that ….’it was the first time in the campaign she appeared unscripted and, tellingly, it was her most authentic and convincing performance.’

Another article (Michelle Grattan) said …’we saw the old Gillard in her press conference, not the more polished, slightly confected lady of the campaign. Most people thought this return to feistiness an improvement. Blood-pumping, anger showing, but strictly on script.’

Will the real Julia Gillard please stand up. We need you.

Authenticity what a novel concept. All the best brands demonstrate it, yet when it comes to the branding of politicians it regularly gets lost. In the current campaign Julia Gillard’s brand minders have created such a contrived image that her true personality has not had a chance to shine through at all. The very brand attributes that got her to PM – the wit, the candor, the on-the-feet smarts have all been stymied. The branding of individual politicians (particularly party leaders), is indeed a tough gig when you factor in the need to appease the party machine. Think Peter Garrett, phew!

The other dimension that makes the branding of pollies and their political parties such a rare breed is the media frenzy that surrounds them. Every word, every move analysed. Imagine having the same level of media scrutiny applied to the major brands of the world. BP has recently experienced a little of what it feels like to be under the minute by minute gaze of the media, and it did not cope well. In fact the CEO is no longer there, and partly because he uttered (along with some other clangers) those rather infamous words about wanting to get his life back (well now he certainly does)!

The more I reflect on the challenges of branding in the political arena the more I am feel grateful of the space we play in every day – which is essentially branding within every conceivable product and service category except politics. When it comes to politics I am happy to simply be a paying customer – now taxes that is entirely a different topic!

Peter Singline
Brand Scientist

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 brand expressions we tracked included existing, new and refined brand identities, product packaging, newspaper, magazine and billboard ads. The scale and breadth of these brand expressions allowed us to identify the major brand visual language trends of a broad range of market leaders for the last year. Whilst the majority of the examples presented in this report are recent, many trends are not in themselves new. It is our interpretation of the groundswell of take-up of a trend and the influence exerted within their market by the brands involved, that leads us to define the most compelling and influential trends.

What’s the value of a Trend Report?
All brands project an image through their visual language. It is up to each brand to make conscious and informed decisions about exactly what they wish their visual language to communicate relative to the competition and to their market’s perceptions.The report includes hundreds of examples of brands and their visual language to illustrate examples of brands who leverage trends to their advantage, as well as examples of those who follow trends to their disadvantage. The examples cross industries from fashion to food, from transport to telecommunications and everything in between, as well as markets from Australia to Asia, from Europe to the Middle East and the U.S.

Valuable Insights for all Owners and managers of Brands
An understanding and mastery of the trends in brand visual language will allow business to ‘tune’ their brand’s image to ensure they’re consistently communicating the right messages to the right people. For every organisation seeking to best manage their brand identity, these trends must be part of the consideration process. For each brand there will be advantages and disadvantages to leveraging the cues and meaning inherent in these trends. The big question you should be considering is this; ‘does the trend provide an opportunity to leverage a set of visual cues to communicate the perfect brand messages to your market, or has the trend become so widely adopted as to compromise the uniqueness of the brands who follow it?’

Click here to download a complete version of our 2010 Brand Visual Language Trend Report (6.8mb pdf file)

© 2010 Truly Deeply. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. We’re delighted for you to share, blog or publish extracts of our articles, on the condition that Storm Design & Brand DNA are properly credited (and linked to) as the source, and that you include either our URL: trulydeeply.com.au or the link to this source.

For further information, questions and enquires, feel free to contact us directly.

David Ansett, Brandamentalist
For monthly updates of our thinking, click here to receive our free Brand Newsletter
Brand Designer and Trend Spotter.

Came across these amazing paintings by Mark Goings, a realism painter with work featured in galleries all round the world. Love the subject matter – somehow it suits the more-real than real surreal feel of these pics (really!). The evocative feel of the images provides a rich palette for a thousand brand stories. For anyone who’s picked-up a paint brush – the technique is beyond sublime (if there’s such a place).

Love it.

We spotted these little beauties on Recave.com

A Stylishly Designed Creative Idea
During Paris Fashion Week, fashion mag Grazia was seeking a way to stand-out from the pack of fashion related brands who were jamming the broadcast, web, blog, and twitter airwaves with their messages. In a stylish act of brand-zag, Grazia created a brand experience by re-designing the ‘air dog’ – and filling the boulevards of the fashion capital with elegant girls out walking their Grazia inflatable pug dogs. We’ve long described those tiny canine fashion accessories as ‘air dogs’ as a result of the fact they spend more time in the air (and in handbags) than on the ground. It seems the stylish folk at French Grazia have the same idea. This stand-out brand experience packed with brand personality was sure to get the buzz brewing and tongues wagging creating the content for some rich brand storytelling.

The Art of Brand-Zagging
As the brand communication landscape continues to fragment at an ever increasing rate, opportunities exist to take advantage of ‘old school’ channels such as guerrilla marketing that have become old before their time. As many brand seek to surf the crest of the innovation wave, developing the latest iPadvertising campaigns, some very effective ways to communicate with audiences and stand-out from the pack are available to businesses and their creative agencies.

