… and they have done it again. We think this is brilliant!
Archives for posts with tag: powerful branding
It’s a tough decision when it comes to developing your brand – do you opt for a subtle evolution, or do you make a huge positional change and revolutionise your brand to keep up with modern day trends?
There are pro’s and con’s of each. The important thing is to listen to your audience and develop your brand in a way that either suits them, or attracts a whole new, bigger, better audience.
Evolution
Some of the biggest brands that have been established for some time evolve as opposed to doing anything hugely revolutionary. The likes of Coca Cola, who have kept their traditional values, and even their iconic identity, since they first began, have proven the success of evolving the brand to adapt to the needs of the audience. Yes, Coca Cola have developed and rebranded over the years, but taking a look at Coca Cola when they first set out, and comparing to where they are now, the values and identity are very much the same.
Tetley is another great example. In May 2012 there was news of Tetley dropping their beloved tea men characters – A recent ad shows the men in action. Perhaps the brand is in the middle of revolutionising, but currently this is a great example of how the brand has evolved, updating animation and tweaking the brand to modernise. The values are still very traditional.
Hovis is a brand that has evolved, tweaking their brand, and even reverting back to the original, vintage ads that were once successful. These ads have the opportunity to be successful once again due to the brand staying extremely traditional and making this transition across decades effortless.
Revolution
We all remember Scoda when it was positioned as a cheap brand of car. In the last few years the brand has completely turned around to position themselves as a quality reliable brand- this is a brand that has taken revolution by the horns – bearing in mind it needed to do so to survive in a harsh market.
Aldi is another example of a brand positioned purely as cheap, to a brand that now competes with the likes of Sainsburys and Asda – it has brought itself into a higher level of competition through investing in advertising and revolutionising their brand.
One final example is Guinness- a brand that use to be associated with the old traditional male, whereas now, through sponsoring rugby, it keeps its traditional values of quality but now targets a much younger audience.
There is no right or wrong in developing your brand in an evolutionary or revolutionary way. If your values are strong and your brand is established, a drastic change in positioning can ruin your brand. However, if you do not ‘refurbish’ your brand you can become lost in old ways, and lose the audience you worked so hard to get in the first place.
Certainly something to think about!
Emma Dobson is a branding expert and Touch Point guru at Happy Creative, a full service marketing agency based in Blackpool, Lancashire. To learn more or contact us please go to www.happy-creative.co.uk
Today I’ll talk about something that affects my working life every single day: briefs.
Briefs take a lot of thought and the whole point of it is to ensure that you allocate your resources to hit your marketing/campaign objectives. The right brief leads to the right campaign execution and the right campaign execution leads to the right results, which is what agency and client want to achieve.
Do you have a marketing challenge? Or perhaps a full campaign that you want an agency to plan and create for you? Or maybe you just need an advert designing?
Whatever it is, it all starts with the brief. If you are new to briefing or even if you have been doing it for a long time, here are my 8 top points to be considered.
1. Give background information.
Get together as much information as you can about the company and the product or service you want to promote. What has and hasn’t worked before is also a great help. Any information of how you have communicated before is not a waste of space in your brief, as it will give more insight into your audience, which nicely leads me to the next point…
2. Find out about your audience.
Campaigns work because you know everything (you can) about the people you are targeting. It is these people that you are hoping will ultimately want to respond and buy. Research and analyse your data to figure out what makes your target audience tick, what they want and what they may expect from you. And then go and exceed their expectations.
3. One line says it all.
Think about what you are trying to achieve with your marketing and then put this in one line. Think: ‘if I could achieve one thing and one thing only, what would this be?” This helps you with prioritising your objectives and focusing on your main proposition.
4. Think about how daring you want to be.
Whatever you are promoting, chances are that you know your audience better than most people. So tell us if you think it’s time to shake things up. Tell us if you want to surprise them. This type of information can completely change the way things are developed.
5. Don’t like this, don’t like that.
Yes, we want to know your (and your audience’s) likes and dislikes. If there is a particular colour/tone/image that you/they hate don’t be shy, put it in the brief.
There is nothing worse than producing good creative work that doesn’t hit the spot because of likes and dislikes. So get them out of the way at the start.
6. There is always a price tag
Be clear on the budget. If you are not entirely sure, try to give some level of indication. The budget has to be realistic and in accordance to the scope of your campaign. It’s also good practice to say how you intend to measure success, so we can put some steps in place along the process to help you be able to do that. There should always be a response rate in mind so we can calculate the success of the activity in real ROI terms.
7. Say what you expect
Include your requirements, particularly in terms of timings. Then everyone knows what is required for when. Not doing this at the start can result in a whole heap of confusion and can lead to expensive mistakes. By being exact with what you need to have planned, created, produced and reported will aid in the cost effectiveness and success of your activity. By being precise with what you need, the success of the communication is greatly improved.
8. ‘I know that now!’
