Branding Book... have a second life

New Logo, Identity, and Packaging for Martell by Yorgo & Co.

2017-12-17T10:57:00.000+02:00

Established in 1715 by Jean Martell in a town none other than Cognac, France, Martell is one of the oldest brands of cognac in the world. Owned by beverage giant Pernod Ricard, Martell offers seven types of cognac — with Cordon Bleu being its flagship product — and is available around the world as a staple of duty-free shops, with its main markets being China, the UK, Malaysia, and the U.S.. Recently, Martell introduced a new identity and packaging designed by Paris-based Yorgo & Co..

When redesigning the identity of Martell, we explored the luxury cognac house’s archives, bringing back details from 300 years of history. We drew a new swift, revived a timeless shield, created exclusive typefaces, and set the global corporate identity brand guidelines.

YORGO & CO. PROJECT PAGE

MARTELL_ REVEAL from Yorgo&Co on Vimeo.

Logo.

The old logo was fine and could have probably stayed the way it was for another fifty years and no one would have complained but, compared to the new one, it’s easier to see the lack of refinement or distinction it had, looking indistinguishable from many other spirit brands. While the same could be said for the new logo — it doesn’t break any conventions — the attention to detail is more evident and all the graphic gestures are more elegant and display better craft, in particular the new swift (the bird) with the textural lines and a more organic silhouette that doesn’t look like an airplane taking off. The Martell wordmark is nice and the removal of the yellow shadow is welcome. The accompanying typography and shield are also a great improvement that cleans up the fuzziness of the old ones for better reproduction and a classier aesthetic.

Custom sans typeface, designed by Production Type.

(All photos below by Louis David Najar Vasquez.)

Stationery.

Business card.

Envelope.

The stationery is super tricked out, its production cost can probably cover half a year of your salary.

Cordon Bleu packaging, before and after.

Without paying full attention, and even then, I doubt any consumer would notice the change in the packaging which is not necessarily a bad thing. I feel like this change benefits from a non-radical change on the shelf but, like the logo, all the small changes make for a better design.

Cordon Bleu new box and bottle.

Line-up.

Cordon Bleu details.

Boxes.

Blue Swift details.

Glasses.

Serving tray (I think).

Apron.

Metal icon on wood.

Flag.

Overall, this is a solid evolution that complements and builds upon 300 years’ worth of history and sets it up for continued success without unnecessarily rocking the boat.

By Armin

https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_logo_identity_and_packaging_for_martell_by_yorgo_co.php

Brand New: New Logo and Identity for Optus by Re

2016-07-17T09:49:00.001+02:00

Brand New: New Logo and Identity for Optus by Re

What in the world is UX?

2016-04-20T10:21:00.000+02:00

UX of course stands for User Experience, and experience design is hot these days. The challenge in defining UX lies in its interpretation often skewed to a digital connotation. Of course, geographical locations and industries have an influence on the interpretation, but let’s not pigeonhole user experiences to digital applications, or even to design for that matter!

Thanks to the rise of the digital age, companies no longer question their digital presence, but only how they will be digitally presented. And in the case of purely digital companies (e.g. Facebook, Airbnb, Uber) user experience is manifested through the interaction design and interface of their website & apps and is mostly the star of the UX show. This recent image shows the digital emphasis on User Experience, which is often the (mis)understanding of what UX is all about:

Wikipedia claims "User experience design encompasses traditional human-computer interaction (HCI) design, and extends it by addressing all aspects of a product or service as perceived by users". UX design origins can be arguably traced to Don Norman when he was responsible for Advanced Technology at Apple and his role in product user-experience, further outlined in his book "Psychology of Everyday Things" (1988). As much as I want to lean on digital as a driver of UX design, I strongly believe user experience is much more than digital, even in a digital environment, and is the sum of all experiences, extending from product to branding to communications to customer service.

During a recent introduction visit to a world leading financial software provider, I was rather impressed to learn that they have recently grown their UX department from a handful of designers to over 200 people, many of whom have management roles and are integrating and influencing colleagues across the organisation. When I asked the Head of Design “what about the other design functions?” he looked back with a kind of blank stare. I had to then clarify “you know, (3D) packaging design, (2D) graphic design”? The answer was somewhat expected, obvious, and rather discouraging: packaging and graphics were sitting in the other buildings, completely disconnected, working under marketing. Yet again, the ominous silos.
While I understand in this case the main product is digital, we always strongly advocate that all touch points with the company/brand should be seamlessly developed and integrated to deliver an optimal user experience. Even while most software services go to the clouds, retail partners will still require a physical product/packaging of some sort to fill their physical shelves. And this is part of the overall experience and brand perception.

Further on the subject of digital landscapes, I recently attended a rather good conference in San Francisco titled 'Managing Experiences', ran by a leading UX design and consulting firm. The event had a rather extensive line up of reputable and respectable speakers. I was inspired by their efforts to position design into their respective companies. Although, being in San Francisco and near Silicon Valley, most of the representation was weighted towards the digital front. Even in this context, I was very much enlightened to hear the bold statement from Katie M. Dill, Head of Experience Design at Airbnb, who claimed in her presentation that ”90% of their users’ experiences happen outside of the website”.Seems they are on the right path and have both an interesting challenge and great opportunity ahead to utilize design to develop & deliver improved user experiences across the entire journey.

Most of the attendees I met at the conference were coming from a digital function, and were managing departments of web developers, programmers and interaction designers, much like the above illustration. I did happen to overhear a great statement made by a participant at one of the workshops, in which he stated:

“We no longer have a user experience role in our organization. User Experience is the outcome of many roles, including marketing, sales, service and design”.

In a recent LinkedIn post by UX designer Martino Liu, Martino claims “Most of the time, people confuse UX designer with a highly skilled programmer individual and a strong engineering background. The following chart shows the real thing”.

I tend to like Martino’s viewpoint, however this model seems to me suspiciously similar to the Design Thinking lens of Desirable, Viable & Feasible. A Design Thinking approach will certainly help deliver an optimal user experience, but this model implies to me that UX is again the star of the show. In my opinion, a good deal of emphasis should be made on User Experience design (management) as a strategic influencer & integrator across the journey.

When we work with clients in various consumer goods industries, digital is only one element of the overall user experience. The main experience is in the product itself (e.g. the ice cream flavor & texture, the shampoo scent and lather, the feel and sound of the clicking bricks, etc.) along with packaging, point of sale and [marketing] communications. It is in these environments where the understanding and interpretation of User Experiences gets pretty confusing. Nowadays in an omni-channel environment, the digital and physical blur, and digital is often an element incorporated in many touch points. Even packing nowadays may have a digital element integrated in it (for example LEGO augmented reality packaging).

A simple model we use at PARK is putting the user in the center surrounding them with all of the touch points they may encounter on their journey. Each one of these touch points needs to be designed and developed and seamlessly integrated with one another. This is the often the job of the (UX) design manager. However, please do not misinterpret the role of the design manager in large complex organizations. In the grand scheme, typically the responsibilities of the (UX) design manager are to drive the product/pack/formula portion while influencing or informing the “other” functions in hopes that their output is aligned with the overall design/experience intent. Too often, this is where we see the user experience being compromised, by no proper alignment or breaking down of functional silos during the development.

How your customers feel about your brand is in fact due in large to the product experience, which may or may not be largely digital, but is also heavily influenced by all other experiences along their journey. So, depending where in the world you are (industry wise), User Experience could be interpreted differently. However, like design thinking going off in different directions, I hope that the design community comes to an early consensus and clearly communicates what exactly is UX [design]. I like to put forward the claim that UX is:

“the sum of all activities that a user encounters in the process of researching, identifying, buying, sharing and interacting with a product, brand and service”.

What’s your interpretation?

Jay Peters

Design Management & Innovation Specialist | Educator

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-world-ux-jay-peters?trk=mp-reader-card

Why Do We Like Brands As Much As We Like People?

2015-06-10T09:22:00.000+02:00

We’ve all done it: used the L-word in reference to a certain favorite brand. The common assumption is when we say "I love Coke" (or whatever product we fancy), we’re using love as a lazy stand-in for whatever true, presumably lesser emotion we’re feeling—"contributing to the trivialization of the word," as Don Draper once vented. But what if consumers who say they love a brand actually mean it with the same emotional intensity they do when referring to a beloved person?

It’s a "vital question" that a research trio from Bergische University Wuppertal in Germany, led by marketing scholar Tobias Langner, recently tried to answer. True to Don’s instinct, Langner and colleagues concluded by way of several measures that interpersonal love is far more intense than brand love. No big surprise there, but the work did lead to an unexpected discovery: brands might not pack the emotional punch of a loved one, but they do produce similar feelings to someone we like.

"The emotionality evoked by loved brands is just as intense as that evoked by a close friend," report Langner and company in the journal Psychology and Marketing. "Moreover, consumers experience emotions in a brand love relation that are even more positive than those evoked in close, interpersonal liking relationships."

The researchers first approached the question with structured interviews of 60 study participants about brands and people they loved and liked. They noticed some similarities in the way participants discussed humans and items: those that were loved felt indispensable, triggered caretaking instincts, and enhanced a moment or experience. But beloved brands were described in rational, highly reciprocal terms—the good had to give something back to the consumer—whereas interpersonal love could be selfless and emotionally one-sided.

Both brands and people did produce positive emotions, but even the strongest brand love didn’t meet the extremes of person love. When independent coders analyzed the interviews for emotional statements, they found emotions present in every single accounts of an interpersonal love relationship. The same was only true for 90% of "close friend" relations, and 83% of "brand love" relations. (The figure was 67% for brands we merely like.)

"Compared with their motivations for interpersonal love, consumers are more driven by rational benefits when they love a brand," write Langner et al. "Although interpersonal relations might be benefit-driven too, the anticipated benefits in interpersonal relations tend to be emotional in nature."

The problem with relying on interviews about love is that, almost by nature, it’s a difficult emotion to articulate. So as a follow-up study, the researchers went straight to the feelings themselves. They recruited 20 test participants in committed relationships and showed them a series of pictures: the romantic partner, a good friend, a brand they claimed to love, and a similar product they just liked. The researchers captured skin arousal measures via electrodes during the viewing, and later performed an emotional assessment designed to gauge intensity and positivity.

The physiological tests confirmed what the interviews had suggested. When participants saw a picture of a loved person, they felt significantly more intense emotions than when they saw their fave brand, as indicated by skin arousal and emotional assessment. Loved ones made us all tingly; loved things, a little less so. "Thus … interpersonal (romantic) love and brand love constitute different emotions," they conclude.

But the surprise came when the researchers compared responses to beloved brands with those of close friends. They found no measurable difference in terms of skin arousal, nor in terms of emotional intensity. And on the positivity assessment, the loved brand actually produced warmer vibes than a good pal did. "Thus," they write, "the assumption that close interpersonal relations generally evoked more positive emotions than brand relations was not confirmed." (As expected, emotional arousal, intensity, and positivity for a loved brand were all greater than for a liked brand.)

The researchers consider some of their results preliminary. Both studies, but especially the bodily test, had fairly small sample sizes. Actual contact with people or brands might have elicited different physiological responses than the pictures did. And the terms like and love remain not only relative from person to person but variable within an individual.

But it’s probably wise to think about what message you’re sending a spouse or romantic partner next time you say you literally love a brand. Not to mention your best friends.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3047158/evidence/why-do-we-like-brands-as-much-as-we-like-people?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=codesign-daily&position=3&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=06092015

The Makings Of A Great Logo

2014-06-03T16:24:00.000+03:00

Six questions to ask yourself when designing a brand

Your company's logo is the foundation of your business branding. It is probably the first interaction that you will have with your customers. An effective logo can establish the right tone and set the proper ethos. After years of crafting logos for different projects, I've come up with a set of questions that I always ask myself before delivering a new logo.

