Blog

This month’s INTHEBLACK features an article focused on rebranding. “Brand refresh? What you need to know” provides insights for companies when considering a brand refresh. Truly Deeply’s Managing Partner and Strategy Director, Michael Hughes was featured in the August edition of the magazine. Read the…

What you need to know before rebranding Before you consider rebranding, understand why you are doing it. It may seem obvious, but it’s important to get clarity and alignment with key stakeholders on the reason for the change. This is not just about marketing –…

If you’re considering a brand review or rebrand you’ll probably need to measure and justify this investment. But seeing real results from any brand investment takes time. That’s why we recommend setting up a regular brand tracking study from the outset and then running it…

Much More than Back to the Future Branding. Here at Truly Deeply we often talk about Branding being ‘Design with Purpose’ and Pizza Hut’s recent redesign of their take away pizza box packaging is a clever case in point. When we say ‘Design with Purpose’…

Redesigning brands to create affinity. In our 30 years of branding experience we’ve never seen the level of global community the current battle against caronavirus has created. This sense of community has sprung from a common cause and for brands they are battling to be…

Marketing Strategy Madness or Branding Genius. In a marketing strategy that sounds lifted from a Vegas comedy about three guys on a bachelor party, Australian corporate AV company Scene Change invested their entire marketing budget for two years to buy and run a private jet.…

Finding the hidden opportunities for retail branding. An interesting piece of the puzzle for retailers is managing the reluctant customer. So much focus goes in to setting up the store design and merchandising to cater to the customer whose interest brought them into the store.…

An engaging way to deliver the service experience your customers want, when they want it. Understanding when to provide service to the contemporary consumer and when to leave them to shop under their own steam is a challenge for retailers. Bug them with unwanted offers…

Long the domain of retail and eComm brands, this new pop-up office from design is giving B2B businesses a entree into the experience economy. Consider a professional services firm (like say… a branding agency) popping-up an office at the beach, opposite the markets, at a…

A Delicious Brand Partnership. A branding strategy that is underutilized yet regularly pays dividends is brand collaborations (especially when it comes to food). When co-branding is envisaged strategically and executed with brand sensitivity, the result can be an extraordinary brand experience – introducing new customers…

We wanted to share a great pic from our client Yarra Trams. A part of their annual celebration to show their appreciation, our client had these delicious and beautifully branded cupcakes baked. A feast for the eyes, heart and tummy.  

Where did 2018 Go? We had a great year, working with businesses of all shapes and sizes to create new propositions, launch new products and refresh brands across more than fifty different categories. We captured just some of that activity in this 12 second vid.…

Delicious New Packaging. Our good friends at Castelmaine Kitchen have created this short clip for their social feed showing the change from old brand to new. If you love your dips, these beauties are worth a try. Your taste buds will thank you for it.

A long overdue brand design update. The last time Microsoft updated the Office icons was in 2013, when selfies were new enough to become Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year. In the half a decade since then the Microsoft product has undergone regular updates as…

The end of Instagram travel envy. The UK’s Easy Jet has launched a new booking app that takes their social media game to a new level. Look & Book is an app designed to turn Instagram travel inspiration into a reality. Look & Book identifies…

Colour plays an integral part in how we see, respond and feel about almost every aspect of our lives – brands included. “Feeling blue”, “caught red-handed”, “black sheep”, “white lie” – the list goes on. Colour plays such an integral role in the way we…

Branding‘s big pay-off. We often hear the sentiment that branding is a ‘soft’ business investment. It’s considered a ‘nice to have’ and ‘hard to measure its value’. Having spent the last 28 years working with clients to build their brands, our experience over hundreds of…

A Bold & Courageous Brand Identity One of my favorite branding projects of 2018 is this strategy and identity for the Susan McKinnon Foundation. Susan McKinnon Foundation is a non-partisan, not for profit organisation committed to working with all sides of politics to find common…

Two tough truths about selling your business. So you’ve spent years (often decades) building a business with your blood, sweat and tears and it’s finally time to sell and collect the reward for all your hard work, ingenuity and perseverance. There’s only two problems with…

Today’s post is a thought piece written by Zander Nethercutt, a really interesting brand thinker from Chicago Il. with a brilliant grasp on how brands work and the role they’ve come to play in our lives. What Apple, Samsung and Starbucks learned from Pepsi The…

