A call for a more endearing approach to creating mass market brands…

Brands only exist where there is competition. No other choice in the sector? Only one iTunes ? Well done. You are the rare breed of early bird. You have the advantage over your competitors. You have a monopoly. And so, you can charge what you want for the products and. services you supply.

But as soon as another enters the fray. You need to think about your branding. That is, your reputation. How you are perceived before you walk in the room. Before people have had a direct experience with your services or products. That reputation affects your chances of selling in a big way. If you are not on people’s radar as a desirable option, well, your business is in significant trouble.

So those business that invent and occupy first mover advantage territory are rarely there for long, before the copy cats begin to poke their whiskers in to the sector. And this is why this year we have seen a broad church of brands coming to talk to us about how best to create a brand that manages their reputation.

A more entertaining approach to branding takes you to more engaging places (like this little number we rustled up for boating holiday brand 'LeBoat' above)

 

Take the largest boating brand in Europe for example. LeBoat tasked us with looking at a more entertaining approach. For such an large and compelling business, the organisation had woefully dry branding. We brought a new lightness of touch, a radical tone of voice, and warmth to the way they talked to current and potential customers as well as a confidence in how they talked to the industry peers that watched open mouthed from the sidelines.

Not surprisingly you’ll be thinking that this took what is often described in hushed circles as a ‘brave client’ – well, no. Not here. A very lovely collection of people for sure, but bravery wasn’t required because they understood our position of bringing charm to charmless categories through developing a warmer more generous and endearing approach to new brand identities. They got it. And they are reaping the benefits.

And this is one of the greatest tricks to creating genuinely useful new creative assets for business. The relationship. Axel Chaldecott, creative director & co founder of seminal London Advertising Agency HHCL, said to me about a decade ago, ‘The relationship you have with your clients is, when it is at its best, a marketing advantage. To have a shared agenda from the start of a project is to know what each party wants from the engagement. If the client knows you want to progressive work, and the agency knows the client wants progressive work, then both can work towards a mutually beneficial goal.’ I’m slightly paraphrasing, it was 10 years ago, but the facts remain pertinent. It’s amazing how few marketing services groups take the time to share this agenda at the early stages of the project.

I’ve been asked to take part in giving speeches around the world on the nature of creativity and how it can be best employed at scale for launching and relaunching brands, or simply helping to manage brands that have grown tired or have taken the wrong path. Instead of the usual tromp through a recent bevy of greatest hits from SomeoOne’s back catalogue, I’ve often talked about the difference between Canberra in Australia and the. Dhiravi Slum in Mumbai.

I’ve never been to Australia. Canberra by all accounts is a delightful pace. The river is calm, the mountains beautiful. The streets clean and the coffee pleasant. Crime is low and employment is balanced. Yet even the car number plates carry the slogan ‘Canberra, It’s not that bad’. This seemingly unafflicted capital is afflicted with the most dreary of all conditions. It’s dull. In fact. It’s so dull it regularly tops polls as the dullest place on our planet. According to locals there is one saving grace. One exciting moment that occurs weekly. There is the mother of all traffic jams. Every Friday. At around 6 – 7pm. But this is not due to the opening of the tequila bar on the fringes of town, not the weekly visit from Lady GaGa. No. This traffic calamity is caused by the surge in residents fleeing the vanilla environment to seek entertainment in Sydney. A few hours drive away.

Compare this if you will to the sweltering fly pit that is is the Dhiravi Slum. One million people. Framed into triple height shacks that seem to shiver as you walk past, confined to one square mile in India’s bustle capital Mumbai. There is not running water, no sanitary arrangements and electricity is stolen from the main grid in alarming homespun wiring cobwebs exposed to the elements and the local 5 year olds. Disease and infection is rife. Yet it’s one of the most ecological, self regulating, happy places you’ll ever visit. People love it here. And that’s not just the thoughts of a comfy London voice. We met self made millionaires who lived there. Why do these people stay? If poverty is removed what keeps them from acquiring a couple of the swish penthouse apartments that overlook the slum? Because they love it here. They love the society. The mix. The change. The ideas. The way it feels to be connected to so many lives. They love it because it is rich in experiences. Not shut off in a bubble above the city. People love it because it is entertaining. It keeps them on their toes.

