Designing Brands

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I DEVELOPTNG A STRATEGY ]

The firstthing Slawny and his marketers did was come up with an appropriate name fortheir new

product. "0ur objective in the packaging was to try to capture all the fun, sociabil ity, and the

warm, accepting atmosphere of the caf6s-and the caf6s in particular that were already serving

our product-so we cal led i t Main St . Cafe," Slawny notes.

With their work cut out for them, Gehl's did market research among a number of different age

groups with package mock-ups supplied by an ad agency to get a feel for what consumers l iked.

Slawny presented the research results to l(elly and design director Amy Leppert, who worked with

i l lust rators to come up wi th some pre l iminary design solut ions. Slawny and l (e l ly then took the

different variations and presented them to four focus groups.

Surprisingly, the people in all the groups started mixing and matching the designs on the cans.

"They had very specific colors for very specific f lavors," Slawny says. "Chocolate is supposed to

be red, and vanil la is supposed to be blue.They had no rational explanation for this, but they were

very insistent that vanil la isn't turquoise, and chocolate isn't brown.

"There were certain visual images and cues that consumers related to better," l(elly adds. "They

liked the timeless, classic i l lustrative style-not the really fun, funky stuff. It didn't pull the right

triggers. It needed to be a l itt le more sophisticated."Jos6 0rtega rendered the final i l lustration,

and Leppert developed the "bull 's eye" Main St. Cafe brand mark in accordance with the colors

in the i l lust rat ion.

"The il lustration has so much more personality than any other product that's in a glass bottle,

except for Starbucks-but theirs isn't so much the personality of the bottle as the brand name,"

l(elly remarks.

D E S I G N I N G B R A N D S

(}verwhelmingly, ihe focus

groups chose the f ina I des ign

(upper r igh t ) because o f i t s"t imeless, sophist icated [ook,"

Kel ly says.

"IT'S AI.L ABOUT IXPICTATIONS. THE MARKETS

WHIRE WE OOT INTO [IRST, WHERT THI CATI-

GORY REALLY DIDN'T IXIST, CONSUMIRS TRIED

US. THEN, WHEN THI GI-ASS PRODUCTS CAMI

OUI. THEY TRIID THOSE AND RIAI.IZED OURS

W A S B E T T E R . "

"\

[ ilPrEtrEilnilG THE SOTUT|ON I' - F

The strong graphics on the packaging have definitely helped boost sales of the product since i ts

introduction. According to l(el ly, "When Gehl 's took that package into l imited distr ibution on the

East Coast the distr ibutors said Main St. Cafe outsold a lot of other products in a 700 store

search.Thqy found out that the pacl(aging was the motivating driver for purchase in stores where

consumers didn't actually get to taste:test the product. Attitude and attractiveness of the package

is what compelled the consumer to pick i t up and give i t a try. Of course, once they tr ied the prod-

uct, they real ized the taste advantage for themselves.,,

Slawny adds, "We did end up with a lot more competit ion in the marlcet than we anticipated.

Rather than having one competitor, we had several. In the markets we got into very early, Main

St. Cafe continues to shine." However, in the markets where Main St. Cafe emerged after the

competit ion, the sales f igures did not match up compared to the markets they entered f irst-

largely because of the can.

"It 's all about expectations. The markets where we got into first, where the category really

didn't exist, consumers tried us. Then, when the glass products came but, they tried those andrealized ours was better," SIawny says. "But in the markets where we came.in secono/ consumers

had such bad experiences drinking pgor-tasting products from the glass, they were reluctant toeven try the can, so we've had to be more aggressive with ou.r promotions.,,

Despite that, Main St. Cafe continues to be a succe.ssful contender in the market where so many

others failed. In fac! Slawny admits that consumers brought another sell ing point to his atten-

tion. "People were e-mailing us and .say.,in,g,'There's 3o much calcium in here. It,s very low fat,,

ind \l 'm not using Main st. cafe to replace my coffeg I 'm using it to replace my Snickers bar inthe afternoon.'The use was very different_than we.actually thought, which led us, two years later,

to include a secondary message on the back of the package noting that the product is also a

healthy, low-fat snack."

He's also quick to point out that he didn't want the secondary message to interfere with the

successful design M LR had come up with. "We were very careful to make sure it was a back panel

message and that it didn/t distract from the primary message. The can packaging is one of thethings we hit correctly from day one, and we've been very careful not to mess with the front of

the packaging because the strong grlaphics have been very successful for us.,,

DESIGNING BRANDS

'ouR oBf EcnvE lN_ T!E_ PACKAGING wns ro rRy ro c4p_ruRE ALL rHEFuN, SOCIABILITY, AND rHE wAnrrr, ACCEPTING: ATMOSPHERE oF THr cnrEs.'

la b ovel

In i t ia l sa tes o f Ma in S t . Cafe have

been d i rec t l y t inked to the bo td

graph ics , even though the can is no t

as pre ferab le among consumers as

bot t led beverages in the same

category , Desp i te tha t percept ion ,

once consumers p icked up Main St .

Cafe and ac tua l l y t r ied the produc t ,

they ignored i t s g tass contenders and

purchased i t aga in and aga in .

MURR|E, LTENHARL RYSNER ASSOCIATESGALLERY

l r igh t l

When a famous Ch icago s teakhouse

in t roduced i t s legendary season ings

in the grocery a is te , the packag ing

jus t d idn ' t communica te the bo ld

qua l i t ies o f the season ings . MLR

redes igned the packag ing by

combin ing a b lack back-drop w i th a

copper b rand ident i t y , wh ims ica l

i l tus t ra t ions . and ho td co tors to

crea te an au lhent ic

gourmet - look ing i tem.

0td package

New package

W***:rvls**::J

0tdl left and abovel

As the lead ing brand in the peanut

bu t te r ca teg0ry , Sk ippy 's management

saw the need to de f ine Sk ippy in

contemporary te rms, fos te r ing

Sk ippy 's un ique tas te as the key

benef i t . MLR's ob jec t ive was to meet

th is goa l wh i le re ta in ing the s t rong

v isuaI equ i t ies o f the brand.

l left l

MLR crea ted a mul t i -d imens iona l

b randmark fo r Oasan i tha t

communica tes coo l and c r isp

a t t r ibu tes . The l igh t ly t in ted h lue

hot t le and deep t rans lucent b tue tabet

de l i ver the emot ionaI p romise tha t

Dasan i w i l [ sa t i s ty your pa le t te .

DESIGNING A BRAND FOR A START-UP

New

I

ONTARIO 2oooBRAND BY LEAPFROG DESIGN

Creating a brand marl< that represents a body of people, as opposed to a physical product or

service, is tr icl<y in i tself . But developing a brand identi ty for a diverse government body is an

overwhelming task-the branding cannot be pol i t ical ly motivated, i t has to appeal across party

l ines, and st i i l be aesthetical ly pleasing to the masses.

I THE CHALLENGE I

Leapfrog Design (Toronto,0ntar io) was asked by the Ministry of Cit izenship, Culture, and

Recreation of the 0ntario Government to undertake just such a project-create a mil lennium

brand mark for the province. "We wanted some type of visual identi ty in order to separate or iden-

t i fy the province of Ontario's ini t iat ives in the mil lennium year," explains Fred Ross, executive

d i rec to r o f the 0n tar io 2000 pro jec t . "We thought tha t someth ing more un ique than a s imp le

word mark of the province was required and that led us to the decision to develop abrand."

Jean-Pierre Veil leux, president and creative director of Leapfrog says, "This mark is not

intended to sel l anything, so i t 's not branding in the tradit ional sense where you start with an

image and you bu i ld a b rand exper ience around the serv ice or p roduc t o f fe r ing .Th is i s a ' fee l good '

mark to bui ld a sense of pride in the province. I t has to appeal to a very broad consti tuency-

there are ten mil l ion residents in 0ntario and i t 's very mult i-cultural, so we had to pay attention

to diversity and have something that satisf ied al l the dif ferent groups and not offend anybody."

"T{!S_ rytS_LK I9^l\lOT INTENDED TO SELL ANYTHING, so rrsNor BRAN DING rN rHE TRADTnoNAL sENsE wHERE you srARr wrrHAN IMAGE ANo YOU BUILD A BRAND EXPERIENCE AROUND THE

SERVICE oR pRoDUcr oFFERTNG. THrs rs A 'FEEL GooD' MARKi TO BUILD A SENSE OF PRIDE rN rHE pRovrNcE.'

l a b ove l

Th is bo td and energy- [aden execut ion

focuses on por t ray ing the dynamism

and youth fu lness o f the prov ince .

However , p rov ince o f f i c ia ls thought i t

was too loose- they wanted some-

th ing a b i t more conserva t ive .

DESIGNING A BRAND FOR A START-UP 41

Probably the biggest chal lenge for the designers is that this brand must worl< in a variety of

ways- the des ign must be f lex ib le enough to be app l ied to merchand ise such as T-sh i r ts , ha ts , andjacl<ets, while also worl<ing on government materials including stat ionery and even government

veh ic les .The c r i te r ia the Min is t ry b rought to the tab le was very res t r i c ted . " l t has to have a com-

memorative feel to i t , but i t couldn't simply be celebratory. I t has to be recognized as a symbol

o f the mi l lenn ium year , and i t has to inc lude the prov ince 's o f f i c ia l f lower , the t r i l l i um, , , Ross

exp la ins . "Th is i s a once- in -a- l i fe t ime event and i t ' s f ine to ce lebra te , bu t i t ' s no t jus t f i reworks ,

party hats, and noisemal<ers. We were lool<ing for something that wasn't too abstract because

everybody had to get i t , and l t has to contr ibute to the overal l physical appearance of anything i t

w i l l be p laced on . "

Since there were so many provisions, i t was important that Vei l leux, who was the creative

d i rec to r on the pro jec t , wor l< c lose ly w i th the Min is t ry in deve lop ing the in i t ia l d i rec t ion . "Wespent long hours a t the f ron t end d iscuss ing ph i losoph ies and approaches, and v isua l i z ing how the

brand wou ld be app l ied , " Ross reca l l s . However , he is qu ick to po in t ou t tha t the Min is t ry ,s

involvement in the implementation of the mark was only to discuss ideas up-front, not to be

invo lved in the ac tua l des iqn o f the mark .

" l thought i t was better for us to provide al l of the information to Leapfrog and not restr ict the

creativi ty, so they could provide us with something that 's excit ing and dynamic. you have to be

extremely careful no to over-direct creatives or otherwise you're going to end up with piecemeal

design that is safe," he advises. " l was afraid the designers would say, ' l t ,s not great, but i t ,s the

bes t we cou ld do w i th a l l the res t r i c t ions . ' I wanted everyone to buy in on the brand and th ink i t , s

fabu lous .Then we have a very success fu l des ign . , ,

I DEVELOPING A STRATEGY ]

With many of the objectives for the marl< stated, Leapfrog explored many design direct ions.The

designers adapted the typestyle from an exist ing tourism marl< so there was a level of continuity,

but veered away from the stately, conservative lool<. "The 2000 mark was intended to have a very

animated and organic feel ing. We wanted to give the impression of f i reworl<s, but also have a

natura l fee l , l i l<e a f lower , " Ve i l leux no tes .

Co lors were very impor tan t in the des ign process as we l l . "The co lo rs ins t i l l ed energy , v ib rancy ,

and diversity, but more importantly, this could not be seen as a part isan mark,, 'Vei l leux says.

"Every party in Canada has i ts own color-the conservative government that is now in power is

blue; the l iberal government is red; and the new democrats are green. So we couldn,t design a

marl< that people would associate with a party-i t had to be pol i t ical ly neutral. , ,

t

D E S I G N I N G B R A N D S :#,

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Wtu/ {Ontario

tuwOhI|rARIO

"YOU HA\lE TO BE EXTRIMEI-Y CAREFUI. 1{OI TO O\,ER-DIRECT

C R T A T I V T S , ( ) T H T R W I S E Y O U ' R E O O I N G T O E I I D U P W I T H

P I T C E M E A I . D T S I G I ' I T H A T I S S A F T . I W A S A F R A I D T H E

D E S I O N T R S W ( ) U L D S A Y , ' I T ' S I , I O T G R T A T , B t J T I T ' S T H E

BTST WE COUTD DO WITH Att THE RTSTRICTIOI{S.'IWANT-

T D T V E R Y O I I E T O B U Y I N O I { T H E B R A N D A l I D T H I l { K I T ' S

FABUI .OUS. T l |EN WE HA\ |E A l ,ERY SUCCTSSFUI- DESIGI { . "

lahove and teftl

S ince the t r i t t ium is 0ntar io 's

officiat t lower, Leapfrog designers

incorporated i t in to these designs.

As.Jean-Pierre Vei l leux of Leapfrog

recalls, "We wanted to portray the

tri lt ium as a shooting slar that woutd

repiesent 0nta'rio..entering the new

mi[[ennium.l ..., '

'THE 2ooo MARK WAS INTENDED TO HAVE A VERY ANIMATED NruOO RGAN lC FE E L I N G. wr wANTED ro GrvE rHE rMpREssroN oF

FIREWORKS, BUT ALSO HAVE A NATURAL FEEL,LIKE n FLOWER."

In fac t , Ross adds , " l f we had seen a logo tha t appeared to have a par t i san v isua t iden t i t y , i t

wou ldn ' t have been accepted . " He a lso no tes tha t th is mar l< was in tended to bu i ld un i ty w i th in the

government by p romot ing harmony among government wor l<ers , and to c rea te a foundat ion fo r

communi ty governments w i th in 0n tar io to bu i ld the i r own ident i t ies f rom the prov inc ia l b rand.

"We found tha t i t was much more d i f f i cu l t than we had f i rs t env is ioned in te rms o f the d i f fe ren t

requ i rements , " he admi ts .

I TMPLEMENTTNG THE SOLUTTON ]

Af te r p resent ing severa l rounds o f comps, Ve i l leux was p leased tha t Min is t ry o f f i c ia ls chose the

des ign he recommended. " l l i l<ed i t be t te r than the o thers because i t has a very so f t and organ ic

qua l i t y and we l i l<ed the fac t tha t the l ines fo rming the zeroes have the fee l ing o f pyro techn ics ,

f i rewor l<s , and ce lebra t ion . We wanted someth ing tha t loo l<s l i l<e a moment in t ime lead ing up to

the ce lebra t ion , " he says .

Merchand ise w i th the 0n tar io 2000 brand was ro l led ou t in the spr ing o f 1999, and Ontar io

res idents were de l igh ted w i th the i r m i l lenn ium mar l< . In fac t , Ross says , a bomber jac l<e t tha t

featured the logo on the entire bacl<side was an instant hit with government workers who accounted

for near ly one-hundred o f the in i t ia l purchases .

C N T

Kl,aoNrAr \ ro

. } .g

-)woNTAKTO

These Ioose rend i t ions ,

remin iscent o f a f lag . suggest

p r i d e a n d b e l o n g i n g a n d p u t s

emphas is on d ivers i ty th rough

the use o f d i f fe ren t co lo r

combina t ions .

Wtl a b ove l

4 4 D E S I G N I N G B R A N D S

OATTARIO ONTARIO

(Orrta,rio

2(O(O(O KWWW

la b ovel

Leapfrog designers presented several

approaches tha t p tayed o f l the

combina t ion o f a bu t te r f l y shape and

the t r i t t ium.

lab ovel

"This expression of forward

movement and energy is in tended

to convey 0n tar io 's economic and

cu l tu ra [ momentum enter ing the

new mi [ [enn ium and beyond, "

exp la ins Ve i l leux .

(Ontari(o

DESIGNING A BRAND FOR A START.UP

Ir i g ht l

Ih is s ta te ty lour ism mark fo r 0n tar io ,

a t though qu i te d i f fe ren t f rom the

eccent r i c approaches the des igners

imp lemented fo r the 2000 brand,

served as a po in t o f re fe rence. In

fac t , the same typeface was u l t imate ty

used to ma in ta in a v isua l cons is tencv .

ONreRIo

l above and r igh t l

The f ina I b rand v isua l ty t inks a t t the

essent ia l e lements together , 0n tar io ,

2000, a t r i t t ium, po t i t i ca t d ivers i ty

th rough ihe co lo rs , and the

cetebra tory tone to we lcome the

n e w m i t t e n n i u m . T h e d e s i g n i s

in ten t ionat ty f tex ib le enough to be

used in b lack-and-wh i te , as wet [ as

reversed ou t o f a b lack background

NT;W{OCANADA

oxreRlo

4 6 D E S T G N T N G B R A N D S

[ [e f t and above l

Merchand ise w i th the 0n tar io 2000

brand has been a ho t -se [ [e r in the

prov ince s ince i t s in t roduc t ion .

2M I C H A E L O S B O R N E , P R I N C I P A L O F M I C H A E L O S B O R N E D E S I G N , S A N F R A N C I S C O

Brand revital izat ion is tr icl<y for a number of reasons. i t puts the designer in the posit ion of trying to mal<e the most

of establ ished equit ies, trying not to ruin or el iminate elements that work, and trying to mal<e what worl<s, work

better.The goal is not to reinvent the wheel- just to outf i t i t with a new pair of hub caps.

Equ i t ies a re charac ter is t i cs o f a b rand tha t consumers recogn ize and o f ten re f lec t ASPECTS 0F THE DESIGN

THAT MAKE A PR0DUCT SUCCESSFUL. Frequent ly , a redes ign is executed on a b rand tha t i s wor l< ing very

well , but the redesign is done in an effort to " l<eep up with the Joneses," in reaction to new trends in the marl<et-

place, or to keep one step ahead of the competit ion.

Compan ies a lso dec ide to rev i ta l i ze the i r b rands when the des ign or pos i t ion ing is no t wor l< ing in the mar l<e t . The

product has launched, but only with part ial success. Things may have changed in the marketplace, or competit ive

products stole the spotl ight.

Designers are in a very precarious posit ion when charged with the tasl< of redesigning an exist ing brand.The goal

is to l<eep the good things and bui ld on them, but sometimes determining what is good and what is bad is tr icl<y.

Do ing the LEGW0RK and RESEARCH to bac l< up your judgments i s very impor tan t .

We approach redesigns in an evolut ionary manner.0ne technique is to get cl ients to tel l us, on a scale of one to ten,

how much they want to change their brand. One being very close to the exist ing brand, and ten is a complete redesign

and change of al l the brand elements, including the name, the logo, type style, and color. We try to get the cl ient to

answer this question by providing us with a RANGE within one to ten, not just one number.

If the cl ient determines a range between three and four, our design presentation wil l show them concepts in the two,

three, four, f ive, and six categories to show them a variety of possibi l i t ies-options which l<eep the exist ing brand

equ i t ies , cap i ta l i ze on what i s work ing in the brand, and add to i t l i t t le by l i t t le un t i l , eventua l l y , i t loo l<s new.

I t i s a b igger cha l lenge to update a b rand on ly s l igh t ly , as opposed to rad ica l l y evo lv ing a b rand. I f you rad ica l l y

change i t , you have a bigger sandbox, there are more design options. I t is much harder to stay within the one to two

range and be successful.The consumer may not even notice unti l you put the old brand presentation and the new one

s ide by s ide .Th is i s the u l t imate goa l -no t to lose your cur ren t f ranch ise wh i le s imu l taneous ly ADDING VALUE.


REDESIGNINGOR UPDATING

A WELL.KNOWN

BRAND

AVONBRAND BY O&f tNC. DESTGN

jrtI


Over the past century Avon has established itself as not only a leader in the cosmetics industry,

but as a corporate powerhouse when it comes to supporting women's issues globally.To support

this position, the company wanted to update its brand image and reinforce Avon's vision as "thecompany that best understands and satisfies the product, service, and self-fulf i l lment needs ofwomen global ly . "

Regina Milanq Avon's senior manager of global communications says/ "We wanted a tagline that

would capture the company's vision in a few words. Our goal was to speak to everything that Avon

means to women-the products, personal service, philanthropic activit ies, and being a great place

for women to work." One of the original phrases proposed was, /n the compony of women. rn

English it has both l iteral and subjective meanings, but it was diff icult for people to explain in

other languages.

The next tagline- Ihe compony for women-stuck. "It summed up who we were and everybody ral-

l ied around it r ight away," Milano admits. "lt is a natural evolution of what the company has

meant in the l ives of women over a 1]4-year history. Nobody else can make this claim."

With the tagline established, a new brand identity had to be built around it.0 & J Design Inc., ofNew York City, was commissioned to fulf i l l the design of the brand. O & J Design already had awell-established relationship with Avon.They had been involved in a number of corporate projects,

one of them being Avon's Global Vision Program. "The role of this program was to heighten the

awareness of the Avon brand and its success in serving women worldwide;this differentiated Avon

from other companies," explains Barbara 0lejniczak who co-owns and operates 0 & J Design with

her husband, Andrzej. "9!,,|7i1.9he.adds, "it was confusing to have a program separate from the. . : . . t i , . . . ; . : . : . ,

identity, so Avon decid,6d tq'siffpi: lfy;all of this by integrating the Global Vision concept with its

new brand identity to crea"te 4,5ir 'png6r voice that wil l be implemented worldwide.,, '-.-.

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E. ' -r , : - t . r . r . f , : ' : : : , J

' the company for

\ \ \ l \ \ \ \ \ \women9j'"r

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" t ^ f r r ' - . . - I A 7gjr L,ompany l9r vvomen

AVt h e c o m p o n y

ArD;S vF{;Ar-f;ii

lleftl

The designers experimented with

several graphics that could represent

women and, ult imatety, Avon. Ihe first

two taglines (top) represent entrgy

and warmth. The next two designs

incorporated curves for women and

strength, and the hands in the last

design i[[ustrate support and

fr iendship of women.

lleftl

These tagline sketches explored

the possibit it ies with the existing

corporate typefaces, Futura and

Times Roman. "We experimented with

type weight and kern ing to achieve a

di f ferent emphasis for e ich. [ ine

elements were also used to create

posi t ive energy around the tagt ine, '

says Andrzej 0lejniczak of 0 & J

l les ign Inc.

REDESIGNING OR UPDATING A WELL.KNOWN BRAND

the company for,1 ,t '

" ' ., RJ * &- ?

Llre companyd {rt "a !

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tor\#v'omen\"*.,'d.

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AVr f e c o m p o a y

ON!::y/

AVONthe companv

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AVONr h n

" o - p o u y ' J o , W O M E N \

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AVONthe compcny {o r women

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I DEVELOPING A STRATEGY ]

0 & J did an in-depth design explorat ion of the new tagl ine, presenting a study in dif ferent

graphic elements, type treatments, and color schemes. Although many solut ions could have

worked, Avon representatives already had a graphic element in mind-the popular l ipst ick strol<e

that had been used in the past. " l t had signif icance for people within Avon, and i t carr ied a lot of

equ i ty , " Andrze j exp la ins .

Milano adds, "The brushstrol<e or l ipst ick swash harl<s back to a design that was very popular. I t

looked as i f someone under l ined the word Avon w i th a tube o f l ips t i ck . I t was wh ims ica l and fun . "

0nce the des ign d i rec t ion was chosen, 0 & J 's c rea t ives saw more oppor tun i t ies to d is t ingu ish

Avon from other beauty companies. "The previous identi ty was rather l imited in scope and didn't

have a ful l visual vocabulary. We wanted to remedy this and create a visual system that is truly

inspi r ing, " Andrzej notes.

"These soft hues with very del icate, circular shapes create a very dist inct and unusual backdrop

to promote the beauty products," Barbara adds. One of the chal lenges O & J faced when worl<ing

with such a huge corporation was integrating a single brand identi ty across the board-from cul-

tural barr iers, since Avon has operations al l over the world, to the many phi lanthropic activi t ies

sponsored by Avon that need to carry the corporate look in promotions. Al l these special

programs were previously using separate images and identi t ies, so 0 & J-which is l<nown for i ts

comprehensive standards systems-created a standards manual for Avon to be used by al l of i ts

associates and subsidiaries. I t demonstrates how certain communications should look, how the

logo and tag l ine shou ld be used, what co lo rs a re ava i lab le , and more .

"Some o f the programs d idn ' t rea l l y have logos , so th is who le new wave o f changes insp i red smal l

groups within Avon to upgrade themselves. 0ur goal was to dist inguish one from another, but they

sti l l need to use this idea of the art ist ic, freehand, brushstroke," Andrzej explains. "We are dealing

with a lot of issues, and a lot of dif ferent people, so i t 's an educational process to mal<e them

believe that you have to use the same typeface, and you have to work within the color palette. This

is how Avon has to look. This is i ts imaqe."

Barbara adds, "We worked with the people at Avon very closely and we advised them that they

needed to s t reaml ine the number o f communica t ions and the d i f fe ren t p rograms ' ident i t ies . As

designers we bel ieve in identi t ies that give people f lexibi l i ty. That 's why we created the extended

color palette and other elements to al low people to be creative with their communications, but

s tay w i th in the overa l l look . Now everybody is ta lk ing in the same v isua l language. "

t.I

AV

AVON" , \ t

co F , t , o , j l ,

* I n " \

l a b ove l

Us ing a p ro f i le o f a woman 's

face in these des igns he lps

re in fo rce the tag l ine , The

company fo r women.


ttI

Irf

AVON% c o m p a n u i ' w o m e n- j r* 'v

AVoN{r\*=5t lon ,o*pony{ *w.o*n , S- /

labove and [eft l

"Flowers are often associated with

women and beauty . When s tud ied

c loser , a woman 's f igure can be

s.een," notes Andrzei.

labove and [eft l

These were two o f the tag t ine des ign

var ia t ions tha t 0 & J dev ised. The

s imple curves and the emphas is on

the words the and lor give the teft

tag l ine a un ique rhy thm. The o ther

tag l ine 's ca t t ig raph ic fee t (above)

makes i t very e legant .