If you’d like some help with designing a stand-out brand gesture for your business, why not get in touch – we’d love to help you on your way.

David Ansett, Brandamentalist
For monthly updates of our thinking, click here to receive our free Brand Newsletter
Designer of Brand Experiences

Following the tradition of tourist towns the world over, Port Douglass in Far North Queensland, Australia has an embarrassment of restaurants and bars – it’s a wonder how they manage to keep business ticking-over during quieter times. Fair to say, competition between the restaurants and cafes for the tourist diner is fierce and unrelenting. So you can imagine our curiosity when I came across one restaurant, seemingly identical to all the others, that was bustling every afternoon. At 5pm each day when most restaurants would be fortunate to have a table of six, why was ‘On the Inlet’ bustling with more than 60 customers.

The answer was George the Giant Groper. Many years ago the staff at On the Inlet began feeding a local Groper. For those without the Chief’s piscatorial sophistication – Gropers are giant, lazy fish that grow to the size of a hippo and do little but lie around eating. As the folks at On the Inlet first fed, then named George he became more giant and more friendly (well in the manner of a big old lazy fish without social skills). Over the years, as word spread, tourists began turning-up to see George get his daily fill of fish head. Now days, around 5pm each and every afternoon of the year, as most restaurant traffic slows to a trickle, On the Inlet has a dozen tables booked and another forty customers standing, eating and drinking as they wait for George the famous groper to show up – a new take on the term Feeding Frenzy. All this has been achieved with little marketing promotion for George.

Which got us thinking of what a great metaphor George was for brand differentiation, and wondering what every business could do if they worked-out what their own George the Giant Groper could be.

We found this great little marketing story on LogoChief.

With the dust settling from the World Cup, some very clever brand gestures are coming to light – and this one from the Dutch Football federation is one of the best.A Great Visual Brand Experience
The KNVB produced a range of limited edition national football kits for their fans. When a goal was scored and the shirt was pulled over the fan’s head, the face of one of the Dutch football stars was revealed printed on the inside of the shirt – a great surprise, and a great brand gesture.

Love it.

We spotted this little beauty on The Cool Hunter.

We spend much of our lives working with brands of all shapes and sizes across almost every conceivable category to define their differentiated brand proposition and design a rich and unique visual language to position their businesses for success. Occasionally we come across brands who have their differentiated proposition ‘baked-in’ to their products or services (think iPhone’s touch screen and useability / think Webflix DVDs through the mail) – what it is that is unique about them is inherent in what they do or sell. Without doubt, these brands have a distinct advantage over their competitors.

For businesses looking for a handle on how to build a brand with the differentiated proposition baked-in, an often overlooked starting point is design.

One of my favorite examples of such a brand is Japanese paper ware manufacturer Wasara. Elevating the humble paper tableware category with the power of design alone – Wasara’s brand proposition is based around challenging the paper plate paradigm with one simple question: Why can’t paper plates be beautiful?

Paper Ware for Spiritual Enrichment
Wasara’s positioning line of ‘Paper Ware for Spiritual Enrichment’ doesn’t so-much set the tone for the brand as reflect the product beautifully. In their own words, Wasara believe ‘Holding a plate in your hands; its form, texture and ease of use can make the heart skip’. Underlying the Wasara design concept is hundreds of years of Japanese aesthetic and sublime attention to detail.

Eco-Friendly & Beautiful
‘As is the fate of all paper tableware, a Wasara can serve its purpose only once. Yet it is designed to minimize environmental waste.’ Wasara products are made from non-wood materials such as reed, bamboo and baggasse (sugarcane waste) – materials with no danger of depletion.

Differentiated by Design
Whether you are a manufacturer, retailer, food producer, or even a professional services firm, the design of your product provides the real potential for you to create a differentiating and distinctive advantage over your competitors.

• Consider the businesses with whom you compete for customers.
• How many of them have a distinct advantage built right into their product or service?
• How many of your competitors have re-designed their products or services to be as distinctive in the market as Wasara have with their paper tableware?

• If the answer for your business is ‘None’ you’re facing a great opportunity to reposition your business and gain marketshare.
• If the answer ‘Our competition’s already doing this’, you’ve just identified what you need to do to compete with your market’s leaders.

If you’d like some help with getting your head around how you can best leverage design to create competitive advantage for your brand, why not get in touch – we’d love to help you on your way.

David Ansett, Brandamentalist
For monthly updates of our thinking, click here to receive our free Brand Newsletter
Designer of Brand Differentiation

More and more brands are foregoing the big chest beating advertising campaigns that attempt to broadcast their presence to the world. This is particularly the case for those wishing to position themselves in the  cool end of the market. The onus is on savvy shoppers to find them, particularly when it we are talking fashion and bars. Certainly this was our experience on a recent visit to Berlin.