1. WHAT EMOTIONS DOES THE LOGO EVOKE?

Above all design guidelines, the most important criterion is whether the logo reflects the character of the company. The emotions that the logo evokes should be appropriate to the company values. For example, the Disney logo evokes a sense of happiness and optimism. The curvy, fun typeface is appropriate for a company that has been making cartoons and animated pictures for kids. However, a similar logo style on a sales platform would not be appropriate.

BEHIND EVERY GREAT LOGO IS A STORY.

Designers should understand the psychology of colors and the effect that typeface has on the design of a great logo. For example, green promotes relaxation and usually reflects growth, health, and the environment. Red, on the other hand, may evoke danger and passionate emotions. Similarly for typefaces, Garamond, Helvetica, and Comic Sans all elicit very different sentiments. Serif fonts like Garamond promote the idea of respect and tradition, and are hence more suitable for an environment that demands integrity such as a university or a news publisher. Sans Serif fonts like Helvetica are clean and modern, and are well suited for high-tech businesses. Casual script fonts like Comic Sans are probably best left for fun companies such as toy companies. A good understanding of the psychology of colors, typefaces, and shapes is an important part of making a great logo.

The styling of the Disney logo is appropriate for a company that aims to be fun, but such a style would not be appropriate for a sales platform company.

2. WHAT'S THE MEANING BEHIND THE LOGO?

Behind every great logo is a story. A great logo is not about slapping your business name on a generic shape, which is why choosing from ready-made logos is a poor idea. A logo has to have a meaningful story. A good designer first understands the culture of the company, the tone of the product, and the vision of the business, much before embarking on ideas for the logo. The end result of a quality logo is reflective of the philosophy and values of the company.

The arrow in the logo represents that Amazon sells everything from A to Z and the smile on the customer's face when they buy a product.

3. WILL THE LOGO STAND THE TEST OF TIME?

How will the logo look in two, 10, 20 years? Designers should avoid getting sucked into flavor-of the-month trends. Trends like ultra-thin fonts and flat shadows are design styles that will probably not stand the test of time. Simple is far better than complex. A simple yet memorable logo can be used in 20 years without looking dated.

A good way to test the logo is to let it sit with you for a while before releasing it. Some logos grow with you--the more you look at it, the more you like it. Some logos start to feel nauseating after a while--the more you look at it, the more you hate it. If after a couple of weeks with the logo you find it boring, the logo is probably not strong or timeless enough.

The simplistic outline and shape of the Apple Inc. logo allows it to endure the test of time. The first prototype of the logo would definitely not be suitable today.

4. IS IT UNIQUE? CAN IT BE INSTANTLY RECOGNIZABLE?

A great logo is distinctive, memorable, and recognizable. Even if you have only seen it once, you should still be able to remember what it looks like after a period of time. A good way to test this is to show your logo to a friend, then cover it up and have your friend describe the logo in a week. A fresh pair of eyes can be very effective in figuring out the most memorable components of a logo.

In addition, if the logo reminds you of others you have seen, it is not distinct enough.

The logos of Path and Pinterest are very similar.

5. HOW DOES IT LOOK IN BLACK AND WHITE?

When I begin designing a logo, I always start in black and white. Designing with this limitation first forces you to make sure that the logo is recognizable purely by its shape and outline, and not by its color. A strong logo is one that is still memorable just by its contours.

A one-color logo also provides the benefit of using your brand easily in multiple mediums with different backgrounds and textures.

It is much harder to recognize the National Geographic symbol once we remove its signature yellow color.

6. IS IT CLEAR AND DISTINCT IN SMALL DIMENSIONS?

Another way to make sure logos are simple and recognizable is to scale it down dramatically. Even at tiny resolutions, a strong logo should still be recognizable at a glance. This is also a good test to make sure that the logo is not complicated with unnecessary design flourishes. Here, you see that the Nike, McDonalds, Twitter, and WWF logos are still very distinct at small sizes. The GE and Starbucks logos are far more cluttered, and less recognizable when they are small.

These are not hard-and-fast rules, just guidelines for making an effective logo. It is still possible to make a strong, complicated logo, but understand the trade-offs.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3031328/the-makings-of-a-great-logo

Great Branding Is Invisible

2014-04-29T10:03:00.000+02:00

THE THUMPF OF A BMW'S DOOR CLOSING, THE MUTED CLICK OF CALCULATOR BUTTONS, A HUMAN ON THE PHONE. IT HOOKS YOU IN.

“The devil is in the detail” is a cliché that happens to be true, but let’s turn it around: The magic is in the detail. What constitutes quality in a product, besides the raw materials you choose? The attention paid to detail.

Look at a knock-off Gucci handbag and consider its original counterpart: The difference, besides the “leather” chosen, is in the stitching, the inside lining, the zippers, and so on. In short, quality resides in the hidden details that aren't obvious to most--until you touch the product and look at it up close. It's craftsmanship that gives luxury fashion brands longevity and which lets them weather trends.

Brands are no different from the products and services that they represent. Frantically searching for the one “Unique Positioning Statement (UPS)” or logo design that is going to simultaneously sum up precisely what your company stands for and differentiate it from the rest of the pack is in some ways a meaningless battle. Taglines may be catchy, but they don't, in the end, make people buy products. What determines whether a woman buys Chanel No. 5 or Issey Miyake's L'Eau d'Issey Florale? Not taglines but how either smells on her skin.

What makes you so special?

What makes your brand unique and better than the competition is the compounded totality of many little things. That means you can’t just consider the attention given to producing an outstanding service or product--you also have to think about how the sales force and support team treats its customers and how the receptionist answers the phone.

TAGLINES MAY BE CATCHY, BUT THEY DON'T MAKE PEOPLE BUY PRODUCTS.

The Jawbone UP24 fitness tracking device is a good example. After diligently tracking my sleep, workout regime, and diet, I became properly addicted to the wristband and to its accompanying iOS app. When the band suddenly stopped working, after three months, I flew into a minor panic. All my data (and exercise momentum) would be lost, I worried. But Jawbone turned out to have an excellent support system. They troubleshot the problem with me seamlessly, on email and over the phone. They used human beings, not robots. I followed the progress of my issue via a concise thread on their support ticketing system. After they quickly exhausted all possible solutions and saw that the device was still malfunctioning, they shipped me a replacement band immediately. I became loyal to the brand thanks to the humane and efficient treatment I received. The extra attention taken by Jawbone to make sure that their staff was professional and courteous--while making sure that I never got lost in a maze of telephone drones or automated emails--made a huge difference.

Keep the details invisible.

It’s the combination of myriad details that shapes brand image in the minds of customers. These details may be transmitted subconsciously. Not everyone recognizes that hand stitching makes a serious difference. Expertly executed details, imperceptible to most, should create a sense of magic and wonder. Think of an up-market German car, such as an Audi, BMW or Mercedes. When you are at the BMW showroom and you step into, say, a 5 Series model, the satisfyingly clean thumpf sound that the door makes as you shut it signifies quality. There’s no rattling, no sound of sheet metal being slammed, just that confidence-inspiring, compact sound. It’s the sound of outside noise and discomfort being sealed off while you enter a safe, comfortable place. Behind the steering wheel are carefully wrought details, too: the smell, the way the seat feels, the feel of your hands on the steering wheel, the way the dashboard buttons have a certain resistance, and so on.

For those who remember, think about the perfect resistance and muted click of the Hewlett-Packard scientific calculator buttons, compared to their competitors Casio and Texas Instruments. The latter two companies clearly hadn’t spent a lot of energy thinking about what it would feel like to press down the keys. And it made a difference.

Advertising and branding should be thought of in the same way. Yes, the big idea is important, but success hinges on its execution, consistency, and attention to each and every word. Do define the brand with succinct messaging, but also trust that consumers will recognize the collective positive attributes of the brand rather than just its tagline. Make sure your communications are well crafted and recognizable. All touch points need to be carefully considered, down to every HTML email campaign.

Apple and Crate & Barrel stand out as excellent examples of how to design the perfect email. Google’s emails, on the other hand, lack consistency and seem rather haphazardly generated. Emails from Apple and Crate & Barrel are advantageously laid out, with beautiful imagery that's logically arranged and information that's easy to digest (if not concise). They're not afraid to make us scroll; they don't cram content above the fold.

All these details, you may think, aren't invisible at all. What's really invisible is the brand's aptitude to carefully organize every detail, whether we see it or not. It all adds up, and that's a lot.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3028947/great-branding-is-invisible?partner=newsletter

When Branding Is Too Good: A Cautionary Tale from New York's Citi Bike

2014-04-08T09:22:00.000+02:00

WOULD ANY OTHER COMPANY WANT TO JOIN CITI AS A SPONSOR?

New Yorkers have racked up more than 7 million trips on Citi Bike, New York City’s bike-share system, since it launched late last May. More than 100,000 people hold annual memberships. Yet financially, Citi Bike needs help. According to the New York Times, Citi Bike is seeking somewhere in the range of $20 million to be able to maintain and expand the program. As the city’s transportation commissioner, Polly Trottenberg, has admitted, Citi Bike has faced "significant financial and operational issues.”

The company's financial turmoil may be due, in part, to the structure of its main sponsorship with Citi Bank. The New York City Department of Transportation provides oversight for Citi Bike, but the program--which is the largest in the country--receives no public money, differentiating it from bike shares in other cities. The New York system is operated by NYC Bike Share, a subsidiary of the Portland-based Alta Bike Share, which also operates systems in Chicago, Boston, and Washington, D.C., among others. In a deal brokered by the Bloomberg administration, Citigroup is paying $41 million over the bike share’s first five years to be the title sponsor. MasterCard, the only other sponsor, paid $6.5 million.

The problem is that it can be hard to decipher where Citi Bike ends and Citibank begins, making it difficult to entice additional sponsors to join. When you allow one company to brand your service so completely, there’s little benefit left to offer other potential funding partners. According to the Wall:

Alta was always expected to seek sponsorship, in addition to Citigroup Inc., which paid for the naming rights. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lent the money up front to pay for start-up costs. Finding additional sponsors has proved challenging because the program has become so closely associated with its eponymous supporter, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Citi made a smart investment by inextricably linking itself with the popular bike share for a mere $41 million. Thousands of New Yorkers are riding moving Citi billboards around the city each day. For the bike share, the benefits of the partnership are less clear. By not securing enough Citi money to keep itself afloat from the outset without other sponsors, Citi Bike may have hobbled itself.

Scott Galloway, a marketing professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, says that it’s not shocking that Citi Bike would have difficulties finding additional sponsorship. “When the first member on your team is A-Rod, it doesn’t leave a lot of opportunity or budget to other players,” he says. “When your first sponsor is Citi and its called Citi Bike, there’s not a lot of value for other advertisers. They should have known upfront they were selling one sponsorship, and should have planned accordingly.” (According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Bloomberg administration officials initially asked Citigroup for more, but were negotiated down.)

WHEN YOUR FIRST SPONSOR IS CITI AND IT’S CALLED CITI BIKE, THERE’S NOT A LOT OF VALUE FOR OTHER ADVERTISERS.

Citi has branded the bike-sharing service in New York so fantastically that trying to separate the bikes from their sponsor can be confusing. “It’s the visual and the verbal,” explains Kevin Lane Keller, a marketing professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. First, Citi Bike and Citibank sound so similar that in announcing the partnership, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg got them mixed up.