AVON AVON_, --*__---"-.*_""_

T H E C O M P A N Y T O R W O M E N \

ry'{*Iih\


"As DEsTGNERs WE BELIEVE lN IDENTITIES rHAr GrvE pEopLE

FLEXIBILITY. THAT'S WHY WE CREATED THE EXTENDEDCOLOR pALErrE AND orHER ELEMENTs TO ALLOW PEOPLE ro BE

CREATIVE wrrH rHErn COMMUNICATIONS, BUr srAywrrH rHE ovERALL LooK. Now EVERYBODY lS TALKING

IN THE SAME VISUAL LANGUAGE. '

Avon chose no t to t rans la te the new tag l ine "because we wou ld never capture the emot iona l

nuances we want to convey in every language, " Mi lano exp la ins . "But when peop le see the logo,

the tagl ine, and the brushstroke together, they understand that i t 's Avon, and they get the

emotional impact of what we mean to women everywhere in the world."

Since the new identi ty has been introduced internal ly, i t has been very well received and 0 & J

cont inues to wor l< w i th Avon to ensure i t i s p roper ly imp lemented. Mi lano says o f the work ing

re la t ionsh ip w i th the des ign f i rm, "They mal<e i t the i r bus iness to rea l l y unders tand us and our

cu l tu re . They loo l<ed a t a l l ang les o f the app l ica t ion and how i t w i l l be used, and what we came

up w i th was a resu l t o f a lo t o f d ia logue back and fo r th .Our new des ign is bo ld and i t cer ta in ly

jumps ou t a t you . "

AVON, i il n e C O m t ] i l i l V i O l - ' \ i l * i l i * n

t l

'ii::,'."r..:

l teft l

U t t imate ty th is i s the des ign the Avon

representa t ives wanted lo use

because o f the fami l ia r t ips t i ck

swash. l l ' s used on a l l o f Avon 's

c0rp0ra te communica t ions inc tud ing

s ta t ionery and bus iness cards .

l l r i : , DESTGNINGBRANDS

AVON

GLOB

' I

, t\ ;{i

tr;

G L O B A L E X C H A N G E

A V O N t h e c o m p c n y f o r w o m e n-

A V O NR U N N T N G - )

-Globol Women's Circuit

N O N I h e c o m p o n y l o r w o m e n

AVO Nw o r l d w i d e f u n d f o rw o m e n ' s h e o l t h

v6 q \ r -1ffiilDL''{r.N-,. -,A

r l a . , l f

@j(g l l

f ' \ I%q9". d /

l - * t

."tr: /

A V O N l h e c o m p o n y i o r w o m e n

A V O NP R O D U C T S

FOUNDATION

AVON ihe compony lo r women

AV

WOME

N

OFEN PRISE

A V O N i h e c o m p q n y f o r w o m e n

AVONBREASTCANCERCRUSADE

A V O N t h e c o m o o n v f o r w o m e n-

labovel

Since Avon sponsors so many programs

for women, 0 & J created [ogos for

each event. To give them a common

feet , the designers incorporaied the

hand-ra inted brushstroke.

l teft and hetowl

To ensure proper usage o f the new

brand ident i l y ,0 & J devetoped Avon 's

Wor ldwide Corpora te ldent i t y

Standards manua[ . l t ' s an ex tens ive

exptora t ion conta in ing examples 0 f

how the new Avon brand ident i t y

shou ld and shou ld no t be used.

:'f"*-

: i: !

: i

: l li '

l ,1. .i .

^1**Q

. l . '


New

l ahove and le f t l

0 & J redes igned Avon 's corpora te

magaz ine . 0u t look , us ing the new

tag l ine and togo. The o td cover [ooked

very da ted and p la in , compared to the

new layout wh ich is much more open

and f low ing .

BUGLE BOYBRAND BY BC DESIGN AND COLE & WEBER

Building a brand based on i ts price category is nothing to be ashamed of, according to designers

David Bates and Mil<e Call<ins, principals of BC Design in Seatt le. Working with the advert ising

agency Cole & Weber (also based in Seatt le), that is exactly what they did when they were asked

to redes ign the Bug le Boy c lo th ing brand.

"We were trying to be up-front with the prices and trying not to emulate other brands," says

Bates. "We said, 'Don't try to hide the fact that you're a price-point driven store, embrace i t ' ,"

Calkins adds. "There's a huge opportunity there that 's fair ly untapped. Bugle Boy has been able

to be a low price brand without having a st igma attached to i t ."

Founded in 1977, Bug le Boy has changed dramat ica l l y s ince i t s days as a young men 's fash ion

brand.The company now makes casual clothing for women, men, young men, and boys. Bugle Boy

had stopped advert ising in many markets and, as a result, consumers forgot about the brand

altogether.

I THE CHATLENGE ]

According to Suzanne Baird, Cole & Weber's account supervisor, "The people we talked to in

focus groups reflected on the Bugle Boy brand nostalgically-they said they haven't seen it

lately and they couldn't quite pin down a Bugle Boy personality," she recalls. The image those

surveyed most often recalled was the classic commercial from the late 'B0s with the wo_man

pul l ing her car a longside a young man walk ing down the st reet and saying, ' tExcuse me. Are those

Bugle Boy jeans you're wearing?"


"OUR PHIIOSOPHY IS THAT IVERY POINT OI THE BRAttD

THAT TOUCHIS THE COI{SUMER MUST DILIVER THE

SAME MISSAOE-WHITr | IR IT 'S THt STORI ITSI IF . THI

MERCHANDISE IN Tt|I STORE, ADVERTISIt'|G, A WEB

SITI. TEI.EVISION, [TC. ANY MESSAGT THAT REACHIS

THI COl'|SUMER MUST DEI-IVER THE SAME BRAND

I M A G [ . "

l te l t and above l

In BC Des ign 's f i rs t round o f concepts

they presented to Bug le Boy reps , the

des igners incorpora ted ac tua I v isua ts

o f the c lo th ing fo r the in -s to re

pos le rs . "We wanted to incorpora te

the ac tua l c lo thes in the v isua ls , so i t

woutd be less fash ion-dr iven , more

ut i t i ta r ian-k ind o f l i ke a hardware

s tore , bu t t ry to he tas te fu l a t the

same t ime, " des igner Mike Catk ins

expta ins . However , Bugte Boy thought

the images were too c lo th ing

spec i f i c - they wanted someth ing tha t

spoke t0 the l ines o f c lo th ing in genera t .

.$:]. REDES1GNING OR UPDATING A WELL-KNOWN BRAND

" l swear every man in Amer ica can quote tha t commerc ia l to a f , " no tes Ba i rd . A l though tha t ad

has sL jccess fu l l y l ingered in many peop les / minds over the years , i t d id no t rea l l y speak to the w ider

ar ray o f end users o f the produc t -moms, dads , and young boys-nor communica te the low-pr ice

message.

Ron l( leip, creative director at Cole & Weber relates, "We found this to be a chal lenge-to tal<e

a brand that everybody remembers because of that one commercial and translate i t to what i t

truly is today. we had to overcome a perception that has tal<en on a l i fe of i ts own.,,

I DEVELOPTNG THE STRATEGY ]

" Bugle Boy wanted a f irm brand identi ty that would extend into al l facets of the company,,, l ( lein

says . \ \0ur ph i losophy is tha t every po in t o f the brand tha t touches the consumer must de l i ver the

same message-whether i t 's the store i tself the merchandise in the store, advert ising, a web site,

television, etc. Any message that reaches the consumer must del iver the same brand image, espe-

cial ly today because everything is so fragmented.,,

Before test ing the focus groups, Cole & Weber executives were told by Bugle Boy that the target

marke t fo r the i r merchand ise is moms because they purchase the c lo thes fo r the i r husbands and

ch i ld ren . "We l< ind o f took them on the i r word and were fa i r l y cer ta in tha t moms were indeed the

key audience, 'but we wanted to do a disaster check among dads and boys to mal<e sure we weren,t

a l iena t ing them s ince they are the end-users , " reca l l s Ba i rd .The focus groups were conducted

with four groups of mothers, two groups of fathers, as well as fr iendship pairs of boys. "When you

get a group of teenage boys together in a room, they do a lot of f launting and bragging and they

aren't very truthful or real. so, instead, we put a boy and his fr iend together and you get much

more honest responses than when they ' re in f ron t o f a bunch o f the i r peers / / / Ba i rd exp la ins .

The research indicated that the brand had a lot of potential, especial ly with mothers. "We learned

tha t we had some rea l pos i t i ve , func t iona l qua l i t ies tha t appea led to moms wi th the c lo thes-

comfort, durabi l i ty, casualness, and a value for the money. But as far as involvement with the

brand, there wasn't a tangible personali ty.There was no clear brand identi ty associated with Bugle

Boy," she adds. "So because of the lacl< of involvement with the brand, i t was only being

purchased to so lve a func t iona l p rob lem- they were jus t loo l< ing a t p r ice and qua l i t y as a way to

evaluate i t , but we al l l<now that most clothing purchases aren/t based on such rat ional decisions.

We saw that as a real problem."

"lkea was an easy model for us to reference because i t is respectable, and you can f ind something

pretty cool for a reasonable price.That's where we came up with the user-fr iendly notion, because

when you go to Ikea, everything from the way you parl< your car, to how you wall< through the

s tore , i s des igned fo r cus tomers 'conven ience, " Ca l l< ins adds . "So we s ta r ted p lay ing w i th tha t

idea, and we came up with using arrows in the design.,,

W*:*sy*:sy:"i

TO TAKE A

WE HAD

*WE FOUND THIS TO BE A CHALLENGEBRAND THAT EVERYBODY REMEMBERS BECAUSE OF ONECOMMERCIAL AND TRANsLATE rr ro wHAr rr rRULy rs roDAy.ro ovERcortle A PERCEPTION THAT HAS TAKEN ON

A LIFE OF ITS OWN.''

@@

: i ::r:,., ' . .

.:

7M n iooea Put tover

la b ovel

The second round o f concepts tha t BC l }es ign presented

to Bug le 8oy had more o f a g raph ic approach, bu t the

c t ien t asked the des igners t0 come up w i th another

d i rec t ion tha t woutd be more photography-dr iven , and

aga in w i thout focus ing too much on spec i f i c p ieces o f

c lo th ing , so the pos ters wou ld no t have to updated

everv season.

s! 7M nino"o Purover 28.

|j:?i1gyl.-il rtooi,to o *rtt **o** t*o',,o -dii

la b ovel

Ihe o td Bugte Boy togo had been

around lo r many years , bu t i t d id

not have a persona l i t y and i t d id

not communica te any pos i t i ve

brand a t t r ibu tes . BC 0es ign used

the same sans ser i f t ype face tha l

Bugte Boy had a lways used, bu t

they pu t a d i f fe ren t sp in on i l ,

pu t t ing the Bs back- to -back .

Because the designers understood the importance of appealing to moms without turning off the

kids, their graphics were intended to str i l<e a chord with the end-users as well . "They were saying

that mothers were basical ly their prime target audience, but let 's face i t , ei ther the kid's going to

wear it or not," Bates says.

"It 's true to an extent, that mothers buy i t . That 's f ine, our goal was to try to keep that customer

even i f i t 's only for the price. But we were also saying, 'What i f you made i t hip enough to attract

people that could afford to shop somewhere else without al ienating the original customer?'That 's

the approach we've been tal<ing with the design of the brand," Calkins notes.

Their f i rst concept was to incorporate people wearing the clothing in the design, but the cl ient

rejected that approach because i t would have to be updated too often as the clothing l ines change

in styles and seasons. " l t became a logist ics thing," according to Bates. ' tThis sign has to be up

for six months so they didn't want specif ic i tems of clothing in the materials."

After a couple more design rounds Bates and Call<ins came up with a more generic approach.

Instead of focusing too heavi ly on the clothing, they used generic- looking, act ion-oriented photos

and created designs that worked with the photos. "We were trying to pul l colors out of the

photos," Bates says. "We didn't want to have dif ferent colors for the departments because i f the

photos change, the colors wouldn't go with i t , so we let the photography drive the colors."

The designers also created a new logo for Bugle Boy, but they had to maintain some of the old

image. "Part of i t is their heri tage," Bates recal ls. "They want to change, but they don't want to

lose the brand equity they've bui l t . They had this san seri f uppercase font that they've been using

since the '80s, and we wanted to use some of that but downplay i t , and the upper- and lowercase

seemed l ike a natural because i t wasn't so serious."

"We wanted i t to be hyper-generic on purpose-going bacl< to the original idea that i t 's user-

f r iend ly c lo th ing , no t necessar i l y fash ion c lo thes .That 's why we p icked He lve t ica , " Ca lk ins adds .

" l t 's a standard.The whole idea is that everything is real ly unassuming about this place.We were

walking a fence-understated sophist icat ion, but unassuming."

The designers worked closely with Cole & Weber to make sure they were al l on the same page,

bouncing ideas off one another. The ad agency tested the init ial designs with focus groups and

according to Baird, "Women l iked i t .The photography captured the moment, they l iked that the

prices were prominent, and they thought the arrows would be helpful to f ind what they're looking

for.They l iked the fact that i t was everyday scenes of everyday people-there was no pretension."

W*:*rneimv:*J

@

Iahove and r igh t l

For the th i rd round, the des igners

tocused on the "user - f r iend ly "

concept . "We d id i t l i ke i t was a key

t0 a map. The c lo thes are h igh t igh ted ,

bu t aga in i t was too spec i f i c to the

c lo th ing [ ines . They wanted every

poster to he extremely f lexible,"

Dav id Bates exo la ins .i ; ; : J t * t ! i ! r , i . r i 1 . 1

: : r i i : : : i I i t i ? i i l = I

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KAYTEE BIRDSEEDBRAND BY MURRIE, L IENHART, RYSNER ASSOCIATES

Turning a relat ively unheard of product into a popular brand through a strategic branding and

market ing campaign is a typ ica l success s to ry . But tu rn ing a $10 mi l l ion bus iness in to a $150

mi l l ion bus iness in jus t s ix years i s a lmost unheard o f . Bu t th is i s no fa i r l y ta le . Th is i s the t rue

story of l(ayTee birdseed, based in Chil ton, Wisconsin.

In 1986, l(ayTee was going through an identi ty cr isis-the company executives l<new they had a

great product, but they didn't have a sol id brand or market strategy to promote i t . Tom Ramey

was hired as vice president of sales and marketing to help re-focus the company and lead the

marl<eting and sales efforts.

"This was a very small company where the package design was done in-house, and they thought

i t looked grea t because i t a l l looked the same, " he reca l l s . " l sa id , 'Be ing the same is no t a lways

good. You do want a nice, uniform look for shelf visibi l i ty and merchandising reasons. But the

value-added, caged birds product sel ls for 40 percent more than the standard feed, and you can't

tel l the dif ference between them.'They weren't communicating the posit ioning of the products."

Ramey soon realized as well that this problem wasn't unique to l(ayTee-it was an industry

pitfall. l(ayTee needed to pump up its brand identity through the packaging, and do it before the

compet i t ion caught on.

Ct ' l t t lC ennNoS ]ffi-:i,,,,,,-'":r

l teft l

When KayTee b i rdseed was updat ing

the look fo r i t s caged b i rdseed

var ie t ies , c0mpany representa t ives

thought the packag ing needed to be

more access ib le and user - f r iend ly

so they came up w i th the p las t i c

can is te rs . MLR des igners then

incorpora ted photos o f the b i rds on

the packag ing so consumers cou ld

eas i ty iden t i f y wh ich b i rdseed they

n e e d e d "

REDEsTGNtNG oR upDArtNG A wELr.xllowt' l ennto 67

IJI

I

"THE CONCEPT WAS TO SELL THE LINE nnD MANAGE rHEsHELVEs so rHAr WE WOULD OUT-MANEUVER

THE COMPETITION.''


The f i rs t th ing Ramey d id in h is new pos i t ion was conduct focus groups w i th b i rd owners . "We

started tal l<ing to them about bird ownership and we were hearing that they are very involved with

the i r b i rds .They watch TV w i th them, they ea t w i th them, they wres t le w i th them, and they even

ta l l< w i th them," he exp la ins . Ramey a lso d id a quant i ta t i ve s tudy to de termine how many peop le

have birds, what types of birds they have, how they feed them, and where they buy their birdseed.

The des ign f i rm o f Mur r ie , L ienhar t , Rysner Assoc ia tes (MLR) o f Ch icago was then brought in to

des ign a b rand image tha t wou ld p romote and nur tu re the percept ion o f the owners ' fami l ia l

re la t ionsh ips w i th the i r b i rds .

The pacl<aging i tself became a factor in the brand design to mal<e i t more accessible and

ident i f iab le to consumers . Ramey says , "Most o f our p roduc t was in po ly bags , bu t we found ev i -

dence tha t peop le l i ked to see the food. " So the i r dec is ion was c lear - l i te ra l l y . C lear pac l<ag ing

was selected for al l of l(ayTee's caged bird treat canisters.This was an industry innovation.

I TMPLEMENTTNG A SOLUTTON ]

To d is t ingu ish i t se l f in the ca tegory , the mar l<e t ing team, a long w i th c rea t ive d i rec to r and MLR

principal Shel Rysner, decided that i t would be in l(ayTee's best interests to actual ly show pictures

o f the b i rds on the pac l<ag ing . Under Rysner 's d i rec t ion , the des igners deve loped a number o f

executions addressing the dif ferent platforms, which were then tested with consumers. "We went

to the mal ls and showed people the design and i t got the reactions and intent to purchase we were

lool<ing for on each of the packages," Ramey relates.

"The upshot of this is that we learned the potency of the brand on the package and we started

segment ing the brand, c rea t ing b i rd -spec i f i c packag ing , " Rysner reca l l s . "The concept was to se l l

the l ine and manage the she lves so tha t we wou ld ou t -maneuver the compet i t ion . "The pac l<ag ing

inc luded co lo r fu l i l l us t ra t ions o f the spec i f i c b i rds fo r wh ich the seed was in tended, so consumers

cou ld see the i r b i rd and ident i f v w i th the produc t .

6 a D E S t G N t N G B R A N D S

l teft l

KayTee had an image prob tem wi th i t s

w i ld b i rdseed var ie l ies . The packag ing

was ou tda ted and i t was no t

d is t ingu ishab le on s t0 re she lves .

I t eftl

To make the w i ld b i rdseed s tand ou t

f rom the compet i t ion , the des igners

br igh tened up the packag ing w i th

co tor fu I i [ [us t ra t ions o f w i td b i rds ,

and the Kay lee name was g iven a

much ho tder p resence.

REDESICNINC OR UPDA ING A WELr-< t lOWN BRAND 69

As Ramey puts i t , " I t 's l i l<e high-involved dog owners who l i l<e to see their dog on the package.

We whnted to tal<e advantage of that in our advert ising and pacl<aging.,,

The response to the new packaging was immediate."Our sel l ing was better because we were gorng

to the trade and tel l ing them who the consumer is, what they're looking for, and giving them the

so lu t ion , l 'Ramey exp la ins . " l t ' s a lso an indus t ry tha t I ca l l ' h igh- touch, low- tech . ,The re ta i l s to re

c le rk hasa b ig in f luence on what the .consumer w i l l purchase. Peop le w i l l go to pe t s to res to make

a purchase because someone is there to answer their questions. We used the package as a sel l ing

device and other materials were provided to the stores to help educate the retai l store person.,,

And, of course, the l<ey reason l(ayTee was such a hit with consumers is because "the pacl<age

looked great," Ramey says. \ \we got more distr ibutors to take i t on, and the velocity in retai l

stores increased as consumers picked i t up in greater numbers.,,

He attr ibutes the success of the brand to the close working relat ionship he had with Rysner and

the designers. "The more your design company is a partner with you, the more successful you/re

going to be. Shel was always a member of our team as we developed new products. Branding is

more important than advert ising because in the absence of advert ising, i t 's the only communica-

t ion you have with consumers/// Ramey concludes.

ffi:"-ii:i:y[*ylr-::-i

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" B R A N D I t | O I S M O R I I M P O R T A N T

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A B S I N C I O I A D V E R T I S I N O , I T I S I H E

W I T H C O N S U M I R S . "

S i n c e m a n y p e o p l e c o n s i d e rJ [ r r Y [ r d i l y P t s u P r t s L u i l ) r u t s l

outdoor b i rds the i r pe ts . MLR

desisners t,rrr: :i_::::::ll::.

;,,"rfl: I:,::':';:: ",',''fo r par t i cu la r b i rds , such as

c a r d i n a t s . f i n c h e s , a n d s o n g b i r d s .

BU RGER KINGBRAND BY THE STERLING GROUP AND F ITCH

With l i t t le modif icat ion made to the Burger l( ing brand mark in nearly 25 years, Burger l( ing

Corporation (Bl(C) decided the brand was in need of an overhaul. The corporation wanted to

crea te a power fu l and cons is ten t b rand image tha t wou ld be communica ted to a l l consumers in

a l l touch po in ts w i th the brand- logo, s ignage, res taurant des ign , and pac t<ag ing . In o rder to do

th is , B l (C sought to de f ine and ar t i cu la te a s ing le g loba l b rand essence, wh ich wou ld then be

in jec ted in to a l l e lements o f the brand.

"Burger l ( ing wanted us to focus on the bun logo, bu t the i r ob jec t ives were rea l l y to deve lop a

high impact brand mark to reinforce the new brand e"ssence," says Marcus Hewitt, managing partner

and c rea t ive d i rec to r a t the Ster l ing Group, the f i rm commiss ioned to wor l< w i th B l (C 's b rand

team to redesign the brand. "They wanted i t to be contemporary but not trendy, and infuse more

energy into the brand.The old brand identi ty is very corporate and quiet, and everything f lows in

a s t ra igh t l ine .The type is round, the bun is round, the ye l low and red are warm and so f t co lo rs -

i t needed more impact , " he adds .


The Ster l ing Group and B l (C 's b rand team in t roduced severa l rounds o f logo exp lo ra t ions , inc lud-

ing design executions with f lames to accentuate Burger l( ing's signature "f lame broi led" cooking

technique and experimenting with dif ferent type treatments and colors. "We didn't want to add

too many other elements. I thinl< i t 's a del icate balance with a brand marl< l i l<e this because you

see i t on so many products-i t 's everywhere and you don't want i t to be too fussy," Hewitt recal ls.


:L *&*tjt

SURCERKils

l te f t and he lowl

Burger K ing 's o ld b rand ident i t y had

n0t been updated in near ly 25 years .

" l t ' s an inc red ib ty we l l recogn ized

brand, bu t i t ' s very c0rpora te and i t

doesn ' t l i ve up to the quat i t y o f the

res taurant , " says Marcus Hewi t t ,

manag ing par tner and c rea t ive d i rec-

to r a t the Ster l ing Group, lhe f i rm

h i red to redes ign the brand.Used w i th permiss ion f rom Burger l ( ing Brands , Inc

Used w i th pern iss ion f ron Burger K ing Brands . Inc

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l

The des igners a lso in t roduced a new co lo r to b r igh ten up the logo wh ich t rad i t iona l l y was on ly

repreSented with red and yel low. " l t was natural to add another color. When you look at i t now

wi thout the b lue , i t loo l<s l i l<e a co lo r i s miss ing , " he no tes . "The wor ld where tha t b rand mar l<

was operating has moved on and we lool<ed at the competitors which had more elaborate logos

wi th more co lo r and ac t ion . "

The des igners re ta ined the brand. .mar l< 's bun image, wh ich is a s t rong communica tor o f the

brand's appeal, and enlarged the type so that i t extended beyond the bun, to convey the idea oT a

bigger taste and reinforce the size of the Whopper sandwich. The sl ightly t i l ted image and type

also convey a sense of energy and motion. "We were bui lding on what they had, but i t was a

signif icant change. We ref ined the type, we l<ept some of the curves and added some sharper edges,

and every element is worl<ing better than i t was," the designer says. "This is a massive franchise

bus iness and B l (C cou ldn ' t a f fo rd to have peop le no t recogn ize the brand. "

I TMPLEMENTTNG A SOLUTTON ]

With a b rand des ign es tab l i shed, F i tch , an in te rna t iona l des ign and bus iness consu l tancy , was

ca l led in to deve lop the th ree-d imens iona l aspec ts o f the brand, inc lud ing in te r io r and ex ter io r

bu i ld ing des ign and t rade dress e lements , and s ignage o f the Burger l ( ing res taurants . Consumer

research, conducted by Bl(C and Fitch, revealed underlying social aspects of the fast-food

experience that needed to be addressed. "The research helped us design the experience of the

brand-how peop le wou ld ac tua l l y l i ke to f low th rough the space, no t jus t how they wou ld l i l<e i t

to loo l< , " exp la ins Jon Ba ines , assoc ia te v ice pres ident a t F i tch .

Since the Burger l( ing franchises are al l owned and operated by dif ferent people,the interiors of

the restaurants ref lected that, which posed a chal lenge to the Fitch creatives. " ln the past, the

franchisees were given carte blanche as far as what the inside of their restaurants looked l i l<e, so

they al l lool<ed dif ferent," Baines says. "One of the main ideas that has been introduced is that

the core exper ience a t Burger l ( ing shou ld be cons is ten t . " So i t was dec ided tha t the p laces where

the customer comes in contact with the food in al l restaurants should be the same. in theorv

making this experience consistent across the board.

A major focus of the interior design is a streamlined layout for the customer ordering process.

Separate areas are now defined for order placement and picl<-up. In addit ion, menus have been

redes igned to d isp lay i tems on ly dur ing the t ime o f day when they are ava i lab le .

Another conceptthe creatives discovered from the consumer research is how people perceive their

d in ing exper ience. "Peop le l i ke to ge t the i r food fas t , bu t they don ' t necessar i l y l i l<e to ea t i t fas t

when they ' re d in ing in .They l i ke to re lax , " reca l l s Ba ines . So severa l k inds o f sea t ing areas have

been incorporated into the restaurant design, including bright open areas geared to large groups

and famil ies, and areas for more int imate dinlng. In addit ion to the tables themselves, the

ffi .?!,:L-n-u\ogilo^' .,1

Iteftl

For mos l o f the in i t ia l ske tches . the

des igners exper imented w i th the type

and bun des ign , g iv ing the brand

mark a more an imated qua l i t y to

c rea te energy and impact . They a lso

in t roduced add i t iona l co lo rs to

complement Burger K ing 's t rademark

red and vel low.