When all is done and dusted, a good tip is to look at the brief you supplied and take into account how your project or marketing activity went on that occasion. It’s good to think about what went well, what didn’t go well and what can be done better next time. If you create a process and follow all the steps consistently, with refinements over time, you will be on the way to creating great outcomes for your business in every brief you write.
And now you know all about the perfect brief, what are you waiting for?
Marilia Spindler is an Account Executive at Happy Creative, a full service marketing agency based in Blackpool, Lancashire. To learn more or contact us please go to www.happy-creative.co.uk
I have to say, I’ve been working as a designer now for 3 ½ years and branding is, without a doubt, my favourite part of the job. It really is something I love! Unfortunately, not every day is filled with branding projects, but if it was I would happily do it and never get bored. The whole process is something I really enjoy and get a real kick out of.
I thought it would be interesting to compile a list of steps I take as a designer to achieve the best results on branding projects at Happy Creative and share these with you.
These are steps I truly believe in, some of them may seem obvious but remain essential in getting the best outcome. I hope that fellow designers reading this will agree with me, and I hope that many others find interest in what goes into creating your perfect brand…from a designer’s point of view.
RESEARCH
It may sound obvious, that’s because it is. I’m not going to lie though, as a designer you can’t help but shudder at the very word because let’s face it, it’s not the most exciting thing to do as we all really just want to jump onto Photoshop or Illustrator and make something look pretty. So forgive me, but this is an important, if not the most important thing you can do. Getting to know the ins and outs of the company you are creating an identity for is crucial in determining the outcome of your identity. There are always key messages and brand values that you can focus on which will help inspire the design and make it all that more effective and meaningful, not just to the designer, but more importantly the client.
SCAMP IT UP
Many may say that this is a waste of time but I highly recommend it. Whether you are drawing it up quickly on an old coffee stained piece of paper, or throwing something together quickly on the computer, it’s all relevant to the final outcome. One thing I’ve found is that your initial gut feeling, the visual you see straight away in your mind is often the best idea, not always, but certainly most of the time.
IT MAY NOT COME STRAIGHT AWAY
Keep calm and carry on. I know, I hate the saying too, because we all know how hard that is to do when under pressure, but in this situation it is very true. It’s important to discipline yourself to this thinking, as no worthwhile work will be created in a negative frame of mind. Equally this applies to every form of work, not just creative.
BELIEVE IN WHAT YOU’RE DOING
Believe in your own skills and capabilities and it will always result with something positive, once again, keep calm and carry on. (Sorry, last time!)
BE CLEVER – BUT ONLY IF IT WORKS
When it comes to creating an identity, you want to do something innovative and clever that stands out and gains you respect, of course you do, we all do this as designers and live for that pat on the back and the envious ‘Well done’ through gritted teeth from fellow design geeks. Now, depending on your research and the company you’re creating for, there may be an opportunity to be clever with ways you incorporate visuals with the typography you choose, a synergy between the two if you like, use them, if they work, it’s always appreciated.
However you can, from personal experience, waste time trying too hard to be clever and sometimes this really doesn’t work as well as you thought it might. It’s not always needed. Quite often, identities will require a smart piece of typography or a simple visual and maybe that’s it, don’t be afraid to settle with this, it may be the best piece you’ve done all day.
I GOT IT!
There’s no better feeling that getting that design that just works. Whichever way you look at it, from whatever angle, up or down, if it still makes you smile you’re onto a winner! All that’s left to do is hope that the client feels the same.
SWATCH WATCH
Again quite an obvious one but colour is so important when it comes to creating any identity and often evokes more emotion and feeling than the visual itself. Wisely choose colours that not just complement each other but represent the brand in the best way.
TEST IT
Only by testing the brand on certain media will you realise the true strengths and weaknesses of the identity you’ve created. If it’s not working, it’s back to the drawing board…literally.
WATCH THE IDENTITY GROW AND STRENGTHEN
For the designer and of course the client, this is a wonderful part of the branding process. When you have that winning design, seeing the identity working across all types of media gives you a real buzz. It really confirms the strength of the identity and overall style not just as a personal satisfaction for the designer who created it but also for the client, confirming the strength of the brand identity they now own and use to represent their company.
Tom Fearon is a Designer and Guerrilla marketing expert at Happy Creative, a full service marketing agency based in Blackpool, Lancashire. To learn more or contact us please go to www.happy-creative.co.uk
As Euro 2012 reaches the climax of the group stages it is fair to say that the tournament has certainly delivered so far in terms of entertainment and drama.
Even for seasoned football watchers, often dreading these kinds of competitions, the action and fascinating tactical battles have gripped us. As a bonus, in an age of wall-to-wall TV coverage of leagues around the world, there have even been some surprise players to get acquainted with.
Debate has raged for years on just what it takes to win such a tournament. Sometimes it’s easy to get carried away by the quality of players in a team like Spain or Germany, however football is first and foremost a team game, and it’s the team that can become the greatest sum of its parts that wins the day. You only have to look back to Euro 2004 when Greece won it, or Euro 1992 when the Danes came off the beach to win it, to see that a set of great individuals do not always triumph against a well drilled team all performing to their best.