Then there's the physical branding: In addition to the Citi logo, the bike-share network is plastered with the bank's distinct shade of cobalt blue (a hue screenwriter Delia Ephron decried as having “distorted every view” in the city). website looks just similar enough to Citi the bank’s actual site (again, that blue!), to make me briefly question whether I was looking at a Citi-owned product. I’m not the only one who gets confused. Vandals have smashed Citi Bike docking stations in protest of Citigroup. Some “people don’t realize that Citi is just a sponsor and it’s Alta that operates all of this,” Keller says. “They assume this is all Citi’s.”

That confusion is compounded here: When asked about Citi Bike’s difficulties finding other sponsors, a media representative from NYC Bike Share directed all queries to Citi’s director of public affairs (who as of publication time has not provided a response.)

Of course, becoming the primary sponsor for an unproven bike-sharing system was a risk on Citigroup’s part. Had the bike share been wildly loathed, the company would have been entwined with the controversy. “The meanings of Citi the brand are now forever connected to this bike thing, for five years,” says Susan, a professor of marketing at the Boston University School of Management. “In the evolutionary plane of this [Citi Bike] brand, five years is going to be a long time.” These first few years are when people’s perceptions of the bike share are being formed.

Some branding opportunities are, by nature, parties of one, like naming rights to a stadium. You can’t call a baseball stadium US Cellular/Staples Field. By not branding the system with a lead sponsor's name, other bike-share programs, like D.C.’s Capitol Bike Share, have left themselves open to dozens of sponsors, like their sponsorship program, for example, that nets $18,000 per 19-dock station. In Citi Bike's case, “there’ll be other ancillary opportunities, but everything is going to play second fiddle to Citi,” Galloway says.

So far, connection with the popular service has been good for Citi.Celebrities Citi Bike. Brides Citi Bike. In a recent interview with Advertising Age magazine, Citibank marketing executive Elyssa Gray said the bike-share sponsorship has netted $4.4 million dollars in earned media (free advertising, largely from social media).

Meanwhile, Citi Bike's own earned revenue isn't what the bike-share organizers had hoped. Part of the blame for Citi Bike’s financial woes has been placed on its lack of popularity with casual riders. The bike share has so far attracted far more annual riders, who pay only $95 a year for unlimited rides up to 45 minutes, compared to daily passers, who pay $9.95 for 24-hours of unlimited 30 minute trips. The bike share has also faced other unforeseen challenges: damage to bikes by Hurricane Sandy, an especially rough, and the bankruptcy of Bixi, the company providing the bike share's technology.

If Citi Bike hopes to bring in new sponsors to make up for its budget gaps, it’ll have to figure out a way to provide some sort of value for them, whether that’s giving them a portion of signage on the bikes or stations or something else entirely. It’ll certainly be a tough sell. Citi Bike frames may be clunky, but they’re not quite big enough to support more than the five Citi logos already embedded in the Citi Bike frame.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3028632/terminal-velocity/when-branding-is-too-good-a-cautionary-tale-from-new-yorks-citi-bike?partner=newsletter

New Logo and Identity for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

2014-03-03T10:24:00.000+02:00

Established in 1927 by 36 industry members, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences(AMPAS) is an honorary membership organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures that now includes over 6,000 members. Mostly known as this ephemeral entity in celebrity acceptance speeches during the Oscars — “I want to thank the Academy, God, my dog, mom and dad, etc.…” — AMPAS engages in numerous education, outreach, preservation and research activities while also managing a library, archive, council, and, set to open in 2017, a museum. Yesterday, the Academy introduced a new identity to unify all of its endeavors, designed by Los Angeles, CA-based 180LA.

The new logo spotlights the Oscar from above — creating a triangular shape and uniting the “A” of the Academy with our iconic statuette. This design gives the Academy a presence in its own logo for the first time and underscores our efforts to support creative arts and sciences year-round.

the academy logo launch mini site

Shifting the light source on the old and new logos.

Since the Oscars introduce a new variation of its logo with every annual event and the Academy doesn't have a significant visual presence in terms of organizational identity, there isn't a logo you can pinpoint as being the official-not-be-messed-with one. Even the official logo that this one replaces looks like it’s cobbled together from pieces of other events, ready to change at any moment.

Establishing a clear logo, one that doesn't just try to ride the coattails of the Oscars but one that integrates the renown event with the Academy, is a much welcome step. In essence, the new logo is the same as before: the Oscar statue in a holding shape. Now, of course, it’s inside a triangle, which looks like an “A” for “Academy”. Simple and smart. The concept that it was a change of the light source makes it quite clever too. The typography, set in a lot of Futura, with an exaggerated “M” is nice enough.

Logo as “A”. This might get out of hand.

Logo for The Oscars.

Envelope and note card.

Prototype covers for the Academy’s magazine.

Cover for what appears to be a presentation book — on the launch website you can click through some of the clippings to see some spreads.

In application, there isn't a lot to see but there is potential in the patterning seen on the envelopes and the “A”-interpretation device seen in the magazine prototypes looks like it could be plenty of fun for all kinds of communications. It reminds me of the Art Paul-era Playboy covers where the bunny was interpreted freely. Overall, a solid redesign with smart thinking behind it.

http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_logo_and_identity_for_the_academy_of_motion_picture_arts_and_sciences_by_180la.php#.UxQ1wPmSxek

Brand Copywriting: What is Your Brand’s Voice?

2014-02-04T09:58:00.000+02:00

Copywriting is your brand’s way of speaking to your customer. Think of your organization’s copy as a verbal version of a logo or color palette. Just like these visual elements, the text you use in your touchpoints needs to have a consistent feel, underpinned by a clear strategy. It doesn't make sense to print all of your key collateral with different logos, or in completely different colors, if you’re trying to focus consumer attention on one consistent brand image. For the same reason, your copy needs to consistently embody your brand strategy across all of your touchpoints.

This post outlines some ways you can keep an eye out for brand copywriting pitfalls; so that your copy can be a voice heard loud and clear, and not just words on a page.

Common Brand Copywriting Pitfalls

§ Copy has no discernible tone of voice

§ Copy is purely about features with nothing emotional that hooks into the audience’s need

§ Copy is laid out in a way that is visually dense

§ Copy uses needlessly complex language

§ Copy lacks key messaging

Good copy verbalizes your ability to resolve your audience’s need in a way they can’t get anywhere else. Think about the following things before launching into a copywriting project, or while evaluating your current brand copywriting.

Does Your Brand Copywriting Adhere to a Clear Brand Strategy?

Your copywriting should be the best friend of your logo, color palette and graphic design. And just like these visual devices, your text should communicate your brand promise and position in the style of your brand personality. Without a clear brand promise or position, your copy may lack strategic talking points. And without an authentic and compelling brand personality, your copy could be perceived as lacking a voice — its tone might even conflict with what your design elements are communicating.

Do You Know What Messaging You’re Leading With?

Is your copy driven by your brand promise, or your position against the competition? What is the most important thing to lead with given your audience need? Your verbal messaging will risk being passed over if you are not telling a story that hits close to home with your audience.

Do You Have a Basic Editorial Style Guide?

It’s critical to define — even in basic terms — how your brand copywriting will consistently embody your brand personality. Think about it: is your personality regal and sophisticated, kitschy and ironic, ingenious and savvy? Depending on what it is, you will have to define how your brand copywriting will use things like headings, italics, lists, and bullets so there is a consistent format to the text. As well, consider if your brand needs separate style guides for different contexts; will your white papers have the same style-musts as blog posts, or brochures? If not, why?

Does Your Brand Copywriting Work if Scaled to Different Media?

If you had to describe your company in a one-sentence tweet, could you do it as well as you could in 200 words? Your copy should always feel like the same person is speaking it, with key messaging that can be summed up in one sentence, or unpacked with quantifiable “reasons to believe” for more text-heavy touchpoints.

Remember: Your Copy Should Always Be On-Brand

Compelling brand copywriting is a crucial component of any organization’s brand marketing. It lets you speak directly to your customer’s need, in their language, through marketing collateral or digital media. If your copy isn't underpinned by a clear, audience-centric strategy, it runs the risk of being passed over, and this leaves the door wide open for the competition to speak more directly to your customer’s need.

http://distility.com/branding-evaluation/brand-copywriting-what-is-your-brands-voice/

15 Mind-Blowing Stats About B2C Brands

2014-02-02T10:40:00.003+02:00

Consumer-goods purchases are often based on the emotional connection a person has with a brand. That's why it's no surprise that content marketing and social media are top-of-mind for B2C marketers, as they fight through the online clutter to get attention and build relationships.

Overall, the forecast is sunny for B2C digital marketing. Digital spend is on the rise, and companies say they feel optimistic about their digital fitness. Here are 15 stats that offer the lay of the land for B2C marketing in the year to come.

1. Ninety percent of B2C marketers are using content marketing, compared with 86 percent last year. Thirty-four percent of B2C marketers consider themselves effective at content marketing—up from 32 percent last year.

2. B2C marketers have rated many tactics higher in effectiveness this year; in-person events and e-newsletters top the list. B2C marketers are using all social platforms more often, with LinkedIn use registering the biggest jump (from 51 percent to 71 percent).

3. Eighty percent of B2C marketers used Twitter in 2013, up from 69 percent last year, finishing second behind Facebook (89 percent) and ahead of YouTube (72 percent), LinkedIn (71 percent), and Google+ (55 percent).

4. Sixty percent of B2C marketers said they have generated leads from social media.

5. B2C companies actually convert customers using social media, with 54 percent of those generating leads reporting revenue generated from social.

6. B2C company Procter & Gamble is consistently one of the world’s top advertisers, investing $9.7 billion into marketing in 2013.

7. B2C brands are more ahead of the curve than B2B brands when it comes to mobile marketing. B2B brands tend to be more conservative in their approach across most parameters, viewing mobile marketing as “experimental.” About 70 percent of B2C brands report that they are satisfied with their mobile efforts.

8. Twenty-six percent of B2C brands rate multi-screen advertising as very important. Eight percent of B2B brands say that multi-screen is important.

9. B2C marketers retain more focus on feature phones relative to B2B: While 45 percent of B2B marketers say those devices are not a mobile marketing priority, only 19 percent of B2C marketers say that.

10. Traditional media will continue to lose dollars across nearly all sectors. Only the B2C product category will up investment, though by a minimal 0.8 percent.

11. B2C service companies (think Geico or Great Clips) will increase digital ad spend 10.4 percent this year.

12. Safeway's Diane Dietz is the highest paid B2C CMO.

13. In terms of a percentage of overall firm budgets, B2C product companies devote the largest share to marketing (16.3 percent).

14. Coca-Cola is the biggest B2C brand in social media by both reach and engagement.

15. Marketers from B2C product companies expected digital ad spending to rise 11.1 percent this year, compared to 14.6 percent last year.

http://www.cmo.com/content/cmo-com/home/articles/2014/1/28/15_stats_b2c_brands.html

7 steps to create a killer brand

2013-08-13T09:32:00.000+02:00

1. Focus on a single brand

A startup, no matter how well-funded, will always feel short of resources. So the business should focus all its branding energy and resources on building up a single brand – the name of the company – and not try to create separate brand identities for the company and for each of its products. Multiple brands will diffuse your energy and resources, and confuse customers.

Single-brand focus is highly effective whether you’re a consumer or B2B business.