I left l

"Some o f the lhemes we looked a t

inc luded add ing f lames because o f

the equ i ty es tab t ished w i th Burger

K ing 's ' f lame-bro i led ' burgers , "

}|ewitt recal ls. Utt imatety i t was

dec ided tha t the f lames wou ld make

the brand mark look too busy .


lJsed with permission from Burger King Brands, Inc.

rlilI

I;:

environment is also a factor. " in many fast-food restaurants you see huge posters promoting

different i tems in the dining area. We learned that people don't want to be reminded about what

they may have missed in the ordering process once they have their food in front of them,,, Baines

explains. In addit ion, strategic, focused l ighting also helps to create dist inct dining atmospheres.

The drive-thru experience has also been streamlined to the customers'advantage. pre-menus at

drive-thrus often look dif ferent than the ordering menu, so when the customer pul ls up to order

they cannot f ind the specif ic i tem they want to order. To al leviate this problem, the pre-menu is

exactly the same as the ordering menu, and order confirmation screens reassure consumers that

the order i s r igh t .

In add i t ion , Burger l ( ing des igned a t ransparent bag so peop le can see what i s ins ide o f i t w i th -

out having to open i t up and check, oftentimes holding up the drive-thru I ine. They even went one

step further-they developed a panic. button that customers wil i be able to drive up to and use i f

something is indeed wrong with their order. " l t 's a great idea because they're not holding up the

l ine and i t 's a reassurance factor to the customer,,, Baines notes.

To give new and exist ing restaurants a dist inct ive'exterior trade dress, Fitch designed a blue sculp-

tural element which wil l be retrof i t ted to exist ing restaurants. "The blue element, together with

the new site signage, introduces the new Burger l( ing trade dress,,, Baines says.

The new brand identi ty helps Burger l( ing achieve competit ive dif ferentiat ion by creating a design

that is in direct correlat ion with what consumers desire from a fast-food restaurant. Burger l( ing

wil l be rol l ing out the new brand identi ty in i ts restaurants in the coming years. So far, consumer

response has been tremendously posit ive, translat ing to strong gains in sales and traff ic at the

res taurants cur ren t ly employ ing the new look and feer .


I t eftl

BKC's c rea t ives , a long w i th S ter l ing ,

came up w i th th is b rand execut ion . l t

marries the best of the old with the

new. and i t exudes a much bo lder

presence w i th the en la rged type

exptod ing ou t o f the bun to convey the

idea o f a b igger tas te .

l teft l

A t t o f the packag ing , inc tud ing the

new c lear -v iew bags tha t a l low

customers to see the i r o rders .

focuses on the new brand mark . The

des igners a lso incorpora ted red and

b lue p ixe la ted shapes tha t sur round

the brand, exud ing a sense o f e i ther

rad ia t ing heat on i tems such as

burgers and f r ies , o r e f fe rvescence

on so f t d r ink cups .

REDESIGNING OR UPDATING A WELL-KNOWN BRAND

Used w i th permiss i0n f r0m Burger K ing Brands , Inc

lJsed wilh pernissi0n from Burger King Erands, Inc.

l Jsed w i th permiss ion f rom Burger K ing Brands , lnc

l teft l

The new Burger King t rade dress was

int roduced in Reno, Nevada, at th is

newty-bui t t restaurant . To incorporate

the t rade dress to ex is t ing restau-

rants, the btue " f in" that prot rudes hy

the entrance witt be retrofitted to

those bui ld ings in addi t ion to incor-

porat ing the new s ignage.

l teft l

The open f loor space, des igned by

F i tch . was c rea ted to accommodate

seat ing fo r g roups o f a [ [ s izes . The

corner booths prov ide a more so l i ta ry

eat ing exper ience.

l Jsed w i th permiss ion f r0m Burger K ing Brands , Inc


*THE RESEARCH HELPED US

BRAND-HOW PEOPLETO FLOW THROUGH THE

f f i f re

DESIGN THE EXPERIENCE OF THE

WOULD ACTUALLY LIKEsPAcE, NOT ,UST HOW rHEY wouLD

LIKE IT TO LOOK.''

I te f t l

The dr ink p ick -up area was devetoped

for cus tomer conven ience. The coun ler

space was des igned so t rays coutd

eas i l y s l ide over i t . and the open area

a l lows cus tomers to he lp themse lves

to re f i l t s .

t left l

The consumer o rder ing area is

d e s i g n e d t o k e e p p e o p t e m o v i n g

through the l ine by conveniently ptacing

images o f the food i tems in f ron t o f

them so they can dec ide what to

order be lo re they ge t to the counter .

REDES]GNING OR IJDDAT \G A WLL- .KNOW\ BRAN? 4T

lJsed w i th permiss i0n f r0m Burger K ing Brands , Inc

l l sed w i th permiss i0n f r0m Burger K ing Brands , Inc

SUTTER HOMEBRAND BY MICHAEL OSBORNE DESIGN

For more than 50 years Sutter Home has been providing American consumers with a variety of

affordably-priced wines. In 1947, Mario Trinchero tool< ownership of the winery, and throughout

the '50s and '60s i t was a "mom-and-pop" o rgan iza t ion , s t i c l< ing to the w ine bas ics -se l l ing reds

a n d w h i t e s f r o m a l i t t l e w i n e r y i n N a p a V a l l e y . i n t h e e a r l y l 9 T 0 s , t h o u g h , t h i n g s b e g a n t o c h a n g e .

Bob Trinchero, the eldest son of Mario, began experimenting with Zinfandel wines, and created a

l igh t -co lo red w ine w i th a s l igh t ly p ink ish co lo r and ca l led i t 0e i l De Pedr ix wh ich means "eye o f

the par t r idge . " A l though th is new wine d id no t se l l we l l a t f i r s t (on ly 2 ,000 cases the f i rs t year ) ,

according to Rob Celsi, Sutter Home's brand manager, the sweet-tast ing wine was the beginning

of someth ing b ig .

In I972, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Fire Arms informed the Trincheros that they had to

cal l the wine what i t real ly was/ so they named it white zinfandel. By the 1980s, Sutter Home was

sell ing so much of their wine-far beyond anyone's expectat ions-that they decided i t was t ime

for a new logo for the Sutter Home varietals.TheTrincheros contracted with a local designer who

came up with the stacked word marl<, which has been used ever since. "Lit t le did anyone know

how important that brand would become," Celsi says.The label evolved slowly over the years, but

by 1995 the competit ion was changing the landscape.

*---:E1iI[i]:1?-L]

IUTTERHoltdE'

I 993 CA ; - iFCRh IsA

WHITE ZINFANDEL\iINTJ:D AND llOTTLi:D BY SUTfEIi l-{Or'iE \\'1\ERY l\C

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ALCOHOL 9? ] : f r ' VOLL i \1 [

l le f t and be lowl

By 1 985, Sut te r Home was a success fu l

contender fo r [eadersh ip in the w ine

category , so the company dec ided i t

was t ime fo r a new logo. A [oca l

des igner came up w i th the s tacked

word mark . wh ich changed very l i t t le

over lhe years , as you see here . l t was

not un t i I lhe mid '90s tha t the company

embarked on a new brand ident i t y to

re-es tab t ish i t se l f as a leader in the

wine indus t ry .

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SurrenT{or\4E

REDESTGNTNG oR UpDATtNG A WELL-KNowN BRAND 81

I-

..THIS COMPANY IS REALLY GOOD ABOUT KEEPING THEIRFINGER ON THE PULSE OF THE MARKETPLACE-

KEEPING THEIR BRAND UPDATED ON A REGULAR BASI5. YOU CAN'T STAYTHE SAME TOO LONG rN rHrs rNDUsrRy BEcAUSE YOU'LL GET

LOST rN THE sHuFFLE."

I n 1995 . Su t te r Home upda ted

i ts brand and created a ctear ,

pressure-sensi t ive tabet . At the

t ime, i t was c lear ty d is t inct

f rom other wines on the shet l

Up to tha t t ime, Sut te r Home's wh i te z in fande l was be ing so ld in a g reen bo t t le . "A f te r a wh i le ,

the compet i t ion-wh ich had sco f fed a t Bob 's invent ion o f wh i te z in fande l s topped laugh ing and

s tar ted mal< ing i t , and they were pu t t ing i t in a c lear g lass . We found ourse lves , as the ca tegory

innovators, behind the category," Celsi explains. " l f we didn't react, the competit ion would tal<e

the ca tegory , so we went to a c lear , o r f l i n t , g lass w i th our wh i te z in fande l , and a t the same t ime

we dec ided to update our labe l . We fe l t we needed a dramat ic pac l<age update to ga in a lead over

the compet i t ion . "

The des ign f i rm a t tha i t ime came up w i th two paper labe ls tha t Sut te r Home was in te res ted in .

"We d id some consumer research and we learned tha t consumers are inundated w i th so many

wine packages.There are a lo t o f labe ls on the she l f in the w ine bus iness , so we went bac l< to the

des igners a t tha t t ime and we sa id 'We don ' t th in l< we 've gone fa r enough. We want to go

fL t r ther , " 'Ce ls i exp la ins . What they came up w i th was a c lear p ressure-sens i t i ve labe l fo r the

bott le and the necl< label remained oaper.

As Ce ls i says , "We went to town. The brand too l< o f f and we so ld s ix o r seven mi l l ion cases , and

today we ' re a t about ten mi l l ion . Th is i s fo r a cornpany tha t was mov ing about 30 ,000 cases in

I976-a t rue Amer ican success s to rv . "

I PRESENT DAY I

However , even though Sut te r Home was do ing ex t remely we l l , the mar l<e t -consc ious pro fess iona ls

there l<new i t was t ime to change aga in . "The cyc le o f innovat ion to dup l i ca t ion has been increas-

ingly shortened, where you have to change every two years/ not every f ive years," Celsi says.

"Rea l iz ing tha t , we cou ldn ' t a l low ourse lves to be in a s i tua t ion where the mar l<e tp lace te l l s us to

change our pac l<age. We a lso found ourse lves be ing dragged down by the compet i t ion because

they were l<noc l< ing o f f our pac l<age des ign , bu t a t a lower p r ice po in t . "Th is Ied Sut te r Home to

commiss ion Michae l Osborne Des ign (M0D) , wh ich has des igned w ine labe ls fo r many w iner ies

inc lud ing some o fTr inchero 's o ther b rands .

8 2 D E s G N I N G B R A N D S

FAM I LY ESTATES

la b ovel

In 1999, Sut te r l |ome 's b rand-savvy

marketers knew it was t ime to update

the brand again. However, when

Michae[ 0sborne 0es ign (M0D) was

commiss ioned to do the redes ign , the

company also wanted to introduce i ts

new name-Ir inchero Family

Estates-and inctude i t on the pack-

ag ing w i th the Sut te r Home brand.

M0B crea t ives exp lo red severa l con-

cepts for the name ptate, start ing

wi th th is one. M0D des igner Miche[ [e

Regenbogen says o f the des ign ,

"They're an l tal ian family, and we

wanted i t to took l ta l ian . Th is des ign

looks l ike an otd ttuit crate. We also

wanted to make sure we inc luded's ince 1890, ' because her i tage was

real ly importanl to the Trincheros."

E\o )f,uou

Sr,\EICOLLECTION

labovel

"We had heen told by the marketing

department that they wanted to

inc lude a s ignature w ine co l lec t ion , "

Regenbogen says o f th is des ign .

S I N C E t a 9 0

<\

"o,

(r)

f', {Y

la b ovel

The teaf pattern was preferred by the

Tr inchero dec is ion-makers over the

first design. "They wanted i t to be

s imp ler and they d idn ' t t i ke the T- i t

tooked t i ke an i ron brand. "

Regenbogen reca l l s . "so we focused

on the . lea f des ign . "

E5{

FAMlwT3'^'.=la hovel

Ih is des ign was u l t imate ly chosen fo r

the name sea l . The des igners removed

"s ince 1890" because the w ine and the

name he ld the i r own w i thout th is

phrase. "We jus t pu t the bes t e lements

together , " Regenbogen admi ts . "We

created the grapes in Adobe l l lustrator

and we spen l a g rea t deaI o f t ime

mak ing sure they wou ld read proper ly

on the bo t t les because they ' re go ing to

be rea[[y t iny."

Michael 0sborne, creative director for the Sutter Home project, says, "This company is real ly

good about keeping their f inger on the pulse of the marl<etplace-l<eeping their brand updated on

a regular basis according to the market and the industry. They have some very savvy brand

managers who l<eep th ings mov ing .You can ' t s tay the same too long in th is indus t ry because you, l l

ge t los t in the shuf f le . "

There was also another major consideration for the redesign. The Trinchero family had changed

the company name from Sutter Home to Trinchero Family Estates, and Sutter Home Winery was

retained as a brand name. "We saw this as an opportunity to introduce that to the public,, , says

Miche l le Regenbogen, sen io r des igner on the pro jec t . "The reason they are chang ing the i r name

is because i t adds perceived value and consistency to the company. I t takes them a step up: Sutter

Home is no t the umbre l la anvmore . "

Celsi adds, "There's a great degree of product pari ty out there regardless of the category, and

consumers wil l buy the cheapest brand for a lot of products, since they al l kind of perform at the

same level. Take store brand tomato sauce, for instance: I t 's not much dif ferent than name brand

tomato sauce anymore, as opposed to ten or f i f teen.years ago where there was a marked dif fer-

ence. We wanted to ensure that people saw our brand marl< as a qual i ty marl< in a sea of labels,

where there are very few brands, but a whole lot of bott les on the shelf. , ,

M0D created several concepts that did not deviate too far from the current pacl<aging. "We

thought i t should be a very evolut ionary move, versus revolut ionary. On a scale of one to ten, i t

didn't real ly make sense for us to move past a three or a four.There is a tremendous amount of

equity and we didn't want to confuse the current consumers," 0sborne explains. The Trincheros

also wanted to give the whole brand a more upscale image. As a result, they have implemented a

new glass shape for the 1.5 l i ter bott les, and they are moving from a screw top to a cork and

capsu le f in is6 .

€ D E S I G N I N G B R A N D S :

l a b ove l

Ihe nex t phase in the process

was des ign ing the w ine [abe ls .

A t though th is f i rs t des ign [ooks

very s imi la r to the o td tabet

des ign , there are subt le

d i f fe rences . For ins tance, a

d i f fe ren t fon t i s used, and the

.co lo rs have been mod i f ied . The

Tr inchero Fami ly members

s ignatures were in t roduced in the

background as wet t .

labove l

The des igners s ta r ted in t roduc ing

the togotype on one l ine w i th th is

des ign . Th is approach a lso

inc luded a p ic tu re o l the

Tr inchero fami ly . "Th is was our

f i rs t s tep t ry ing to incorpora te

the Trincheros with Sutter J|ome,"

Regenbogen says .

l left l

The s ignature ser ies was

in t roduced in th is des ign . l t

cap lu red the her i tage w i th the

c lass ic w ine tabet , s igned by the

p ro p r i e to rs .

la b ovel

Ihe ct ients were reatty drawn to

th is des ign . " Ihey t i ked i t

because i t ' s very c lean and we

in t roduced the Tr inchero word

mark . The c lear labe[ rea t ly

s tood ou t on the she l f . None o f

the compet i to rs were do ing any-

th ing tha t tooked l i ke th is , "

Regenbogen exp la ins . l |owever ,

they were no t f in ished ,us t ye t .

" Ihe c l ien ts d idn ' t fee l there was

enough o f a co lo r burs t on the

labe[ - lhere wasn ' t any th in g

drawing your eye to i t . Co lo r i s

someth ing they used [as t t ime as

a d i f fe ren t ia to r in the var ie ta ts , "

the des igners adds .


Osborne says, "We experimented with the Sutter Home word marl<, where i t appeared as two

stacled words. But we thought that part icular type treatment looked too old-fashioned, so we

suggested putt ing i t on one I ine with a new type treatment.They've had thatword mark for nearly

2O years and they thought that 's were the equity was, but we showed them that they can st i l l l<eep

their brnand equity-the stacl<ed word mark alone wasn't i t ."The designers also suggested drop-

ping an old Sutter Home seal, as well as an i l lustrat ion that had appeared on the label. "You take

four or f ive l i t t le things out that add up to a big thing, but at the same t ime you can't look at the

new design and not l<now it 's Sutter Home," Osborne acknowledges.

The new package included the addit ion of a "Signature" designator for the dif ferent varietals,

such as S ignature Chardonnay. Regenbogen exp la ins , "Par t o f the prob lem is tha t Sut te r Home

was always considered a value-oriented wine. Part of the solut ion was to elevate the Sutter Home

brand image and perceived value.They want to attract new wine drinl<ers while retaining the loyal

consumers the w ine a l readv has . "

A seri f typeface was used for the Sutter Home Winery name, which gives the wine a more upscale

fee l , and M0D h i red a ca l l ig rapher to d i f fe ren t ia te the var ie ta ls in the brand. "Ca l l ig raphy and

scripts in general are hard to read unless you do them correctly, so that was a chal lenging part,"

Osborne admits. "And since these are varietals, the names chardonnay, cabernet, and so on, have

to be easy to read to mal<e a consumer's purchase decision as easy as possible."

The new labe l wou ld a lso e l im ina te the paper nec l< labe l - there 's now one la rge , c lear labe l . A

fo i l -s tamped emblem was added, car ry ing theTr inchero Fami ly Es ta tes name.The resu l t ing des ign

is an elegant, upscale representation of the Sutter Home Vineyards brand. "We've increased the

perceived quali ty of the brand with the elegant label design, and by introducing the Trinchero

Fami ly Es ta tes name to the packag ing , " Ce ls i says .

" T H E R E ' S A G R E A T D E G R E E O F P R O D U C T P A R I T Y O U T

THERI RIGARDTISS OF THE CATIGORY. AI{D CONSUMERS

W I I . I B U Y T H I C H I A P I S T B R A N D F O R A t O T O F P R O D .

U C T S , S I N C E T H E Y A I . I . K I 1 ' | D O F P E R F O R M A T T H I S A M I

t I V E I . . . . W I W A N T I D T O E N S | J R E T H A T P E O P L E S A W O U R

BRAND MARK AS A OUAI"ITY MARK Il'| A SEA OF I.ABEI.S,

WHIRE THIRI, ARI VIRY FEW BRANDS, BUT A WHOIT LOT

d6

0 F B 0 T T L I S 0 1 ' l T H E S H t t F . "

The f ina t des ign d i rec t ion fo r var ie ta ls incorpora tes a h in t o f

co lo r to d i f fe ren t ia te the var ie ta ts and make the des ign s tand

out on the shet f . "The co lo rs we 've chosen are d i f fe ren t f rom

what they had in the pas t . l t ' s ac tua t ty a meta l l i c co tor as

opposed to meta l t i zed paper l i ke they had be fore . so the

co lo rs a re toned down and more soph is t i ca ted , " Regenbogen

says . Cat l ig raph ic le t te r ing was a tso incorpora ted fo r the

var ie ta l des ignators .

REDEStGNtNG oR upDAlNG A WELL,KNowN gnnNo 8z

MICHAEL OSBORNE DESIGNGALLERY

tr i g ht l

In add i t ion to the Sut te r Home

var ie ta ls , T r inchero Fami ty Es ta tes

makes severa l o ther b ran .ds o l w ine .

i n c l u d i n g t h i s o n e d e s i g n e d b y M 0 D .

To capture the her i tage o f the

var ie ta ts , the bo t t les a re adorned

wi th e legant g rapev ine i l l us t ra t ions

and an asymmet r ica l word mark . The

capsu les o f the th ree var ie ta ls have

un ique descr ip t i ve copy and co lo rs

fo r easy d i f fe ren t ia t ion on the she[ f .

D E S I G N ] N G B R A N D S

; ' a

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t teft l

M0D incorpora ted pressure-sens i l i ve

[ahets on the Montev ina packag ing to

g ive the brand more she l f impact . Ihe

s t r iped c losure and go ld sun icon

capture a t rad i t iona t l ta t ian fee l ing .

Iabove]

Named a f te r an l ta t ian seapor t , th is

l ine o f p remium var ie ta ls was

des igned by M0D. C lear . p ressure-

sens i t i ve [abe ls serve as a h idden

s tage to showcase the e legant .

meta t t i c go td word mark and r i ch

cotor pa te t te .

\ \ ! * - * * t '

l a b ove l

The Sot6o brand, a lso f rom Tr inchero

Fami ly Es ta tes , was redes igned by

M0[ ) to in t roduce th ree new f ru i t -

f lavored w ines . Ihe sun on the back

labe l i s v is ib te f rom the f ton t . The

cotor fu I des ign speaks to a vas t

t rans i t iona l aud ience o f new wine

dr inkers .

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iiM I C H A E L C O N N E L L , M E D I A A R T I S T S , I N C . , I T A L Y

r,?4:i;.+i5qrs;lln:1-lFr5,af|:if iilr,.iiitlitii$il-r,i:ilq ;.,ritfi4t1;r,,,rii:i!iiirr.;.!:r:,,i ,3ii.ijji..:. irxiEjl

A brand is a brand is a brand. Whether i t is a niche or mass market brand, the dynamics of the brand func-

t ion equa l ly . I t i s the env i ronment in wh ich the brand l i ves tha t i s d i f fe ren t , and tha t changes the ru les o f how

it wi l l impact a specif ic market. I t helps to think of brands as people with personali t ies, character traits, styles,

and an env i ronment in wh ich thev l i ve .

I de f ine and v isua l i ze the brand and i t s en t i re un iverse , c rea t ing a to ta l b rand exper ience and ensur ing com-

p le te comprehens ion fo r a l l dec is ion makers , and, more impor tan t ly , i t s n iche mar l<e t . My ph i losophy on

B R A N D I N G T 0 N I C H E M A R K E T S i s b y i n l a r s e E { I U A L T 0 T H A T 0 F M A S S M A R K E T B R A N D I N G . T n

fact, i t is not the branding process that changes but the way in which you do your RESEARCH,

The branding process is a general discipl ine that helps put the elements together that wi l l identi fy and give

incept ion to a b rand. Whether o r no t i t w i l l even be a mass marke t b rand w i l l become apparent dur ing the

research and definit ion phases.

Niche brands are bui l t for specif ic markets and embody determinate qual i t ies and characterist ics, while a

mass market brand may be more ambiguous, al lowing broader interpretat ion. Since the target audience is very

specif ic, you need to be specif ic with your sample-use focus groups instead of broad tele-research.

A few factors that I personally bel ieve are important in niche samples are:

1) Do your own homeworl<. l(now the market well . Don't let the marl<eting experts do al l the worl< for you.

2) Part icipate in the sample so that you can get an up-close and personal understanding of the sample results.

As designers, we have a knack for understanding emotion-based responses and need to be present to interpret

the unwrit ten results.

3) Once you have clear direct ion for your brand, test i t . Get out of your off ice and tal l< to people in the nrcne

mar l<e t . You w i l l be surpr ised by how much ins igh t you w i l l rece ive .

4 Final ly, I bel ieve that in niche branding i t is the detai ls that make the dif ference. This is why you need to

be so involved in the research. Anyone can "general ly" understand a market, but i f you do not understand the

under ly ing cu l tu re o f your n iche , i t w i l l k i l l any hope fo r success .

W-i:sv\+iflr:

BRANDINGFOR NICHEARKETS

ROXAN E PHARMACEUTICALSBRAND BY THE DELOR GROUP

The DeLor Group, based in Louisvi l le, l (entucky, has honed ln on a brand specialty that most

des ign f i rms wou ld shy away f rom-pharmaceut ica ls . " l t ' s un l i l<e any o ther indus t ry . The

pharmaceutical environment is very regulated and there are an awful lot of things you can,t say,,,

l (en DeLor , p r inc ipa l o f the f i rm says . " l t ' s hard fo r peop le in the des ign bus iness to wor l< . in

pharmaceuticals because you have to be tremendously patient and you compromise a lot. 1t tal<es

s ign i f i can t ly more t ime fo r lega l i t ies -and somet imes i t ' s jus t no t log ica l . I t o f ten t imes isn , t a

good match for designers and that 's why you don't see a lot of real ly great worl< being done in

the pharmaceutical arena because creatives don't want to invest that l<ind of t ime in the detai ls., ,

S ince DeLor 's f i rm has done a lo t o f work in the pharmaceut ica l a rena, he dec ided to cap i ta l i ze

on h is exper t l se and contac t compan ies he thought had a des ign oppor tun i ty fo r bu i ld ing brands

with specif ic levels of expert ise, l i l<e products associated with cancer or H IV. Roxane

Pharmaceuticals, a leader in the pal l iat ive care industry, was one of the companies the design f irm

targe ted w i th i t s campaign . Accord ing to DeLor , "The goa l w i th pa l l ia t i ve care is to make peop le

who have chron ic and pa in fu l i l l nesses comfor tab le , as opposed to be ing in such severe pa in they

can't take care of"themselves. I t 's not a major blockbuster I ike antibiot ics or a cure for HIV, but

i t 's a way to l ive with these i l lnesses and manage the pain.,,

Although Roxane offers several drugs for pal l iat ive care, i t did not have a single brand under

which to marl<et them. "After seeing some of the other things we've done, they knew what they

needed, but they didn't know how to do i t . They had to somehow t ie these things together so wheri

the i r sa les peop le wa lked in f ron t o f doc tors , the doc tors cou ld have a ho l i s t i c sense o f the i r

por t fo l io , " DeLor reca l l s .


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in AdvaneedCancer oxrain in I*vlAlDs

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RESCUETHERAPY 15JUSTA FEWDMPSAWAY

labove. le f t , and be lowl

I t ' s c tear f rom these v isua ts (above) tha t

Roxane d id no t have a s t rong ident i t y in the

pat l ia t i ve care marke tp tace . The co l la te ra l

mater ia ls were tex t -heavy , dark , and

un in te res t ing . The new brand ident i t y ( te f t and

be low) c rea ted by Ihe [ )eLor 0 roup, has much

more v isua I appea l in p r in t appt ica t ions ,

employ ing co lo r fu I i t tus t ra t ions and a c tean,

open layout .

l l lustrat ions, Joseph Fiedler, Linda Frichtel, HeatherH o l b r o o k . a n d M i c h a e I M o r e n k o .

