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Has Amazon become the world’s most influential brand?

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…

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Why the world’s leading ad agency outsourced their rebranding

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…

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8 Predictions for the Future of Retail in 2030

A glance into the future of retail. Global Retail real estate business CBRE has produced a forward-looking market research, perspectives and industry insights piece called The Future of Retail 2030, an interesting piece of futurist thinking with some well considered suppositions. The retail industry is…

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Fastbrick Robotics – The power of a truly differentiated value proposition

Australian technology business set to disrupt the global building industry. Yeah, that’s a pretty big claim, but in the case of Australia’s Fastbrick Robotics, it’s more likely a prediction than fanciful mission statement. Fastbrick’s first prototype; the Hadrian X is nearing commercial readiness, with the…

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A lesson in Branding from online retailer Brandless – #ironic.

Another Retail Disruptor Gets Physical. US online retailer; ‘Brandless’ made waves this week when it opened it’s first physical pop-up in West Hollywood, LA. The proposition of this retailer is an unbranded (plain label) $3-everything approach, taking the private label mindset and disrupting it. Brandless…

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Brand Leadership – Volkswagen Promotes Brand Chief to CEO

Brand Thinking in the Big Chair at VW. Volkswagen Group recently confirmed it will be replacing CEO Matthias Müller with Herbert Diess, the car maker’s current head of brand at Volkswagen. Diess will also be in charge of vehicle IT, Group development and research. Diess’…

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Skol and the art of brand reputation recovery.

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…

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April Fools Day – A Great Opportunity for Brand Tomfoolery

  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…

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Why Rebrand?

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

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Amazon’s Australian launch – A radio interview with Truly Deeply Founder; Dave Ansett

Who’s afraid of the big, bad, Amazon? Amazon soft launched in Australia this week to much anticipation. National radio network TripleM spoke to Truly Deeply Founder and creator of brands; Dave Ansett to get his view on what their arrival meant for Australian retailers. You…

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Private School differentiates their brand with plenty of puff

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…

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Melbourne Cup Carnival Marquees – A brand investment or ego-driven indulgence?

I have to admit I love this time of year. As the Spring Racing Carnival hits full swing, Melbourne turns into a town of glamour and excitement where it seems everyone is a racing aficionado, and dressed accordingly. As the center of the Carnival universe,…

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KFCs Halloween brand gesture a huge hit in the US

KFC Creates a Halloween Costume of their Iconic Colonel Sanders. Over the last two decades, fast food retail brand KFC have invested in an increasingly focused manner on bringing their founder Colonel Harland Sanders into the branding spotlight. They have reprised his image and locked-it…

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Tips for Bloggers – Micro Brand Influencers

If there’s one brand trend we’ve seen explode over the last five years it’s the role of micro-influencers. Typically bloggers (but also instagrammers, facebookers and Twitterers), micro influencers stand at the center of a community, attracted and bound by a shared interest. These influencers produce…

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Is Oscar the world’s most innovative Health Insurance brand?

A health insurer deliberately catering toward digital natives. New US health insurance company Oscar has been called the Warby Parker for health insurance. Warby Parker is a Silicon Valley darling, an online glasses retailer who came out of left field in the US to disrupt their…

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In the end clients bear the cost of tighter budgets

The Greatest Barrier to Creativity. I recently read a great short article on Creative Review where three of the UK’s creative pioneers were asked their view on the greatest barriers to producing creative work. The article interviewed Caroline Pay, Joint Chief Creative Officer of Grey…

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Bridge Theatre Brand Identity – beautifully unique brand design

Brand Identity Design I Love. Located in London, The Bridge Theatre will be the official home of the London Theatre Company, an independent producing company focusing on new shows, as well as staging the occasional classic. This simple but powerful identity for the new theater…

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NSW Government to write-off brand equity worth millions of dollars

Poor Government brand policy will prove costly. With the exception of creating a brand to attract tourism to our shores, the various layers of Government in Australia have never shown an understanding of the value of brand. When compared to the Governments of Europe and…

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Cannabis product packaging design takes a serious approach to brand building

The new cannabis category takes a professional approach to packaging design Harmony Extracts is a cannabis concentrate company that uses state-of-the-art extraction technologies to transform marijuana plants into high-quality, potent concentrates. A new company based in Denver, Colorado, which is one of the nearly 30…

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The Experience Economy – Airbnb trips available on Zola wedding registry

The days of the casserole dish wedding gift are done. Global wedding registry site Zola has partnered-up with Airbnb to offer Airbnb gift cards as part of their offering. The move makes perfect sense to me. The experience economy shows no sign of weakening with the…

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Uber and Westfield partner to offer customer waiting lounges

More disruptive thinking from Uber differentiates their brand offering. Ride sharing brand Uber and retail center behemoth Westfield have partnered to create waiting lounges for shoppers. Uber continue to think and act in a manner that is anything like their taxi brand competitors. When talking…

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A plug for the ADGA Mentoring Program