In the consumer space, think Polo shirts, shoes, home décor, dresses, bed and bath, etc. – it’s all Polo, with little energy wasted on sub-branding. In another realm, folks just say they got an iPad, not that they bought an iPad 2, Wi-Fi + 3G, 16GB.

For examples of good B2B brands, think how IT products are marketed. If a CIO is asked which database his company uses, she’s likely to reply simply “SQL Server” rather than “Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition”…. or simply “Oracle,” rather than “Oracle Database 11g Release 2”… Similarly, the same CIO asked what types of servers her shop uses might respond simply “HP” (rather than “HP ProLiant DL320e Gen8 v2 Servers”), or just “Dell” (rather than “Dell PowerEdge M520 Blade Servers”).

2. Snag the URL

As you’re considering alternative names, make sure you can snag the URL (domain name). So as you’re brainstorming names, bring up a registration engine such as GoDaddy.com orRegister.com and, as you think of names, check to see if the URL is available.

Generally the shorter the URL the better. .com top level domains are preferable for most businesses.

3. Keep it simple

Ideally, the name should be short and memorable. So if I’m launching a gaming company, BongoBaby would probably be preferable to Jim’s International Game Enterprises, Inc. Make the name hard to misspell and hard to mispronounce. I know those are double negatives, but the point is that you want people to be able to find you in a search engine, and to easily refer you to their friends.

4. Choose one: descriptive, evocative, or whimsical

Next, you have a fundamental choice with three basic paths. The first path is to select a name that’s descriptive of what you do – think WebMD, The Home Depot, 1-800-flowers, or Urban Outfitters. The second path is to choose a name that says nothing about what you do, but is evocative. Oracle is a great abstract-but-evocative brand name, evoking wisdom and an ability to predict the future. Another is Warby Parker, the online purveyor of eye glasses that intentionally chose a name evocative of old-line, preppy Eastern retailers (rather than a descriptive tag akin to LensCrafters). The third path is to select a memorable, unique nonsense word. Nice examples of such whimsical brand names include Hulu, Zynga and Tapjoy.

5. Avoid branding by committee or focus group

It’s good to be inclusive and seek opinions and ideas. But if you form a committee and put everything to a vote, you’re likely to end up with a least-common-denominator brand that’s bland, uninspired, and may look more like a hybrid camel-elephant than the thoroughbred you’d hoped for.

6. Apply your brand consistently

You can do everything else right, and screw it up here. Consistency of usage and application of the brand is paramount. A company should have a consistent look-and-feel and consistent language and stick to them. For example, do you want to be referred to as Urban Outfitters or as UO? Do you wish to be known as “a pioneer in cleantech,” or “an innovator in green energy”?

7. Protect your brand

Trademark the company name, logo, and tagline. File with the US PTO for registered trademark status. In your online (and any printed) materials, be sure to display clear copyright notices.

By Jim Price

Jim Price is a serial entrepreneur and Adjunct Lecturer of Entrepreneurial Studies at the Zell Lurie Institute at The University of Michigan Ross School of Business explains how to build a killer brand in 7 steps.

http://stocklogos.com/topic/7-steps-create-killer-brand?utm_medium=image&utm_content=email&utm_campaign=AOTW_NL

Egyptian's Rights & Duties

2012-10-06T19:33:00.000+02:00

The International Declaration of Human Rights and The proposal of the International Declaration of Human Responsibilities.

The title above is the subject of this booklet, an Arabic attempt for a better Egyptians future.

This project was started on Feb 16th 2011 after Egyptian revolution of 25th Jan 2011, hundreds of artists, lawyers, university professors, school teachers, students, coaches, poets, writers, musicians, medical doctors, librarians, business men / women and all kinds of Egyptian intellectuals have participated in this project, it is called: "Egyptian's Rights & Duties"

This booklet was printed so far in 45000 copies, the team aims to reach 80 million Egyptian citizens with contribution of educated people who should read them their rights and duties, that is why its depicting with caricatures and funny colloquial Egyptian language.

This is a national cause wearing a brand of a nation, a nation which is heading to be a positive and effective influence for all nations, only for the sake of love, hope & faith.

Facebook group for this project:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/147822261945412/

Youtube video:

Rebuilding Islam's Brand

2012-09-23T19:59:00.001+02:00

Despite common misconception, the number one brand in today's consumerist society appears to be religion, not Coca-Cola.

What are the biggest brands in the world today? Is it Google, Coca-Cola, Apple or Microsoft? In commercial terms, that may be true. However, in terms of human impact and social and political importance, religions are today’s real global super brands.

In 2008, Gallup conducted a poll across 143 countries and territories asking whether religion was an important part of daily life. The median who said religion is important in their daily lives was 82%. By comparison, Coca-Cola is the world’s number one brand and daily consumption of their products totals 1 billion – only 20% of the world population.

We also see the dominance of religion in global media and politics. By contrast, commercial brands mostly have to pay for coverage, imposing themselves on target audiences. Global brands transcend their geographic, cultural or ideological origins, and create strong, enduring relationships with those who consume the brands across countries and cultures.

Brands like Coca Cola retain their strength by having what industry insiders jokingly call the ‘Brand Police’ – people whose job it is to monitor the product’s brand and ensure that everything that goes into the public domain follows the branding guidelines.

When religions fi rst come into existence, the foundations of the brand are generally laid by one person; think Buddha, Prophet Jesus or even Ron L. Hubbard.

Let’s take the example of the Prophet Muhammad. He was the living embodiment of the brand of Islam. He laid out clear guidelines about Islam’s values encompassing notions such as a complete way of life; a code for serving the Creator as well as creation; how to uphold the values of freedom, justice, respect and equality; building an ultimate relationship with the Divine to achieve a prosperous life in the dunya and the afterlife.

Over time, the ‘brand’ of a religion becomes diluted because it loses its intense and pure brand advocate, and is no longer managed centrally. That’s one of the reasons why religious brands are so strong at the start, but weaken as successive generations develop different ideas about the values of the brand and how the brand should be maintained.

Even more detrimental to the brand is the fact that the actions of each person who subscribes to that brand come to represent the entire brand. Any Muslim who has lived through the last decade will tell you how a handful of men in September 2001 not only hijacked aeroplanes, but also hijacked the entire peaceful, justice-oriented, compassionate branding of Islam. No wonder Muslims round the world felt compelled to declare the words, “not in my name”, short for ‘not in the brand name of my Islam’.

As any brand manager will tell you, to spread positive messages about your brand, you need at least 13 customers to tell other people how good your brand is. To spread negative messages, it just takes one bad experience.

Religion – especially Islam – needs some emergency branding work. In re-asserting its global brand, Muslims face three challenges. First, what exactly are the brand values of Islam that Muslims agree on? With ongoing disputes around sectarian, political and social differences, this doesn’t seem likely to be answered anytime soon. But if Muslims want to reclaim the brand of Islam, they will have to fi nd some core common ground.

Second, the agreed values must be exhibited throughout all aspects of the brand. It’s not just a technical tick-box exercise to say “Islam is about equality”. People only believe brands when they have demonstrated the brand values over and over again. For example, it’s no good just saying that Islam believes in the rights of women, if women aren’t given those rights.

Finally, how will the brand values be patrolled? Unlike the case of commercial brands, you can’t force people to behave according to the brand values. Scholars will need to take the lead, but this has to be done through peer-to-peer influence and motivation, with a huge emphasis on individual responsibility.

Re-invigorating Islam’s brand cannot be a cynical superficial ploy. The most important value in building a brand is trust – trust that what the brand says about itself is what the brand will actually deliver. The key to this is engagement, communication and transparency. That is how trust will be re-established, and how Islam’s brand values of peace, compassion and justice will be re-built.

This piece was written on June 2010 by Shelina Zahra Janmohamed, the author of Love in a Headscarf, and blogs at spirit21.co.uk.

http://www.emel.com/article?id=73&a_id=2047

City Branding Survey

2012-09-03T09:53:00.000+02:00

Criteria & Methodology

Approximately 350 city mottos and monikers were nominated from a field of 1,200. They were sent to 100 advertising, marketing, and branding professionals from more than 82 cities across 38 states. To level the playing field, a city could be ranked only once in the slogan or nickname category even though it had several mottos and monikers.

Both official and unofficial, as well as past and present, nicknames and slogans were included.

Informants were asked to rank their top 10 city slogans and top 10 city nicknames based on the following branding criteria:

Attributes: Do they express a city’s brand character, affinity, style, and personality?
Message: Do they tell a story in a clever, fun, and memorable way?
Differentiation: Are they unique and original?
Ambassadorship: Do they inspire you to visit there, live there, or learn more?

Nominated slogans and nicknames were given a weighted ranking based on the number of votes they received and the rank they were assigned.

The Top 50 U.S. City Mottos

1.	What Happens Here, Stays Here.	Las Vegas, NV
2.	So Very Virginia.	Charlottesville, VA
3.	Always Turned On.	Atlantic City, NJ
4.	Cleveland Rocks!	Cleveland, OH
5.	The Sweetest Place on Earth.	Hershey, PA
6.	Rare. Well Done.	Omaha, NE
7.	The City Different.	Santa Fe, NM
8.	Where Yee-Ha Meets Olé.	Eagle Pass, TX
9.	City with Sol.	San Diego, CA
10.	Where the Odds Are With You.	Peculiar, MO
11.	Where Your Ship Comes In.	Gulfport, MS
12.	Soul of the Southwest.	Taos, NM
13.	Experience Our Sense of Yuma.	Yuma, AZ
14.	The City Was So Nice They Named It Twice.	Walla Walla, WA
15.	There’s More Than Meets the Arch.	St. Louis, MO
16.	Keep Austin Weird.	Austin, TX
17.	Where Chiefs Meet.	Meeteetse, WY
18.	City with a Mission.	San Gabriel, CA
19.	Where the Trails Start and the Buck Stops.	Independence, MO
20.	The City That Never Sleeps.	New York City, NY
21.	The Aliens Aren’t the Only Reason to Visit.	Roswell, NM
22.	Lose Your Heart to the Hills.	Kerrville, TX
23.	Take Me to the River.	Vicksburg, MS
24.	We’ve Got All the Civilization You Need.	Riverton, WY
25.	The Town Without a Frown.	Happy, TX
26.	The Town Too Tough to Die.	Tombstone, AZ
27.	Where the Stars Come Out to Play.	Fort Davis, TX
28.	Rollin’ on the River.	Manchester, OH
29.	Named for the Turn of a Card.	Show Low, AZ
30.	More Than Just a Song.	Shenandoah, TX
31.	Where Horses Have the Right of Way.	McKinleyville, CA
32.	Only in San Francisco.	San Francisco, CA
33.	It’s Not the End of the Earth, But You Can See It From Here.	Bushnell, SD
34.	Where Nature Smiles for Seven Miles.	Spring Lake, MI
35.	Live Large. Think Big.	Dallas, TX
36.	Real. America. Up Close.	Rapid City, ND
37.	The Richest Place on Earth.	Virginia City, NV
38.	With Time for You.	Richmond, MI
39.	Newark, on a Roll.	Newark, NJ
40.	Where the Trout Leap in Main Street.	Saratoga, WY
41.	Life, Celebrated Daily.	Norfolk, VA
42.	The Natural Place to Visit.	Sitka, AK
43.	People Say We’re Old-Fashioned. We Hope So.	Virginia City, MT
44.	Where the People Are Warm Even When the Weather Isn’t.	Andover, KS
45.	Where the Bald Eagle Soars and the Carp Drops!	Prairie du Chien, WI
46.	Where History Never Gets Old.	Fredericksburg, VA
47.	The Town That Made Tulsa Famous.	Glenpool, OK
48.	Get ‘Er Done.	Havre, MT
49.	Town Without a Toothache.	Hereford, TX
50.	Livable, Lovable Lodi.	Lodi, CA