BRANDING IoR NICIE MARKLIS 4 [&- - - - i ! "

to , Imr ru l in r . H' t s

J i i : :# €d'

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"WE TRY TO HELP OUR CLIENTS UNDERSTAND rnnr rHEywANr A sERrEs oF pRoDucrs TO SELL UNDER THAT UMBRELLA or

LEAD ERS H lP, AND rHArs wHAr A BRAND DoEs.'

I THE CHALLENGE ]

"Roxane had come to the conc lus ion tha t they rea l l y hadn ' t pu t the i r s take in the sand w i th

pa l l ia t i ve care . A lo t o f the compan ies tha t dea l w i th pa in d rugs don ' t rea l l y have a por t fo l io .

Roxane thought somebody needed to address pa l l ia t i ve care , " DeLor des igner l (ev in Wyat t

exp la ins . " l t ' s sor t o f a ho t top ic -peop le a re wor r ied about ass is ted su ic ide because many

peop le in chron ic pa in jus t can ' t l i ve w i th i t anymore . You can main ta in l i fe w i th these drugs .

Peop le do no t have to d ie in pa in . We were ca l led in to bund le th is and f igure ou t the bes t way to

put this together and communicate the message."

There 's a lso a s t igma a t tached to the concept o f p rescr ib ing drugs to peop le in severe pa in . DeLor

says , "As you go up the in tens i ty cha in assoc ia ted w i th pa in , you ge t in to p roduc ts l i l<e Morph ine ,

which are regulated by the federal government for use, even more than the standard Rx drugs.

Genera l p rac t i t ioners and even doc tors who t rea t cancer a re hes i tan t to use h igh ly cont ro l led sub-

stances l i l<e Morphine because of patients gett ing addicted to i t and al l the negative attr ibutes.

But the real i ty is, that happens less than f ive percent of the t ime."

A l though Roxane does have compet i t ion in the pa l l ia t i ve care arena, DeLor says i t ' s p robab ly on ly

one of three companies that is real ly committed to the products that treat not only the pain, but

products that deal with the symptoms caused by the pain medications. For example, there are

compan ies tha t on ly se l l med ica t ions tha t dea l w i th the s ide e f fec ts o f the pa in d rugs wh ich

inc lude nausea and vomi t ing . But , he adds , Roxane is the on ly one tha t has es tab l i shed the

formali ty of the brand. "What we're doing for Roxane is making the equation that they are the

leader in the ca tegory and we es tab l i sh tha t leadersh ip pos i t ion . Other peop le a ren ' t ta lk ing about

i t in the broader sense o f pa l l ia t i ve care , they ' re ta lk ing about i t in te rms o f manag ing pa in o r

managing symptoms. We try to help our cl ients understand that they want a series of products to

se l l under tha t umbre l la o f leadersh ip , and tha t ' s what a b rand does , " he exp la ins .

The DeLor Group uses the same brand ing fo rmula w i th i t s pharmaceut ica l c l ien ts as i t does w i th

i ts indus t r ia l and serv ice- re la ted c l ien ts . "F i rs t you es tab l i sh a focus or pos i t ion in the marke t -

p lace , and then you bu i ld a l l the produc ts underneath i t to suppor t tha t pos i t ion . So when peop le

th ink o f Roxane, we want them to th ink o f pa l l ia t i ve care , and then we want them to th ink o f the

products that worl< under that umbrel la," DeLor notes. What typical ly happens with these

produc ts i s tha t the doc tor w i l l know the name o f the drugs , bu t w i l l no t know who mal<es the

94 O t t 'O* ' t n t * o to i l

Oral MorPhtneAdvanced Cancer


S ince pa t l ia t i ve care is s t i t [ a re la t i ve ly new

disc ip l ine fo r some phys ic ians , these book le ts

were devetoned to educate them about the

t rea tment , and g ive them c l in ica I gu ide t ines fo r

prescr ib ing pa in med ic ine . The DeLor Group a lso

des igned the fo lder so a l l the mater ia ls cou ld be

presented to phys ic ians in one handy bund le .

Mb,/

l teft and betowl

To in t roduce the concept o f pa [ [ ia t i ve care to

pat ien ts , The 0eLor 0 roup deve loped a ser ies o f

educat iona l b rochures and book le ts . "Th is i s a

good pr imer fo r somebody who 's go ing to be on

th is med ica t ion , to he lp them and the i r fami l ies

unders tand what pa l l ia t i ve care is , " exp la ins

Kev in Wyat t . a des igner on the pro jec t .

I"

::i1,1.i1.w&

1-. anntotNc FOR NTCHE IMARKETS ]&l

.IT'S HARD FOR PEOPLE IN THE DESIGN BUSINESS TO WORK

IN PHARMACEUTICALS BECAUSE YOU HAVE TOBE TREMENDoUSLY PATIENT o*D you

COMPROMISE N LOT.''

elderly in a lot of cases. But they were stereotypical and i t was almost condescending. We wanted

to broaden the audience here because pal l iat ive care isn't just for the elderly or people at the ends

of the i r l i ves .There are ch i ld ren , teenagers , and midd le -aged peop le undergo ing chemotherapy . "

To be t te r represent a b roader marke t -and no t a l iena te a par t i cu la r one- i l lus t ra t ion was used

because i t is less subjective, easier to manipulate, and a much better way to communicate

Roxane's messages.

Among the th ings The DeLor Group learned, i s tha t Roxane had a reputa t ion among pro fess iona ls

as an education resource, but many of those people did not associate Roxane with the products.

"A lot of pharmaceuticals don't tal<e advantage of the corporate brand. Each product has i ts own

logo and our research shows that people don't know who makes the individual products. We had

to un-brand them and mal<e them al l one brand under the Roxane name," explains wyatt. one of

the ways they did this was through color. Roxane's corporate color had been brown, but the

crea t ives conv inced them to change the i r co lo r to b lue to so f ten the i r image.

I TMPLEMENTTNG THE SOLUTTON ]

The des ign f i rm c rea ted brochures fo r the sa les s ta f f to use as a se l l ing too l . One o f the p ieces

discusses the state of the union on pal l iat ive care. " l t doesn't promote any products. I t just

discusses the issues," wyatt says. "Sales forces used i t to go in and sel l a drug-they had never

g0ne in as a consultant, so we were trying to train them with these new tools and arm them with

the answers and in fo rmat ion to address the doc tors 'concerns and ques t ions about the drugs . "

The overal l pacl<age The DeLor Group created for Roxane has raised awareness of pal l iat ive care

and of Roxane's leadership and expert ise in the category. But DeLor says i t 's too soon to know

i f the brand 's revenues have been dramat ica l l y impacted . "Brand ing programs requ i re bu i ld ing

equity in the product or company over a long period of t ime. With Roxane, i t is a whole new way

of se l l ing , so resu l ts can ' t be measured over the shor t te rm. Bu i ld ing equ i ty requ i res pa t ience*

for the long-term investment," he explains.

P9r?':1el

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Each Roxane medication needed an

in fo rmat ion sheet to exp la in what the

product is and what i t treats. The

des igners deve loped these produc t

sheets for the satespeopte to give to

p h y s i c i a n s .

l left l

Wyat t des igned th is d i rec t -ma i l

campaign tha t encapsu la ted the

ent i re Roxane program, f rom an

overv iew o f pa [ [ ia t i ve care , to

spec i f i c in lo rmat ion on the

produc ts themsetves .

THE DELOR GROUPGALTERY

l r igh t and oppos i te bo t toml

Et i L i t t y and Company produces a d rug

ca l led Humat rope, wh ich is p rescr ibed

pr imar i l y to ch i td ren who have a

growth hormone def ic iency . To make

the med ica t ion more k id - f r iend ly , The

0eLor Group redes igned the Humat rope

co l la te ra l mater ia ls . "We came up w i th

the idea o f c rea t ing a c lub the k ids

cou ld be long to , " exp la ins Wyat t . "They

b e c a m e ' H u m a t r o o p e r s ' a n d t h e y

rece ive a backpack and o ther fun s tu f f . "


l a b ove l

The DeLor Group c rea ted an en t i re

c o m m u n i c a t i o n s c a m p a i g n f o r

H u m a t o g , a n i n s u l i n p r o d u c t ,

in t roduced by E l i L i t t y . A f te r

exhaust ive research and concept ing ,

the des igners came up w i th th is

comprehens ive brand ident i t y sys tem.

{*ql;N;, '.;;-;.*:1, [.

REVAMPINGA BRAND FROM DOWN UNDER,!

ili AUSTRALIA'S CHOICE iilt a

i l l BRAND BY SUTER AND SUTER DESIGN CONSULTANTS. .

When many o f us th ink o f Aus t ra l ia , we re fe r to the mov ie "Crocod i le Dundee. " However , tha t

cou ld no t be fu r ther f rom rea l i t y fo r na t ive Aus t ra l ians who ta l<e t remendous pr ide in the i r

her i tage and re l i sh the i r con t inent sur rounded by the ocean. So, when the owners o f the l ( -Mar t

stores there were faced with redesigning i ts independent brand of soft drinl<s, aptly named

Aust ra l ia 's Cho ice (AC) , they too l< tha t to hear t . Accord ing to Donna B la l<e ly , fo rmer b rand

manager a t l ( -Mar t , "The who le idea is tha t i t i s made by Aus t ra l ians fo r Aus t ra l ians , and we

d idn ' t want the pac l<age to look tour is ty . Peop le here are very p roud o f the i r o r ig ins , so we thought

th is was a grea t oppor tun i ty to capture our cu l tu re 's va lues and h is to ry th rough the pac l<ag ing . "

In 1998, Co le Myers , the company tha t owns l ( -Mar t in Aus t ra l ia ( i t i s independent f rom the U.S.

chain of l(-Marts), had two reasons for redesigning the soft drinl< pacl<aging: They wanted to go

wi th a more conven ien t ly shaped cube pac l<age and they wanted to cap i ta l i ze on Aus t ra l ia 's

cu l tu re and h is to ry in honor o f the fac t tha t the 2000 Summer 0 lympics were go ing to be he ld in

Sydney. "A t l ( -Mar t we so ld AC in what we ca l led a 's lab ' -an o ld fash ioned cor rugated board ing

produc t .That ' s the way a l l so f t d r in l<s were so ld in Aus t ra l ia un t i l Coca Co la b rought in the cube,

wh ich is a much more a t t rac t i ve and prac t ica l package, " B lake ly exp la ins . "The s lab pac l<ag ing

was unbecoming, you couldn't store i t in the refr igerator because of i ts awl<ward size, and the

pr in t ing was very coarse . "

She continues, "We also had a t ime when AC was very f lat and i t became a very stagnant brand,

so we wanted to re - launch the dr inks and pump bac l< some o f tha t b rand recogn i t ion to the

consumer/ and move into the cube format. There were no advantages to staying where we were.

The s lab pac l<ag ing ac tua l l y made the produc t loo l< more gener ic , and the o ld labe ls were

push ing our b rand down. "

D E S ] G N I N G B R A N D S,:ri:lr:..'ea

la bovel

The o ld packag ing to r Aus t ra l ia 's

cho ice was b tand and ou tda ted . " l t

d idn ' t communica te who we were-

an Aust ra l ian brand, made by

Aust ra t ians , " says 0onna B lake ly ,

fo rmer h rand manager o f K-Mar t

Austral ia.

BRANDING FOR NICHE IV]ARKETS

I DEVELOPING A STRATEGY J

Blal<ely was determined to increase the brand awareness of AC through the redesign. " l t was an

opportunity to sel l the value of the brand through the packaging. We wanted to capture the

consumer's eye and be a l i t t le dif ferent," she says. "And Austral ia doesn't have a lot of private

labels. We wanted to p lay up the tag line, You con't toste the difference. Why poy the differenceZ It was

real ly informing the consumer that this tastes just as good as the national brands, but you're going

to pay about 40 percent less."

Des igner Ph i l Su ter o f Suter & Suter Des ign Consu l tan ts was brought in to conduct the redes ign .

"Cole Myers wanted to show the public that they are an Austral ian company now and at the same

time they wanted the design direct ion to center around the greatest sport ing event of the next

mi l lenn ium," the des igner reca l l s . And what be t te r way to do th is than by us ing Aus t ra l ian images

on the packag ing?

However, as Blakely states, some guidel ines were enforced as far as which images to use. "We

didn't want to focus on photos of say, Harbor Bridge, because from a marl<eting point of view it

isolates some people i f their ci ty or town isn't on the case. The start ing point of the idea was there,

Austral ia for Austral ians, but we didn't want to make i t lool< l ike we were sel l ing to the tourists

coming over fo r the 0 lympics .That 's no t the idea o f the brand, , , she exp la ins .

Suter went to various sources to search for the sort of cultural images he thought were truly

Aust ra l ian . The f i rs t image he found was a p ic tu re o f a u te , an Aus t ra l ian co l loqu ia l i sm fo r a

u t i l i t y veh ic le o r p ic l< -up t ruc l< . "That par t i cu la r car was the f i rs t Aus t ra l ian au tomobi le des igned

and produced here, so everybody is famil iar with that here," Suter says. " l t real ly depicted the

start ing point of GM in Austral ia," Blal<ely adds. "This set the standard for the rest of the series

of images we wanted to use. We decided to tal<e away the elements of panoramic tourist pictures

and bring i t bacl< home and t ie i t bacl< to the history of Austral ia. And these are images that wi l l

last and be remembered forever in our history."


l left l

Ph i t Su ter used b lack-and-wh i te

photos o f images tha t represented

Aust ra t ian h is to ry fo r the packag ing .

Th is image is o f a u te - the f i rs t

Aus t ra t ian au tomobi le . "The Ho lden is

a we[ [ -known icon here , " Suter no tes

lteft l

The photos on the D ie t Lemon Crush

packag ing are o f J i l la roos and

Jackaroos- the fa rm peop le who l i ve

o f f the land. Suter exp la ins , "They ' re

sor t o f hear ty peop le wh0 can l i ve in

the bush. They usua[ [y r ide horses

and cont ro I ca t t te . "

BRANDING FOR NICHE I!lARKETs

I TMPLEMENTTNG A SOLUTTON ]i

Although some of the pictures were hard to locate, Suter managed to cul l enough photos of

Austral ian icons to go on the dif ferent AC pacl<ages. He then worked with Blakely in the design

of the packaging. Since al l the photos were black and white, they decided to play with colors that

corresponded to the soft drink f lavors for each package and they used the can as the brand

identi f ier. "At f i rst we had a monoto.ne wash of the picture of the can and i t wasn't strong enough.

I t d idn ' t s tand ou t , " B lake ly says . "Ph i l and I spent a lo t o f t ime s i t t ing in f ron t o f the computer

mov ing the d i f fe ren t e lements a round and p lay ing w i th where the co lo rs shou ld be on the

package pane ls . "

They decided to feature the can against the black-and-white bacl<ground, which were the photos.

" l increased the size of the can and made i t pop out on the packaging by adjusting the angle and

dimensions," Suter says. "And when you see that as a mass effect on the shelf where the

packages are stacked, the f irst point of contact your eyes see is the can, since the hero in this

product is the AC soft drink-the other elements are secondary.,,

A l though AC is on ly so ld in Aus t ra l ian l ( -Mar ts , response to the newly des igned produc t was

immediate. "When people walked into the stores and f irst saw the AC shelves, they said, 'Wowl

What's that?"' Blakely says. The only promotional materials the store ran for the product were

in-store posters and catalogs, but there was an increase in init ial sales.

"This product is an option for the consumer who doesn't want to buy or can't afford to buy Coca

Cola or Peps i , o r a person who isn ' t b rand consc ious . l ( -Mar t i s very much a fami ly s to re and we

know the pacl<aging is successful to the extent that chi ldren aren' l embarrassed to carry an AC

can to schoo l -wh ich is a b ig dea l , " B la l<e ly conc ludes .

t r ight l

Austra l ia is known as a sai l ing country

and when the Austra l ian team won the

Amer ica 's Cup i t was the b iggest

spor t ing event down under in recent

history.


tt e ftl

Since Atstratia is surrounrted by the

ocean, there are volunteer l i fe savers

who actuat ly patro l the beaches.

"They post f lags at cer ta in spots. so

i f you ' re swimming between those

f lags and you' re in t rouhle, you' I be

saved." Suter says. " l {obody has ever

drowned in Australia who has swam

between the ttags, so this is a very

profound image." This photo is rlaterl

f rom the 1930s.

l left l

0uantas was the f i rs t a i r l ine to ever

leave the shores o f Aus t ra t ia . l t i s

a tso the second o tdes t a i r l ine in the

wor td .

- " t

" C O I E M Y I R S W A N T I D T O S H O W

T H E P U B I . I C T H A T T H E Y A R I A N

AUSTRATIAN COMPANY l'|OW, AND

AT'THI SAME TIMI THEY WANTED

THE DESION DIRICTION TO CTNTER

AROUND THE OREATEST SPORTING

E \ , E t ' | T O F T H E N I X T M I I I " E N N I U M . "

l a b ove l

Th is par t i cu ta r horse won the

Melbourne Cup in the 1930s, and is a

proud icon in Aus t ra l ian h is to ry .

"Because he was so s t rong, there

were cer ta in races where he had to

run under a hand icap where they

loaded h im down w i th lead we igh ts to

keep h im equa l w i th the res t o f the

horses . He was very b ig and s t rong

and popu lar . " no tes the des igner .

la b ove l

Ra is ing and herd ing sheep has a lways been

a way o f l i l e fo r Aus t ra l ian fa rmers .

Accord ing to Suter , " ln the ear ly days , the

farmers dec ided tha t cer ta in sheep wou ld

surv ive in th is count ry , so they went ou t

a n d f o u n d a M a r i n o s h e e p i n S p a i n . T h e

ear ly economy was based on the sheep to

get the na t ion go ing . "


lab ovel

When a l l the packages are p laced

together, they present a powertul

b rand s ta tement . " Ihese images

ins t i [ [ a sense o f p r ide in Aus t ra l ians

and re in f0 rce Aus t ra l ia 's Cho ice as

the i r b rand. " Suter says o f the ser ies .

NGEWAT THE N

MAKI AN IMPACTSSTAND

DYNAMIC GRAPHICS MAGAZINEBRAND REDESIGN BY DGM IN,HOUSE DESIGNERS

The publishers of Dynomrc Graphics Mogozine (DGM) new they had a great product when they found-

ed the desl<top publishing journal f ive years ago. I t f i l led a niche in the marketplace, providing use-

ful, creative, hands-on demonstrat ions for beginning desl<top publishers who create their own newslet-

te rs o r p romot ions . The magaz ine 's des igners and ed i to rs p rov ide insp i ra t iona l des igns and in fo r -

mative content that DGM readers can actual lv use.

But in their haste to design, print, and distr ibute the f irst issue by i ts target date, the newly-

appointed DGM staff wasn't able to establ ish a strong brand identi ty and package the magazine

in a way tha t wou ld necessar i l y appea l to adver t i sers , as we l l as consumers a t the re ta i l leve l .

DGM pub l isher M ike Hammer dec ided a comple te des ign overhau l was necessary fo r the

magaz ine to surv ive .

I THE CHALLENGE ]

"Wi th thousands o f magaz ines compet ing on re ta l l s to re she lves , hav ing a bo ld , recogn izab le

presence is essent ia l to success , " he says . Tn i t ia l y , DGM crea t ive d i rec to r Tracey Warner and

pub l ica t ion des igner Jenn i fe r Hammont ree-Jones were on ly go ing to redes ign the cover

nameplate, but they soon real ized that the magazine needed much more than a better- lool<ing

wrao0er.


labove and left l

To inc rease re ta i I sa tes and a t t rac t

advert isers, Dyntnit Grophic

Mogozine (DGIU, was in dire need of a

make0ver, start ing with i ts cover. The

o ld cover des ign , shown here , [acked

a bo td she l f p resence and had a t i red

tag t ine .

B R A N D I N G F O R N I C H E M A R K E T S

"I f we're going to reclesign the look, then we're going to package i t better," notes Hammontree-i '

Jones. One of the biggest chal lenges was the name itself . " l t 's huge. We looked at other

magazines on the newsstands, and in most cases, the t i t les were one word in big, fat, bold, bright

type," she adds. In fact, there were discussions early on about changing the magazine name, but

for bettei, or worse,they were stuck with i t- there's too much equity in i t .They also had to retain

the word Magozineto dif ferentiate the publication from its parent company, Dynamic Graphics Inc.

Together Warner and Hammontree-Jones came up with 50 i terat ions of the cover logo-stacl<ing

the words, experimenting with different typefaces, and emphasizing either Dynomrc or Grophics. All

of the designs were posted on a wall and the entire publ ishing department, including the staff from

two other in-house publications, cr i t iqued the logos and narrowed the l ist down to a few designs.

Ironical ly, the logo everybody l i l<ed the most was the f irst one Hammontree-Jones created.

I IMPLEMENTING THE SOLUTION ]

With a direct ion chosen, the designers then had to incorporate several other elements in the name-

p la te requ i red by the pub l isher to boos t ad and re ta i l sa les , inc lud ing the Mac in tosh and M ic roso f t

Windows logos, a brief table of contents, a l ist ing of design software that would be covered in the

issue, the DGM web site address, as well as the tagline Auick, cool, creative ideas for Mac ond PC'

' ,When the decision was made to be more software-specif ic and go after advert isers, we had to

have i t on the cover and make i t clear that DGM was behind Mac and PC users. In the past we

were unintentional ly catering to a Mac audience, but with the redesign we saw an opportunity to

attract PC users and advert isers as well ," Hammer says.

A l though i t was a cha l lenge fo r the d .es igners to ma l<e a l l these e lements f i t in to the top th i rd o f

the magazine cover (which is the only part visible when placed on the newsstand with other pub-

l i ca t ions) , they managed to success fu l l y inc lude every th ing us ing a g r id sys tem. " l t was tough to

integrate al l that information, but we knew we needed al l of i t on the cover to pul l more readers

in, part icularly i f they are lool<ing for a software program they're using," admits warner.

The one advantage the designers had over the competit ion was a clean, consistent, color palette

tha t w i l l change accord ing to the cover photo . "We ' l l p ick up th ree co lo rs f rom the cover image

plus blacl<, and use that on the cover," Hammontree-Jones says. "Then those colors wil l be

car r ied th roughout the who le magaz ine . "

In add i t ion to pumping up the cover and ins ide pages w i th co lo r and graph ics , the des igners

devised a better layout system. Hammontree-Jones and Warner create a variety of themed design

demonstrat ions (demos) for each issue of DGMthat are meant to inspire readers and help them

improve their own designs. Because the demos created for each art icle lool< so dif ferent from

issue to issue, the designers were actual ly start ing from scratch each t ime they laid out an art icle,

wh ich a te up too much o f the i r t ime. The redes ign he lps the des igners s t reaml ine the i r work f low

which in tu rn l<eeps the produc t ion o f the magaz ine on schedu le .

#

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BRAND]NG FOR NICHE MARI(ETs 113

a n d p u b l i c a t i o n d e s i g n e r J e n n i f e r

H a m m o n t r e e - J o n e s d e s i g n e d s e v e r a l

MPHEG$[ogos fo r the cover . They s tacked

words . exper imented w i th d i f fe ren t

type faces , and even inser ted graph ic

e t e m e n t s i n t o t h e w o r d m a r k . 0 n e o f

Quick, cool, crealve ideas for lqm &E

the main c r i te r ia f r

redesign was that i t had to dif ferentiate

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sHELVEs, HAVING A BOLD, REcocNtzABLE pREsENcElS ESSENTIAL ro succEss.'

" I t ' s much more s t ruc tu red , " Warner admi ts . "We sec t ioned ou t the en t i re magaz ine to dec ide

where departments should go, and how many pages should be devoted to features, and so on."

"We sat down and tr ied to f igure out how to parcel things so i t would mal<e sense to us and be

he lp fu l to lhe reader , " Renee Ph i l l i ps , DGM's assoc ia te ed i to r exp la ins . "The magaz ine is now

divided into four dif ferent sections: lmagine, Create, Explore, and Review. These sections are

c lear ly ca l led ou t in the tab le o f con ten ts , so i f readers a re look ing fo r someth ing in par t i cu la r ,

say, demos or creative ideas, they can head straight for the Create section. Or, i f they're lool<ing

for specif ic software instruct ions, they l<now to look in the Explore section." in the table of

contents, each section is defined by a certain color, which is picl<ed up and run in a gradient bar

a t the bo t tom o f each sec t ion in the pub l ica t ion .The co lo r bar subt ly re in fo rces the separa teness

of each section.

Hammer says the resu l ts fo r the s ta f f a re immeasurab le . " i t cu ts down on the des ign t ime Jenn i fe r

and Tracey spend on the magazine because i t 's formatted in such a way that doesn't require them

to start from scratch each issue. I t also has a more cohesive lool< and i t 's much more compart-

mental ized," he notes. The f irst re-designed issue came out in December 1999, and already DGM

has picked up new advert isers, and retal l sales are on the r ise.Ir i g ht l

Tak ing some o f the [ogos they had come up

wi th in the f i rs t round o f comps, Warner

and Hammont ree-Jones c rea ted cover

mock-ups to see wh ich [ogo woutd work

the bes t and have the most pop on the

magaz ine rack . In add i t ion to the logo, the

des igners a lso had to incorpora te the new

tagl ine-0uirt , cool, creal ive ideas lor Moc

& PC-a br ie f t i s l ing o f top ics ins ide , the

web s i te address , and so f tware programs

that wou ld be fea tured w i th in the issue.

*WITH THOUSANDS OF MAGAZINES COMPETING ON RETAIL STORE

7 ' 4 D E S I G N I N G B R A N D S

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la b ovel

The des igners de termined tha t the top th i rd

o f the magaz ine was the ideaI spo t fo r the

namepla te to appear s ince tha t i s the on ly

par t o f the cover tha t i s v is ib le on the

newsstand. } |ammont ree-Jones p layed w i th

d i f fe ren t t rea tments , inc tud ing whether o r

no t to use a round or square do t fo r the le t -

ter i in Grophiu.