AGDA (Australian Graphic Design Association) is set to launch their 2017 Mentoring Program. The AGDA Mentoring Program is dedicated to bringing together experienced designers with those that are seeking help, advice, and/or experience. The program aims to promote and nurture the sharing of real-world skills…

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The humorous side of brand fatigue

So you build an amazing company… You invest in branding to grow awareness and value in your brand over many years – Congrats, you’ve made the grade. But after all your hard work comes brand fatigue. Consumers start turning to the newest brand on the…

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Why 99 Designs is bad for everyone (except the guy who owns 99 Designs)

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…

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12 Signs that made me laugh – Building brand with humour

Friday Funny – Signs with a sense of humour. The business of business is enough to make most people lose their sense of humour, but there are some wonderful souls who keep their smiles-up through the rough and tumble, and when that humour is allowed…

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KLM extends their brand experience beyond the skies

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.…

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Air France launches Joon – An airline built on brand strategy

Much more than brand spin – hopefully. Air France have announced to launch of Joon, an airline positioned for the European Millenial market. So what does that mean exactly and why should we believe this is more than just another low-cost airline brand entering the…

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Adidas & Alexander Wang second collab breaks the retail rules

A Masterclass in New Retail Brand Mindset Following-on from their first collaboration in 2016, Alexander Wang and adidas have again steered clear of a standard retail approach. Last year’s collaboration was released through pop-up trucks in New York, London and Tokyo. Staying true to their…

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Why poor brand design is bad for business

The cost of a poorly designed brand identity. Parked at the traffic lights last week my attention settled on the kerbside branding for a new Snap Fitness gym that had recently opened in our neighborhood. I was immediately struck by the poor quality of their…

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Fashion design is the new black for airline brands

The power of design to beautifully deliver branding. Compared to most staff uniforms, flight attendants typically look pretty stylish, but with the bar being set at a high level, Chinese airline; Hainan is differentiating with haute courture. The airline brand’s new uniforms by designer Laurence…

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8 Strategies for Australian Retailers to take on Amazon

Head of Salmat eCommerce, Ben Popplestone recently attended the Magento Imagine 2017 event in Las Vegas which brought together 2500 eCommerce experts from 45 countries to discuss the latest in online retail.  A hot topic at the event was the expansion of Amazon into new…

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Moby Mart – A Disruptive Convenience Retail Model

From the same crew who brought us Wheely’s bike cafes, comes Moby Mart. A few years back we wrote about Wheely’s an organisation looking to disrupt the cafe market with their new model of pedal powered, solar powered, low on carbon footprint, high on smarts…

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Cheers to Toast – A Beer Brand With A Heady Purpose

All Beer Brands Are Not Born Equal. Researching this new craft beer brand from the UK I came across an interesting stat. The fresh bread consumer trend that has swept the globe has led to more than 40% of the bread baked daily around the…

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UberBoat – A Brand extension Masterclass

E for Excitement… and Brand Extension. Brand Extension isn’t always about launching more products with great sales potential in themselves. Sometimes the smartest brand extension plays are those that reinforce brand excitement and the values that made the brand loved in the first place. Uber…

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The CEO’s Guide to Rebranding

  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…

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Why physical stores are still so important for retail brands in the digital age

Global Retailer Aldo  – Bricks & Mortar Believers Global footwear retailer Aldo has seen amazing growth to more than 2,600 stores in 100 countries. Senior Vice President of Aldo Group, Nick Martire co-founded the Aldo Product Services division which generated $1 billion in retail sales…

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What P.T. Barnum taught me about branding

Of Show Business & Branding A good mate of mine sent me an email this morning with a link to the trailer of The Greatest Showman, the first feature film of her great friend Michael Gracey. She was proud as punch and so she should…

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New Brand set to disrupt the Pharmacy Category

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…

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Why the most powerful healthy eating brand proposition is fast food

Unhealthy is the New Healthy We spend a fair amount of time talking to and working with hospitality businesses from start-ups to chains who are all looking to nail the perfect customer proposition. Owning a small chain of three pasta bars myself, I’m all too…

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Data overtakes oil as the world’s most valuable resource

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…

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Emotive Branding – KFC finds it’s Romantic Side

For Mother’s day 2017, KFC US released a romance novella called Tender Wings of Desire. Interestingly, Mother’s Day is KFC’s best-performing day of sales in the year (sometimes truth is stranger than fiction). The book features Harland Sanders as the story’s love interest and seeks…

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The new perils of refreshing your brand.

New times equal new challenges for re-branding Over the last twenty years we’ve been working with business to re-position and refresh their brands the most significant change we’ve witnessed is the internet. Not such a ground breaking thought I know; the net has forever changed…

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How do I know if my branding needs to change?

  When should I change my brand strategy and/or brand identity? Brand is a sensitive beast, misread the signs or fail to understand the subtleties and you can find yourself out of touch and with a disengaged market. Like much of the branding process, there…

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