Honorable Mention

You Can Do Better in Cando.		Cando, ND
Twenty Lakes in Twenty Minutes.		Harrison, MI
More Than Just a Pretty Beach.		Encinitas, CA
Something to Remember.		San Antonio, TX
Twice as Nice.		Texarkana, AR

The Top 50 U.S. City Monikers

1.	The Big Apple	New York City, NY
2.	Sin City	Las Vegas, NV
3.	The Big Easy	New Orleans, LA
4.	Motor City	Detroit, MI
5.	The Windy City	Chicago, IL
6.	Beantown	Boston, MA
7.	Baghdad by the Bay	San Francisco, CA
8.	Tinseltown	Hollywood, CA
9.	Mistake on the Lake	Cleveland, OH
10.	La-La Land	Los Angeles, CA
11.	City of Witches	Salem, MA
12.	Berzerkeley	Berkeley, CA
13.	The Graveyard of the Atlantic	Cape Hatteras, NC
14.	The Protestant Vatican	Nashville, TN
15.	The City of Brotherly Love	Philadelphia, PA
16.	Hangtown	Placerville, CA
17.	The Wickedest Little City in America	Dodge City, KS
18.	The Mile High City	Denver, CO
19.	Porkopolis	Cincinnati, OH
20.	The Land of Lincoln	Springfield, IL
21.	The Biggest Little City in the World	Reno, NV
22.	The Mini Apple	Minneapolis, MN
23.	Whiskers	Crestwood, KY
24.	Dynamo of Dixie	Chattanooga, TN
25.	The Land of Oz	Liberal, KS
26.	Brew City	Milwaukee, WI
27.	The Big Sweet Grass Basket	Charleston, SC
28.	Valley of the Sun	Phoenix, AZ
29.	Naptown	Indianapolis, IN
30.	Shampoo-Banana	Champaign-Urbana, IL
31.	Chimneyville	Jackson, MS
32.	The World’s Largest Chee-to	Algona, IA
33.	Home of the Catfish Stomp	Elgin, SC
34.	Vice City	Miami, FL
35.	The Big Gun	Canon, GA
36.	Drunk Driving Capital of America	Gallup, NM
37.	The Little Apple	Manhattan, KS
38.	Home of Susie the Duck	Lodi, WI
39.	Cow Chip Capital	Beaver, OK
40.	Goat Ropin’ Capital of the World	Gotebo, OK
41.	Sparkle City	Spartanburg, SC
42.	The Soo	Sault Ste. Marie, MI
43.	Crunkville	Charlotte, NC
44.	The Old Pueblo	Tucson, AZ
45.	Spamtown, USA	Austin, MN
46.	Home of the Candy Dance	Genoa, NV
47.	Tackyoma	Tacoma, WA
48.	Surf City, USA	Huntington Beach, CA
49.	Space City	Houston, TX
50.	The Dog Mushing Center of the World	Knik, AK

Honorable Mention

Winnemucca – City of Paved Streets		Winnemucca, NV
SLO Town		San Luis Obispo, CA
Poison Oak Capital of the World		Forestville, CA
Spokan’t		Spokane, WA
Red Carpet City of the South		Vicksburg, MS

http://www.taglineguru.com/citymottosmonikers.html

Twitter Redesigns Its Bird in Exceedingly Meaningful New Logo

2012-06-12T10:28:00.001+02:00

Embodies 'freedom, hope and limitless possibility'

by Tim Nudd

Did you think Twitter chose a bird as its mascot simply because birds make a tweeting sound? Wrong! "Whether soaring high above the earth to take in a broad view, or flocking with other birds to achieve a common purpose, a bird in flight is the ultimate representation of freedom, hope and limitless possibility," the company said today. What's the occasion for this purple prose? It's the debut of a newly designed official Twitter bird, whose intricately concocted shape is also steeped in meaning, according to theintroductory blog post. "Our new bird grows out of love for ornithology, design within creative constraints, and simple geometry," the company says. "This bird is crafted purely from three sets of overlapping circles—similar to how your networks, interests and ideas connect and intersect with peers and friends." There's also this more esoteric note: "From now on, this bird will be the universally recognizable symbol of Twitter. (Twitter is the bird, the bird is Twitter.)" For an airborne symbol, it's all quite heavy. Fly on, you deeply metaphorical vessels of the sky!

Eye Candy, Literally

2012-05-17T14:02:00.001+02:00

The Grand America is a luxury hotel in Salt Lake City, UT. With 775 rooms, the 24-story hotel is one of the select few to earn the title of AAA Five Diamond Hotel. Apart from fancy rooms with "Murano crystal chandeliers, handcrafted Richelieu furniture, English wool carpets, Carrera Italian marble, and the finest fabrics," the hotel features a handful of high-end stores, including the brand new JouJou: A Curious Boutique for Toys and Treats. Local firm Struck was in charge of developing this whole new little world.

Struck was delighted to rebrand The Grand America Hotel's toy store, we completely embraced the challenge of bringing the environment to life. It's a realm where imagination takes flight — in the playful form of fire-breathing dragons, elusive fairies, robot warriors and peculiar monsters. This haven for child-like curiosity includes a stunning new interior, a full brand identity, promotions, merchandise and packaging. Struck sourced original toys and books and filled it with lavish and rare gifts. The finished location is a magical experience for guests young and old, mixing hand-crafted installations with interactive digital canvases and delicious treats. Contributors included: Struck, Watts Architects, Plastik Banana, Chris DeMuri, The Second Artist and Chase Studio.

Popout

The making of JouJou. I recommend watching this video first before going through the rest of the post.

While I would normally saddle you all with plenty of opinion, there is a lot to see in this post, so I'll keep it to a minimum. This whole project is truly stunning. What I like most about it is that there are no overarching rules or one style that dominates over another. It's the proverbial "throwing on the wall and see what sticks" except that everything has stuck. It's modern, it's baroque, it's digital, it's European, it's fantasy-filled. It's everything any kid could be stimulated by. And for us designers, it's an equal treat.

For detailed information and more how-did-they-do-that? details there is this PDF to satisfy your curiosity.

Some of the identity assets for use in packaging.

Objects in their 2D and 3D renderings.

The two fictitious companies that "make" the flying machines.

Finished store. Click image for bigger view.

Popout

The store includes an interactive wall called Monsterpiece Theater consisting of ten different animated monsters, each contained in their own unique frame and environment. Monsters were designed by Struck and Mister, animated by Plenty.tv and developed by Welikesmall. The rendered monster assets were brought to life using Mac minis, Arduino Uno prototyping boards and the open Frameworks C++ toolkit. Each monster consists of a custom monster application built in openFrameworks, powered by its own Mac mini. Those minis are then paired with an Arduino prototyping board wired to an IR sensor which allows us to temporarily bridge the gap between the digital and physical world when each monster detects and interacts with a human presence.

See more on the development of the Monsters at Plenty's website.

Sketches and Process

Click images for bigger view.

Popout

http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/eye_candy_literally.php

Apple's Branding Strategy

2012-05-16T10:42:00.000+02:00

Apple Inc. uses the Apple brand to compete across several highly competitive markets, including the personal computer industry with its Macintosh line of computers and related software, the consumer electronics industry with products such as the iPod, digital music distribution through its iTunes Music Store, the smart phone market with the Apple iPhone, magazine, book, games and applications publishing via the AppsStore for iPhone and the iPad tablet computing device, and movie and TV content distribution with Apple TV. For marketers, the company is also establishing a very strong presence to rival Google in the advertising market, via its Apps business and iAd network.

Steve Jobs, Apple's co-Founder, described Apple as a "mobile devices company" - the largest one in the world (Apple's revenues are bigger than Nokia, Samsung, or Sony's mobility business).

For several years Apple's product strategy involved creating innovative products and services aligned with a "digital hub" strategy, whereby Apple Macintosh computer products function as the digital hub for digital devices, including the Apple iPod, personal digital assistants, cellular phones, digital video and still cameras, and other electronic devices. More recently, the full impact of a very well throught out brand strategy has come into focus - and one in which customer experience is central, and the Mac is no longer the hub of all things Apple. The company now offers a harmonised, synchronised, and integrated user experience across all of its main devices (iPad, iPhone, and Mac), using iCloud as the hub.

Apple's core competence is delivering exceptional experience through superb user interfaces. The company's product strategy is based around this, with iTunes, the iPhone with it's touch screen "gestures" that are re-used on the iPad, and the Apple Apps store all playing key roles.

The Apple Brand Personality

Apple has a branding strategy that focuses on the emotions. The Apple brand personality is about lifestyle; imagination; liberty regained; innovation; passion; hopes, dreams and aspirations; and power-to-the-people through technology. The Apple brand personality is also about simplicity and the removal of complexity from people's lives; people-driven product design; and about being a really humanistic company with a heartfelt connection with its customers.

Apple Brand Equity and Apple's Customer Franchise

The Apple brand is not just intimate with its customers, it's loved, and there is a real sense of community among users of its main product lines.

The brand equity and customer franchise which Apple embodies is extremely strong. The preference for Apple products amongst the "Mac community", for instance, not only kept the company alive for much of the 90's (when from a rational economic perspective it looked like a dead duck) but it even enables the company to sustain pricing that is at a premium to its competitors.

It is arguable that without the price-premium which the Apple brand sustains in many product areas, the company would have exited the personal computer business several years ago. Small market share PC vendors with weaker brand equity have struggled to compete with the supply chain and manufacturing economics of Dell. However, Apple has made big advances in becoming more efficient with its manufacturing supply chain,logistics and operations, and it can be assumed that as far as like-for-like hardware manufacturing comparisons are comcerned, Apple's product costs are very similar to those of Dell. In terms of price to the consumer, Apple's computer products have an additional cost advantage: the company does not have to pay another company for operating system licences..

The Apple Customer Experience

The huge promise of the Apple brand, of course presents Apple with an enormous challenge to live up to. The innovative, beautifully-designed, highly ergonomic, and technology-leading products which Apple delivers are not only designed to match the brand promise, but are fundamental to keeping it.

Apple fully understands that all aspects of the customer experienceare important and that all brand touch-points must reinforce the Apple brand.

Apple has expanded and improved its distribution capabilities by opening its own retail stores in key cities around the world in up-market, quality shopping venues. Apple provides Apple Mac-expert retail floor staff staff to selected resellers' stores (such as Australian department store David Jones); it has entered into strategic alliances with other companies to co-brand or distribute Apple's products and services (for example, HP who was selling a co-branded form of iPod and pre-loading iTunes onto consumer PCs and laptops in the mid-2000s - though in retrospect this may now just have been a stepping-stone). Apple has also increased the accessibility of iPods through various resellers that do not currently carry Apple Macintosh systems, and has increased the reach of its online stores.

The very successful Apple retail stores give prospective customers direct experience of Apple's brand values. Apple Store visitors experience a stimulating, no-pressure environment where they can discover more about the Apple family, try out the company's products, and get practical help on Apple products at the shops' Guru Bars. Apple retail staff are helpful, informative, and let their enthusiasm show without being brash or pushy.

The overall feeling is one of inclusiveness by a community that really understands what good technology should look and feel like - and how it should fit into people's lives.

Apple Brand Architecture

From a brand architecture viewpoint, the company maintains a "monolithic" brand identity - everything being associated with the Apple name, even when investing strongly in the Apple iPod and Apple iTunes products.