I r igh t l

Th is des ign was u l t imate ly chosen fo r the

cover s ince i t inc ludes a l l the requ i red e le -

ments in an easy-to-read format. The hierar-

chy of information was cruciaI as well- the

tag l ine and the Mac in tosh and Windows

logos were purpose ly p laced a t the top o f

the namepla te fo r ins tan t v is ib i l i t y .

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0nce the cover des ign was es tab t ished, lhe des igners went to

work on the ins ide pages o f the magaz ine . The in fo rmat ion in

the o ld tab te o f con ten ts ( top) was d i f f i cu t t to fo l tow and

inc luded t0o many graph ic e tements and fon ls " The new des ign

(betow) i s much c leaner and i t ' s d iv ided by sec t ions so readers

can eas i l y f ind what they ' re look ing fo r .

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0 td tayout :i::':1. :': 'Layouts for DGI4 changed drastical ly from issUe to issue*they

lacked a visuaf coni inuity which made departments dif f icult to identi !y,Pub l isher Mike l lammer wanted the des igners to re f ra in f rom us ing , lr igh t -hand 0peners , such as lhe one shown here , and ins lead,openevery a r t i c le and depar tment w i th a 'spread.

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Io g ive the magaz ine a more cons ls ten t took . Hammont ree-Jones andwarner incorpora ted a coror sys tem tha t co inc ides w i th the tab te o fc'ntents. For example, corors used in the tahte of contents"for a cortaindepar tment a re a tso emptoyed in a co lo r g rad ien t across th ,e bo t tomof deparlmenl pages. To make them stand apart from featurqart jstes,depar tment t i t les a re p laced in the top te f t corner , and the same

'

t ype face is now emptoyed in every headt ine o f every depar tmen i . , :

UNIVERSITY OF PIONEERBRAND BY MURPHY DESIGN

Pioneer Standard Electronics has taken a fresh approach to employee orientat ion. Not only does

the electronics manufacturer provide training through i ts on-site school, University of Pioneer, i t

also encourages employee growth through a progressive program designed to empower and motivate

people to further their careers within the company. However, the curr iculum materials bing used

by the University were not faci l i tat ing and l iving up to the dynamic nature of the program.

"We needed a tool to organize the orientat ion and help people navigate through i t ," says Doreen

Dietsche, training and development project manager. The previous materials were contained in a

plain binder and the information was practical ly out of date before i t could be assembled and

distr ibuted. "We wanted something to excite, educate, and empower new employees, and to provide

them with standardized information. A lot of employees were frustrated because they couldn't

f ind the too ls and resources to he lp them in the i r jobs , " she exp la ins .

Gayle Patterson, vice president of organizational development, founded University of Pioneer in

1993. Although there was a training department in place before that t ime, the new program

models i tself after a real university complete with a l ibrary, research center, white papers, and a

s ta f f tha t des igns and de l i vers t ra in ing . When Mark Murphy , p r inc ipa l o f Murphy Des ign , was

brought in, he was init ial ly hired to design an attract ive-looking binder and some folders that

would contain al l the information. But he says, that notion was short- l ived. "We discovered that

what they real ly needed was a box that would house several resources. I wanted to combine visual

elements and dif ferent terminology that was unique to the university, and to give i t a consistent

look , "Murphysays . "Essent ia l l y ,wewantedto focus theUnivers i ty ' smiss ions ta tementandmal<e

it more user-fr iendly."


labovel

Io supplement and support Pioneer

Standard Electronics t ra in in g

pr0gram, aptly catted University of

Pioneer, the company needed to

implement a standard system and

make i t more accessib le to a[ [

employees. Murphy 0esign 's solut ion

was to create a box that would hotd

al [ the t ra in ing mater ia ls .

BRANDING FOR NICHE MARKETS

.WE WANTED SoMETHING To EXCITE, EDUCATE, AND EMPOWER ruTwEMPLoYEEs, AND ro PROVIDE

INFORMATION. A Lor oFBEcAUSE THEY CoULDN,T FIND TH E

THEM WITH STANDARDIZEDEMPLOYEEs WERE FRUSTRATE DTOOLS AND RESOURCES

ro HELP THEM tN rHEtR ,oBs."

To v isua l l y t ie the program together , Murphy co l labora ted w i th i l l us t ra to r S teve D inn ino , who

rendered a l l the images fo r the l< i t . He c rea ted two i l lus t ra t ions fo r the box and two fo r the b inder ,

and the des igners u t i l i zed them on a l l the d i f fe ren t components o f the l< i t . "The who le idea was

to deve lop an i l l us t ra t ion o f peop le harves t ing f ru i t , " Murphy re la tes . "The f ru i t represents

l<nowledge and persona l g rowth , so the peop le a re cu l t i va t ing oppor tun i ty and secur ing i t and

work ing in un ison. We a lso wanLed Lhe i l lus t ra t ;ons to be br ighL, Lo c rea te in te res t and d iscovery . "

D ie tchse and l (e l l y Carson, manager o f t ra in ing and deve lopment a t P ioneer , were en l i s ted to

organ ize the mass ive amount o f in fo rmat ion tha t was to be inc luded in the l< i t .They dec ided on a

h ie rarchy fo r the in fo rmat ion to de termine what peop le wou ld pu l l ou t o f the l< i t f i r s t , and then

Murphy pu t a l l the in fo rmat ion in a fo rmat tha t was a t t rac t i ve and easy to use . "Mar l< made

every th ing jus t l< ind o f mesh together , " D ie tsche says .

Mater ia ls in the l< i t inc lude a b inder conta in ing a l l the human resources in fo rmat ion and benef i t s ,

four o r ien ta t ion boo l< le ts , a magaz ine , and a card game. Murphy says he p lanned how the

i l lus t ra t ions wou ld wor l< w i th a l l the mater ia ls in the l< i t . "We cropped spec i f i c par ts o f the

i l lustrat ions to use on the covers of the bool<lets and the magazine," he notes,

The k i t has been very success fu l fo r the Un ivers i ty . "En"p loyees are impressed w i th Lhe k i t and

have rece ived i t very we l l . I t ' s a g rea t way to we lcome someone in to our o rgan iza t ion and le t

them l<now we wanL Lhem to be success fu l , " D ie tsche says . "The sa les and mar l<e t ing peop le a re

exc i ted about the magaz ine because they can use i t as a se l l ing too l to show to the i r cus tomers . "

Murphy ac l<nowledges tha t the t ra in ing peop le were very b rave to b r ing in a des igner to co l labo

ra te w i th them. "1 g ive them a lo t o f c red i t fo r chang ing the i r cur ren t way o f th in l< ing and d is -

cover ing how des ign can in tegra te and pac l<age the i r message to mot iva te peop le to respond to

i t , " he savs .

l te f t and be towl

l l lus t ra to r S teve D inn ino rendered four

i t lus t ra t ions wh ich were d issec ted and

used fo r a l l the t ra in ing mater ia ls . Ihe

peop le harves t ing f ru i l represent

co-workers a t a l I d i f fe ren t Ieve ls

w i th in P ioneer work ing together and

reap ing the benef i t s .

l left l

A b inder and se t o f in fo rmat iona l

book le ts a re inc luded w i th in the k i t .

The b inder mater ia ls can be updated

as the in fo rmat ion changes. To save

money. a l l the book le t covers were

pr in ted on 0ne press fo rm. wh i le the

in te r io rs were pr in ted two-coror on

separa te fo rms. Each book le t has i t s

own i l tus t ra t i ve ident i t y and co lo r

s c n e m e .

"l 0rvt IPr0NEIR STANDARD REPRTSENTATTVESI

A I O T O F C R E D I T f O R C H A N G I N G T H E I R C U R R I } | T

WAY OI THINKINO AND DISCO\'ERING HOW DESIGN

C A N I I I T I G R A T T A N D P A C K A G I T H E I R M E S S A G E

I O M O T I V A T I P E O P L I T O R T S P O l ' | D T O I T . "

lteftl

The 0ame o f 0 r ien ta t ion was

deve loped by Mark Murphy to add

fun to the program ass ign ing

pro jec ts to employees and

encourag ing camarader ie . The

cards a lso doubte as a puzz le -

when a l l the p ieces are pu t

together , i t i s one o f D inn ino 's

i l lustrat i ons.


l left l

For Pioneer Mogozine, Murphy and his

team o f des igners used s tock ph0t0g-

raphy and i t lus l ra t ions to ba lance the

f low o f in fo rmat ion and l igh ten up the

corpora te miss ion s ta tement .

l teft l

The en t i re t ra in ing program is t ied

together with the i l lustrat ions.

Murphy notes, "Yl le wanted to give

the un ivers i ty a c0ns is ten t [ook , and

the bright colors create interest

and discoverv."


MAMMUT OUTDOOR GEARBRAND BY MEDIA ARTISTS INC.

Mammut Mounta ineer ing , based in Swi tzer land, has been in bus iness fo r more than a century

prov id ing h igh-end mounta ineer ing equ ipment and appare l . However , even though the company

offered premium quali ty, high-priced products, the brand was not l iv ing up to that standard. "They

are one of the top European mountaineering companies, but the brand had never been a priori ty

fo r the company/ " says Michae l Conne l l , c rea t ive d i rec to r a t Med ia Ar t i s ts Inc . (MAI ) , based in

Italy. "They weren't paying attention to the brand."

In I994, Mammut b rought in MAI to eva lua te i t s image and brand ident i t y and deve lop a b rand

pos i t ion ing brochure wh ich wou ld conta in bus iness ph i losoph ies about the brand and the d i f fe ren t

produc t ca tegor ies . Conne l l was in fo rmed tha t the company 's v is ion and miss ion was to "bu i ld the

wor ld 's f ines t a lp ine and c l imb ing equ ipment . " However , tha t v is ion was no t be ing communica ted

in the marl<et.

"We lool<ed at the brand, i ts brand assets, and how they were communicating the brand vision in

the marke t , " Conne l l exp la ins . "The i r campaigns and ca ta logs were over loaded w i th p roduc ts ,

colors, and information, but they were just kind of there. There wasn't any sense of logic or brand.

Mammut was present ing a $500 techn ica l jacke t and $ :SO pa i r o f techn ica l pants a t the same

level that a mass-marl<et brand might present i ts products. So you bui ld a very expensive and

technical product and then at the end of the day you showcase i t l ike a classif ied ad. I t was l<i l l ing

the brand 's va lue . "

MAI was no t in i t ia l l y g iven the job to des ign the consumer ca ta log , because Mammut was s t i l l

working with another design f irm. "This f irst project was l<ind of a test to see i f we understood

the market, and more importantly what we could bring to their brand," Connell admits. For the

brochure, Connell and his associates decided the best approach was to present abstract blacl<-and-

white product photography side-by-side with color act ion imagery and combine i t with brand


l te f t and be lowl

Mammut 0u tdoor Gear bad ly needed

a n u p d a t e d b r a n d i m a g e . T h e a d s a n d

consumer ca ta l0gs fa i ted to represent

the h igh qua l i t y p roduc ts the company

has been se [ [ ing fo r the las t cen lu ry .

" Ihe ca ta logs they were d is t r ibu t ing

had lo ts o f p roduc ts w i th tons o f

co tors , bu t they were lus t k ind o f

lhere- there wasn ' t a fash ion sense. "

says MichaeI Conne[ [ o f Med ia Ar t i s ts

Inc . (MAl ) , the des ign f i rm tha t even-

tua [ [y revamped the Mammut b rand.

iljl1ltGld-ti, !*!,r:*3ffi

ph i losophy tex t , b r ing ing to l i fe the i r m iss ion and va lue propos i t ion . "Th is p ro jec t took us to the

next step with the company," he says. "After we presented this project they began to see clearly

how they could visual ly communicate their brand message in the marl<et."

In 1995, MAI was commiss ioned to do the consumer ca ta log and adver t i s ing campaign-

Mammut 's two most impor tan t communica t ions channe ls .The des igners f i rs t e l im ina ted a l l the

unnecessary materials and information that clouded the brand message, to give more importance

to the key products. "0ur branding strategy was to mal<e the top product from each category a

part of the brand message, much l ike Porsche, Ferrari , and Prada might do. Product sex appeal

creates brand image," Connell says.

Along with Mammut's product managers and product design team, MAI creatives assisted in

deve lop ing the ph i losophy fo r a l ine o f c lo th ing tha t was to be the i r s ignature ser ies . "We don ' t

develop products, but we bui ld the stories around them. We worked on colors and we pioneered

the idea to develop the Extreme series because i t supports the branding strategy that we were

imp lement ing , " Conne l l no tes . "The produc t was the image, and produc t was v i ta l in pos i t ion ing

the brand. I f you looked at the marl<et at the t ime, everybody was exhibit ing beauti ful landscape

imagery.They al l lool<ed the same and few were effect ively presenting their products."

In 1996, MAI continued to evolve this brand strategy by introducing imagery that i l lustrated the

challenges and rewards of the sports that Mammut's products are used for.The Absolute Alpine

campaign evolved with the addit ion of black-and-white photos of the most renowned peaks in the

wor ld , c lass i fy ing them as A lp ine , wh i le the Mammut p roduc t was shown in fu l l co lo r and

c lass i f ied as Abso lu te A lp ine . I

"The message was clearly stat ing the vision of the brand," Connell says. "That year was a

continuation of the same concept, but upgrading i t by bringing in new elements. When you're

bui lding a brand i t 's key that you maintain continuity and that your brand message remains

focused over t ime."

Fol lowing great success with the Absolute Alpine campaign, Mammut decided to dif ferentiate and

enhance the communica t ions fo r the c l imb ing produc ts in 1997. "For the c l imb ing ca tegory , we

developed a pay-off to support the launch of a new product innovation. To i l lustrate the new

technology, i t was decided to use art i f ic ial animal fur as the outer fabric, which in turn led us to

llt

It


" T H E P R O D U C T W A S T H E I M A G E . A N D

PRODUCT WAS VITAI IN POSITIONIN6 T,'HE

BRAl'ID. IF YOU I.OOKTD AT THE MARKET AT

T H I T I M T , E V I R Y B O D Y W A S E ) ( t | I B I T I N G

BEAUTITU[ [At'|DSCAPE IMAGERY. THEY ALI.

LOOKID THI SAMI AND FEW WIRE EFFEC-

T I t , E L Y P R E S E N T I l l O T H T I R P R O D U C T S . "

l a b ove l

Conne[ [ and h is assoc ia tes a t MAI came up

wi th the Abso lu te A lp ine campaign to rea l ty

push the Mammut b rand and show o f f the

produc ts . "We took on the idea to p resent

the i r p roduc ts as i f they are museum

pieces , " he says . "We p laced the produc ts

aga ins t the b lack background wh ich he tped

pos i t ion them as h igh end hecause the co tors

o f the produc ts themse lves are rea l l y bo ld

and s t rong. "

la b ovel

Focus ing 0n the ex t reme spor ts en thus ias ts ,

MAI cap i ta t i zed on the Abso lu te A tp ine ,

campaign , focus ing on s0me o f the grea tes t

mounta in peaks in the wor ld . "We s ta r ted

br ing ing in more icons and co lo rs to

communica te d i f fe ren t va lues or fea tures

for each produc t , " Connet I exp la ins .

labove and left l

In 1994, MAI was g iven the task o l

repos i t ion ing Mammut 's b rand image

and c rea t ing a b rochure to suppor t

the company 's pos i t ion . Ihe des igners

crea ted an upsca le ca ta log th rough

the use o f bo td photograph ic images

and revers ing type aga ins t the dark

background.


la b ovel

To c rea te awareness o f Mammut 's revo lu -

t ionary c l imb ing harness , MAI dev ised an

ad campaign tha t on ty an ex t reme c t imber

coutd apprec ia te . "We deve loped a new

campaign spec i f i ca l l y fo r c l imb ing and,

more spec i f i ca t ty , fo r th is p roduc t , " no tes

Connet l . The des igners a lso redes igned the

Mammut ca ta log and s t reamt ined the

techn ica l in fo rmat ion to make more room

for the I roduc ts .

the concept for the Harness the Beast campaign," explains Connell . "Using the visual of the

beasVzebra harnesses coupled with a portrait of Mammut's star cl imber with his face painted

wi th zebra s t r ipes , we were ab le to ta l l< about the common fears hurd led by spor t c l imbers and

estab l i sh an emot iona l l ink be tween core c l imbers and the brand. " Over a th ree year per iod ,

Mammut 's adver t i s ing had evo lved f rom s imp le p roduc t ads to h igh impact ads w i th messages o f

brand ph i losophy, p roduc t endorsement , and brand image a l l wrapped in one campaign package.

Since these products are primari ly used by extreme sport enthusiasts, Mammut's catalogs were

pac l<ed w i th p roduc t and techn ica l in fo rmat ion re la t i ve to mounta ineer ing and c l imb ing , bu t i t

clouded and confused the presentation of the products. MAI's team solved this problem by reducing

the format and increasing the number of pages, al lowing minimal products per page and chromatic

harmony between the products and the scenic imagery. They also created a separate black-and-

wh i te pub l i ca t ion packed w i th use fu l in fo rmat ion he lp ing the cus tomers sa fe ly use Mammut 's

gear .These s imp le tac t i ca l so lu t ions re tu rned a wea l th o f b rand va lue th rough increased produc t

impor tance and brand image.

By the end o f 1997, Mammut had exper ienced grea t success in sa les and the company had ga ined

a s t rong pos i t ion in the h igh-end marke t . "They had s tepped up to the b ig Ieagues and become one

of the top brands in Europe, not necessari ly from a size point of view, but as a dynamic brand,"

Conne l l says . But th is was no t the end o f the s to ry .

0nce Mammut secured th is pos i t ion , they rea l i zed tha t the h igh-end mar l<e t i s a l im i ted mar l<e t

w i th low marg ins and i t wou ld be d i f f i cu l t to become the g loba l p layer tha t Mammut asp i red to

be.Together w i th Mammut 's marke t ing team, MAI ana lyzed the op t ions fo r g rowth .The dec is ion

was taken to sub-brand Mammut, adding a new category, Mammut-Outdoor, to the exist ing two,

Mammut-A lp ine and Mammut-C l imb ing . Sub-brand ing Mammut wou ld leverage the ex is t ing

brand equity and market momentum. Now the chal lenge was to dif ferentiate the new category

f rom A lp ine and C l imb ing w i thout compromis ing the h igh-end pos i t ion lng o f the brand. Mammut

cou ldn ' t re ly on the produc ts a lone to se l l the image, s ince they ' re no t dea l ing w i th a $500 jac l<e t

anymore . " l f you loo l< a t a Porsche, you don ' t need a Io t o f scenery a round i t .The produc t i s the

image. However, i f you go to a lower-end product, yqu need a lot of hip-hop around i t to create

exc i tement because the produc ts themse lves are no t so exc i t ing , " Conne l l exp la ins .

"We s ta r ted o f f by deve lop ing a new v isua l con lmun ica t ions s ignature and language, permi t t ing

the sub-brand to communicate i ts new marl<et offering, making i t a complete outdoor brand not

jus t fo r the ex t remis t , " the des igner says . "From the t ree- l ine up is the a lp ine reg ion . I t ' s h igh end.

From the t ree- l ine down is where th is new group 's p layground w i l l be . " The new tag l ine tha t i s

incorporated for consumer communications is Mammut 0utdoor.. .For ol l wolks of l i fe.fhe desiqners

sub-branded the Mammut logo so tha t the ident i t y was changed on ly s l igh t ly .

Since the lower-t iered products have been launched, the company grew more than 35 percent in

1998 alone. Mammut is one of the fastest growing brands in Europe, and i t is currently expanding

in to the U.S. marke t .There is no doubt tha t the s t rong brand pos i t ion ing deve loped by MAI over

recent years revived the century-old company.


al

l r igh t and he towl

In 1997, Mammut dec ided to ro t l ou t a lower -pr iced

produc t [ ine , so MAI deve loped a new s t ra tegy to

promote i t . "We came up with dif ferent ways t0 get

dea lers in to the t rade shows and ge t the word ou t , "

Connet [ admi ts . "Now the produc t i sn ' t s0 sexy , s0 we

used f r iend t ie r co tors , and the imagery was very h igh

satura ted , the p ic tu res are b tu r red , g iv ing a sense o f

movement . " The ads , as we[ [ as the ca ta togs and

produc t b rochures , a re Iess techn ica I and more

consumer f r iend ty than the ex t reme produc t p romot ions '

" I I Y O U I - O O K A T A P O R S C H E , Y O U D O N ' T

N I E D A I O T O F S C E l ' | E R Y A R O U N D I T . T H I

PRODUCT IS THE IMAG[. HOWEVER, IF YOU

OO TO A IOWER-END PRODUCT, YOU NEED A

I . O T O T H I P - H O P A R O U N D I T T O C R E A T E

E X C I T E M E N T B E C A U S E T H E P R O D U C T S

T H E M S E I - V I S A R I ] i O T S O T X C I T I N G . "

BRANDING FOR N!Cf: $Ai(-

MEDIA ARTISTS INC.GALLERY

I rrrrr{@

labove and [eft]

Whi le a noted leader in the winter spor ts-

wear industry , K2 requi red a complete ly

unique market ing st rategy in order to

successfu l ly [aunch i ts new appare[ [ ine,

Blood Cet ts , which is focused on a young

target market . "0ur hrochure design

juxtaposed funky shots and underground

imagery, communicat ing the youthfut , s t reet

image common among teens today," Connet [

says of MAI 's design approach for the brand.

W**l::xu::mlnJ

E!I-r -

lbetowl

Fash ion hrand C inz ia Rocca had a beaut i fu l

p roduc t bu t tacked the means o f reach ing

i ts in te rna t ionat c0nsumers . "We breached

th is gap by dev is ing a po in t -o f -purchase

pr0gram, inc lud ing l ree-s tand ing w indow

disp tays and an e igh t -page consumer

tea f te t dep ic t ing h igh t igh ts f rom the

cot lec t ion , " saYs Connet [ '

la b ovel

Fabr ic manufac turer , Catamai Corpora t ion ,

needed a more organ ized and cons is ten t

brand h ie rarchy . MAI res t ruc tu red the com-

pany 's p roduc t t ine by group ing the tex t i les

in to four per fo rmance ca teg0r ies ' and g iv -

ing each ca teg0ry i t s own Iogo, wh ich is

used th roughout the Ca lamai campaign . "We

elabora ted on each labr ic g roup, de t in ing

the ind iv iduat quat i t ies and per fo rmance, "

exp la ins Conne l [ . Ihe newly o rgan ized

brochure exp la ins the qua l i t ies o f each fah-

r i c in de ta i l .

B R A N D I N G C O i \ :

Ii

STEVEN DUPUIS , PR INCIPAL OF THE DUPUIS GROUP, WOODLAND H ILLS , CAL IFORNIA

0n the average, chi ldren see more than 5,000 branded media messages per day. We l ive in an over-st imulated

society where new brands and products are constantly being generated. So when i t comes to developing new

brands fo r ch i ld ren , i t i s never a s imp le task and i t i s very unpred ic tab le . You need to f ind ou t wh ich brands

they respond to and, furthermore, which ones they accept.

Understanding this marl<et can be very chal lenging-i t is in a constant state of change, so when i t comes to

creating or revital izing exist ing brands many issues have to be considered.The most important aspect of the

process is to KN0W WHO THE CUSTOMER I5 . Des igners a re more success fu l in c rea t ing brands tha t the

target market wi l l accept i f they actively tal<e part in marl<et research. This includes actual ly observing

chi ldren in the age group and demographic the brand is intended to serve. With this understanding we can

bet te r connect our c l ien ts 'ob iec t ives to our cus tomers 'des i res .

Brand ing fo r ch i ld ren is a lso a doub le-edged sword , because you have to WIN THE ACCEPTANCE 0FTWO

CUSTOMERS:THE PARENT AND THE CHILD.The parent i s loo l< ins fo r b rands they t rus t w i th p roduc ts

that are,qual i ty- and value-driven, while the chi ld is lool<ing for products that are fun and entertaining.

Ch1ldren's brands also need to be MARKETED T0 SPECIFIC AGE GR0UPS. You cannot be everything to

every chi ld. For instance, you can create a brand that appeals to both genders for chi ldren up to the age of

four or f ive. But as they get older, there is a pretty clear spl i t , so there are products that appeal to the

specif ic sexes, l i l<e Barbie for gir ls and G.I. Joe for boys.

Once a brand has been accepted by l<ids, there is no guarantee that i t wi l l have longevity. Constant evaluation

of the brand per fo rmance and STAYING CONNECTEDTOYOUR CUST0MERS wi l l s ive you an edse in

this excit ing and ever-changing market.


BRANDINGFORcHlLDREN

BUBBA PRODUCTLINEBRAND BY THE DUPUIS GROUP

Creat ives a t The DuPuis Group admi t they have a lo t o f fun deve lop ing brand ident i t ies fo r

ch i ld ren 's p roduc ts - the i r b ra ins to rming room is decora ted in k ids co lo rs , and is f i l l ed w i th an

assortment of toys. The group even hosts a l<ids'day about every six months so the designers can

observe chi ldren in act ion. "We invite al l of our kids and their fr iends to come to the off ice and

s tay a l l day , " says Steven DuPuis , p res ident and c rea t ive d i rec to r o f the DuPuis Group. "We g ive

them toys to play with and watch them interact. I t gives us the opportunity as designers to be able

to see f irsthand what's going on. I t 's definitely something we focus on here-i t 's our specialty./ /

"We had a couple of jobs from Mattel that were running simultaneously, so i t was a great oppor-

tunity to bring the kids in," Richard Mantor, vice president of cl ient services says. "But i t damn

near k i l led us , " he adds jo l< ing ly . DuPuis a lso encourages h is c rea t ives to v is i t a nearby shopp ing

mall and toy stores to observe chi ldren interacting with each other, and to see what they purchase.

With this proactive approach and enthusiasm for the chi ldren's market, i t is no wonder The

DuPuis Group has become a leader in the k ids ca tegory , des ign ing brands fo r every th ing f rom

ch i ld ren 's snacks and p laces ch i ld ren v is i t , such as Bask in Robb ins , to c rea t ing packag ing fo r

Barb ie CD-R0Ms and o ther ch i ld ren 's tovs .

