The brandgym blog

Amplifying your brand story with design

There was joy and pain reading Marketing magazine's recent supplement on "Brands by Design". This featured 1-pagers from leading agencies, with each writing about their view on design.

One article stood out a mile amongst the buzzword-laden agency pitches. Rather than trying to sell his agency, which most of the others did, Nicolas Mamier of Elmwood told a great story about telling stories through design. Some key points:

Selling through storytelling
What was great about Nicolas' piece was didn't just talk about telling a story, he told one of his own. And this story is why I remember his piece and not the other seven. Elmwood had the idea for a brand of tea that would be good, simple and down-to-earth. This would be differentiated at a time when tea is getting all fancy-pants with exotic blends and herbal versions. In the UK we call this "builders' tea", as its the stuff that builders drink (which is what they spend a lot of time doing instead of, well, building).

So, Elmwood got together some expert tasters and a blender and made their own tea. They wrote the story of the brand and then designed the pack, and "Make Mine a Builders" is now sold in Asda and Tesco!

Build on a brand truth
Bang in line with what we believe about successful branding Nicolas talked about building on an authentic truth about a brand. I love the way he describes the role of an agency or consultancy in helping brands do this:

"All (brands) harbour such treasure. Our role is to seek it out and give it cut-through. We must find a voice that will be listened to, remembered...and acted on. We call this 'giving it an attitude'."

The power of visual "essence"
Nicolas makes a great point about designers being  masters at the "shortest story form of all". Whereas TV advertising has 30, 60 or even 90 seconds to tell a story, packaging design and brand identity are much more constrained. Great designers have a talent for distilling the essence of a brand story down into a powerful visual symbol. Seeing such a symbol, like the bitten apple or a 'swoosh", unlocks meaning. Design can also tell more detail about the story, as is the case with innocent smoothies or Ben & Jerry's.

Now, contrast Nicolas' piece with the stream of buzzwords from the bloke from Interbrand. This would have made Hugo Gaines from Where's the Sausage? proud. This is a single paragraph:

"The true value of a brand is derived from key criteria defined in the brand-value chain. This means there is a consistent link between what a brand stands for and the value it contributes to the overall business. A brand idea is brought to life through everything you do that connects the brands to its stakeholders through its key touchpoints. These create perceptions that influence the overall appraisal of a brand in the market across generic drivers of demand. Improving brand perception, or equity, influences stakeholder behaviour, and therefore the economic value of a brand"

Translating this Hugo-speak into English: "For a brand to add value to a business it must drive differentiation across the whole customer experience". No wonder we get a reputation for talking brand bollocks with blokes like this about...

So, time get you started on your brand's story? "Once upon a time...."

Being "branded" is not about a bigger logo

Another bit of painfully sharp insight into marketing madness captured in a cartoon from Brandcamp's Tom Fishburne.

A battle over how big the logo should be is of course a complete dead-end street. Its a failure to take on the real challenge of creating a truly branded campaign. Ones like these that are recognisable even in the absence of any logo at all:

O2's blue bubbles:
I've never really figured out what O2 stands for as a brand. But what it has done is stand out, and this is key in an over-crowded market where people are not that involved. Whether in press, posters or on TV, everything is instantly recognisable.

The pure white light of Apple
Visually stunning. And whether its those white earphones, the drop-dead gorgeous iMac of the nifty navigation of iTunes you know its Apple from a mile away.

Absolutely Absolut:
1400 executions and still going strong. One to remember what the agency say your campaign is "worn out". There's a whole site dedicated to the campaign here.

Levi's when they were hot:
The late 80's and early 90's campaigns (Launderette, Swimmer) that used retro music and 50's Americana to take the high-ground in the jeans market.