Apple's current line-up of product families includes not just the iPod and iTunes, but iMac, iBook, iLife, iWork, iPhone, iPad, and now iCloud. However, even though marketing investments around iPod are substantial, Apple has not established an "i" brand. While the "i" prefix is used only for consumer products, it is not used for a large number of Apple's consumer products (eg Mac mini, MacBook, Apple TV, Airport Extreme, Safari, QuickTime, and Mighty Mouse).

The list of Apple's Trademarks reflects something of a jumbled past. The predominant sub-brand since the introduction of the Apple Macintosh in January 1984 has always been the Apple Mac. Products whose market includes Microsoft computer users (for example MobileMe, QuickTime, Bonjour, and Safari) have been named so they are somewhat neutral, and therefore more acceptable to Windows users. Yet other product have been developed more for a professional market (eg Aperture, the Final Cut family, and Xserve).

The iPod Halo Effect

Though Apple's iPhone and iTunes music business is profitable in its own right, Apple's venture into these product areas was based on a strategy of using the music business to help boost the appeal of Apple's computing business.

Apple is using iPod, iTunes, iPhone, and now iPad to reinforce and re-invigorate the Apple brand personality. At the same time, these product initiatives are growing a highly relevant, appealing brand image in the minds of consumer segments that Apple has not previously reached.

In a so-called iPod halo effect, Apple hoped that the popularity of iPod and iTunes among these new groups of customers would cause these segments to be interested in Apple's computer products. This does seem to have happened. Since the take-off of the iPod there has been a dramatic rise in Apple's computer sales and market share.

A couple of years ago, Apple's aspirations for the iPod halo effect was was highlighted most strongly when it used the slogan "from the creators of iPod" in its promotion of iMac G5 computers. In this instance, the Apple brand came full-circle - having been built into a branding system that originates in the personal computer market, then leveraged into the consumer electronics market, and then back into the consumer personal computer market.

This halo effect is extended with the hugely successful Apple iPad tablet computer. Great customer experience with iPhone (and familiarity with Apple's touch screen gesture controls), combined with a great product in its own right, has made iPod a huge success that in turn is drawing even more people to Apple's Mac computer products. In a move which brings matters full circle, the 2011 Lion version of Mac OSX brought to the Mac the same touch screen gesture controls which iPad and iPod users have learned.

This is extension of a common user experience across Apple products was further strengthened by the introduction of the Apps Store to Mac OSX in mid-2011. Mac users can now buy their OSX applications with the same convenience as iPad or iPhone users can buy iOS Apps. Apple has announced that in mid-2012 it will further harmonise the user experience of Mac and iPad users by introducing even more features from iPad into the new Mountain Lion version of the Mac operating system. With the introduction of Mountain Lion, Apple will drop the Mac part of the name from the operating system, so that it will be called just "OS X", rather than "Mac OS X".

This small but important branding change opens the way for Apple to consolidate, perhaps into a single Operating System, the software used across its multiple devices.

Expect the Halo to Speak - Siri and beyond

Speech will be the next dimension in which Apple will gaining synery across its product lines. Expect the natural language speech processing and interactivity capabilities introduced in October 2011 on the iPhone 4S to be introduced first on the iPad (which uses the same operating system and A5 processor as the iPhone 4S).

Apple is giving substance to speech interactivity by giving it a character - a personal assistant called "Siri". Siri can be somewhat customised by using different languages and idioms (for example, there are three versions of English speech available with country-specific accents and pronunciation - US, UK and Australian). Presumably other customisation or personalization features will also be introduced (perhaps user choice of name and other "identity" characteristics).

Siri highlights the marketing genius of Apple: speech control and interactivity are not new features on computers or phones. For example, smartphones running Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system have had very similar functionality to Siri for some time. When Apple created the Siri "personal assistant" which gives these otherwise rather hard to describe features a character, consumers were given a hook around which they could finally understand what voice interactivity was all about.

Having taught customers to use touch gestures, Apple is now going to teach us how to speak to computers (almost unavoidably, in a specific Apple dialect of speech interaction).

Apple Brand Strength Now Creating Financial Success

So far, Apples' branding strategy is bearing fruit. For example, Apple reports that half of all computer sales through its retail channel are to people new to Macintosh, the company's sales and margins have been growing strongly since 2006, and Apple has achieved several "best ever" quarterly financial results in recent years, and in early 2012 when Apple's share price passed $500 per share for the first time, the company was the most valuable business in the world with a market capitalization which exceeded oil company Exxon, the previous top business.

Leveraging the success of the iPod, Apple launched the iPhone (released in July 07) to extend the brand even further. Apple's buzz marketing efforts in the first half of 2007 were truly superb, culminating in the release of one of the most highly anticipated products for many years - and launching apple into a completely new market: mobile handsets. By July 2008 the buzz about the 3G iPhone resulted in over 1 million units being sold in the first 3 days of its release in over 20 countries around the world. This success was repeated in 2010 with the introduction of the iPad tablet computer, and in March 2011 with the launch of the iPad 2 which sold 1 million units within 24 hours.

Apple Re-entering the Corporate Market via the iPhone and iPad Halo Effect

Though no-one at Apple would say so today, the next phase of Apple's strategy seems focused on the Corporate marketplace.

A long time ago, Apple had a fairly strong market share in large companies.

A long, long time ago (at the end of the 1970's) the first spreadsheet program (VisiCalc) was launched on the Apple II. The first PC (the IBM PC) to run a Microsoft operating system (PC DOS) did not appear until 1981. When Microsoft launched its Excel spreadsheet in 1984 it appeared first on the just-released Apple Mac, such was Apple's presence among accounting and finance departments.

Even though Apple effectively stopped competing for corporate business during the 1990s, the Apple Mac is still used in corporate environments. Microsoft still has a vigorous applications development team totally dedicated to writing business software for the Apple Mac. New versions of Microsoft Office for Apple Mac still come out approximately 2 years before similar functionality is placed in the next version of Microsoft Office for the Windows operating system.

Over the next few years it seems likely that Apple will re-focus on the Corporate marketplace: The company provides regular updates on the proportion of Fortune 500 companies which are either trialing or deploying iPhone (currently over 90%), and the iPad. In 2009, when Apple announced "Snow Leopard" (the then-latest version of the Apple Mac operating system) it included features allowing Mac computers to fully support Microsoft Exchange. This enables corporate IT departments to support business users who wish to use Apple Macs for their main email clients. Apple's latest version, Mac OSX Lion (released in Summer 2011) includes all the functionality needed to use a Mac as a business server.

Also, Microsoft continues to bring out advanced versions of Microsoft Office for Apple Mac, and - very significantly - in mid-2008 Apple announced a software upgrade for the iPhone which allows iPhones to be fully supported by Microsoft Exchange email servers. Corporate IT departments can now include iPhones as email clients.

One aspect of Apple's strategy seems clear: to use the popularity of the iPhone and iPad to break back into large corporations, sell lots of those devices, and have Apple Mac back on the desks of large businesses (or more probably - in the laptop bags of middle and senior managers in most large businesses).

The Macbook Air and iPad are clearly designed for business markets as well as for consumers, and Apple continues to display its mastery in smoothly morphing customer experience and brand preference from one product category to another.

As we say; no one in Apple will currently admit to such ambitions, but Apple's branding strategy is clearly expanding to include business and corporate markets once again.

After Halos - Clouds

The next step in Apple's marketing strategy is the Apple iCloud, which delivers a seamless experience for using and sharing content across all your Apple devices (iPhone, iPod, iPad, or Mac). iCloud enables a common "it just works" experience for using content across all of Apple's mainstream products. iCloud positions the company for a future where customers experiences and their digtal lives transcend the hardware devices which they use, and enables Apple to extend the brand experience well beyond individual products.

Apple has invested in a 500,000 (soon to be one million) square footApple data center in rural North Carolina. This data centre this will be used as the core of a data repository for Apple's iCloud services, which will enable Apple to leverage it's customer franchise into an even broader market space. Apple iCloud is one of many ways in which Apple and Google are fast becoming arch rivals.

iKnow Siri?

Once Apple hand-held device users have become acustomed to this style of interactivity, presumably natural language speech interaction will also be extended to the Mac - in whatever form-factor Apple's full-function computers have evolved into by then. Perhaps longer-term, it can also be assumed that a user's Siri personal assistant will be used to embody and create a feeling of continuous experience across different devices, with Siri seemingly moving with us from device to device.

This continuity across devices will be possible because Apple is using iCloud to offer customers device-independence and multi-device synchronisation - so that whichever Apple device you move to the experience continues because the new one will "know" what you were doing on the last one and can pick up dialogues such as chat messages where you left off.

Apple's Original Apple Macintosh Marketing Strategy

Stanford University has published contemporary records and original documents of the marketing strategy for the Apple Macintosh launch in 1984, including the original Apple marketing strategy and the Apple Macintosh product introduction plan written by Regis McKenna.

It is now nearly 3 decades since the launch of the Apple Macintosh (on January 24, 1984). Having proven itself and already gained considerable popularity with the Apple II, Apple chose to announce the Apple Mac in one of the most famous-ever commercials, aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII on 22 January 1984.

The formal product release came a couple of days later on January 24th, 1984.

In addition to the innovative Apple Mac graphical user interface (based on concepts from Xerox PARC), the Mac's industrial design - shown below - was revolutionary for the time. Interestingly, it share's the same screen size (9 inch) as a relatively new PC format: NetBooks, and had a just slightly smaller screen size than Apple's 10 inch iPad and Macbook Air products.

http://www.marketingminds.com.au/branding/apple_branding_strategy.html

The first Mac (above) had just 128KB of RAM and a 400KB 3.5-inch floppy disk drive, and a 9-inch, 512x342 pixel monochrome display.

The original Mac graphical user interface was revolutionary in its day. It introduced the use of the mouse and features such as icons, fonts, folders, and audio to mainstream computers.

Why Successful Branding Still Happens Offline

2012-05-16T10:21:00.002+02:00

Does Facebook offer better branding opportunities than word-of-mouth and human interaction?

By ED KELLER AND BRAD FAY

The Facebook IPO has both the financial and marketing communities abuzz, and with good reason. Facebook is the king of the social media hill, and its growth and ability to attract a loyal and highly networked audience is to be admired.

For brands, however, online social networks are far from the Holy Grail of marketing. The research is increasingly clear and compelling that for brands that want to be social and generate conversation, a far bigger and more powerful force is real world, face-to-face conversation.

It has been said that online social media is “word of mouth on steroids.” Key to that argument is a belief that online conversations will spread to hundreds or thousands of people (and maybe more) with the click of a mouse. But while that is theoretically possible, it is not the way online sharing usually works. Most links that are shared reach only 5-10 people. And the huge legions of Facebook fans, it turns out, are not so actively engaged with the brands they once “liked.” Fewer than 1% of brand fans on Facebook have any type of active involvement, bringing those huge numbers back down to earth.

Meanwhile, our research finds that 90% of word-of-mouth conversations about brands take place offline, primarily face-to-face, in people’s homes and offices, in restaurants and stores, really anywhere people congregate. These conversations bring with them greater credibility, a greater desire to share with others, and a great likelihood to purchase the products being discussed than conversations that take place online.

So if not via Facebook and other social networking sites, what can brands do to get conversations started? It is important to fight the urge to start your marketing strategy with a particular tool or approach. Instead, start a story that consumers will want to talk about. What are the messages about your brand and category that make you talkworthy?