When Mattel purchased Tyco in 1998, many ofTyco's exist ing products needed to be updated and

some o f the l ines were ex tended.The DuPuis Group was pu t in charge o f two main produc t l ines

in the Tyco conversion-the gir ls act ivi ty l ines, which consisted of Fashion Magic and the Plush

l ine , wh ich inc luded a l i t t le l<nown bear ca l led Rea l Ta lk in 'Bubba. Mantor exp la ins , "Bubba was

a popu lar i tem and Mat te l wanted to ex tend the l ine , so they bas ica l l y 'Mate l l i zed ' i t and gave

Bubba a l i t t le more ident i t y because the o ld package was no t very impact fu l and d idn ' t rea l l y

speak to who this Bubba character was."


labove and left l

The I }uPu is 0 roup i l lus t ra to r A t

Nanakonpanom d id these in i t ia t

ske tches fo r the Bubba on Board

packag ing . 0 r ig ina t ty , the des igners

wanted to inc tude a g i r [ on the

packag ing p tay ing w i th Bubba, bu t

they dec ided tha t wasn ' t speak ing

enough to Bubba 's obnox ious

persona l i t y . " l |e i sn ' t jus t a cuddty

t i t t te teddy bear , " says Steven 0uPu is .

" l |e 's a [oud-mouth backseat d r iver . "

L__:uqtf Gigtlr,? I t\ . .ffi

I

iai

"The or ig ina l b rand was l< ind o f f la t and i t d idn ' t have much d imens ion , " adds DuPuis . * i t d idn , t

speal< enough to the chi ld and the excitement that this product real ly has." Mattel extended Real

Ta lk in ' Bubba to o ther charac ters , inc lud ing Bubba on Board , Get t in 'wet Bubba, and Nascar

Bubba.

Accord ing to Tosh io Sh imoda, fo rmer d i rec to r o f Large , Smal l , P lush , and Ac t iv i t y p roduc t l ines(LSPA) a t Mat te l , "Rea l Ta l l< in 'Bubba appea led to bo th boys and g i r l s . In i t ia l l y ,Tyco thought i t

would only appeal to gir ls because i t was cute and cuddly, but boys l i l<ed him too because he,s aj o l<ester."

The c rea t ive team admi t ted ly had a lo t o f fun deve lop ing the brand. In fac t , B i l l Cor r idor i , v ice

president/creative director at The DuPuis Group says, "We sat around in brainstorming sessions

and laughed and joked, and we became Bubba. We helped develop his personali ty for the

packaging based on Mattel 's foundation of Real Tal l<in'Bubba.The concept was to have a sassy

passenger with Bubba on Board-a nightmare back-seat driver. He's very obnoxious.,,

"Bubba's character was an issue," says Shimoda. "The name Bubba has a southern connotation,

bu t we d idn ' t want h im to loo l< l i ke a h i l lb i l l y . He 's sharp and w i t ty , and because o f tha t , he was

developed to be put in other situations l i l<e the Gett in'Wet and Nascar versions.,,

A l Nana l<onpanom executed the i l l us t ra t ions fo r a l l th ree o f the packages, and Nobuko 6omine,

the senior design director, acted as l iaison between Mattel and the creatives, mal<ing sure every-

thing was in l<eeping with Mattel 's requirements. Shimoda notes, "The i l lustrator did a fantastic

job- i t was very tongue- in -cheek w i th k ids and adu l ts . , ,

The packaging was turned into a jalopy complete with bugs in the radiator, a rag in the gas tank,

and bandages on the head l igh ts . "The en t i re box he 's s i t t ing in i s par t o f h is persona l i t y .There ,s

something interesting on every single panel that speaks to that l<ind of irreverent persona inside,,,

DuPuis exp la ins . " l t a lso go t away f rom look ing l i ke a teddy bear o r a cu te l i t t le toy .The brand ing

spoke to the personali ty of the toy and i t has a much stronger appeal on the shelf. , ,


I teft l

S i n c e t h e p a c k a g i n g f o r B u b b a o n

Board was go ing to he a d i tap ida ted

ja lopy , the des igners c rea ted a logo

tha t looks [ i ke a dented up [ i cense

pta te , jus t bare ly c l ing ing to the

screws ho ld ing i t in p lace

lteft l

Nanakonpanom crea ted th is sp lashy

l o g o f o r G e t t i n ' W e t B u b b a i n

Photoshop. "We rea l l y wanted to

capture the essence o f the toy . s ince

i t can be taken in the ba th tub or

swimming poo l , " exp la ins DuPuis .

l r igh t l

For Nascar Bubba. the des igners

crea ted rac ing e tements to go on

the race car packag ing . S ince

Mat te I a tso owns ] |o t Whee ls , i t

was a na tura I to inc lude tha t on

the packag ing w i th the l ' l ascar

[ogo and a b tack-and-wh i te

checkered l tag .

BRAND NG rO* Cn ' rO*e r ' - - " " $$

In fact, the package has become part of the toy, because instead of throwing i t in the garbage,

many consumers l<ept the ja lopy box as a ho ld ing p lace fo r Bubba. "Rea l Ta lk in 'Bubba 's successors

were very successful mainly due to the pacl<aging because i t was part of the personali ty.

Consumers that looked at i t real ly l iked i t because wasn't an ordinary stuffed animal package,"

Sh imoda exp la ins .

The pac l<ag ing fo r Get t in 'Wet Bubba is f i l l ed w i th co lo r fu l i l l us t ra t ions c rea ted by Nana. " l t ' s

such a busy pac l<age and i t ' s fun- i t ' s a lmost l i l<e a F ind Waldo , " Mantor says . "The who le idea

was to translate this same personali ty into an underwater guy-a toy l<ids take in the bathtub or

poo l , " Cor r idor i re la tes .

A natural extension to the l ine was Nascar Bubba, because as Du Puis relates, "You tal<e this irrev-

erent character and he's going scuba diving, and you know he's going to go to the races. I thinl<

Nascar was a given." Mattel got permlssion to l icense the Nascar logo, and i t f i ts nicely with the

company 's Hot Whee ls d iv is ion . Nascar Bubba wears a he lmet and i t s packag ing is remin iscent

of a race car.

The Bubba l ines have been very success fu l s ince the re lease o f Bubba on Board in 1998- i t

became the number seven sel l ing toy. "Any Bubbas after Real Talkin'were very successful mainly

due to the pac l<ag ing , " Sh imoda says . " [The Du Pu is GroupJ unders tood Mat te l ' s marke t ing

objectives."

D E s t G N t N G e n n N o s l

ONSUMERS

rHE pAcKAGE HAs BEcoME PART OF THE TOY, BEcAUsEINSTEADKEPT THE

OF THROWINGfALoPY eox AS A

IT IN THE GARBAGE, MANYHOLDING PLACE FoR BUBBA.

Ioppos i te , r igh t , and be low]

Ihe packag ing fo r a l [ th ree Bubbas

proved to be very success fu t se t l ing

po in ts . Not on ly does i t house the

produc ts , k ids cons ider i t par t o f the

toy . Not ice how no space is wasted on

any o f the packages-every pane l i s

br igh t ly co lo red and loaded w i th fun

i m a g e s .

f*-*^*-JG ro- *,trDR* *&

EXPERT ADVICEFRoM THE DUPUIS GROUP

:ill:'"

'THE DUPUIS GROUP

The DuPuis Group has success fu l l y deve loped brand s t ra teg ies fo r severa l ch i ld ren 's p roduc ts over

recent years - in fac t , i t ' s the f i rm 's spec ia l ty . "0ur unders tand ing o f ch i ld ren prov ides our c l ien ts

wi th a knowledge resource , " says Steven DuPuis , p res ident and c rea t ive d i rec to r o f the f i rm. "We

watch what 's go ing on w i th l< ids and what 's popu lar today and tha t rea l l y g ives us a pu lse o f how

we need to oos i t ion produc ts . "

" l t ' s go t ten a lo t eas ie r as o f la te because o f the success o f a {o t o f the ch i ld ren 's packag ing we 've

done-c l ien ts now l i s ten to us more , " re la tes R ichard Mantor , v ice pres ident o f c l ien t serv ices .

"Brand managers and mar l<e t ing managers ge t a lo t o f numbers in f ron t o f them, bu t they never

get to the how and why.Why is th is p roduc t se l l ing? How come th is i s a phenomenon tha t appea ls

to bo th boys and g i r l s? How has th is happened?"

"Many t imes the c l ien t won ' t l i l<e what we 've come up w i th , bu t we te l l them, 'You ' re no t sup-

posed to l i ke i t because th is i s geared fo r ch i ld ren , " ' says DuPuis . "Th is i s p robab ly one o f the

b igges t cha l lenges we face . Brand managers tend to be l ieve tha t they l<now what i s t ru ly bes t , and

somet imes they are r igh t f rom the mar l<e t ing s ide , bu t we ' re coming in f rom the v isua l s ide . We ' re

f ind ing tha t a lo t o f them have los t the connect ion w i th the i r cus tomers because o f the day- to -

day s tu f f o f jus t ge t t ing the i r jobs done- they don ' t have the t ime to go ou t and exper ience how

the i r cus tomers make the i r purchase dec is ions . "

!$ - f;r;yr;;91ii, ,:

l teft l

The l }uPu is 0 roup re -pos i t ioned

Mat te l ' s Fash ion Mag ic [ ine w i th a

lu t t packag ing sys tem tha t expresses

a mag ica l , f ree-sp i r i ted s ty te . The

des igners used bo ld purp le and

ye l tow co lo rs on- the packag ing to

g ive the produc t sheU impact .

l left and betowl

Bask in Robb ins wanted to c rea te

an area w i th in i t s s to res tha t k ids

coutd ident i f y as the i r own, w i thout

comple te ly remode l ing and

redecora t ing ex is t ing s to res . The

des igners came up w i th the name

Frozone and used ou t rageous co lo rs ,

g raph ics , and produc t names (D i r t &

Worms, Sku l l i c ious) to sec t ion o f f

the k ids-on ty a rea o f the s to re .

l I tus t ra t ions g ive ice c ream f lavor

descr ip to rs on the w indows above

the ice c ream fo r ch i ld ren who are

too smal l to see in to the d ipp ing

cab ine ts . Bask in -Rohb ins a tso

launched a new l ine o f k ids bever -

ages , wh ich The DuPuis Group

des igned, ca l led Rad ica I B las t .

B R A N D I N G F O R C H I L D R E N

la b ovel

Mat te l asked The 0uPu is Group

to g ive the Pot ly Pocket logo a

face l i f t and g ive i t a more

contemporary look to enhance

the l ine 's image. The des igners

beve led ou t the edges o f the

typeface and added shad ing

wi th in the le t te rs , then backed

i t up w i th a d rop shadow to

g ive the Iogo more prominence

on the package.

In fac t ,The DuPuis Group hos ts a l< ids 'day where they inv i te c lose to 20 ch i ld ren o f var ious ages

to spend the day at the off ice and play with merchandise that the f irm is currently developing

branding strategies for.The creatives are able to glean information from observing the chi ldren's

play patterns as well as learn what kids of certain age groups are drawn to, and the dif ferences

between gender preferences.

"Play patterns are very dif ferent for boys and gir ls. Boys want something very active.They always

want to be mov ing . G i r l s l i ke to ta l l< , " Mantor exp la ins . "On g i r l s 'no teboo l<s you see so f t , cudd ly

creatures, and i f you look at boys'notebooks i ts aggressive, duel ing creatures or wrestl ing stars-

i t ' s a l l done th rough an i l lus t ra t i ve s ty le . "

DuPuis adds , " l t a lso depends on the age group. Wi th the so f t look you ' re go ing fo r th ree to f i ve

year olds, and i t wi l l lool< dif ferent as they get older. Characters are very important when the chi ld

is younger, but as they get olderi they don't relate to them as much."

The hardest job, the creatives admit, is when a brand manager doesn't know the age group for the

targe t mar l<e t . "You look fo r the core aud ience, " B i l l Cor r idor i , v ice pres ident and c rea t ive d i rec-

tor explains. " l f they don't have that, we attempt to create i t based on their f indings."

Co lors a re very impor tan t in communica t ing the concept fo r ch i ld ren 's pac l<ag ing , and somet imes

it 's hard to l<eep up with the trends. "Colors change dramatical ly from year to year-same with

graph ics , " DuPuis says . "Th is mar l<e t i s very much d ic ta ted by t ime* i t sw ings back and fo r th a

lot. That 's why so many products fai l . This marl<et is extremely f ickle and i f you're not r ight on

target you're going to lose."

" l t 's incredibly fast, especial ly in international marl<ets and with the Internet," Mantor agrees.

" l f the big companies can't get to the marl<et on t ime, they've missed i t ."

"Product l i fe cycles are pretty short. I t could be popular now, but in a few years i t 's pass6. I t 's

constantly revolving into something new," DuPuis says. "You start to look at what's happening

wi th our ch i ld ren- the amount o f mov ies and l i censed produc ts they ' re be ing bombarded w i th

every day. I t 's disheartenlng the l<ind of disposabll i ty we have for products. The competit ion is

tough and there's constantly something new that kids want. That 's why we are always having to

be on that edge and l<now what's going on out there. You have to take r isl<s. You can't be

conserva t ive in th is marke t to have a maior h i t on vour hands . "

ffi}-1ev:se*

)

III

lab ovel

The Jewel rY 0es igner CD-R0M was

one of f ive packages in Mattet 's l lew

Media l ine . The 0uPu is des igners

crea ted a sh immer ing , iewet took ing

brand tha t added va lue and fun to the

packag ing and se t i t aPar t f rom the

other C0s in the col lect ion. A large

shot o f Barb ie in t roduc ing the produc l

was p laced in the fo reground to

leverage the strength of the Barhie

b ran d .

Iteftl

"Wi th a ta rge t aud ience o f mothers o f

ch i td ren ages f i ve to ten , we took a

'cyberspace N in tendo-esque '

approach to the overa l l g raph ic look , -

says Steven [)uPuis, president of The

DuPuis Group. The CYberJu ice (

embedded in the d ig i ta t ga laxy iu ice

swi r l de f ines the hrand persona l i t y .

"OUR UNDTRSTANDINO OT CHITDRTN PROVIDES

OUR CLITNTS WIT[| A KNOWLIDGE RESOURCE.

WT WATCH WHAT'S OOING ON WITH KIDS AND

WHAT'S POPULAR TODAY AND THAT REALTY

G I V E S U S A P U L S E O T H O W W E N E E D T O

P O S I T I O N P R O D U C T S . "

SODEXHOBRAND BY

MARRIOTT SERVICESHANSON ASSOCIATES INC.

Gi l Hanson o f Hanson Assoc ia tes Inc . in Ph i lade lph ia was faced w i th a un ique cha l lenge when he

was asked to develop a brand for a food service division of Sodexho Marriott Services, a new

bus iness tha t was fo rmed when Mar r io t t Corpora t ion par tnered w i th Sodexho in 1998. Because

he was worl<ing for the school food services division, the new brand needed to appeal to two very

d i f fe ren t aud iences : the cus tomers , who are the k ids , and the c l ien ts , wh ich inc lude the schoo l

boards and the distr icts that hire them.

"We needed to c rea te someth ing tha t wou ld be 'k id p re fe r red , mom approved, " ' reca l l s Hanson.

"This is a very volat i le target audience, because l<ids change, and three years from now it 's a

dif ferent audience, so we needed to develop a brand that could be updated in a few years."

Accord ing to J im F isher , v ice pres ident o f Mar l<e t ing and Produc t Deve lopment a t Sodexho

Marriott , creating a brand for the school services division was an opportunity to contemporize the

school cafeteria system and make i t more appealing to i ts customers. " l did not want to rol l out

something that just had better signage," he says. " l t has to have substance."

While Marriott has an outstanding tracl< record in the hospital i ty industry, this new partnership

had to be hand led de l i ca te ly so as no t to d i lu te the Mar r io t t b rand. And a l though Sodexho (based

in Par is ) has a th r iv ing $10 b i l l i on food serv ice bus iness wor ldwide , i t does no t have as much

consumer recognit ion in the States, so the IVlarr iott name was retained.

S ince Sodexho Mar r io t t serves more than 5 ,000 schoo ls in the Un i ted Sta tes , bu i ld ing a b rand

that would appeal across the board became Hanson's primary goal. "We felt i f we understood

what the l<ids want, that would be the bacl<bone of our pitch," Hanson says. An init ial session with

a group of high school students provided the designers with the information they needed to l<ick

off the oroiect.


I te ftl

The f i rs t cha l tenge fo r l |anson

Assoc ia tes in des ign ing a new brand

for Sodexho Mar r io t t ' s schoo l d in ing

program is to unders tand the cus-

tomers ' {s tudents } mindset . Three

concept des igns represent ing the

var ious brand pos i t ions and personat i -

t ies -spor ts , homemade, and MTV-

were presen led to a core group o f h igh

schooI k ids . The pre le r red des ign ,

MTV, c lear ly addressed cus tomers '

p re fe rences .

I teft]

A f te r care fu I ana]ys is o f the i r in i t ia I

research , Hanson Assoc ia tes deve looed

lour des ign a l te rna t ives , each repre-

sent ing a d i f fe ren t aspec t o f c0n tem-

p0rary cu t tu re . The four des ign se ts

were d is t r ibu ted to e igh t d in ing un i ts

f rom four reg ions across the Un i ted

States lor quanti tat ive test ing. With

more than 6,000 responses, i t was ctear

that Number 2 was the preferred style,

as chosen by s ix ty -seven percent o f

the resoondents .

B R A N D T N G r o * . r , o n r * $

"We found out that al l the l<ids eat at convenience stores; the social environment is just as important

as the food as far as they're concerned; and they l ike going places that are cool,, , Hanson notes.

when the l< ids were as l<ed what they thought was coo l , they sa id MTV and spor ts . , ,we a lso

learned something very interesting-the best food is made at home by mom, which coincidental ly,

they don't get that often anymore," the deslgner adds. In addit ion, he learned that when l<ids dine

out, they most often go to diners and family restaurants.

Hanson 's team o f des igners deve loped th ree d i f fe ren t des ign d i rec t ions or persona l i t ies based on

these f indings to present to formal focus groups across the country. They included homemade,

sports, and MTV. Rather than dividing the test groups by geography l ike East, central, and west

Coast, the l<ids were divided by their more immediate surroundings and upbringing -urban,rural,

middle class suburbs, and aff luent suburbs. "We assume that kids in inner-city Chicago are similar

to l<ids in inner-city Boston or Los Angeles, same with the other groups," Hanson says. "There,s

a common ground across the count ry . "

The designs were then presented to two age groups*f i f th and tenth graders. Overwhelmingly, the

MTV loo l< was chosen. As Hanson re la tes , " ln focus groups you don ' t ge t a look , you ge t a mood. , ,

The designers then created four designs based on the MTV look to test quanti tat ively. "We did

what we cal l a beauty contest with l<ids from eight schools across the country-about 6/OOO

l< ids , " Hanson says . A l l the des igns were co lo r fu l var ia t ions o f a contemporary , s ty l i sh look . S ix ty -

seven percent of the kids zeroed in on one design.

The next phase of the projectwas coming up with a name. Sodexho Marriott 's business dining service

is l<nown to i ts customers as Crossroads Cuisines, so the company wanted to maintain that name

for i t s schoo l serv ices d iv is ion . "The schoo l d iv is ion is very s imi la r to the bus iness d in ing serv ice .

The colors and graphics are dif ferent, but the concept of a food court is the same, as wel as some

of the produc ts , " exp la ins F isher . "Mar r io t t i s the bus iness s ide o f the bus iness*our c l ien ts know

that but the customers don't . You would never say the Sodexho Marriott Caf6, because that doesn't

mean any th ing to peop le . "

DEslGl.lf_GglND-L I

I

la b ovel

The t rade dress arch i tec tu re inc tuded

welcome ident i f i ca t ion s igns , overhead

sta t ion ident i f ie rs , menu boards ,

and counter top d isp tays . A cont inuous

arch i tec tu ra I accent was deve loped

to inc rease brand persona l i t y w i th

max imum f tex ib i t i t y and pr ice

e f f i c ienc ies .

" W E l l I I D E D T O C R I A T E S O M E T H I N O T H A T

W O U I . D B [ ' K I D P R T I E R R E D , M O M A P P R O V I D . '

T H I S I S A V E R Y V O I A T I I . E T A R G E T A U D I E N C I .

B I C A U S I K I D S C H A N O E , A N D T H R I E Y E A R S

I R O M N O W I T ' S A D I I F I R E N T A U D I E l ' | C [ . S O W I

NEEDED TO DEVEI.OP A BRAilD THAT COUID BE

U P D A T I D I N A I E W Y E A R S . "

l a b ove l

0nce the des ign d i rec t ion was chosen,

a name needed to be des ignated fo r

the schoo l d in ing serv ice . P tay ing o f f

t h e b u s i n e s s d i n i n g n a m e -

Crossroads Cu is ines-Hanson and h is

des ign team came up w i th the name

Crossroads Cu is ines Caf6 , and tweaked

the type and graph ics fo r the brand 's

retro imagery.

;-l' ;li -tir-!]1l.:j-* :$

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"In the food industry i t 's very hard to trademarl< or own a name," Hanson notes. "So we trade-

marked the design, or image." Playing off the name Crossroads Cuisines, the designers designat-

ed the school services division Crossroads Caf6, so i t would be more effect ive on the cl ient side to

sel l the programt yet appeal to the l<ids with the style of a trendy caf6.

Food s ta t ions were ident i f ied s imp ly by food ca tegor ies such as P izza , Sa lsa , and Gr i l l . "Usua l ly

what happens in food service and restaurants is that instead of having a product, you have a menu

and the menu is driving the brand. In other words, a great restaurant is only as good as the food

it serves," the designer explains. "And this is for kids-they see i t everyday and the brand

becomes meaningless whereas the food i tem doesn'1."

In addit ion to the brand having a cool style, i t needed to be functional and cost-effect ive. The

designers created menu boards, welcome signs, countertop displays, as well as l ively, colorful wall

coverings to brighten up what is otherwise a plain-looking cafeteria. The signs are computer-

generated prints that are laminated to Lexan for durabi l i ty.They are then magnetical ly mounted

to the walls, so in a few years when the imagery lool<s dated, new graphics wil l be generated and

remounted.

The reaction to the brand has been very posit ive-both from the cl ient point of view, as well as

the customers. " l t 's contemporary, i t 's energetic and the cl ients I ike i t because i t increases the

student part icipation. The kids can relate to this better," says Fisher, who also notes that the

people who operate the school caf6 play an integral role in i ts success. "I f they aren't happy or

excited about this, i t ls going to show in the product.The main thing I I ike is that we're treating

the customers as though they have competit ive options."

D E S I 6 N I N G B R A N D S

l above and le f t l

S ince a gener ic approach was

determined lo r the lood s ta t ion

ident i f ie rs , the des igners combined

v iv id co lo rs and v isua ls , combined

wi th ova t and t rapezo id shapes

to c rea te the s ignage. The s imp le

name identi f iers attowed for clear

readab i l i t y , wh i le c rea t ing in te res t

a n d f u n .

B R A N D I N G F O R C H I L D R E N 14*

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i:.HANSON ASSOCTATES tNC. x: :1 ; , , GALLERY , ,1 :.r1l

l r igh t l

Hanson Assoc ia tes was asked to

update F in tand ia Vodka 's b rand image

for i t s Nor th Amer ican cus tomers .

"Marke t research ind ica ted tha t U.S.

consumers who pre fer impor ted

premium vodkas were no t buy ing

F in land ia . l l was perce ived as

fore ign . co td , and d is tan t , " G i I Hanson

recat ts . To g ive the brand a more

re f ined image and be t te r she l f

p resence, the dark [abeI was removed

f rom the o td packag ing ( fa r r igh t ) and

the bo t t le was redes igned w i th a

smooth , me l ted- ice tex tu re . S ince the

new brand ident i t y was in t roduced in

Apr i t 1998, F in tand ia 's U.S. sa tes have

increased 25 fe rcent .

lteftl

Ias t ing k i ts were devetoped fo r

F in land ia 's sa les reps to use as a

se t t ing too t . " l t ' s a lo t l i ke a w ine-

tas t ing k i t - i t ge ts the d is t r ibu tors

and bar tenders t0 tas te the 0r0duc t

and compare i t to the compet i t ion , "

l |anson says . A l l the components o f

the k i t fea ture the met ted- ice tex tu re

seen on the bo t t les .

la b ovel

Chase Manhat tan Bank needed to

crea te a separa te b rand ident i t y fo r

i t s mutuat funds d iv is ion , bu t i l s t i t t

needed to v isua t ty t ie in w i th the

bank 's o ther ventures . Hanson

Assoc ia tes came up w i th a g lobe icon

represent ing the bank 's d ivers i f ied ,

g lobaI marke t .la b ovel

There were many cha[ [enges Hanson faced w i th the redes ign o f the Coo l

Whip hrand. l t was a t ready a leader in desser t topp ings , own ing more than

70 percent o f the ca tegory , bu t i t needed a more contemp0rary appearance,

as we l l as a d is t inc t i ve Iook fo r each o f i t s p roduc t var ie t ies -Regutar , L i te ,

Free , and Ex t ra Creamy. Hanson rep taced the prev ious ly -used photographs

wi th i l tus t ra t ions o f f ru i t be ing d ipped in to the Coo l Whip and rec ipes were

moved f rom the backs o f t ids to the ou ts ide o f the tubs fo r eas ie r read ing .

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BRANDINGWEIRDNESS

YTV BRANDBY BIG BLUE DOT AND YTV STAFF

When YTV was in t roduced in Canada in 1988, i t was the on ly ch i ld ren 's b roadcas t ing ne twor l< in

the count ry a t tha t t ime. Though i t was ex t remely success fu l , i t d idn ' t have an es tab l i shed brand.

" ln the ear ly J "990s , we recogn ized the need to c rea te a s t rong brand ident i t y and d is t ingu ish our -

se lves f rom o ther ne twor l<s , " exp la ins Do lores l (ea t ing-Mal len , c rea t ive d i rec to r a t YTV.

