Lately I have been thinking a lot about retail brand loyalty and what it means to brand owners, employees and retailers. Brand loyalty is a strange thing, you can’t hold it or visibly see it, but the value that should be placed on it, for any brand, is paramount.

Brand Loyalty. Have you got it?

Brand loyalty is a emotional response and attachment to the value of a product or service. Most successful brand owners realise if you can create an environment where brand loyalty creates brand tribes or trends, brand loyalty can be that powerful it can even influence cultural change.

Brand loyalty begins within
People are the most important retail brand asset any business can have. By creating a family or community environment that is mentoring, empowering and most importantly rewarding, it fosters the relevant elements that provide brands with excellent, experienced and most importantly happy, brand ambassadors. Brand ambassadors champion a brand, and by actions of their own, show proof that who they work is worth investing in.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Brand loyalty must be earned
You earn what you keep. Retail brand loyalty must be earned and reinforced continually by any brand or businesses. Satisfying a consumer need, and satisfying it well – is all well and good, but doing it over and over again, working honestly in the good times and bad with a customer, that’s where the real value comes from. Brand loyalty has potential to be change, it has potential to touch the heart, but in the end, any brand needs to earn their stripes.

Does your brand provide brand stiction?
Stiction is a delicate dance that brand and consumer do when they interact. It is an important to get this balance right. To much forced interaction and engagement can seriously put the consumer on the back foot, not enough engagement and the emotional connection with the consumer is lost, and participation in the brand is minimal.

In such trying times for retail, with online shopping on the increase, can I ask you, what is your retail brand doing to create an environment that nurtures and rewards brand loyalty?

The best kind of loyalty is when both parties are benefiting. — Scott Brooks, Gantz Wiley Research

Tim Wood
Design Creative

In memory of a true visionary Steve Jobs.

An Insight into the Future of this Brand Leader
Last year Apple was granted 563 patents. Apple’s track record as a genuine industry leader suggests some of these ideas will flow through to influence the consumer technology landscape in the same way the iPod, iPhone, App Store and the iPad have.

Mashable.com has taken a look at some of Apple’s recent patent applications to see what exciting developments might be in store for the future. Apple patent expert Jack Purcher summs-them-up: “Jobs’s vision for the digital lifestyle a decade ago is still on a roll. It’s innovation at its finest. But it began with a vision – and that’s the difference.”

1. iBike

Apple’s smart bike concept is like the Nike+ running system, but for those on two wheels. In addition to seeing pertinent data from you (heart rate, etc.) and the bike (speed, distance, etc.) on your iPod or iPhone, the system could be used as a tool for group communication when biking with others.

2. Wand remote

Is gesture control the next big thing to follow touch? It seems Apple might think so with this patent for the Apple TV that sees the home entertainment gadget shipped with a Wiimote-like motion controller. Besides managing the on-screen cursor via movement, the “remote wand” could be used to browse through and control media.

3. Solar-powered iPhone

Apple has come up with a way – in theory anyway – of adding solar tech to its portable devices without spoiling the all-important aesthetics. By integrating the photocells into the touchscreen, future iPods, iPads and iPhones could soak up the power of the sun via their displays, making for greener gadgetry.

4. Touchscreen iMac

This clever concept gives the desktop PC iPad-esque functionality. While the monitor is upright, it’s a common iMac running Apple’s full operating system controlled with a mouse, but flip it horizontally and it switches to the iOS and the touch controls take over.

5. iKey

Chances are your iPhone has already replaced your compact camera, MP3 player and handheld gaming console, but Apple could take the convergence a step further and replace your keys. The Cupertino company has patented the idea that your iPhone could unlock your car and home with a proximity-based PIN code system.

6. iHeadset

This is one patent we could definitely see coming to market. Apple has designed a Bluetooth headset with standalone media playback functionality. This could well be a future version of the iPod Shuffle – small, wearable and, thanks to the Bluetooth features, multi-tasking.

7. Shareable apps

How would you like to be able to beam your latest App Store download to a buddy? Apple has come up with the idea of an “application seed” system whereby developers could choose to make their apps shareable via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. It’s a fantastic concept for content providers who are looking to spread the word as far and wide as possible. Additionally, trial version options could be a great word-of-mouth money maker.

8. Video game comic books

9. Magnetic lenses

iPhotography is hot, and its potential is limited only by hardware restrictions. Although Apple has steadily improved the iPhone’s camera, it’s still just a point-and-shooter. This patent describes a way of enhancing a portable device’s camera functionality with a magnetic zoom or macro lens attachments.

10. MacBooks with built-in projectors

This exciting idea could see future Apple laptops coming with built-in projectors. Just think how handy it would be to be able to share what’s on your laptop screen – whether that’s a movie or a presentation – with a group of others at the click of a mouse.

This post was originally published on Mashable.com
Mashable.com is the world’s largest (and most inspiring) blog focused exclusively on social media news.

Image of Steve Jobs by Mark Wilson, [Gizmodo]

Related articles

• iPod Touch Now Accounts for Half of iPod Sales (mashable.com)
• Apple Sells 7 Million iPads in Record-Breaking Quarter (mashable.com)
• Apple Q1 2011: Apple Wins Christmas (nytimes.com)

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



Finally it’s Here.
After much anticipation fueled by rumors, half press releases, leaks and on-line buzz, the Apple iPad was released overnight our time. To update this blog which was written last year looking at predictions of what the new Apple Tablet would look like, we’ve added some pics of the real thing. Interesting to compare the real deal with the guess-work of the images below:

And the Original Article…

Is this what the Future of Personal Computing looks like?
As the release of the Apple Tablet approaches, the buzz of the rumor-mill and on-line grape-vine has reached an almost deafening level. Steve Jobs is said to be ‘very happy’ with the product. Reports on the web that the latest in the Mac line will be called ‘iSlate’ are supported by leaked trademark application and URL registrations by Apple for that name.

12 Conceptual iSlate Renderings
The web is packed with every conceivable rumour and prediction of the new tablet, including it’s design. Sites such as cyanatrendland.com and ilounge.com have even been running competitions to predict the design of the iSlate. Suggested designs range from oversized iPhones to cross-breed nano/mac books and almost every variation in-between from the credible to the incredible. As we’ve watched the design guessing-game accelerate, we’ve been collecting our favorites, and here they are.

At Storm Design & Brand DNA we have a mantra; ‘The only way to predict the future is to create it.’ We believe Apple to be a brand that brings that philosophy to life in all that it does. If you’d like to talk to us about creating the future for your brand, why not give us a call.

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