We started working with Smokey Joe in 2011, creating the packaging for their range of Caribbean cooking sauces. Smokey Joe is on a mission to bring the undiscovered flavours of the Caribbean to a wider audience, and each sauce comes from a different Caribbean island. Each sauce has a story to tell and captures a little piece of the culture of its homeland.

Creating their packaging we wanted each label to look different, to reflect the individuality of each sauce, but at the same time look like part of a bigger family. Creating the newest addition to the family it was important we carried that on. You can find out more about the work we’ve done with Smokey Joe in our case studies, but be sure to look out for what they do next. We don’t know what that will be, but it’ll certainly taste good!
 

I had the opportunity to listen to Rob Baxter, the Head Coach at Exeter Chiefs rugby club at an event recently. He was talking about his approach to management. Since winning promotion to the Aviva Premiership in 2010 Exeter Chiefs have defied the critics by thriving at the highest level of club rugby. Rob Baxter said his approach at Exeter is to focus on each individual in the team; to make sure that every player understands their role in the team, and what’s expected of them. After a match the performance of every player is reviewed, each aspect of their performance analysed. And judge. That way it can be improved.

Now business is full of teams and teamwork. But one team that is often overlooked in business is the visual identity. It’s part of a companies brand, but all too often it gets confused with a logo. It’s the logo that gets all the glory – after all he gets stuck everywhere. Everyone loves a logo – especially a new one. But the logo’s just part of the team, along side typeface, colour palette, imagery, tone of voice and design style. The logo may get all the attention, but unless he’s got the team behind him, he’s going to struggle to reach his full potential.

So, like any team, to coax the best performance from a visual identity it needs to be managed. Someone needs to understand the role the visual identity plays in the brand (and in the business), and how each of the ‘team members’ fit together. The brand manager needs to review and analyse the performance of each element within the visual identity, just like Rob Baxter does with his players. To manage a brand well you have to invest time, but like any investment in your business, you should see a return.

If you feel that your visual identity ‘team’ is under performing, or is missing a couple of members, you might be interested in joining us at one of our brand seminars. They’re informal, free and focused on your business. It could be the difference between being cup winners and runners up. (And don’t forget, no-one remembers who came second).

What’s interesting about the advert is that it’s not selling Virgin Money. It doesn’t tell you anything about the products or services they offer. It’s not trying to build a new brand. It’s selling an old one… the Virgin brand. It’s selling the brands pedigree. It’s asking you to buy into something you know, and feel comfortable with (the Virgin brand)… although what they’re actually selling is really an unknown quantity (Virgin Money).

That’s great if you’ve got 40 years of high-profile success to point to, but what if you haven’t? Well, understanding what your audience is looking for is a good start – and that’s not what products or services they’re looking for. It’s the emotional need, their motivation to buy. When it comes to money it’s trust. Peace of mind. So Virgin sell us their pedigree; 40 years of success (and an ambitious eye on the future).

But Virgin take their values one step further. Trust is always important, in any sector, but if you look at High Street banking, and how their reputation has suffered over the last few years, it becomes even more important. So if a new entrant into the sector arrives with ‘the simple aim of making things better’, it’s a great position to take. It immediately differentiates them. They’re saying, ‘We know you’re feed up with things, but you can trust us, we do things differently.’

Taking up a position in your marketplace that differentiates you from all your competitors is a great strategy – if you can find something that genuinely does. And Virgin can. They are pointing us at 40 years experience of making things better.

Homebase asked themselves the question, and realised it was time to rebrand (new logo above, right). 60% of their customers are women now. And they’re making changes to the range of products they offer too; they’re introducing Habitat at Homebase, and there are new promotions for the ranges from Laura Ashley and Jamie Oliver. The decision to rebrand is driven by ‘changing company culture and values, rather than just a marketing strategy’, according to their statement.

So to reflect this change in positioning – from powertools and Polyfilla to interior design – Homebase have made some changes to the way they communicate. They’ve updated their logo and introduced a new TV ad and print advertising. (Interestingly, the original brief was to leave the logo unchanged, but as the project – and creative work – progressed, the design company felt it was necessary to change the logo, to reflect the development of the other areas of the visual identity).

What lessons can you learn from the Homebase rebrand?
• If there’s change happening around your business, it might be time for you to change.
• Do you know who your customers are?
• Brand development isn’t just changing a logo, it’s about developing every area of the business to achieve the goal (usually more sales).

If you want to know more about when and how to develop your brand, you might be interested in our monthly brand seminar.