 

Just as The lead character from Life of Pi says he loves the Tiger in his lifeboat…

‘He keeps me alert. He’s kept me alive.’

I’d suggest that the best brands do the same.

They keep you guessing. Keep surprising you.

Keep on keeping on.

I’ve lost count of the amount of times we have been asked by a commissioner of design to bring in a strong sense of ‘consistency’ to a brand. To make it simple. To remove all the complexity. And to make the brand easy to use. Thing is. These requests come from a good place. I’ve never had a client ask for a fussy, complex, difficult solution. No one wants an inconsistent product, service or organisation. But equally do we crave ones that are dull and lifeless?

I think there’s a mix-up here. Products need to be predictable in many ways. As do services and organisations. When I buy a can of beans or a dishwasher tablet or ring up the AA because my car has broke down on the side of the motorway, I want the predicted response of a professional experience. The beans need to be the same as they were last time. I don’t want the tablet to change unless it is for the better. And the service needs to be quick, efficient, friendly and reassuring if my family are all hunkering down behind the barriers on the M25 as cars hurtle past at 70mph.

But the branding… The visual set of tools used to convey messages. To decorate. To stand out from a crowd. To help explain the offer… They should be varied. Compelling. Bold. Sophisticated. Charming. Funny. Thought provoking. Clear. Complex. Smart. The bubbles of the O2 brand (created under the stewardship of SomeOne’s very own chosen Prince, Gary Holt) bounce around and can be used solo or accompanying other assets. The brands look can be tuned to be appropriate for differing audiences. It’s varied. It’s entertaining.

Mascots — nothing new there, they’re one of the oldest ways of bringing life to a brand — but they also enable brands to play with them selves in public — if you pardon the phrase. The best brands are happy to enjoy themselves, and show they are enjoying it.

Our work for FastJet, Africa best new low cost airline centres around a beautifully drawn but cheekily irreverent parrot. Having a mascot at the brands heart enables the organisation to get famous fast and to operate in a way on other airline can reproduce. Which is why after 4 months they had toppled rivals off their perch – a perch they had held a monopoly over for 15 years. FastJet is now Africa’s most popular airline.

Tesco wanted to take technology to the masses. Our more entertaining approach helped them get there faster.

Our work for Hudl, Tescos first foray into the tablet device sector talked up to people. It looked like a million dollars, yet costed £60 (ten times less than a top-spec iPad). It didn't carry blue and white stripes from the budget aisle of old. But had witty iconography. Beautiful animations. Epic photography and product design that integrated the branding rather than bolting it on. Again, it had, from launch, a spectrum of choice. Not a fixed set of restriction, but a gamut of options to accommodate all and to enable continually invention and adaptability. After all, it’s a physical device but a digital offer, so the brand needs to walk the walk. It sold out in 5 days. All of them. Twice.

Entertainment is what people crave the world over. Be it banging a bongo on a beach in BoraBora or bouncing around to bass guitars in Barcelona. A charming headline. A sweet illustration. An awesome photo. A catchy tune. They all have been working for films and adverts for decades. And so it is with design. With branding. Entertainment and a more entertaining approach to creating ways for people to connect with brands works It’s simply more effective.

Thing is, the traditional branding practices found that it was very profitable to convince organisations to squeeze their new product or service through the mangle they had assembled. Yet this year we’ve met more and more companies who have been left high and dry by their design commissions. ‘We don’t really understand. What happened.’ Said one Managing Director ‘It all felt very professional. But in the end, we just don’t know what to do with what we’ve got’ said another CEO ‘after all the talk and so called strategy we were left with a new typeface and a new colour with a symbol no one really likes or understands’ shuddered the marketing director.

So often the results of running through the traditional branding machine are lack lustre. They are not believed in. It’s hard for people on the front line dealing with customers to get excited about the new typeface, colour and symbol beamed down from Management.

Yet make it entertaining. Get people engaged. And they will crawl through broken glass for its success.