When it comes to rebranding, all agencies aren’t equal. After more than 25 years of running a branding agency, it’s not every day a conversation with a client re-frames my perspective on our business. But recently, that happened. I was talking to the founder of…

Even the big boys can have a bad day… Recently a pic of a livery mistake on a Cathay Pacific jet went viral on social media – well viral in the world of plane and brand watchers at least. Somehow, someone in the chain from…

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…

Wonderful Brand Story-telling. The UK retail landscape has recently welcomed a notable rebranding with launch of the new John Lewis & partners and Waitrose & Partners. Complex architecture and relationship between the two brands aside, the brand design work and typography are stunningly elegant in…

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…

Brand ambassadors hidden in plain sight. Influencers have become the newest weapon in the super competitive battle for brands to stand-out. Finding the right celeb or online tribal leader to espouse the benefits of your product has become the new holy grail for brand marketers…

A brand with extraordinary category extension discipline. Arguably no brand has stretched into new categories like Richard Branson’s Virgin has. Capturing the personality of Branson’s own brand, Virgin has come to represent a brand that challenges the paradigm of the categories it enters, usually looking…

Today’s post is an article written by Brandhook, good friends of ours and the sharpest brand research and insights agency around. Apple recently announced the introduction of a new software tool to help wean people off their devices, offering users a ‘digital detox’. There’s a…

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…

The Founder-Led Branding Dilemma. I recently caught up with the news that global pizza chain Papa John’s is set to remove the image of their founder from company branding. Papa John’s Chairman and founder, John Schnatter made a racist remark during an internal training session…

Don Wagyu leverages premium positioning to stand-out in a crowded food market. I recently read about a new fast casual Japanese Sandwich concept from New York called Don Wagyu. The article I read spoke about their hero product, The Ozaki, a wagyu beef sandwich that…

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 future of shopping centre retail – A disruptive view. Global entertainment brand Cirque du Soleil announced their plans recently to launch a family entertainment concept inside a Canadian shopping centre. The move reflects the shift in retail thinking as consumer continue to evolve the…

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…

 Building a commercial banking brand connected to community value The best brand campaigns are those that connect a product or service with a need (conscious or unconscious) in a way that paints a vivid picture of a mutually beneficial outcome. In the case of this…

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…

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…

The Power of Brand Storytelling on Film. Goodwin & Goodwin are a creative sign company based in North London. They recently worked with film makers; Reuben Armstrong and Jamie Neale to create a short promotional film about their business. In this short film we get…

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…

Should your brand identity design include a symbol? Working on a project currently we have a client keen to steer the creative process of their brand identity design in the direction of a logotype, that is a brand mark made-up of the word only without…

Today’s guest article has been penned by the very smart people at eatbigfish. eatbigfish is a strategic brand consultancy with a single focus: challenger thinking and behavior. Founded by Adam Morgan after he wrote Eating the Big Fish – the book that popularised the term ‘challenger…

The Brand Value of Customer Service. Just ask Apple, the best retailer in the world in terms of $ sales per square meter (and is there any other metric worth measuring?), customer service is still where the rubber hits the road. New Apple retail customer…

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 growing margins, re-branding is a truly effective strategy for your business. Your brand can require updating for a multitude of reasons including;…

Creating a viral campaign with moments of nonsense and fun. If you’ve come across the “Dilly Dilly” movement on social media recently, you can thank Bud Light for turning the phrase into a catch-cry for the end of 2017. In a recent interview with Business…

Krone Organic Pilsner – A deliciously refreshing drop of beer branding. Norwegian brewery; Norbrew have released a new Pilsner called ‘Krone’, which is Norwegian for ‘Crown.’ The product is brewed using just four organic raw ingredients. This simple brewing recipe is reflected in the packaging…

A big, bold brand for an event for big ideas IPAA Victoria Public Sector Week 2017 is the only event that brings together the entire Victorian public sector in one location to drive fresh thinking and a create a better future for all Victorians. The…

New look, new name with a contradictory sales pitch. Next month Victorian Teachers Mutual Bank will relaunch as Bank First. The new name and identity gives the bank a much simpler and stronger name to compete with other mutual banks. It also shifts the brand…

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…