I’m talking about straplines. Or slogans. Or positioning statements. Or taglines. Or whatever you want to call the words that some companies add after their logo. They often look, and sound, like a bit of an after thought. But they can be a fantastic tool for communication. The magazine Creative Review compiled a list of their Top 20 slogans of all time in their February issue. It wasn’t a scientific survey, just the opinions of people across the creative industries. But it tells us a lot about the power of a strapline (or slogan etc.). You can probably name the companies that the top 10 belong to…

1/ Beanz Meanz Heinz
2/ Just do it
3/ Does exactly what it says on the tin
4/ Make love not war
5/ Every little helps
6/ Have a break. Have a Kit Kat
7/ Vorsprung Durch Technik
8/ Think different
9/ It is. Are you?
10/ Finger lickin’ good
(If you want the answers, have a look at the end 0f this post)

A couple of those straplines are fifty years old. Not many logos last that long. A good strapline can be an enduring tool for communicating with your audience. A great tool for telling people something about your brand and your product. A great tool for telling people what makes you different. Take a look at NatWest and Lloyds TSB. Two High Street banks offering pretty similar services. But if you look at the straplines they use, they describe two quite different banks.

NatWest is very practical. They describe what they do, and how they do it. For customers looking for reliability, that could be very attractive. Lloyds TSB are much more aspirational. They’ll help you make your dreams come true. For customers with plans for something different, that offer could be just what they’re looking for. But a strapline can’t do the job on it’s own. If you look at the TV advertising for both NatWest and Lloyds TSB, the stories they tell reflect the straplines. I’m not saying they’re brilliant straplines, but good examples of how you can use a strapline to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

A great example of the power of a strapline is the success of Sainsbury’s in the battle for customers at Christmas 2011. They introduced a new strapline in October 2011: “Live well for less”. Combined with other communication tools (like their TV ad) and changes to their offering in store, the strapline was a fundamental tool in communicating their new positioning to customers.

So when you look at your brand, and the identity you use to communicate that brand, have you got a good strapline? Is it something that your customers remember? Or do you even use one?

If you’d like to know more about all the elements of your brand, and what they can do for your business, you should probably join us at one of our seminars.

If you want the answers to the owners of the Top 10 straplines, scroll down.

1/ Heinz Baked Beans
2/ Nike
3/ Ronseal
4/ -
5/ Tesco
6/ Kit Kat
7/ Audi
8/ Apple
9/ The Independent
10/ Kentucky Fried Chicken

What do Coca Cola sell? Look at the peoples faces. They sell happiness. Not drinks. Happiness. They don’t need to write it on the roof of the van (although that’s a great idea in a city with lots of tall building). Now Coca Cola have had a long time to develop their brand (they’ve been doing it for 125 years), but any business can learn from this lesson. Why do people buy from you? What’s the need – the emotional need – that you’re fulfilling?

The role of emotion in branding (and selling) is often overlooked. But it doesn’t matter what sector you’re in or what service or product you sell. If you know why people buy from you – what need it is that you fulfill – you stand a much better task of winning their business, because you can tell them what they want to hear, and give them what they want. Let me give you an example. When the RAC send me a letter to renew my membership, they first thing they say is “Relax, you’re covered”. They know the reason I am a member is that I want peace-of-mind. I want to know that if I breakdown in the car I don’t need to worry. It’s all taken care of. I can relax, because I’m covered.

So take a look at your business and your customers, and ask yourself: What emotion do we sell? Why do our customers buy from us?

If you want to know more about the answers to those questions, you might be interested in joining us at one of our seminars. It would be good to see you.

From a struggling bridalwear shop in Kettering, to an under-performing garage in Ashton-under-Lyme, the businesses featured in the series are very ordinary. And that’s what’s so interesting. They’re not run by larger-than-life characters with a passion for self-promotion. They’re run by very ordinary business owners, facing a very ordinary challenge: How do I make my business work better?

And the answer is equally ordinary. It just needs someone outside the business to bring a fresh perspective to find the answer. Whether it’s something as simple as changing the way the business is presented, improving the working environment or developing the customer service skills of the staff. It’s not rocket science, but it does involve looking at every aspect of a business and understanding how they all fit together to create a single, coherent impression of the business. In other words, create a brand.

When we’re developing a brand for a client we divide their business into four areas: Communication (their logo and marketing), Product or service (the thing they get paid for), People (anyone who represents the business) and Working environment (the place where they do business). Each of these areas present an opportunity to engage with your customers, but to make the most of that opportunity you need to do it in every area. If you have a great product, but the people your customers interact with are rude, you’ll struggle to make a success of your business. It’s not easy, but if you want to see the benefit of doing it well, take a look at Apple. (We’ve written about this before).

If you watch The Fixer, each week Alex Polizzi takes exactly this approach. She looks at the business, identifies the areas that aren’t working, and makes changes so that they’re all working together. She makes sure each area of the business tells the same story. She builds their brand.

Now brand building isn’t just for struggling businesses. It’s for any business with ambitions. If you want to know what brand can do for a business – a business just like yours – watch BBC2 at 8pm on a Tuesday. And if you want to see what you’ve missed, take a look at BBC iPlayer. If you’d like a more interactive experience, you might be interested in one of our seminars. Less glamour, but lots of value.