In 1992, after hearing Scott Nash, founder of Big Blue Dot, speak about the importance of branding

to kids at the Promax/BDA conference, YTV representatives approached him to asl< for his help

in deve lop ing the i r b rand. "They as l<ed us to conduct an aud i t o f the YTV brand and ta l l< to them

about how to develop the brand further because they felt they were growing, and they perceived

there was go ing to be compet i t ion , " Nash reca l l s .

The f irst meeting with Nash was a del ightful eye-opener for the YTV staff. "Scott spol<e in-depth

about ch i ld ren and the i r persona l i t ies and what you need to do fo r l< ids , versus adu l t aud iences .

We were th r i l l ed tha t there was somebody who cared about the ch i ld ren 's mar l<e t l i l<e we d id , and

who recognized that l<ids are not passive viewers-they want to be entertained just l i l<e everybody

e lse , " l (ea t ing-Mal len says .

"We ' re sor t o f l i l<e c rea t ive v is ionar les in tha t we come in , do our wor l< , and i f we do our work

we l l , the ne twor l< goes o f f and tu rns i t in to someth ing grea t , " exp la ins Jan Cra ige S inger , p res i -

dent o f B ig B lue Dot . The c rea t ive team deve loped a brand s t ra teg , and wor l< ing c lose ly w i th

YTV's c rea t ive team, they came up w i th some icons and brand e lements to he lp de f ine the YTV

persona l i t y . We crea ted an env i ronment -a p lace the k ids wou ld want to go , " S inger says . "YTV

was sor t o f l i ke a hang ou t where l< ids wou ld want to spend t ime. "The on-a i r an imat ions fea tured

a toas ter tha t pops up green toas t , a so fa cha i r , and a d inosaur -a l l car ry ing the YTV name.

752 D E S i G N I N G B R A N D S


In 1992, B ig B tue Dot devetoPed a

s t rong v isua I b rand fo r YTV by focus-

ing on icons to por t ray Y IV as a p lace

for k ids to hang ou t . "The ident i t y

was bu i t t a round ob iec ts tha t ex is ted

wi th in a spec i f i c p lace tha t was YTV,"

expta ins Scot t l ' l ash o f B ig B lue Dot .

"But they were fun ob lec ts . [ i ke a

so fa , o r toas ter tha t pops up green

toas t . o r a sku l t , o r a d inosaur . "

" W I W E R E T H R I T I - I D T H A T T H E R E

WAS SOMEBODY WHO CARID ABOUI

T l | E C H I I . D R E N ' S M A R K E T L I K E W I

D I D , A N D W H O R I C O G N I Z I D T H A I

K I D S A R E N O T P A S S I V I V I E W E R S -

T H E Y W A N T T O B I E N T I R T A I t ' | E D

J U S T I I K I I V E R Y B O D Y I I S I . "

I teft l

I n 1 9 9 7 , Y T V o n c e a g a i n n e e d e d t o

re invent i t se t f as compet ing ne tworks

began ea t ing in to YTV's ra t ings . Thus ,

the Wei rd ne twork was born . Even

though we i rd can be in te rpre ted many

d i f fe ren t ways , B ig B lue Dot devetoped

a s ty le gu ide fo r YTV's des igners

wh ich inc luded a co lo r pa te t te , t ype

s ty te gu ide t ines , and gu ide l ines on how

to c rea te a we i rd a t l i tude . lhe Book

o l Wei rd even has a " touch" sound

sys tem. so when a cer ta in i con is

touched on the a t tached p tas t ic pane[ ,

a cor respond ing sound b las ts ou t .

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s '@, @@#9,.+swff iOf f i - {&r ln@f f i

B R A N D I N G F O R C H I L D R E N

"Over the years I would see them infrequently and get updates as to what was happening.They

grew and got better programming, and they also developed this teri i f ic att i tude for the on-air

promos-there's a quir l<iness to the promos that is very dist inct ive,,, Nash says.

ISTARTTNG OVER I

Though the brand was extremely successful, over the years the competit ion was growing, and

imitators fol lowed. \n 1997, Nash was cal led in to help the network update their brand image

once again. "Things real ly changed in the environment because of the increased competit ion," he

notes. "The other networks were copying the YTV style as well . So much so, that i t was hard to

even dist inguish i t from the competit ion, and to complicate things further, there were paral lel

programming issues making YTV perceived as the old brand. ' ,

"When you add the cumulative effect of al l those things together, i t started to capture some of

our aud ience. We sa id 'We ' re no t go ing to s i t here and wa i t fo r our aud ience to e rode. We ' re go ing

to be proactive," ' l (eating-Mallen recal ls. " l t was t ime to reinvent ourselves.,,

Big Blue Dot creatlves did a reassessment of the YTV brand and lool<ed at the emerging compe-

t i t ion that was attract ing some of YTV's audience. "We looked at one network in part icular to

see why kids were tuning to i t ," Nash says. "And there was a clear reason to be there. I t wasn't

about being a kids'network. I t was a place that offered what kids wanted, which was cartoons.

Since there are so many networks clamoring for kids'attention, we took our cue from that and

decided to offer up something that wasn't packaged for kids, but offer something that kids wanted.,,

Through focus group test ing, the creatives learned to l isten beyond what the kids were saying, to

what they meant. For example, i f a chi ld says something is good, i t 's not necessari ly good. "Good

is non-committal to most kids. I t 's not an expression of great excitement," Nash advises. "But i f

a kid says something is funny, that 's very straightforward and makes a commitment. I f a chi ld

says something is weird, i t 's at least interesting to them."

Big Blue Dot's creatives delved into the research and came up with a branding strategy."We went

back to YTV and we told them to stop cal l ing themselves the kid network, and start offering

someth ing k ids want . You wou ldn ' t ca l l candy 'k ids food. 'You 'd ca l l i t what i t i s , " Nash exp la ins .

"We said that one of their great assets that they should promote is 'weird. 'We suggested that

they should become the Weird network, and that they del iver on that promise.,,

"When this was presented to us, we sat bacl< for about f ive minutes and then everyone real ly

bought into i t ," l (eating-Mallen says. "At f i rst we had a few reservations about weird, but when

we started thinking about i t , weird actual ly meant that we are funny, and quirky, and unpre-

dictable. I t real ly ref lected our programming and who we were.There was an eclect ic feel to this

weirdness, which we loved."

Nash adds, "We presented i t sheepishly because i t seemed l ike a r isky notion, but they embraced

it. I t was one of those meetings you hope for, where everybody is applauding afterwards. Everyone

at YTV and Big Blue Dot, seemed to understand that we could have a lot of fun with this."

T h e Y T V d e s i g n e r s c r e a t e d t h e o n - a i r a n i m a t i o n s t h a t h a v e e s t a b l i s h e d Y T V a s t h e l e a d e r i n t h e c h i l d r e n ' s

t e l e v i s i o n p r o g r a m m i n g c a t e g o r y . H e r e a r e j u s t a f e w e x a m p l e s o f t h e m a n y " p e r s o n a l i t i e s " t h e s t a t i o n h a s

a d o p t e d . D o l o r e s l ( e a t i n g - M a l l e n , o f Y T V , s a y s , " 0 n e o f m y b i g g e s t d e s i r e s w a s t o t a k e t h e i c o n s o u t o f t h e k n o w n

i n t o t h e f a n t a s y . I r e a l l y w a n t e d t o g i v e k i d s a f a n t a s y t r i p a n d a p p e a l t o t h e i r s e n s e o f i m a g i n a t i o n . "

la h ovel

The Rubber Ch icken was des igned to show a

more vu lnerabte s ide o f YTV. l t he tp tess ty

bounces around the TV screen and f ina t ly

lands on i t s back , p re tend ing tha t a t t i s f ine

la b ovel

Marv in , the exp lo rer , i s an unusuaI mush-

room that can jump, f ly, hover and st ick to

wa l ls due to h is spr ing , je t tu rh ine g i l t s , and

suc t ion cup bo t tom. Marv in 's a lways exc i ted

about th ings and tha t can make h im ra ther

clumsy.

la b ovel

The Photon ic Crus tacean is one o f the newer ,

more k id - f r iend ly i cons . l t s coo l t ransparent

she[ [ te ts you see i t s g lowing ins ides .

la b ovel

lhe 0c topus is the c razy c rea ture tha t h ides

under everyone 's bed. 1 |e i s f r iend ly , b r igh t ,

and a lways wants t0 come out and p tay .

la b ove l

The Man ic Mach ine is the techno log ica l

hybr id o f a Formula 0ne rac ing car and the

nex t door ne ighbor 's annoy ing dog, Barky .

la b ovel

Space L i ty was des igned w i th g i r t power in

mind. Reoor ts have i t tha t she 's the robot ic

space dudet te tha t t {ASA as t ronauts saw

f loa t ing ou ts ide the i r rocke t sh ip in 1969.

ltettl

Sreed CannibaI is the Manic Machine 's

bra iny cousin. An overs ized bra in was

surgical ly imptanted in to th is dragster

motorcycte body to make i t th ink faster

than a comouter .

I

, *o ro , ro ro * i n l t o * t t I

*SINCE THERE ARE SO MANY NETWORKS CLAMORING FORKIDS'ATTENTION, wE rooK ouR cuE FRoM rHAr AND DECIDED TO

OFFER UP SOMETHING THAT WASN'T PACKAGED FORKlDs, BUr oFFER soMErHrr,rc THAT KIDS WANTED."

With the i r concept accepted , B i9 B lue Dot went bac l< to the t renches and deve loped a Wei rd s ty le

gu ide fo r the ne twor l< to fo l low wh ich inc ludes a co lo r pa le t te , and t ips on how to keep the we i rc l -

ness in perspective without going overboard. The YTV creative team then ran with the concept,

d issec t ing i t and lnvent ing what we i rd wou ld Ioo l< l i l<e . l (ea t ing-Mal len admi ts , "We 've taken th is

weirdness very seriously. I t 's a great focus for us, and there's a lot of lat i tude, because you can

continuously reinvent weird." The new tagl ine for the stat ion became Keep i t weird.

When YTV launched Wei rd in September 1998, i t focused on a new ta rge t aud ience as we l l .The

old tagl ine was You Rule, and i t was targeted to chi ldren ages nine to fourteen, but in real i ty six

to eleven year olds were the base audience. "with weird, we decided to go bacl< to who we

actua l l y reach, and what we 've d iscovered s ince the launch is tha t no t on ly has our s ix - to e leven-

year -o ld aud ience increased, bu t our n ine to four teen numbers a lso inc reased, even thouqh we

weren ' t go ing a f te r them," says l (ea t ing-Mal len .

Shor t l y a f te r launch ing Wei rd , YTV's ra t ings s ta r ted to inc rease dramat ica l l y and the ne twor j<

has increased i ts audience by 30 percent, which is 75 percent larger than the nearest competit ion.

The YTV des igners c rea ted a d is t inc t i ve loo l< th rough the i r un ique i l lus t ra t ion s ty le and an imated

characters. "we've got great art directors, producers, and designers, and they've created a

wonder fu l , we i rd loo l< fo r Y fV, " l (ea t ing-Mal len says .

Sa l ly T inda l , o f YTV med ia re la t ions , adds , "The young l< ids say they don ' t even need to see the

YTV logo, they jus t need to see the i l l us t ra t ions and bac l<qrounds to l<now i t , s yTV. , ,

"They do great worl<," Nash says of YTV's creative team. "They're a very dedicated group of people.

The tone doesn ' t sound l i l<e i t ' s a l l B ig B lue Dot because i t ' s rea l l y YTV's commi tment to pay ing

out on the brand and unders tand ing tha t they need to choose a course and run w i th i t .They have

the r igh t peop le in p lace to t ru ly bu i ld a b rand qu ic l< ly and e f fec t i ve ly , , ,he nores .

7 5 5 D E S t c N T N G B R A N D S

:,,:*,Xi::::::,:::t.1,,,:;t,:::,;::;,::;:r...:i::l:i::..::i.::,:l::';::.:::l:::::::

w.

l ahove and [e f t ]

Promo spots a re se t aga ins t funky ,

co lo r fu l backgrounds c rea ted by the YTV

d e s i g n t e a m . T h e u n i q u e s p i r a l d e s i g n i s a

recogn izab le e lement a t [ on i t s own, as

shown wi th the insec t i con . "K ids know

they ' re watch ing YTV when they see the

backgrounds. That ' s how bo ld and

d is t inc t i ve i t i s , " no tes Sa l ty T inda l o f YTV

media re la i ions .

B R A N D N G F O R C H I L D R E N t57

l a b ove l

B ig B tue Dot has c rea ted severa I b rand

ident i t ies under the N icke lodeon brand

arch i tec tu re fo r i t s many programming

ventures . The Games and Spor ts channet (0aS)

brand was deve loped by B ig B lue 0o t in 1999.

0es igner Mike Faxon says , "The d iamond

shape cou ld be a lo t o f d i f fe ren t th ings , t i ke

the shape o f a game board or the shape o f a

baseba[ [ d iamond. and i t can be f i t ted in w i th

d i f fe ren t tex tu res and backgrounds depend ing

on the program sub lec t mat te r . "

lahove and [eft ]

Nogg in i s a channe l and web s i te co-opera ted

by N icke todeon and Ch i td ren 's Te tev is ion

Workshop to p resent the i r l ib ra ry o f p ro-

gramming. such as re runs o f Sesame St ree t .

Ied Smykat , a des igner on the pro jec t says ,

"A lo t o f the des ign was dr iven around the

logo in te rms o f sp l i t -sc reen e lements . The

logo is a lways i l l us t ra ted on the lower ha l f o f

the k id 's face and the top par t can be a lmost

any th ing , bu t i t needs to c0mple te the head. "

r l 8 D E S T G N t N G B R A N D S

BIG BLUE DOTGALLERY

labove and [eft ]

Not on ty d id the c rea t ives deve lop on-a i r

iden t i t ies , they l rans lo rmed the YIV look to

pr in t fo r i t s magaz ine Whoo! l t i s packed

wi th games, YTV t r i v ia , and upcoming

programming in fo rmat ion .

B R A N D I N G F O R C l I I L D R E N 1 5 9

BG Des ign

157 Yesler Way, No. 316

Seatt le, WA 98104

206-652-2494

BIG BLUE DOT

63 Pleasant Street' Waiertown, MA 02472

6L7-923-2583

www.bigblue.com

The Bonsey Design Partnership

179 River Val ley Road

River Va l ley Bu i ld ing

Level 5 Unit I

Singapore l-79033

]tt 65 339 0428

www.bonseydesig n.com

Gole & Weber

308 0ccidental Avenue South

Seatt le, WA 98104

206-447-9595

' The Delor Group

613 W. IVlain Street

Louisvi l le, l<Y 40202

502-584-5500

www.oelor.com

The DuPuis Group

21700 oxnard Street, Suite 2040

Woodland H i l l s , CA 91367

818-776-2722

www.d upu isgro u p.com

Dynamic Graphics Magazine

6000 N. Forest Park Drive

Peoria, IL 61614

309-688-2300

www.dgusa.com

Fitch

10350 0lentangy River Road

Worthington, 0H 43085

614-84t -2 r23

Hanson Associates

133 Grape Street

Philadelphia, PA 19127

215-487-705r

Leapfrog Design

200 Adelaide St. W., Ste. 400

Toronto ,0N

Canada M5H 1W7

416-340-7040

www. Ieapf rogdesign.com

Media Art ists Inc.

Via Marconi 10/A

2 4 0 2 1 A l b i n o ( B G )

Italy

]tr 39 35 7747!5

Murphy Design

1814 E.40th Street

C leve land,0H 44103

2t6-36r -1238

www. mu rphydesig n.com

325 W. Nuron St . , Sui te 812

Chicago, IL 60610

312-943-5995

www.m l rdesign.com

0 & J D e s i g n I n c .

I0 W. 19th Street

New Yo rk , NY 10011

Michael 0sborne Design

444 De Haro, Sui te 207

San F ranc i sco , CA94107

475-255-0125

www.modsf.com

SME Power Branding

28 W. 25th Street , 5th Floor

New York, NY 10010

2L2 -924 -5700

www.smepowerb rand i ng.com

Ster l ing Group

Empire State Bui ld ing

17 th F loo r

New York, NY 10118

212 -329 -4652

www.goster l ing.com

Suter & Suter Design Gonsultants279a Moray St .

South Melbourne Victor ia

Austra l ia 3205

011 61 3 96828666

YTV Ganada, Inc.

64 Jef ferson Avenue, Uni t 18

Toronto M6l( 3H3

Canada

www.ytv.com

b r " r ' r i , I r - A i J O

Murrie Lienhart Rysner & Associates 416-534-1197

212-242-Lo8o jlfu, * &:.R . R:www.designcarrot.com

@

I Acknowledgements j

I 'd l ike to thanl< my husband, Ted, for t ransforming our spare bedroom into a wonderfu l wor l<space, fora lways l is tening to me and showing interest in my wor l<, and for h is abi l i ty to a lways mal<e me laugh. I musta lso thanl< a l l o f the designers who contr ibuted thei r brancl ing expert ise ancl wonderfu l pro jects to mal<e th isbool< possib le ' And f ina l ly , I 'm eternal ly gratefu l to my parents, Glen and IVlargy Schrubbe, for thei r j i fe t imesupport and encouragement.

Designing Erands

ContenB

Introduction

I I . Designing a Brand for a Start-up ]

Los Angeles AvengersSME Power Brand ing

CAY DA Tea, UnileverThe Bonsey Design Partnership

Main St. CafeMurr ie L ienhar t Rysner Assoc ia tes

0ntar io 2000Leapfrog Design

[ 2 . Redes ign ing or Updat inga Wel l -Known Brand l

Avon0&J Des ign

B u g l e B o yBC Des ign

l(aytee BirdseedMurr ie L ienhar t Rysner Assoc ia tes

Burger l ( ingSter l ing Group

S utter H omeIVlichael 0sborne

48

I O

3 0

66

ilrI

t

{

8 0

l r

[ 3. Branding for Niche Markets ]

Roxane PharmaceuticalsThe DeLor Group

Austral ia's Choice soft drinl<Suter and Suter Design Consultants

Dy no mi c G ro ph ics M ogozi neDynomic Grophics Mogozine Staff

University of PioneerMurphy Des ign

Mammut 0u tdoor GearMed ia Ar t i s ts Inc .

L34

9 0

9 2

[ 4. Branding for Children ]

Bubba produc t l ineT h e D u P u i s G r o u p

Sodexho MarriottHanson Associates

YTVBig B lue Dot

Directory

1 1 0

144

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1 6 0

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;; '& &

INTRODUCTIONG I L H A N S O N , P R I N C I P A L O F H A N S O N A S S O C I A T E S , P H I L A D E L P H I A

Today we l ive in a branded world. Brands are more than logos and marketing jargon. They are

icons of our society, ref lect ing our personal preferences, values, and l i festyles. Many of us view our

self identi ty through the brands we support and buy. Whether i t 's a car, computer, wine, or even

where we do our banking, we create brand relat ionships with what feels good, what supports us

emotional ly, and what helps define us to others. We feel a certain trust and aff ini ty to "our"

brands. That personal relat ionship is the dif ference between buying a BMW or Volvo, a Dell or

Macintosh, or between Louis Jadot and Mondavi.

In this communications media age, brands act l ike discriminating beacons, enabling us to pre-

Qualj fy our purchase decisions. As consumers, we have to make so many choices in so l i t t le t ime

we a l low the brands to gu ide us to the r igh t cho ice . Wi th d is t inc t persona l i t ies bu i l t by cu l tu re ,

advert ising, colors, shapes, and sound, brands become larger than any one product or service,

iepresenting mult iple l i festyle value systems. We learn to trust and respect our brands as a

val idation and confirmation of what is a better choice.

To truly understand and exploit a brand's potential, marketers and designers al ike need to under-

stand how and why i t interacts with i ts target audience. They need to have a clear vision of the

brand's core values and be wil l ing to stay in touch with the customer's relat ionship with the brand.

Just as cri t ical, is the need to be able to look into the future to determine how to l<eep the brand

fresh in order to meet new generations of customers.

Volkswagen demonstrated this in the late'90s through a synchronized brand attack designed to

capture a new young customer base. They accomplished this goal with the successful launches of

the new Beetle and Passat models. Both cars are careful ly associated with a part icular buyer.The

brand, the product, and the customer are l inked emotional ly in one complete brand experience.

As we look towards the new century, the customer wil l be motivated to make a purchase i f the

product or service provides value and rat ionale. What wil l weaken the sale most often is losing

touch with the customer, disassociat ion with the brandls core value to the customer, and

fragmented brand communications. Packaging, advert ising, print materials,electronic communi-

cations, and al l other message carr iers must be l inked and synchronized to the product and

service as one brand experience.

I N T R O D U C T I O N

EDWARD M. O 'HARA, SENIOR PARTNER & CHIEF CREATIVE OFF ICER OFSME POWER BRANDING, NEW YORI ( C ITY

Developing a visual identi ty for a new brand is just the t ip of the iceberg-everything that precedes i t rel ies on

intense brand analysis and evaluation of that brand's posit ive attr ibutes and whom the brand wil l be targeting. This

is how design and branding professionals integrate business know-how with consumer research in order to create

and design successful brand images.

Working with start-up brands is the most fun because the process at i ts inception is al l "clean-slate thinl<ing." We

lay the foundation for brands and their future growth as well as create the basis for al l of that brand's business

activi t ies to fol low. I t is a very satisfying experience for al l involved.

In the beginning, the branding team has to start with the. development of a brand architecture. This wil I govern the

brand not only from a design and identity development standpoint, but it wil l also determine the look and feel of

all marketing communications and advertising efforts. Most importantly, the brand architecture process delivers the

brand essence, the brand positioning statement/ and an in-depth analysis of the target consumer's demographic and

psychographic profi les-key components in the building of a brand.

BRAND ARCHITECTURE begins with the establishment and assessment of the positive attributes of the brand

(consumer benefits) and then identif ies those attributes as either intrinsic (physical) or extrinsic (emotional)

properties of the brand.These brand assets are further analyzed to reveal the BRAND ESSENCE-a few words or

thoughts that represent the brand to the core and target consumer. Brand essence is the heart and soul of the brand

and only when i t is establ ished should the process begin.

The next step is BRAND P0SITIONING statement development, which is defined as the consumer's sense of the

tangible and intangible benefits of the brand and why it is better than the competit ion. Brand positioning serves as

a guidel ine for marketers to sel l the i r brand to TARGET CUST0MERS.The consumer study completes the brand

architecture process and allows (after a creative brief is developed) for the brand design team to begin. The

creative team now knows the brand's essence/ positioning, and to whom they are speal<ing.

This strategic branding approach to designing start-up brands wil l give marketers, designers, and consumers the

clearest picture of that brand and guarantees brand success.This methodology communicates crit ical brand imagery

to target consumers/ thus creating motivating purchase intent and Iong-term brand equity. It is a fun and enlight-

ening process, and for start-up brands it is essential to their success and longevity.


DESIGNINGA BRAND FOR A

STARTIUP

AVENGERS AFL TEAMBRAND BY SME POWER BRANDING

Ed 0'Hara, senior partner and chief creative off icer at SME Power Branding in New Yorl< City,

does not think there is any dif ference between branding for sports teams-which is his f irm's

niche-or any other service or product. in fact, he got his start in consumer branding, and he says

h is en t r6e in to spor ts "happened by dumb luck .One s low day o f my l i fe I p icked up the Red Boo l<

of advert isers and decided to drum up some new cl ients. I went under A, and there was Adidas.

The woman there said she was taking a new posit ion in major league baseball as vice president

o f c rea t ive serv ices , and I asked her i f I cou ld ca l l her , and she sa id 'yes , " '0 'Hara reca l l s . "She

had no resources and I was showing her toothpaste and soap packaging. She hired us to do a cen-

tenn ia l mark fo r the St . Lou is Card ina ls and then a l i cense program ca l led Rook ie League.Then

we started hawl<ing this work to other leagues, to col leges, to other teams, and eight years later

we're the dominant brand identi f ier in sports."

That dumb luck has afforded SME the opportunity to develop brands for NBA teams, including

the Utah Jazz, as well as major sport ing events such as the 1999 World Series, the Nokia Sugar

Bowl , and the 1999 NBA F ina ls b roadcas t on the NBC te lev is ion ne twork . So i t was no surpr ise

that Casey Wasserman, owner of a newly formed Los Angeles Arena Footbal l League (AFL)

team, commiss ioned SME to deve lop a b rand fo r h is team.

I THE CHALLENGE ]

"Being in Los Angeles, it was very important for me to compete in every way, but most

importantly in perception, with the Lakers, Dodgers, Cl ippers, and l( ings-we needed to be a f irst-

class team, and one of the most obvious representations of that is in the brand, from the name

and logos down to uniforms and letterhead," Wasserman explains. " l focused on f inding a f irm

that could fulf i l l those needs al l the way across the board for an extended period of t ime, and SM E

was identi f ied to me pretty quicl<1y."


iI

tanF

IIi

trt-'


0nce the name Avengers was chosen

for the new Los Ange les AFL leam,

SME Power Brand ing des igner

Chung-deh T ien came up w i th severa I

concepts . "A t f i r s t I lus t thought o f a

Greek mytho tog ica l charac ter o f a

very t rad i t iona l s ty t i zed war r io r , " he

says . T ien a lso incorpora ted a h0rse

in to the des ign , and some var ia t ions

using the letter tr .

" W I N I I D E D T O B E A I I R S T - C L A S S T E A M .

A t | D O N T O T T H E M O S T O B \ , I O U S R T P R E .

S E N T A T I O N S O T T H A T I S I N T H E B R A N D .

FROM THE l'|AME At'|D LOGOS DOW]'| TO UNI.

f O R M S A I ' I D L E T T T R H T A D . "

"you wANT To HAvE TAGLTNES THAT MOTIVATE A PURCHASE. rrHoPEFUrrv GETS PEOPLE OFF OF TH EIR

COUCHES nruo spENDTNG MoNEy oN youR TEAM."

