Vic’s Meat, a standout example of best branding practice has done it again.

We’ve written before about the unique, rich and memorable brand experience that is Victor Churchill, a European-inspired designer shop of carnivorous inspiration in Sydney. Now the owners have developed a website and released an iPhone app, Ask the butcher.

The Ask the Butcher App was created by the super talented guys at Blind Mice Studios.

By creating an ultimate guide to buying and cooking meat they assert themselves as the very pinnacle of meat appreciation, true carnivore connoisseurs. Ask the butcher, answers all your questions about a cut of meat, how to cook it, what recipes to use it in, and then when you get down to cooking gives you a timer with reminders when to turn the meat –keeping your premium cut premium after it’s hit the barbie. The website and app were created for Vic’s by Protein One and Blind Mice Studios.

The interesting thing for me is the constant innovation and brand thinking that is going on behind everything Vic’s Meats do. They are tireless when it comes to exploring new was to promote, extend and reinforce their brands making sure they always stand out in the market. It’s a reminder to all of us, no matter what you do, you need to be constantly looking for new ways to express your brand.

If you’d like to make your business stand-out in its market with a unique brand expression, why not give us a call.

Derek Carroll
Director of Design

Thanks to the guys at Blind Mice Studios for the use of the cool pics of their ask the butcher App.

All Brands Have Meaning
Whether carefully and strategically considered or by default, all brands hold associated meanings in the market place. Well considered brands establish a competitive brand proposition (their brand strategy) with layers of meaning to both differentiate themselves from their competitors and to connect with their audience. These brand reinforce their meaning through all of their actions or brand touch points. As a brand agency we help brands to define their meaning and create the brand design for all their communications in order to create a consistent association with these layers of meaning in the minds of their customers.

Apple Vs Microsoft
Today we compare the brand associations of consumer technology icons Apple & Microsoft.

A Snapshot of Brand Association
The clever people at Brand Tags have been busy collecting a comprehensive list of more than 1.7 million associations that people have with brands. The result is a unique opportunity for those brands to compare the meaning and messages of their brand communication strategy with the brand associations of a cross section of the market.

A Comparison of Brand Associations
As expected, both brands have a high level of association with descriptive terms such as ‘computer’, ‘pc’ and ‘software’. Both brands boast strong levels of association with their product line; ‘Windows’, ‘Mac’, ‘iPod’ , ‘Office’ and ‘Word’. Also, interestingly both brands maintain a strong association with their founders and leaders; ‘Steve Jobs’ and ‘Bill Gates’, reflecting the brand equity that these two industry icons continue to maintain. However, from there it gets interesting to say the least. Given the enormous number of people who have contributed the brand associations (more than 300,000 of them of all ages, nationalities and brand affiliations) the differing tone of brand association is astounding.

The Apple Brand
The Apple brand is openly loved, maybe even adored with strong levels of association to words like ‘cool’ ‘awesome’ and even ‘love’. Plenty of brands want to be loved, but very few can lay claim to that strongest of positive associations. The words ‘design’, ‘creative’ and ‘innovation’ are also strongly associated with the Apple brand. When pooled with associations of ‘quality’, ‘sleek’, ‘simple’ and ‘style’ it is easy to see why Apple commands such high levels of brand loyalty and continues to create enourmous anticipation for each new product launch.

The Microsoft Brand
On the other hand I could barely believe my eyes when tracking the negative tone of much of the strongest brand association for Microsoft. Few successful brands include such high levels of negative association including; ‘evil’, ‘monopoly’, ‘crap’, ‘shit’ and that classic of poor customer feedback – ‘sucks’. Whilst at a commercial level, Microsoft’s strategic, commercial partnerships have built incredibly high levels of product use, it appears that the brand has seriously failed to translate that product use into positive brand association and brand loyalty.

If you’d like some help to define the meaning for your brand and create your communications in order to create a consistent association with these layers of meaning in the minds of their customers, why not drop us a line?

David Ansett, Brandamentalist
If you’d like daily updates of our brand thinking, you can follow me on Twitter here.
Graphic Design Melbourne



The brands we choose reflect how we see ourselves
Each day we make thousands of conscious and sub-concussion decisions about the brands we wish to include in our lives. Our choice of which brands we choose to connect-with is often a reflection of how we see ourselves and how we wish the world to see us. Some of these brand associates are more overt than others, but when mapped as a whole they create a sense of personal brand identity. ‘Brand Mapping’ as we call it forms part of the Insights process we use on our commercial projects. Brand mapping helps us to immerse our thinking into the lives of target markets our clients’ brands wish to connect with truly and deeply.

Here’s my brand map for Christmas Day 2009.

Try creating your own brand map, or have some of your closest clients and customers track theirs – the results are guaranteed to be interesting. Send us your maps, we’d love to see them too.

David Ansett, Brandamentalist
If you’d like daily updates of our brand thinking, you can follow me on Twitter here.
Graphic Design / Brand Agency Melbourne

Global Marketing Push hits the Streets
Just hours after the launch of the new Microsoft Windows Phone, teams of orange-clad Windows Phone Warriors have hit the streets of Paris talking New Phone Technology to anyone who’ll listen. The Windows software debuts today on 30 different phone models made by Samsung, HTC and LG. The phone’s operating system includes Microsoft Office, Outlook, and applications sold through an Apple iPhone-like ap marketplace.

The Revolution has been Postponed
Three years ago this system would have been the kind of revolutionary masterstroke Microsoft are looking for to regain their flagging market share. But following the success of the iPhone, this looks like another reminder of the fate of brands who spend too much of their energy focussed on the competition and not enough on revolutionizing the marketplace. The feedback on the web has been generally critical of the new OS for being too little too late. A review on Gizmodo blog opined: “Windows Mobile 6.5 isn’t just a letdown – it barely seems done … It’s an interim product and a vain attempt to hold onto the thinning ranks of people who still choose Windows Mobile despite not being somehow tethered to it until the tardy Windows Mobile 7 comes out, whenever that may be. And it won’t work.” Unfortunately for Microsoft, the Windows Phone looks less like the answer to the iPhone, and more like a me-too product.

David Ansett, Brandamentalist.
If you’d like daily updates of our brand thinking, you can follow me on Twitter here.