Berlin appears to have been able to sustain the vibrant design and arts subculture that blossomed out of the highly energised post-reunification period. It is a city that the longer you are there peels back layers and layers of creative magic. There are probably not too many other cities in the world that can boast as many concept, guerilla or clandestine stores as Berlin. But it does make you work a little for the rewards, a big part of its charm is that you have to some scratching.

And scratch we did to find a high end fashion retailer called Apartment. In fact having heard about it (through the power of word of mouth and editorial commentary) it took us three different attempts to locate it. Why so difficult? It is an unmarked empty storefront that occupies the entire ground floor of a lifeless concrete high-rise. Hardly an invitation to passers-by to come in and explore. What you see is not what you get. It is discovery personified. On the ground floor there is no signage, simply a big white empty space. Dare to enter the space you encounter one empty display cabinet, a vase with flowers and the pull of a spiral staircase heading down to a basement.

Take the stairs  and you find clothing, accessories and shoes from hot local and international designers. Very cool gear, big prices and a sense of personal discovery. The hidden nature of the offering is what gives it the marketing clout. It is counter intuitive. It like a secret club, and we all like belonging.

How do you build intrigue into what you have to offer? It is a question worth pondering.

Giorgio Armani is one of the world’s most recognisable and sought after fashion brands with end of year sales banded around at $1.69 billion. From haute coutre, ready-to-wear, leather goods, shoes, watches, jewelry, eyewear, cosmetics and home interiors Armani has become synonymous with high-fashion and couture worldwide.

Under the Armani ‘umbrella” brand are sub-brands that include Giorgio Armani, Armani Collezioni, Emporio Armani, AJ|Armani Jeans, AX|Armani Exchange, Armani Junior, and Armani|Casa – not a bad brand portfolio really is it? But wait there’s more!

The Armani brand also operates a range of cafés worldwide, in addition to a bar, restaurant, nightclub and now the Armani Hotel Dubai (part of the Burj Khalifa development) the tallest commercial and residential building in the world built at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion. The bottom 39 floors of the skyscraper house 160 guest rooms and suites, and 144 residences with Armani himself being responsible for overseeing all aspects of the interior design and style of the hotel – what I’d call an absolute ‘on brand’ experience!

Not only is the Armani hotel now operational in Dubai, but after signing an agreement in 2004 with Emaar Properties at least another six luxury hotels and three resorts are being planned in several major cities such as Milan, Paris, New York, London, Tokyo and Shanghai again all specially designed inline with products from the Armani/Casa home furnishings collection.

If you’d like to talk to us about how we could add greater hight to your brand and its story why not give us a call.

Dominic Guthrie
Client Account Director

Just for the fun-of-it
There has been plenty of debate over the years (some of it with readers commenting on this site) about the validity and value of brand gestures that do not have an immediate and specific selling proposition. In many ways this represents the difference between the crafts of advertising and branding.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Speed Camera Lottery.
Idea: Rewarding Speed Limit Signs – Submitted by Kevin Richardson (USA).
Can we get more people to obey the speed limit by making it fun to do? The idea here is capture on camera the people who keep to the speed limit. They would have their photos taken and registration numbers recorded and entered into a lottery. Winners would recieve cash prizes and be notified by post. Better still, the winning pot would come from the people who were caught speeding.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s a great example of a brand gesture from the folks at Volkswagen. Unlike many brand gestures, where the communication objective of the experience is directly related to the proposition and positioning of the brand, Volkswagen’s funtheory.com plays on the outer margins of brand communication. As Volkswagen describe funtheory.com: ‘This site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.’

As we’ve evolved as a society in the way we absorb and interact with brands, the way audiences respond to brand messages has changed. Twenty years ago the extent to which you could build market share was directly related to the budget you had available to invest in your above the line advertising campaign. The world has changed. Traditional advertising techniques and channels have become part of the way brands need to communicate to connect to their markets, but not the only way. The catch-cry is ‘Integration’ – integrating a campaign of brand messaging – some hard, some soft, some using traditional mediums, some using new or fresh mediums. And as the way we connect with our audiences has changed, so-too has the messaging itself.

No-longer can brands focus on the offer – what we want you to do or buy – they must also give people a reason to buy that is non-functional, a reason to want to buy.

The process of creating emotional connections – the truer and deeper the better – requires a subtly, complex and multi-dimensional craft of which attributes such as engage, delight, interact and share are most defining. This brand gesture campaign from Volkswagen is a sweet example of just that craft.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Fast Lane – A Funtheory Follow-up
Following-on from their funtheory campaign – VW have created some more brand-driven frivolity with these great brand experiences dedicated to everyone who enjoys speeding life up a little.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The fast Lane campaign is integrated through VW’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/volkswagen?v=app_122484447791278

If you’d like to chat about creating a reason for your customers to want to buy your products or services, why not give us a call.

David Ansett, Brandamentalist
For monthly updates of our thinking, click here to receive our free Brand Newsletter
Designer of Brand Gestures