The f i rs t th ing Wasserman and SME crea t ives d id was come up w i th a name fo r the AFL team.

" l had in ten t ions o f ge t t ing a name tha t was LA-based, bu t I cou ldn ' t f ind any tha t I l i l<ed , so

then i focused on a name tha t was un ique and insp i res a lo t o f emot ions , " Wasserman says . " l

d idn ' t want to be another ca t o r dog- tha t was t i red and o ld and bor ing to me. "

0'Hara recal ls, "We had to create the attr ibutes that the brand would have and we had to

suggest name candidates that would meet those brand attr ibutes or assets." So, he asked

Wasserman to identi fy his vision for the team, and how he wanted consumers to perceive i t .

Specif ic characterist ics he suggested were contemporary, aggressive, professional, and elegant.

"Th is he lps us focus our energ ies to come up w i th a more qua l i f ied so lu t ion , " O 'Hara says . "So

we had names l ike l(nights, Avengers, and Bombers. Avengers was chosen, which I was happy

wi th , because I th ink tha t name can mean a lo t o f th ings to a lo t o f peop le . And the des ign

objectives of the brand became extensions of those attr ibutes-contemporary, fresh, elegant.

0nce the name was de termined, SME des igners went to the drawing board and came up w i th

severa l des ign approaches. Chung-deh T ien , SME sen ior des igner says , " l ca l l i t the shotgun

approach, where you come up w i th as many ideas as you poss ib ly can. "

As Wasserman recal ls, "They came back with sixteen designs. I t was pretty clear from the start

what route we were going to go down, but we continued to explore three or four other routes

as we l l . "The des lgn tha t was u l t imate ly chosen " represented what I thought Avengers shou ld

be- i t was more than jus t an A, i t was more than jus t a horse , i t was more than a l l those th ings .

I t rea l l y cap tured the myth ica l and war r io r type qua l i t ies I thought Avengers had, " he says .

SM E a lso came up w i th a tag l ine fo r the team.0 'Hara exp la ins , "Here 's a new ownersh ip g roup

that has to sel l t ic l<ets and attract sponsors/ so we lool< at the same attr ibutes and posit ioning

statement, and we came up with C/oim YourTurf! An avenger is someone who can claim and

phys ica l l y ta l<e cont ro l , and tu r f has a re levance to foo tba l l . I t ' s a lso a ca l l to ac t ion .You want

to have tag l ines tha t mot iva te a purchase. I t hopefu l l y ge ts peop le o f f o f the i r couches and

spend ing money on your team."

' " ',r,:-l:,::j ,

/:lt'?'.t':;.\. &.': .,'zr. I. - - . - - , * .v { t . t . . - - n .4 . { , !D E S I G N J N G B R A N D S . :*i. _


S ince a [ [ the spor ts ieams incorp0ra te severa [ [ogos and

ident i t ies under one brand, SME deve loped d i f fe ren t marks

tha t wou ld appear on a var ie ty o f mater ia ls . inc tud ing

he lmets , un i fo rms, b rochures , d i rec t -ma i I p ieces , and

even a Span ish brand mark s ince Los Angetes is such a

mul t i -cu l tu ra I des t ina t ion .

la b ovel

SME used bo ld co lo rs and s t rong graph ics on the Avengers

un i fo rms. Casey Wasserman, the team owner , wanted red as

the Avengers ' p ropr ie ta ry co lo r s ince most o f the AFL teams

were us ing dark co lo rs such as dark b lue and h tack . The

home un i fo rms (seen here) a re p r imar i l y red , as opposed to

the away un i fo rms, wh ich are most ty wh i te and b lue .


t \ - F ( \ - r '

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The corpora te s ta t ionery inc tuded the

Avengers word mark , as we[1 as the

tagline Clcim your lurl! Eonlacl

in fo rmat ion is enc losed in a g r id -

[ i ke fo rmat in the t rademark

Avengers red and b tue .

I IDENTIFYING AND UNDERSTANDING THE CONSUMER ]

With the design and tagl ine f inal ized, Wasserman and 0'Hara needed to determine a target audi-

ence s ince the AFL is a d i f fe ren t marke t than the NFL. "AFL pr ice po in ts a re lower than the

NFL, and init ial AFL research indicated that the audience is comprised of younger guys, and i t 's

date night for a lot of these folks. I t also attracts a large minority scale-Afr ican Americans and

Latin Americans," O'Hara says. Although l i t t le market research was conducted before the team's

sol id characterist ics were defined, some of the init ial designs were presented to season t icl<et hold-

ers of the Los Angeles l( ings and Lal<ers because a cross-promotional desire was prevalent, and

it was important to get this group's opinion since the Avengers would be sharing the Staple Center

with the l( ings and Lakers.

"I 'm a big bel iever that market research is relat ively ineffect ive with things that haven't happened

yet. I f people don't have something concrete to point their f inger to, i t doesn't matter," explains

Wasserman. "Market research in retrospect is much more effect ive."

O'Hara agrees, to an extent. "You have to make a business decision to get in front of the

consumer for a disaster check. Don't make i t a democratic process," he says. "According to our

process you need a veri f icat ion from the consumer base. Many people use consumer research to

create the veri f icat ion-we just want to know if consumers l ike i t . When you start making

decisions based on every comment that every person in a focus group makes-which, by the way,

are affected, because tthe people in the groupsl inf luence each other with their comments-that 's

when we put too much credence into i t . I t gets too nitpicl<y, too passive. I l ike to see business

owners make business decisions, not get a straw vote every t ime they have to make a decision."


la b ovel

SME incorpora ted team sponsors '

names in to the home f ie ld g raph ics .

T h e A d i d a s a n d M c 0 o n a t d ' s I o g o s a r e

s t ra teg ica I ty p laced in var ious

pos i t ions on the f ie ld fo r h igh

v is ib i t i t y n0 mat te r where pa t rons are

seated w i th in S tap te Center .

M A N Y P E O P L [ U S E C O N S U M E R R E S I A R C H T O C R E -

ATE THE VERITICATION_WE JUST WANT TO KNOW

I F C O N S U M E R S t I K I I T , W H E N Y O U S T A R T M A K I N G

D E C I S I O N S B A S E D O N I V E R Y C O M M E I ' I T T t | A ]

I l , I R Y P E R S O N I N A F O C U S G R O U P M A K I S . . . I T

O [ T S T O O N I T P I C K Y , T O O P A S S I V [ . I L I K E T O S I I

B U S I N E S S O W I ' I E R S M A K E B U S I N T S S D E C I S I O N S , "

A unique chal lenge inherent in branding for sports teams is that there are several messages that

need to be communicated to consumers in dif ferent formats, so many logos need to be developed.

The pr imary mark is on the he lmet , accord ing to 0 'Hara . " i t has to be s imp le and i t has to com-

municate what the team is.The second logo is a word communication- LA Avengers. We also did

a Los Angeles story-just a Los Angeles I igature logo with and without the Avenger," he explains.

In add i t ion to a l l the regu la r iden t i f ie rs , SM E deve loped a Span ish brand fo r the Avengers , wh ich

translated to Vengadores, at Wasserman's request. 0'Hara says, "That was very smart of Casey

to do that so he's not al ienating himself from the Latin community. He's also having the games

broadcast on Spanish-speaking radlo stat ions."

"We've treated this the same way you would treat an NFL team.We haven't treated i t as minor

league or small t ime," Wasserman explains. "We're tal<ing al l the steps that any expansion team

would have to take in creatinq an identi tv. I think we're one of the f irst teams in the AFL to do that."

lahove and belowl

The Avengers seat ing brochures , in

bo th Engt ish and Span ish , fea ture a

d iagram o l the Stap te Center . The

seat ing char t i s co lo r -coded hy

sections so patrons can easi ly

nav iga te the i r way to the i r sea ts .


SME POWER BRANDINGTHE WHOLE BRAND FROM A TO Z

SME Power Branding attacks i ts sports projects purely from a branding perspective. "We try to

tel l brand stories that are robust and highly textured.They don't leave anything missing. In this

day and age with four or f ive logos for every team, you don't want redundancy," says Ed 0'Hara,

senior partner and chief creative off icer.

"We ' l l do the sur face graph ics fo r the p lay ing f ie ld , comple te w i th sponsors ' logos . Any th ing tha t

v isua l l y b rands a team-co lo rs , t ypograph, i l l us t ra t ions , the pos i t ion ing ls ta tement -hopefu l l y

communicates a continuity," he adds. In addit ion to designingl the team logos and creating a

brahd identi ty, S M E puts together a style guide and a graphics standards manual for usaqe of the

I o90.

But 0,Hara admits, sports branding was not always a priori ty for teams. "I t happened to become

fashionable in the early '90s and trendy to wear clothes that represented your favorite team, so

merchandising was a huge thing. In the early days we were thought of as a l icensing function-i f

you redesign your logo, you' l l sel l more T-shirts. But I 've always fought that notion," 0'Hara

explains, "because I felt i f you branded r ight, i f you've connected with your core consumer, and

you hit target consumers with your brand identi ty and communications, you're going to increase

revenue streims on al l your l ines of business-t icket sales, sponsorship, fundraising, viewership,

merchandising, and so on."

D E S I G N I N C B R A N D S

NOKIA

l te f t and fo l low ing page l

ln add i t ion to the f i rm 's work fo r

ind iv idua l spor ts teams, SME crea ted

these brands fo r p ro fess iona[ .

na t ionaI spor ts events . For ins tance,

the 1999 NBA F ina ts , 1999 Wor ld

Ser ies , and 1999 1{ok ia Sugar Bowl

icons were a1 [ c rea ted us ing an

i [ tus t ra t i ve approach and bo ld co lo rs

emphas iz ing the exc i tement and

energy o f these h igh-pro f i le events .

s"ir*ffi;^r*.-*t "* i&


"THE AUDIENCE IS TtIERE nnD You fusr HAVE ro TALK TOTHEM IN A

THEM, AND

W+IAT

LANGUAc r TH EY U N D E RSTAN D' rHAr EXcrrEsrHAr MOTIVATES A PURCHASE. rHArsYOU'VE GOT TO DO tN As MANY wAYs As PosslBLE.'

There was a lso a g rowth t rend in spor ts -spor ts became more popu lar and a l l the leagues were

add ing more teams. " l t used to be w in b ig , and we ' l l se l l more sh i r ts and t i c l<e ts . Not everybody

:an w in , " he no tes . "The San Jose Shar l<s are an unbe l ievab le s to ry . They d idn ' t have a w inn ing

season for seven years/ but they were one of the top-sel l ing teams and had high attendance at

:very home game. They d id a g rea t job w i th the i r b rand. "

. ' i i th a l l the compet i t ion in every spor ts league, mot iva t ing consumers to buy in to a par t i cu la r

:rand tal<es more than just luck-i t takes branding expert ise. As 0'Hara says, " l t may be that the

audience is there and you just have to talk to them in a language they understand, that excites

:rem, and that motivates a purchase. That 's what you've got to do in as many ways as possible."

IteftI

lncorpora l ing br igh t h tues and purp les

for the Utah Jazz brand ident i t y , SME

crea led the s t rong mounta in g raph ics

behind the Jazz word mark. The styl ized,

jagged te t te r ing has a shadow g iv ing

the i l l us ion o f a fas t -mov ing ob iec t ,

such as a basketba t t p layer in mot ion .

i-ril-erry;ff \'-P.{FI;";-&

. i renAND BY THE BONSEY DESIGN PARTNERSHTP'E:t$++=rrrm+*#+*r,,'.t,is*r*:€u-#u-\..*=-=r*u=

CAY DA TEA

When The Bonsey Design Partnership, based in Singapore, took on the task of designing a new

brand of tea for Unilever, to be distr ibuted in Vietnam, i t was an eye-opening cultural experience.

Not only was there a language barrier for the designers to conquer when creating the packaging,

they also had to identi fy and relate to the Vietnamese l i festyle and culture through the graphics.

The project l<icked off with a tr ip to the cl ient 's off ice in Ho Chi M inh City (South Vietnam) where

the designers were given an extensive descript ion of the objectives. The brief stated that the

designers needed, "to create a design for a new Vietnamese tea brand that wi l l appeal to the

Vietnamese tea drinker's heart and soul. I t is the Vietnamese tea that he can identi fy with through

the roo ts o f h is fami ly , b i r thp lace , and na t ion . 'Th is i s my tea and my cu l tu re ' . "

Init ial consumer research had already been conducted by the cl ient to support those objectives,

and i t provided useful information about the social habits and economic decision impulses of the

consumers.The designers learned that since tea is so int imately related to the Vietnamese culture,

i t i s no t an impu ls ive purchase. " ln a soc ie ty where respec t fo r e lders and h ie rarchy is impor tan t ,

so is the choice of tea offered to the guest," says l(r is Foo, senior designer at Bonsey. The cl ient

offered this example to Foo: When a man serves his father- in-law tea, i t must be superior in qual i ty

than the tea he would serve himself. So quali ty, price, and occasion play important roles in the

buy ing dec is ion .

,S:

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ffi151-3 .

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Des igners a t The Bonsey [ les ign

Par tnersh ip exp tored severa l v isua l

routes to present to Unilever, which

was prepar ing to d is t r ihu te a new

brand o f tea in V ie tnam. They

experimented with dif ferent type

t rea tments , as we[ [ as an ar ray o f

b r igh t co lo rs .


I TDENT|FYTNG AND UNDERSTANDTNG THE CONSUMER ]

After the init ial cl ient meeting, Bonsey's creatives were tal<en on a f ield tr ip through both North

and South Vietnam to observe the people and gain a better understanding of the commercial and

social environments f irsthand. Even though Vietnam is only a two-hour f l ight away from

Singapore, the disparit ies between the two cultures are evident. Vietnam has not attained al l the

technological and architectural advances that many Asian countr ies have come to rely on and

enjoy. In fact, the vi l lages are very much tradit ional and communal in nature, and the people

rel ish their heri tage. "They are warm and hospitable to guests and fr iends. There is great pride

and emphas is on core va lues l i l<e f r iendsh ip , f i l i a l p ie ty , and harmony, " Foo exp la ins .

The c rea t ives 'unders tand ing was c ruc ia l s ince the names be ing cons idered fo r the tea der ive f rom,

and have the i r cu l tu ra l roo ts in , the V ie tnamese cu l tu re : Lang Xua, mean ing o ld v i l lage , and Cay

Da, meaning Banyan tree. Foo also acl<nowledges the importance of understanding the past. "0ne

cannot attain an understanding of current Vietnamese behaviors without basic l<nowledge of the

t rad i t iona l cu l tu re , " she says .

Most V ie tnamese peop le s t i l l l i ve in v i l lages , so the te rm Lang Xua is s ign i f i can t . A v i l lage has

physical attr ibutes, l ike a bamboo thicl<et that sets the parameters of the community area. Within

this compound there are areas that are designated for certain social act ivi t ies and these areas set

the h ie rarch ica l s ta tus o f communi ty members . For example , there is a ma in ha l l where the e lders

gather to discuss community issues. " l watched a group of ten elder women gathering for such an

occas ion , " Foo re la tes . "Though I cou ldn ' t unders tand the language, nor wanted to impose on

such a private affair, their serious expressions and bearing impressed upon me the signif icance of

such a moment . The o ld v i l lage is a name wh ich most , i f no t a l l , V ie tnamese can re la te to and

reca l l spec ia l memor ies . "

The Banyan tree is also an important symbol that represents the anchor point of al l the social

act ivi t ies wlthin the vi l lage, including sharing tea. Although consumers in the study strongly

indicated that the Banyan tree bore greater significance, it wasn't immediately established as the name.

"The cl ient was very focused on what they wanted to achieve with this pacl<aging. I t had to be

s imp le (consumers had to know i t was tea immedia te ly ) , V ie tnamese, and bo ld . In i t ia l l y , th is

did not sound very dif f icult , but even with al l the research materials and information to execute

an idea w i th those c r i te r ia , i t ' s a much ta l le r o rder than we imag ined, " Foo exp la ins . But , she

i..+-,

ffi" I N A S O C I E T Y W H I R E R I S P I C T

I O R I L D T R S A N D l | I E R A R C H Y I S

I M P O R T A N T , S O I S T [ | E C H O I C I O I

T I A O F I I R I D T O T H E O U E S T . "

l a b ove l

To g ive the c l ien t a be t te r perspec t ive

o l how the des ign wou ld ac tua l l y took

on the package. Bonsey 's des igners

crea ted 3D mock-ups to p resent to

Unilever.

' IT IS BONSEY DESIGN'S PRACTICE TO COVER ALL POSSIBLE ANGLESON A PROIECT, BOTH FROM A GRAPHIC PERSPECTIVE AS WELL A5A STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVE. rocErHER rHrs MAKEs rrALMosr IMPOSSIBLE FOR A CLIENT TO TOTALLY REf ECT ouR

IDEAs. DEsIGNS MAY BE REFINED, BUT IF THE FOUNDATION IS

l a h o v e l

The c l ien t se t t ted on th is togo

f o r t h e n e w b r a n d o f t e a n a m e d

C a y D a , w h i c h i s V i e t n a m e s e

f o r " B a n y a n t r e e . " T h e s w o o s h

through the D represen ls the

s team tha t r i ses f rom a tea

pot 's spout "

STRONG, rHERE ARE MANv wAys ro AppRoAcH AN IDEA.,,

adds, " l t i s Bonsey Des ign 's p rac t ice to cover a l l poss ib le ang les on a p ro jec t , bo th f rom a graph-

ic perspec t ive as we l l as a s t ra teg ic perspec t ive . Together th is ma l<es i t a lmost imposs ib le fo r a

c l ien t to to ta l l y re jec t our ideas . Des igns may be re f ined, bu t i f the foundat ion is s t rong, there are

many ways to approach an idea."

The c rea t ives a lso learned tha t the packag ing fo r the new tea wou ld be d is t inc t l y d i f fe ren t f rom

t rad i t iona l V ie tnamese tea pac l<ages wh ich are so ld by tea vendors where most peop le shop, as

opposed to supermar l<e ts . Tea is most commonly so ld in la rge "coo l< ie ja rs " where the vendor

scoops the loose tea leaves (chosen by the cus tomer) in to p las t i c bags fo r sa le .The c l ien t dec ided

i t wou ld be be t te r to pu t the tea in smal l consumer-s ized boxes mak ing i t more conven ien t to use ,

and guarantee ing the tea a longer she l f l i fe .

ITHE DESTGN l

Armed w i th the in fo rmat ion they learned about the V ie tnamese cu l tu re , the des igners c rea ted

severa l th ree-d imens iona l moc l<-ups us ing bo th names to p resent to the c l ien t . Foo says the mock-

ups "a ided comprehens ion and the ab i l i t y to touch and fee l the produc t . We wanted them to be as

r e : l i q f i c : s n n s c i h l p / /

The c l ien t eventua l l y chose the Cay Da name, s ince i t was the most l i te ra l approach, so the

des igners then came up w i th concepts tha t focused so le ly on the Banyan t ree . Many o f the des igns

incorpora ted t rad i t iona l V ie tnamese images such as v i l lage women c lad in Ao Da i ( t rad i t iona l

women 's garb) shar ing tea by the t ree , o r ien ta l tea po ts , and anc ien t - loo l< ing render ings o f the

tree i tself . The creatives also experimented with dif ferent type treatments, f inal ly sett l ing on a simple,

clean seri f typeface. An aromatic swoosh coming from the teapot f lows through the letter D.

A Banyan t ree symbol was a lso incorpora ted in to the des ign on the pac l<ag ing to se t i t apar t f rom

the compet i t ion , and co lo rs were used to d is t ingu ish the Green Tea and Jasmine var ie t ies . "The

pac l<age had to have a v isua l symbol o f tea , and consumers had on ly to loo l< a t the teapot and

there wou ldn ' t be a doubt as to what i s ins ide the pac l< , " Foo exp la ins . "The pa t te rn car r ies the'V ie tnameseness 'o f the brand. And wh i le i t may no t be the one we in i t ia l l y p roposed, our deve l -

opmenta l wor l< c rea ted an oppor tun i ty to incorpora te the symbol o f the Banyan t ree . We be l ieve

th is he lps enhance the ownersh ip and ldent i t y . "

Ia b ove l

The f ina t packag ing incorpora tes

a t rad i t iona [ tea po t wh ich is

decora ted w i th a ca [ [ ig raph ic

render ing o f the Banyan t ree . Each

tea f lavor is represented with

a d i f fe ren t co lo r scheme on the

tea po t .

labovel

To ensure the brand is a lways proper-

ty represented, The Bonsey Design

Partnership developed a brand

manual .

MAI N ST. CAFEBRAND BY MURRIE, L IENHART, RYSNER ASSOCIATES

Gehl,s Guernsey Farms, Iocated in Germantown, Wisconsin, had a revolut ionary idea in the

mid-,9os-tal<e the iced cappuccino beverages they had already been sel l ing in bulk to caf6s, and

pacl<age and promote i t to the consumer market. As John Slawny, marl<eting director for the dairy

manufacturer explains, "While we found that the product was successful, only about 60 percent

o f the co f fee shops were se l l ing i t as Geh l ' s . Some o f them were ac tua l l y te l l ing the i r cus tomers

it was being made fresh in the bacl< room. This is how we l<new we had a winner product."

Unfortunately, a lot of other companies had the same idea and were already bott l ing their coffee

concoctions and making a fortune. In addit ion, Gehl 's had a qual i ty perception issue that posed a

unique chal lenge when trying to compete in this new marl<et- i t packaged i ts product in a can,

no t a g lass bo t t le .

"As a company, we are on the leading edge of some of the new dairy packaging technologies. I t

used to be that in the past the way to completely steri l ize a milk-based product put a lot of stress

on i t-you had to raise the temperature very slowly, boi l i t for about thirty minutes, then lower

the temperature very slowlr" Slawny says. \ \We found a way to do i t in a matter of seconds, but

the quick heating and cool ing put a lot of stress on the pacl<age rather than the product, and glass

bot t les and a luminum cans jus t cou ldn ' t accept tha t k ind o f s t ress . " Geh l ' s so lu t ion? Meta l cans .

"Of course," he adds, "this was a very important decision for us because you have a choice of a

better product in a less accepted package, or an inferior product in the package of the day-glass.

We felt in the long run our product was only going to survive i f people real ly got the fresh taste

from it ."

ffi' rrs*ilNrfiRe.'ffl

Fi rs t Round o f Concepts

la b ovel

John Slawny, marketing director at

0eh[ ' s Guernsey Farms, b rought in

Mur r ie , L ienhar t , Rysner Assoc ia tes

t0 c rea te Main St . Caf6 's new des ign .

S lawny had spec i f i c des ign ob jec t ives

in mind fo r the brand. MLR's Mike

Kelly reca[[s, "The consumer was a

young, soc iab le person acqu i r ing a

taste for coffee, and John real ly

wanted tha t to show on the

packag ing . "

ffi

Afler the i l luslrat ive style was

chosen fo r the packag ing , the

des igners c rea ted the "bu l l ' s

eye" b rand mark , and in tegra ted

i t w i lh the i l l us t ra t ion . "The togo

and i [ [us t ra t ion worked together

seamless ly to c rea te the brand

image, " Ket ly exp la ins . " l t a lso

qu ick ly communica tes , th rough

the color, what f lavor the

beverage is , " s ince he and

Slawny [earned in the focus

groups tha t consumers have

s t rong fee l ings regard ing what

colors go with what f lavors.

I THE CHALLENGE ]

However, Slawny real ized that consumers'perceptions were strong enough to inf luence their taste

buds. In the early stages of developing the iced cappuccino product, he tested i t with consumers

by tel l ing them they were tast ing the same product pacl<aged in three dif ferent ways: one that was

prepared fresh in the back room, one that was bott led a month prior, and one that was packaged

in a can fo r a month . "Sure enough, they wou ld te l l us how much be t te r the f resh produc t tas ted ,

and how the glass product tasted almost fresh, and how the canned product had a very t inny

f lavor . A l l th ree samples had ac tua l l y been f resh ly p repared. The meta l l i c f lavor was a l l in the i r

heads. At that point, we real ized what a chal lenge we were up against," Slawny recaus.

But Geh l ' s wasn ' t in a f inanc ia l pos i t ion to address i t s super io r pac l<ag ing process w i th supp le-

mental marketing and advert ising materials. Slawny also adds, "A process story on the package

simply wouldn't get read i f consumers passed over our brand, and pacl<age designs that real ly

focused on fresh taste were too commonplace to offer a meaningful advantage in our category.,,

The company l<new the only way they could real ly get an edge in this marl<et ini t ial ly was to have

a strong shelf presence, so the design f irm Murrie, Lienhart, Rysner and Associates in Chicago(M LR) was cal led in to create a dist inct ive brand identi ty. Mil<e l(el ly, the creative director on the

project says, "They had the technology to make a r ich, creamy, shelf-stable product. I t real ly

tastes great out of the can, but the consumer perception is that i t wouldn't taste as good because

of that. Gehl 's was concerned about that perception, even though al l the research indicated that

the product was superior tast ing and i t was probably the closest thing that you could get in the

marketplace at that t ime without going to a coffeehouse.,,

Slawny notes, "We knew that the people who were going to buy this product were very interested

in the coffee culture of the t ime, so we wanted to capture al l the feel ing of the coffee shop in the

des ign on the can-keep ing i t f resh and young, bu t no t too young. , ,

Another cha l lenge emerged dur ing the in t roduc t ion per iod : S tarbuc l<s was s imu l taneous ly

introducing i ts Frappuccino drinl<, and according to l(el ly, "starbucl<s was probably our biggest

competitor. The other brands tasted l i l<e l iouid chal l<., ,

$ffiL :*sylsiny:-J

First Round of Concepts

la b ovel

Mike Ketty, creat ive director at

MLR, and des ign d i rec to r Amy

Lepper t deve loped these f i rs t

round concepts to p resent to

focus groups aimed at t ranslat ing

the "ca f6 exper ience" fo r Ma in

St. Cafe, Gehl 's new iced

cappucc ino dr ink p roduc t .

DESIGNING A BRAND FOR A START.UP

Designing Brands

Documents

consumers

product

package

slawny

packaging

didn

gehl

lty