A Simple Solution

June 8th, 2011  |  Karen Henricks

It’s nice to see designers come up with a branding solution that doesn’t try too hard, that works precisely because of its simplicity. Case in point: the new (old) Canadian Olympic Team logo and supporting mosaic graphic, designed by Ben Hulse.

With respect to the value of the iconic symbol of the maple leaf as Canadian and the rings as Olympic, the logo communicates what it needs to.

Does it bother me that the logo is virtually identical to a version in Canada’s Olympic past? Not in the slightest.

I look forward to seeing the mosaic graphic applied to both online and printed materials.

Brand backlash!

February 9th, 2011  |  Peter Scott

There is a current trend where shortly after, or sometimes even before, they are made official an organization’s new identity and brand collateral takes a beating in the public domain. New branding efforts have provoked emotional responses in the past. For example the “new Coke” fiasco of 1985, when a massive negative public reaction occurred in response to Coke’s unsolicited reformulation of their popular soft drink flavour. There have been other public outcries since, but the recent flurry of public brand-bashing has reached new heights with the helping hand of social media. Notable big brands GAP and Tropicana have bowed to public pressure and more locally the University of Waterloo has been targeted. Each example illustrates very different fumbles in the branding process, all resulting with unwanted PR, and in some cases, requiring a complete reversal of the initiative.

Why the fuss?
I doubt that there is one universal reason, but social media isn’t the culprit – it just makes it easier and faster to get a response out to the public and the media. Granted, we as consumers are all reticent of change to some degree. Some of the examples above seem to have been launched in a manner that might not have helped with consumer adoption. Sensitivity to brand heritage, equity, nostalgia and longevity all play into the potential reaction to newly launched brands. An inclusive process is often sought in rebranding engagements and while this can help to manage public response through the involvement of major stakeholders, it often results in a watered-down design that rarely does its job to differentiate the organization in a crowded marketplace.

What to do?
A successful rebranding must be deeply rooted in the organization’s business strategy and goals. Sounds pretty straightforward, but in execution it is anything but! It takes a rare skill to translate the essence of an organization and it’s asprirations in to a graphic and distinctive mark. Successful brands are not campaign driven – they need to withstand the test of time. You should include a proper cross-section of stakeholders throughout the process and ask specific questions when requesting feedback to help control the outcome. Finally, launch it in a way that best reflects the organization’s values after doing your due diligence to ensure your work is ownable. If you’ve done your job well, then you will be able to withstand the inevitable squawking that comes from inside and out.

Molson Blue?

September 15th, 2010  |  Darrell Corriveau

As a result of a convoluted set of circumstances, the iconic Canadian beer brand Labatt’s Blue (for sale in the U.S.) will be produced by beer giant and main competitor Molson-Coors. Companies often produce goods for other companies to package and brand as their own, but it is unusual for two longstanding archrivals in the same consumer space to have agreed to an arrangement like this.

Through my formative beer drinking years (long since past) a person usually drank one or the other. You were either a Labatt’s Blue person or a Molson Canadian person. Once the line was drawn, you never crossed to the other side. The taste of the product didn’t seem to matter. People became loyal brand disciples through the influence of friends, older family members and of course the overwhelming force of giant advertising campaigns and brand awareness schemes.

Differentiating these brands on the basis of taste and quality is pointless. Already very similar, now they are even being produced in the same factories. The effect of this is to further reduce these brands to generic commodity status. The only difference seems to be that they employ slightly different marketing strategies.

Maybe the nature of the product is that traits such as uniqueness and authenticity don’t matter, but those Blue and Canadian loyalists are already crossing to other sides entirely. The competition from foreign imports, micro-brews and ironically, large American brands that are often brewed here by Molson or Labatt’s, will likely contribute to declining market share. In the face of this, advertising and brand building is more essential than ever. The question is, will people buy it anymore?

What is Apple?

April 14th, 2010  |  Karen Henricks

Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?

September 9th, 2009  |  Peter Scott

Speculative work (doing work for free in hopes of landing a job) and the design profession have met once again, this time with a fancy new name called “crowdsourcing” (seemingly coined by Wired Mag and now a Wikipedia entry). U.S. ad firm, Crispin, Porter + Bogusky crowdsoursed a logo for their client Brammo, a manufacturer of electric ‘powercycles’. Posting the job on crowdsourcing Web site crowdSpring they offered $1,000 to the winning logo design and received a huge number of entries from which to choose. A variety of blogs have taken up the discussion on the pros and cons of this new way to reach out to the masses for creative ideas. It is an age old dilemma and still seems to divide those of us who believe that to do the best strategic work for a client, you need thorough and thoughtful analysis and the group that believes more is better (and cheaper).

YouTube and the Domino’s effect

April 17th, 2009  |  Peter Scott

A recent report in the NY Times presents an interesting dilemma for organizations and the management of their brands.

A “prank” video from two Domino’s Pizza employees shows them preparing delivery orders in various unsavoury ways. Despite the fact this is a really bad way to gain your 15 minutes of fame, the video received more than a million hits and the result is major damage to an otherwise strong and well-regarded brand. The article notes “References to the video were in five of the 12 results on the first page of Google search for Domino’s, and discussions about Domino’s had spread throughout Twitter”. Despite the two offenders being charged and admitting it was a fake, the Domino’s name was tarnished in record time. The brand will presumably rebound, but the adage that “no publicity is bad publicity” might need to be rethought.

What’s smart about GE’s Augmented Reality?

March 18th, 2009  |  Darrell Corriveau

GE, maker of everything from light bulbs to jet engines, is also developing technology and products for smart grids – the next generation of the electricity system. To help explain the smart grid concept, they’ve produced a nifty website that includes a component they are calling Smart Grid Augmented Reality. To make it work, the user prints a simple black and white image on a sheet of plain paper and then holds it up to their computer’s webcam. 

Then, in a truly ‘how did they do that?’ moment, an image of wind turbines and houses on a grassy landscape seems to unfold in a three-dimensional manner from the paper image on the computer screen. The image can then be moved and turned by manipulating the paper in the users hands. And that’s not all. By blowing into the computer microphone, the user can actually increase the speed of the wind turbines. It’s a neat bit of tech trickery from a massive company known for its innovation, but really, the presentation is not of much use. You will learn very little, if anything, about the concept of smart grids by giving it a try. But maybe that’s just fine. Despite the absence of social media links of any kind, the site has still managed to go viral to some degree – and if it’s not deepening the understanding of smart grid technology, it certainly is creating brand awareness for GE. The technology could also serve as a springboard for other more meaningful applications in the future.