Next, it’s important to tap the right talkers. Who are the consumer influencers in your category, and your brand advocates? When and where do they talk, about what, and why? Often the people who have credibility when they talk are not the target customer. And the places to reach these influencers will not flow naturally from your media optimization plan unless you’re clearly focused on word of mouth as a primary goal. Media with the largest concentrations of influencers will surprise you.

Once you have your message and target in mind, only then does it make sense to choose the channels through which to reach people and to encourage sharing. And it turns out, the biggest and most productive channel to spark conversation is not online social media, but paid advertising. Fully one-quarter of conversations about brands include an explicit reference to ads. In fact, television advertising is far and away the single biggest driver of consumer conversation. Far from being a dinosaur, as some pundits say, television and other traditional media play a key role in today’s social marketplace.

Today’s consumer marketplace is highly social, but not because of particular platforms or technologies. The businesses that will be the most successful in the future are the ones that embrace a model that puts people– rather than technology – at the center of products, campaigns and market strategies. Those who achieve the greatest success will recognize that there are many ways to tap the power of today’s social consumer.

The great social wave is an opportunity that no business can afford to ignore or look at myopically. It’s happening all around us – and to the continuing surprise of many, it’s mostly happening face-to-face.

Ed Keller and Brad Fay are co-authors of The Face-to-Face Book: Why Real Relationships Rule in a Digital Marketplace, to be published in May by Free Press. They are also principals of the Keller Fay Group, a market research and consulting firm.

Why Blind Obedience is Killing Your Business

2012-02-29T10:02:00.000+02:00

Picture three men racing through a tall hedge maze.

The first man runs off and begins following paths randomly, hoping to stumble upon the exit.

The second man is more methodical. He puts one hand on a wall of the maze and resolves to keep moving forward slowly, never taking his hand off the wall. Eventually, thanks to the rules of topology, he knows he’ll find the outside.

The third man pushes and shoves directly through the hedges in a straight line, finishing in thirty seconds flat and declaring himself the winner.

Did the third man cheat?

Maybe. But he also won.

How to cheat in business

If you’ve read everything in the world about how to make your business better and it’s still not better, I bet I know what the problem is.

If you’re doing everything right, but find yourself unable to stand out from your competitors and are barely able to keep your head above water, I can guess what’s missing.

The problem is that you’re listening too closely. You’re implementing too literally. You’re following too many conventions, societal norms, expectations of friends, “the way things have always been done,” and best practices.

To stand out, you need to think outside the box. You need to play by fewer rules.

Am I really going to advocate cheating here? Well, sort of.

And also, not really.

See, if the hedge maze race I’ve described above was a formally sanctioned Hedge Maze Runners of Northern Michigan competition with a prize purse at stake, and contest rules clearly stating that no contestant may run directly through the walls of the maze, then we can safely call our third man a dirty cheater and say he’s a miserable human being, and so on and so forth.

But what if the three men were racing out of the maze because a child was drowning in the lake outside? Do we call the third man a cheater now? Or do we call him smart and probably even ahero, because he thought of a lightning-fast solution that didn’t occur to the others?

There are two important points I’m trying to make here with my silly maze metaphor:

Whether or not “defying the normal way of doing things” is brilliant or a travesty is a matter of circumstance, and a matter of opinion. Breaking rules isn’t right and it isn’t wrong. It just is.
We are all, right now, in a maze of our own. Some of the rules of the maze called “life” serve us and protect us, but some are forcing us to plod along with one hand on the wall, making our way slowly to the finish, while the kid drowns in the lake.

The rules you’ve been following have nudged you into a box. And if that box is serving you and everything is perfect, then great.

But if life could be better — if you don’t have all that you’d really like in your business, your life, your relationships, your family, and everything else — then it might be time to take a close look at those rules and see which ones you can start to disobey.

How to be crazy in business

If anyone thinks I’m going to suggest cutting out the middlemen in the wealth-acquisition chain by robbing a bank, relax. I don’t want anyone to do anything stupid.

Quite the contrary. I want people to stop doing stupid things, like taking the long route instead of the shortcut simply because the map says they should.

I recently heard from a man who had a job in the city.

He hated his job, but he had to have the job so that he could afford his house. He didn’t like his house much either, but it was all he could find that was close to the city. And he had to be near the city to keep the job he hated, so that he could afford the house that he didn’t like but had to keep because it allowed him to keep the job he hated.

So he quit the job and moved to the country, where the land was cheap, and became a freelancer, working remotely for a lot less money. His old job was an impressive, professional job that he had worked hard to get, and everyone thought he was crazy for throwing it all away, going independent.

But he didn’t think he was crazy.

He was making less money, but because of his new, lower cost of living, he was netting much more. He’d found a way to make less money and have more money, which is just about the easiest way ever to get a raise.

All of the most successful people do things that others call crazy, because innovation always comes before genius, and innovation is — by definition — always new. If you’re the first person in your group of peers to do the most brilliant thing in the world, your peers will still think you’re crazy because you’re breaking out of step. But that’s exactly what’s required to be successful.

Look at Steve Jobs.

Look at wacky old Albert Einstein.

I even know this lawyer dude who gave it all up to start a blog, and people thought he was crazy, too. (Only, he really is crazy. Seems to work for him, though.)

Want to really make a change? Then you need to look at what you’ve always done and what most people do and ask if there’s a better way. You need to ask if you want to keep playing by the rules that don’t serve you. You need to be willing to be called “crazy.”

A primer in entrepreneurial disobedience

I’m hosting a webinar on March 2nd that’s all about learning to identify, question, and (if necessary) break the rules that are stopping you.

It’s called Breaking Rules for Fun and Profit: 21 Lies About Business, Money, and Life That You Don’t Even Realize Are Holding You Back, and What To Do About Them, and you really should attend.

Here are a few of the 21 lies I’m going to talk about:

You need money to start a business (including big ones, like restaurants).
You need to have a product in order to sell a product.
You have to have a niche.
You are unable to do X, Y, or Z skill (for 99% of all letters of the alphabet).
You need to have a plan, goals, or an idea where your business is going.
You need a lot of money to live on a yacht, live in an island paradise, or travel the world.
You don’t have any connections or know any of the right people.

None of the above is true. If you’ve been mistaking lies for the truth, you’re cutting off vast areas of possibility.

Be sure to sign up, and try to be there early because it’s first-come, first-served.

You can sign up for the March 2nd webinar here.

But don’t go signing up just because I said you should. That would be entirely too obedient of you.

About the Author: Johnny B. Truant just released his novel The Bialy Pimps despite the fact that it’s totally crazy for a business and human potential blogger to write a novel about fame and bagels.

The Branding Comedy

2012-01-02T14:39:00.000+02:00

The Country’s Blandest Yogurt?

2011-11-03T09:24:00.003+02:00

I never thought the day would come but, these days, I would much rather have a tart frozen yogurt sprinkled with blackberries and coconut shavings than a creamy chocolate ice cream sprinkled with chocolate chips. Years ago, it was fat over fat-free. Perhaps the boom of the “froyo” craze, fueled by Pinkberry, of the mid-2000s had something to do with it, which has positioned this treat as a cool, groovy, healthy swirl to consume. Not even remotely associated with the upheaval of the froyo is TCBY (The Country’s Best Yogurt), the forefather of consumer frozen yogurt that opened its first store in 1981 and now has over 900 franchise locations, approximately 400 of those outside the United States. I remember the TCBY in a mall in Mexico, it was full of hippie foods and it couldn’t shake the old school health attitude if its granola depended on it. In the last ten years in the US, I don’t recall, once, seeing a TCBY outpost. Surely, I have, but it has receded into the background against its contemporary, colorful rivals. In June, TCBY announced plans to change all this, introducing a new store design and identity created by Salt Lake City, UT-based Struck/Axiom.

“We feel like the tone of the experience, energy, and choice self-serve offers the consumer is not only a dramatic departure from our current experience, but a departure from the category as a whole,” says Timothy Casey, CEO of TCBY. “Today’s announcement is the culmination of tremendous strategy, research and creative execution by our internal team and agency, StruckAxiom, to bring this trifecta — concept, design, and brand identity — to a realization. More important, it’s symbolic of the new TCBY, a pioneer ready to infuse and lead the movement around a growing frozen yogurt category. Today is one of many steps in that direction.”
— Press Release

The following images are of directions presented, not chosen. Provided for your process enjoyment.

End of process images.

TCBY requested a simple, yet empowering logo that would remain a recognizable, iconic depiction of the company’s trademark acronym. Along with Foster Research & Consulting, StruckAxiom conducted focus groups on TCBY’s behalf to gauge consumer sentiment on the refreshed logo. Consumers felt the new logo and identity were clean and simple, and spoke to freshness, health and relevancy. TCBY will incorporate variations of the updated logo on in-store and outdoor signage, packaging, employee uniforms and marketing collateral.

The old logo had a clumsy playfulness that didn’t come across too endearingly, not committing fully to being more daring and fun. The new logo, in contrast, commits to something: trendiness. The magenta color, the thin geometric letterform, the lowercase… it’s not a particularly good or bad logo, but it doesn’t offer anything new. I can appreciate the “y” in the shape of the cup and the well-balanced length of the ascenders and descenders but that’s where the yogurt stops serving. The name spelled out next to tcby is too tight and mashed together, the complete opposite message of light and airiness that one might prefer to associate with frozen yogurt.

With a distinct color palette and welcoming social lounge, the new store design boasts a clean, progressive personality with smart functionality for both consumers and employees. Mindful of the concept’s vision, TCBY has created a self-serve customer experience that is both accessible and attractive. Upon entering the store, customers are greeted by 10 to 16 soft-serve flavors boasting 98 percent fat free and sugar free frozen yogurt and sorbet options. After choosing their favorite flavors, guests approach an extensive toppings bar brimming with fresh fruit, granola, and a variety of dry and hot toppings to finalize their creation. Pricing is done by weight at $.39 per ounce.

The new store design does feel more engaging and welcoming. I’m also a fan of anything that allows me to interact less with bored teenagers waiting for costumers to pick a flavor. The self-serve stations, which are now the de facto model in most froyo chains, is indeed a boon. TCBY is getting a big visual boost with this concept, but all those franchises still need to adopt the new look and feel, and that may take a long time. TCBY is already a step behind the competition, it may be too many steps more before it catches up.

Photos from the soft opening of a new concept store in Salt Lake City.

JWT works on ‘Brand USA’ - the country’s first global consumer brand

2011-11-01T08:36:00.001+02:00

JWT has created what claims to be the United States’ first-ever global consumer brand, the Brand USA project, for US government organisation The Corporation for Travel Promotion.

The identity is set to be unveiled in London on 7 November.

Working with WPP sister consultancy The Brand Union and PR agency Hill & Knowlton, JWT’s New York office has named the brand, developed an identity and a brand manifesto.

The CTP did not start searching for its consultancies until July and the consortium of agencies were not appointed until late August.

WPP says its consultancies beat ‘two undisclosed global agencies in a pitch’.

The CTP, which is understood to have a $200 million (£125 million) budget, was set up in 2010 as a partnership between the travel industry and federal government to market the USA to international visitors and in turn create jobs in the industry and economic growth.

Launching at the World Travel Market in London on 7 November a discussion of the ‘rigorous strategic positioning and brand identity process’ is promised by CTP.

http://www.designweek.co.uk/

Simon Anholt on Brand Egypt

2011-10-27T11:48:00.001+02:00

At Business Today there’s a very interesting interview with Simon Anholt about Brand Egypt:

How does a nation benefit from branding itself?
Branding a country is very different from branding a product, because it’s not simply a matter of conceptualizing an image, then creating a marketing strategy and ad campaign. In my opinion, that would be propaganda and a huge waste of money. That’s not what I do. I don’t work on tourism campaigns, either. Instead, I advise governments on how to change the complete reputation of their country abroad. I work on innovation strategies with governments, which involve making real policy changes, then getting that message across to the rest of the world.