It’s the same way for marketing, it isn’t always necessarily the biggest budgets or the flashiest developments that win out. Marketing that outperforms expectations and is part of a well balanced, well constructed strategy will win out over a collection of underperforming expensive campaigns any year (the Netherlands I’m looking at you v Denmark).
So how do you get the blend right? Ok, Roy Hodgson’s England may not be everyone’s idea of the champions in the making, indeed they haven’t even got out of the group just yet. But, Roy’s England have shown signs of having more of a team structure than they have had at any major tournament for years.
In the same way, constructing a solid, well performing marketing strategy starts with building from the back.
The Back Five – Your Core
Hart, Johnson, Terry, Lescott, Cole – some could say England’s great strength is their defence. In football becoming defensively strong is the best starting point. Getting organised and being hard to beat takes time, dedication and a clear strategy and structure. Hours are spent on the training field drilling everyone in their roles.
In strategic marketing terms this can be applied to your existing customer marketing, your retention strategy. A strategy made up of all those core things that ensure you keep the customers you’ve worked so hard to win. It is so important to spend time working on these, reviewing them and drilling them. Organisation is the most important thing. You can achieve this with superb use of data, understanding not just what you think is happening, but really understanding the reality of it.
Retention marketing doesn’t mean boring marketing, just like your defensive back 5 you can have world class elements. Ashley Cole is capable of turning defence into attack in the blink of an eye, whilst Joleon Lescott has shown that sometimes your dependable, defensive ‘players’ can get you key goals.
The Midfield Mix – Box to Box
Milner, Gerrard, Parker, The Ox/Young – the pivotal role within the England side. Whatever the tactical permutations of the midfield the basic rules never change. Your midfield are there to win you the ball back and get it into the attackers. Within the England side you have Gerrard and Parker very much in the disciplined central roles. These two are there to protect the defensive heart of the side, whilst also being the starting point for many attacks, mainly through spreading the ball quickly out to the wings (or into Rooney when he is back). Meanwhile the wingers Oxlade-Chamberlain (The OX), Ashley Young and stunningly Theo Walcott are given the task of providing that bit of pace, power and trickery to beat the opposition and deliver crosses, passes and goals. James Milner too has this role, but is perhaps more tactically disciplined than the others, also protecting his full-back (who likes to attack).
Marketing –wise it is your midfield where you find your more quirky marketing outlets. There will be a blend of retention and acquisition tools that are sitting outside of your regular/core tools. By creating a strong defensive core, your midfield area allows you to deal with those requests and situations that crop up without warning. Opportunities that you otherwise wouldn’t know where they fit can be dealt with effectively. Similarly, those kinds of requests that can throw your entire strategy out of the window if you aren’t organised. Your midfield can deal with these as they are disciplined enough to not stray from the important tasks of retention, but ‘off the cuff’ enough to adapt to new tools and disciplines. Again, sometimes they can prove to be the most effective part of your strategic approach by cropping up with important goals of their own.
The Attacking Glory – Striking
Welbeck, Carroll/Rooney – the finishers; the players that are there to finish your attacks off. The reason the strikers get paid the big money is that they are there to score the goals. Welbeck in particular is capable of playing a lone role up front supported by deeper lying players. The return of Rooney to the side should see England even more potent in attack, as he provides a superb link between the midfield and the attack whilst being capable of world class strikes. All three have shown that they are capable of providing a threat in different ways, which always gives the opposition a different problem to solve.
In the same way the attack in your marketing strategy should revolve around acquisition and focus on growing your position (ie. increasing your score!). Of the whole strategy it is the acquisition elements that are attracting new customers, winning new business and through innovation and constantly moving they are difficult for your opposition to stay in touch with. It is the part of your strategy where it is a good idea to take care over researching your opposition and finding the gaps in their defence, whilst also playing to your strengths by understanding where you are stronger than them. A marketing Strategy Canvass is a fantastic way of priming your acquisition strategy.
Bringing it together
Like any good team, the current England side has a strong ‘spine’ running from Joe Hart in goal through the central defence and Gerrard in midfield to Rooney up front. Any pundit worth their salt will tell you how important such a spine is.
The same goes for your marketing strategy. Creating a strong spine to your strategy is key, and this can be achieved through your brand. By which I mean ensuring you have a strong brand that you are living by and does what it says – delivers your promise. Such a strong brand will have the added benefit of pulling your activities together, knitting them into a winning strategy.
Of course, developing a strong, well organised and committed marketing team is just as important in implementing your strategy, but starting with a, sometimes, simple strategic aim, and building a side capable of delivering that, just as Uncle Roy (as he is known in our house) has done, can bring huge rewards.
Ok, you may not win Euro 2012, but on the plus side at least you won’t be made into a piece of veg on the front page of The Sun.
Simon Brooke is a Director at Happy Creative, a full service marketing and creative agency based in Blackpool, Lancashire. To learn more or contact us please go to www.happy-creative.co.uk or @Happy_Creative
Happy Creative's Blog 