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Applestone Meat Co. turns old tech into a new convenience brand proposition. Applestone Meat Co. is a butcher brand with two outlets in NYC. They are butchers who use their philosophy as a brand differentiator. As they say on their web site: The meat industry…

The strategic brand thinking at the heart of every successful brand. Over the weekend I was having a conversation for the thousandth time with the owner of a relatively new, fast growth business who I realized was hearing it for the first time. The conversation…

The new brand identity for the U.S. Open fails to impress. Watching the U.S. Open tennis on the weekend I copped an eyeful of the tournament’s re-branding for the first time. Somehow I’d missed the commentary on the rebrand in the lead-up to the event’s…

fix ur **bleep**ing logo. If I had a dollar for every time a business owner or marketing director has told me their clients and customers don’t care how their branding looks over the years, I’d be writing this article from my private island in the…

A branding article filled with good intent. I was initially thrilled to see an article on the CPA’s blog titled; ‘Why your accounting practice brand is more than a logo’. The CPA is one of our countries most trusted and respected associations, representing an industry…

Where has all the brand personality gone? Call me old and grumpy, but there’s an emerging trend in brand identity design that has got my goat – the growing popularity of simple, type only brand marks. As a branding agency that breathes, eats and sleeps…

Recently I spent the day at PWC’s Melbourne Office for a business planning retreat. It was the first time I’m been to visit their new digs and was immediately struck by the first impression provided by their foyer and reception. For a consulting firm with…

The Amazon Brand Effect It seems when Amazon sneezes, the financial markets of the world catch a cold. Interest in what Amazon announce they are set to do, or what they don’t announce, or even what others speculate they may or may not announce is…

Leaders stick to their knitting. I recently read with great interest about the rebranding of global ad agency Ogilvy. The agency recently announced a global re-founding. “designed to clarify the company’s purpose, simplify its structure, and unify behind one single brand: Ogilvy.” Born in 1948…

When Brands get it Wrong. It never ceases to amaze me the way in which brand-consumer relationships continue to play-out in the same way as regular human relationships. This is no-where more apparent than when brands get it wrong. And there’s no doubt brands do…

  Brands that made me smile. For all brands, finding a reason to connect with their audience in an authentic and emotionally relevant manner is gold. April Fools day presents that opportunity, embraced each year by many of my favorite brands. here are a few…

The how and why of rebranding. Whether you’re planning on attracting new clients and customers, selling more products and services, growing awareness or margins, re-branding is a truly effective strategy for your business. Your brand can require updating for a multitude of reasons including; keeping…

A little recognition It’s always nice to get some external recognition of the something we are so passionate about. We’ve been channeling our insights, interest and love for all things brand design into our blog since 2009. We have built a community of almost 200,000…

The Ultra-Convenience Consumer Trend Disrupting… Everything. So much has been written about Amazon’s launch into the Australian retail market (we wrote about it ourselves recently) that it has created its own ecosystem of disruptive buzz. There’s no doubt a business the size of Amazon with…

How much is the Nike logo worth? The story of Nike paying $35 for the design of their logo back in 1971 is the stuff of branding legend. Even allowing for inflation, that $35 branding budget equates to a pitiful $216 in today’s US$ –…

First of all, lets start with this disclaimer. If you can’t be bothered to keep up with yet another social media app then there’s no need to find out more about Vero. Because that’s exactly what it is, but apparently ‘with a twist’. Vero is the…

Nothing like being schooled on marketing by our own clients. Talking with a client this week he replayed of a conversation he’d had with another client I’d introduced him to. “You’ve gotta get that guy to shoot a testimonial video for you” he said, “he’s…

Did retail set itself-up for disruption? In Australia we’ve heard alot of talk over recent years of how tough life is for retail brands. There’s no doubt the category is under pressure as competition increases and consumer behavior and expectations shift. In a recent interview,…

A Demonstration of our Credentials as Brand Identity Design Specialists It struck me recently that as a brand strategy and communications agency we’ve worked with a ton of brand identity clients over the years from an amazingly wide range of categories, and yet nowhere have…

Standing out from the crowd in a summer of sport. So what’s notable about a bank choosing an Olympic gold medalist basketballer and an Australian Open tennis Champion to represent their brand across an integrated campaign this summer. Well for starters, it’s the one athlete…

We’ve continued the tradition of sharing our favorite Christmas TV commercials. The festive season is not only an important time for brands to reach-out to their customers to garner their pre-Christmas purchasing, but it’s also a time that audiences are more open to emotionally connecting…

Don’t throw the marketing baby out with the bathwater. This recent ad for Tiffany & Co. reminded me of the power of media placement. As the brand world continues to evolve and become more complex, it’s useful to keep in mind that some of the…

Celebrating a truly visionary organisation (with a brand to match). We’re so incredibly proud of our client The Susan McKinnon Foundation with the launch of the McKinnon Prize in Political Leadership at Parliament House in Canberra yesterday. The McKinnon Prize in Political Leadership is a…

A Unique Brand Soundtrack. I was out for a run recently (paying for it today) and as my path took me through a beautiful patch of suburban Melbourne I was greeted by the faint strain of bagpipes. The sound was at once foreign and charmingly…

The Power of a Brand Apology There’s something about politics and brand management that creates a powerful aversion to apologising. There may have been a time when if a company did something wrong, the best policy was denial and steamroll at full speed until the…

