by Luz Erhardt at 2:52 pm 27 August 2009
Filed under: Home Page
After their successful first volume, 
publishes Logo Design – Volume 2, with introduction by Wally Olins and a case study dedicated to Vueling, as told by Jacob Benbunan.
by Ben Knapp at 10:10 am 10 August 2009
Filed under: Home Page
Wally Olins and Jacob Benbunan will be speaking at the annual Kyoorius Designyatra conference in Mumbai this September. Joining them will be the likes of Sir Martin Sorrell, Erik Spiekermann, and Rafael Ramirez. We hope to see you there.
by Ben Knapp at 6:01 am 3 August 2009
Filed under: Home Page
The likes of 
and 
built their reputation on consistently delivering quality products. Today, too many companies believe they can do the same using taglines and TV spots. It’s time to re-visit the basics of brand building.
by Tina Mehta at 6:00 am 3 August 2009
Filed under: Branding
Brands used to be a guarantee of good quality. A product that did what it said on the tin laid a foundation of trust between consumers and a product. The likes of Disney, Coke and Sony built their reputation on consistently delivering quality products. ‘Sophisticated’ marketing, advertising and tag lines followed much later.
Things have changed. Some companies abuse the trust people put in their brands. Often, they spend more time and money on promotion than they do on developing a better product/service. Their marketing department over-promises and their products/services under-deliver. The trust between consumers and brands has suffered as a result. AIG, not so long after near financial collapse, claims ‘the strength to be there’. All too often, brands have been reduced to shiny sales mechanisms. Seduction has replaced substance.
It’s time to revisit the basics of brand building. Forget the sales brochure, toss out the 60-second spot. Remember that customer relationships are built on producing better products/services than the competition. This means faster innovation, better service, nicer ingredients, stronger materials, superior craftsmanship. Spending another million on an even better animation film will do much more for the Disney brand than a new ad. This is textbook stuff – yet it sounds surprising in a world of consumers that have grown wary of ‘new-and-improved’.
Ask your marketing team to start telling the truth and work harder on making that truth worth telling. Consumers don’t expect your brand to be single handedly the most innovative, have the highest quality and provide the best service. Apple products are infamous for caving in. But Apple doesn’t sell durability. Apple concentrates on simplicity.
Do the same: choose one thing to get right and put everyhing behind living up to that promise. Customers will buy into your brand for delivering that one thing. And they’ll start talking/blogging/recommending. After a while, they’ll start trusting you. That’s what we mean when we talk about brand building.