Does that mean the changes have to take place first before the branding campaign begins?
No, the two can take place simultaneously. A country in the process of reforming itself is a fact that you can use to build a brand — provided that the reforms are real and not just propaganda on the part of the government. A work in progress can be a brand.

Do developing economies need branding more than their fully industrialized counterparts?
Yes, definitely. If you look at the results of the quarterly country surveys that I conduct as part of my nation brands index [see www.nationbrandindex.com], developed countries have the strongest brands. They rank as the top 20 countries in the survey. It’s the developing nations that need stronger images. If the image doesn’t change, nothing will move forward; it has to go hand in hand with any development strategy.

Is now the right time for to brand itself?Absolutely. Actually, Egypt already has a brand — it has had one for about 5,000 years. The problem is that is hasn’t been able to successfully manage it. I would say that it is about 500 years too late in getting around to managing it.

Are you working in an official capacity with the government of Egypt on a branding campaign?
No, I am not currently working with the Egyptian government — but would very much like to.

Should Egypt brand itself as a complete destination for business, investment and tourism with a unified image campaign, or can each aspect be tackled separately?
Branding must be approached as a comprehensive effort. You can’t tackle tourism alone, for example, and ignore the rest. It wouldn’t be effective.
This is actually the problem that Egypt, and many other developing countries, are suffering from today. They put out a lot of conflicting messages. On the one hand, you have the messages coming from the Tourist Board — those are always the shiniest and the loudest, promoting Egypt as a wonderful tourist destination with amazing hotels, beaches and ancient monuments. It’s not false advertising, but then you have the other images that come from the media: the negative political climate, the occasional terrorist attack, the failing economy.
These are all conflicting images that people have of Egypt, so the overall image is very fragmented. People outside don’t understand a thing about the country. They see a very weak economy — I’m talking about the average person on the street, not necessarily the investors — and political turmoil, but an interesting holiday destination despite the hardships.

How do you deal with these conflicting messages?The way to deal with the terrorist threat is not to ignore it, but rather get the message out about how the government is working on fixing the problem. I think most tourists acknowledge the fact that it is not the fault of the government that these incidents happen, but they are interested in knowing what is being done about it. Denying that it exists is not very effective.

Have the Pyramids become a liability rather than an asset? There is talk here that we rely too heavily on them as a ‘brand’ for Egypt.
You can’t deny the fact that Egypt is famous for the Pyramids. That’s not a bad thing. I mean, less than one fourth of the countries in the world today are famous. Egypt is one of those famous countries.
Clearly, you cannot rely on the pyramids or your ancient history alone with your branding strategy, but they don’t have to be erased. Doing so would be a mistake, because they are too heavily entrenched in people’s minds.
The trick is to try to make links between the past and the future. That is the challenge. The Pyramids will not bring in foreign investments or improve trade deficits, but they are better than being invisible.
You have a better situation than a country like Bangladesh, which isn’t famous for anything. It’s much easier to change the course of a conversation about Egypt from Pyramids to industrial growth and GDP than it is to start a new conversation about Bangladesh.

Many business leaders here believe that this focus on the old —like the Pyramids —is part and parcel of why we make little effort to innovate and create like Dubai has.
You can’t compare Egypt to Dubai on any front. In fact, it’s difficult to compare Dubai to any other country in the world, because [it is] run more like a corporation than a country. It’s very easy to market and brand a corporation. There is no challenge there whatsoever.

Does your Anholt Nation Brands Index include Egypt?
Yes, it does. Egypt ranks 28 out of 35 countries, 35 being the weakest brand, which is not so good, I’m afraid.

What’s your methodology?We survey 28,000 ordinary consumers all over the world and ask questions in six specific categories: governance, culture, people, products, tourism and business climate.
Egypt does incredibly well on culture. It actually ranks number one in this area. Cultural heritage is your strong point, and that’s something you should be capitalizing on. Egypt ranks reasonably well on tourism, but could improve.
The areas in which you rank the poorest are governance and products. When, for example, the consumer is asked the question “If you buy a product, take it home find a ‘Made in Egypt’ label on it, would you feel that you have overpaid, underpaid or paid a fair price?” The answer was always overpaid. So “Made in Egypt” currently adds no value to a product. Egyptian products ranked 34th out of 35, with Japan being the top country.
Egypt’s business climate also ranked poorly: 33rd out of 35.
But keep in mind that it was a general audience that was being surveyed, not investors, who may be more familiar with the repercussions of the recent reforms and legislation.
We also asked questions like, “If your company were to relocate you to Egypt, would you be happy about the move?” The answer was usually “No.” That puts into play other factors like the perceived quality of life.
Egypt also ranked 33 out of 35 as a destination for education or a place to study.

How can we go about improving our overall image?Well, the way I would go about it is to create a single public-private partnership made up of government — the ministries of trade, investment, foreign affairs and tourism — top business people and civil society. They would be responsible for putting together a brand strategy and overall direction for the country.
The participation of civil society here is very important. You need to have the participation of religious leaders, educational leaders and intellectuals in order to come up with some clearly defined goals. It isn’t an easy process. National image is very slow-moving — it can take 20-30 years to build, so even if there are positive improvements in Egypt on the economic and business front, they won’t trickle down to street level either at home or abroad for quite some time.
But the positive stories have to be well managed, highlighted and made public. Egypt has done a very poor job of that thus far. It’s the negative images that get out. This is not unique to Egypt: Most countries suffer from the same problem because of the nature of the media. Bad news sells better than good news.

Your survey also tries to quantify what national brands are worth.
Yes, right now Egypt’s brand is worth $67 billion, which is only 20% of its GDP. A very strong brand like Germany, for example, is worth double its GDP. Clearly, we can see that Egypt is under-performing in terms of image.

How you calculate how much a brand is worth?
It’s complicated, but basically, 50% of the calculation comes from consumer research and the other half comes from economic data — things like foreign investment, tourism revenues etc. What boosts the brand worth of countries such as Japan and Germany, for example, are the strong brands that they are known for, including Mercedes, BMW and Toyota.
Famous exports can be powerful ambassadors. Egypt doesn’t have any famous exports. Egyptian cotton is perhaps Egypt’s most famous product, but it is not really a brand.

All of this ties into the global power of brands you postulate in Brand New Justice?
The book is about branding and economic development. Brand value is an incredibly powerful economic force. It is responsible for a quarter of all the wealth on the planet.
It isn’t a coincidence that countries that are very good at branding are also the wealthiest. Branding is the most powerful tool that humanity has created for distributing wealth, and it is branding that can close the gap between rich and poor nations. If we teach developing nations how to brand, it can dramatically change their plights. There are well-established policy routes that can help the nations of the developing world change their image.

So how can Egyptian industry change its poor image abroad?
In the 1950s, Japan was a poor country; today, they are an industrial superpower. The Japanese government basically adopted a strategy they called ‘backing winners,’ which meant that they gave their full support to companies that were promising. Things took off from there.
For Egypt, I think the route to changing the poor perception of Egyptian products will not be through the manufacturing of consumer electronics. It is very important to understand consumer psychology. Even if Egypt starts producing good-quality consumer electronics, it is cultural heritage that is Egypt’s strong point in the minds of consumers worldwide. It would be very difficult to get them to buy electronics manufactured in Egypt — at least for the time being.
So start with something that is easy for the world to accept. I think fashion and textiles might be a good start, since the association with cotton and art are already there. Egypt already makes much of the clothes that are sold in the developed world, so coming up with indigenous textile and clothing brands is the next stage.

What do you hope to achieve with your participation in Egypt’s Economist Conference?
I will be participating in a session with Minster of Tourism Zohair Garana on branding. I hope to feed some ideas into the minds of the government. This is a globalized world, but I think developing countries sometimes work on strategies that completely ignore the marketplace.

How did you decide to get into ‘place’ branding?
This is what I love and believe in, so I created this business based on that. I have been in the field of place branding for 10 years or so, serving as an advisor to governments. Before that, I had extensive experience in the field of corporate marketing, but I got bored with companies.

http://nation-branding.info/2006/05/02/brand-egypt-anholt/

A Rebranding Concept That Could Make Ladies Love Car Accessories

2011-02-21T10:50:00.000+02:00

Vinh Pho's AutoZone packaging makes car accessories appealing to the fairer sex (and more accessible to everyone).

If motor-oil canisters are any indication, women don't buy oil. Ever. The packaging has so many muscular angles and mannish colors and all-cap type treatments, you half expect it to go marching into a meeting of No Ma'am. Which should make sense to precisely no one. Women drive. Some even (gasp!) know how to change their oil. Shouldn't motor oil -- and all auto accessories for that matter -- appeal to the fairer sex?

Enter Vinh Pho, a student designer living in France, who has snipped away all that dudishness to produce a refreshingly simple (and, yes, gender-neutral) packaging concept for car gear sold by the spare-parts giant AutoZone. The products include hand tools, microfiber pads, a drying cloth, and, of course, motor oil, and each is done up in a sleek graphic scheme of orange, gray, and white, with minimal text and lots of lower-case letters; think Method instead of Nascar.

As for the shape of the packaging, it suggests a light feminine touch: The oil comes in a capsule that resembles a Glade PlugIn, microfiber pads in something that could easily pass for a compact.

Sure, some men might scoff at an oil canister that doesn't look like Axe body spray on steroids. But set aside all this gender talk, for a moment, and think about this: Pho's design is leaps and bounds easier to read than most car-accessory brands. Look at his oil capsule, which makes the most important information, the oil grade, the biggest feature. That's great news for ladies and guys alike -- nothing's less manly than pouring the wrong oil in your car.

[Images courtesy of Vinh Pho]

Harmony Amid Chaos: Another Brand of Brotherhood in Egypt

2011-02-13T11:35:00.001+02:00

As the world gazes upon and analyzes the uncertainty in Egypt, much focus has been given to the radical "Muslim Brotherhood" group. Well, there's another Egyptian brotherhood that's caught my eyes recently.

Last week I was touched by a picture posted here on Revelife in which a group of Egyptian Christians surrounded their Muslim countrymen so that they could safely worship/pray amid the chaos in the area. And I was just as moved several days later by other images showing Egyptian Muslims returning the favor, joining with and protecting their Christian countrymen in worship. So indescribably beautiful.

I once read about a similar situation somewhere else in the Middle East. I want to say it was in Iraq, but I'm not entirely positive. In the midst of Christianity vs. Islam, Christians and Muslims cohabited a city together with no suicide-bombers, no gunshots in the street, no egg'd porches or TP'd lawns -- no conflict whatsoever. Further, the Muslims and Christians in this town would immediately stand up and defend the other whenever outsiders came in to try and disrupt the peaceful community they'd built.

Why don't we hear about these kinds of stories more? It's always bombs here, battles there, and it's all just so disheartening.

I can't stand conflict. Drives me nuts. Especially conflict between Christians, or caused by so-called "Christians" against non-Christians, who don't at all extend the love that Jesus taught and exuded. I hate divorce, despise constant arguments that go nowhere. Why can't we all just get along on this earth? Why can't we all follow this beautiful example of Egyptian brotherhood, arms across shoulders, crosses and Korans within inches of each other with no fists flying?

Lord haste the day when we know nothing but peace for all eternity.