Banksy has popped up in the heart of London this week, unveiling two new murals close to the capital’s Barbican Centre. Banksy has described the murals as an “(unofficial) collaboration” with the upcoming centre’s exhibition of Jean-Michel Basquiat, an American artist who started his career off as…

The Big Changes in Branding. In my time working in the design and branding industry (some 25 years) the internet has been the single greatest thing we’ve seen. At the start of my career Apple launched their first Mac computer, the first step in a…

Building Broader Brand Relationships is Good for Business. Many years ago, back when Apple was a personal computer business, Steve Jobs had a vision for Apple to play a valued part in more of the 1440 minutes in every person’s day than any other brand.…

I’m sure we have all been there, sitting in front of the computer hoping for some divine creative inspiration to get the design juices flowing. You have trawled through your normal go-to inspiration sites but came up empty. You have made plenty of excuses to…

  Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and now the world’s second wealthiest man once said; “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” Jeff’s clearly a visionary business leader who gets brand. But for most CEOs re-branding is…

In a fast changing digital world, we often get asked if business cards are still a necessity for your brand. While some people may see them as old fashioned, you would be surprised at how many people still like to carry cards and how important…

No More Late Night Trips to the Pharmacy Coined a ‘digital pharmacy’ Capsule’s brand strategy is about adding simplicity and convenience to their category. Capsule launched in New York last year and  although only based in NYC currently, the business model provides an insight into…

  With the average person spending around 1842 hours at work per year we believe happiness and a healthy work culture are an imperative part of day to day operations. Happiness at work has become serious business these days with more and more workplaces wanting…

What is it about motorcycle brands? Harley Davidson has long been held-up as an example of branding at its finest. There’s something about the emotional connection between people who love to ride motorbikes and the brands who effectively tap into that emotion that adds a…

Inspiring audacious entrepreneurship for the next generation of business leaders Background The Wade Institute for Entrepreneurship is a new Institute that offers a Masters of Entrepreneurship course at Ormond College, Melbourne University, named after successful Australian entrepreneur, Peter Wade. ‘We are a smart nation but still too few…

Data is the new black – an interesting thought for the week. For the 20th century, oil was the most lucrative industry in the world spawning billionaires, creating wealthy nations from sand, and keeping antitrust regulators on their game. After fleetingly handing the mantle over…

Sooma is all about simplifying the mattress buying process, designing the perfect mattress and caring for the planet. The Challenge. Our client is a manufacturer of high quality foam. They wanted to sell mattresses direct to the public but they couldn’t use their B2B brand.…

AFL Women’s League An Untapped Brand Sponsorship Treasure Chest. If  last Friday night’s opening game of the AFLW is any indication, the belief that there’s no interest in women’s sport is fading fast. Even the AFL themselves were not prepared for the crowds that came…

Setting the colour trend for 2017 Annually global colour standard; Pantone release their trend prediction for the colour of the year, a color that reflects the current cultural climate. The colour of the year is a symbolic color selection; a color snapshot of what we…

Meet #BrickPony, the love child of Lego auto brand Ford. #BrickPony is a life-size replica ‘1964½’ Ford Mustang V8 coupe made from Lego and Duplo bricks. Made out of 194,900 pieces of Lego and Duplo, it took around 1,200 hours to assemble by a team…

The power of sound in brand differentiation In the battle for customers, brands have long engaged the senses in order to create unique and identifiable properties  they can own in the minds of their customers. All brands strategically or otherwise set-out to own a concept…

It’s been a little while since we showcased our latest brand identity work. We’ve been pretty busy over the last couple of years working on brands for clients across a whole range of categories from education to property, food to festivals, and health to technology.…

Bumping into our Delicious Branding Even after twenty five years of creating brands of our clients, it’s still a buzz to bump into our branding hard at work differentiating and promoting our clients and their businesses. On a cold, grey and wet Melbourne Spring day,…

How much are consumers really noticing your brand? In 2004 Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons shared the Ig Nobel Prize in Psychology, awarded for ‘achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think’, for the experiment they completed at Harvard that inspired The…

  Don’t Underestimate the Value of Brand Loyalty Research in the US on brand loyalty has identified that more than 50% of consumers would pay a 20-25% premium for their favourite brand before price sensitivity would see them switch to another, competing brand. In some…

Today’s post is an article written by Brandhook, good friends of ours and the sharpest brand research and insights agency around. If you didn’t know what Augmented Reality (AR) was a couple of weeks ago, chances are you do now. After reading our blog last…

Leveraging a brand image building opportunity When we worked with skin care clinic Duquessa to create a new ‘skin sanctuary’ brand we could tell they were destined for stardom. And recently they had a little extra time in the spotlight, making a guest appearance on…

Reality Check for Marketers That awkward moment marketers realise they’re not fooling this feisty four year old with their marketing charms. From the mouths of babes… Dave Ansett David is the founder of Truly Deeply, a brand agency with 25 years experience working with brands…

For all brands authenticity is one of the real hot buttons in their efforts to connect with consumers and build highly engaged relationships. Brands are telling their story at every opportunity, spruiking provenance, craftsmanship and history – regardless of whether they’re a start-up or a…

From boring and monotonous to creative and exciting – the success story of Samsung Mobile Thinking back to a decade ago, when consumers thought about Samsung, the image of a true technology and innovation company would spring to mind. Fast forward to now, Samsung represents a…

4 Basic rules the top brands are using to ensure brand survival Branding is one of the key areas a business should focus on in order to differentiate themselves within a crowded market. Brands that we have grown to love, would not have had such an immense…