I heard someone talking about the film on the radio this week. They really liked it. They were saying how compelling and engaging the story is, despite the fact that it’s a (virtually) silent film. They described how well the images convey the emotion. And I thought “Telling a story with no words? That’s what a brand does”. Now I haven’t seen the film, only this trailer. But the critics love it (take a look), and it’s tipped for success at the Oscars. So what can it teach us about brand communication?

Technology gives us the ability to put thousands of words in front of millions of people every day. The internet is a fantastic tool for communication. But when it comes to brand communication it can make us lazy. It’s ‘easy’ to put words on a screen and compose a message. It’s much harder to choose, or create, an image to convey a message. But that’s the role of your brand, or more specifically your visual identity (the bit of your brand that people see).

So why is this important? Well, you don’t always have the opportunity to ‘tell’ people about your business. People are busy. They don’t always have time to read stuff. But they can’t help seeing stuff. That’s why your visual identity is such a powerful tool. It gives people something to look at. It can’t tell the whole story, but it can give people something to recognise (something distinctive) and something to remember (something memorable). And that’s the first step in building a relationship with potential customers.

Your Visual Identity is made up of six elements: logo, typeface, colour, imagery, tone of voice and design style. The bits we’re interested in here are logo, typeface, colour and imagery. Each of these has a role to play in communicating your brand.

Logo: This is the cornerstone of your identity. Its job is to make your business memorable and distinctive. People often get a ‘logo’ confused with a ‘brand’, because it’s the bit that people see a lot. But your logo is a badge to identify your business. Your brand is the personality of that business; the story behind the logo.

Typeface: The typeface you choose gives your words the opportunity to say even more. It’s a bit like choosing the tone of voice you use when you speak to someone: warm and friendly, or very formal? It’s the same message, just delivered in a different way. And that can have a big impact on whether you get the response you want.

Colour: This is a great tool for getting your business recognised and remembered (look at Coca Cola). But it can say much more about the kind of business you are. Soothing complimentary colours say something very different from clashing primaries. There’s no right or wrong combination, but understanding colour has a role to play is another step towards clarity.

Imagery: It’s not just about using photographs to help tell the story. You could use illustrations or icons, or nothing at all. Imagery gives you another dimension to your story telling. But think about how you use them. You can either be literal: if you work with computers you use a picture of a computer. Or use a metaphor: if your computers help people to connect with each other, maybe a picture of spiders web.

When you begin to combine all of these elements your brand becomes a really powerful communication tool. You can deliver your message much more clearly… without speaking a word. You might not win an Oscar. But you will probably win a few more customers.

If you’re interested in finding better ways to communicate you might be interested in our seminars.

If you’d like to see some examples of visual identities, take a look at our portfolio.

So what happened? How did Sainsbury’s win this round of the supermarket super bout? From what I’ve read, it seems to be a great example of a business making good use of their brand. They developed a strategy, changed their communication, changed their product offering, to appeal to their target market.

In September they launched their new ‘Live well for less’ positioning, replacing ‘Try something new today’. This was supported by a new advert (see below). What’s clever about this is that they’re appealing to the need for households make their money go further. Their acknowledging that everyone needs to make a change… but they’re not asking you to compromise. They’re telling you to ‘Live well’. They manage to combine practicality with aspiration. All in 4 words. (Never underestimate the importance, or benefit, of using the right words).

But this wasn’t just a marketing campaign. They made a change to how they sold their products, by introducing their Brand Match initiative, to support the new positioning. They delivered on their promise to help customers ‘Live well for less’, and customers loved it.

Now, we might be looking at a battle between to national retail giants, but there are lessons in there for all of us.
1: Focus on your customer first. What do they need? Develop a strategy to deliver it.
2: Engage your customer. Don’t just communicate with them. Tell them something they want to hear… be engaging.
3: Deliver on your promise. Brand communication – true brand communication – is about more than words and pictures. Is your product delivering your brand values?

If you’d like to know what your brand can do for your business, you might be interested in one of our free seminars.

This question came up at one of our seminars. We were talk about identifying your target audience and understanding what their needs are. One of our guests was discussing the challenge of selling techincally complex services – in their case web-based services – and the need to explain what was involved in providing them. It can be a long and confusing process.

Then someone offered this example. He’s a director and his company was discussing the installation of an air-conditioning system to a theatre in Stratford. The sales team were explaining the system and the specification to the client. The process was beginning to drag on as the client struggled to understand the technical details. Eventually the Theatre Director spoke up, cutting across the sales team. “What I need to know is, when we turn it on in the middle of Hamlet, will it make a noise?”. Simple.

Now, everybody does it. We lose sight of the customer. When we’re trying to sell our product or service we get caught up in the detail. Whether you’re selling an air-conditioning system, accounting services or an apple pie, it’s easy to lose yourself – and possible your customer – in sharing your knowledge. What you need to remember is that making a sale is about them, not you.