licence to kill?

Have you seen the Homepride cooking sauces ad yet? If not, take a look. It uses the iconic Fred character - 50 this year don’t you know?! As I remember Fred he was a charming, helpful, friendly chap that knew his grades of flour. And, voiced in ads by the homely sounding Richard Briers (sadly no longer with us)... now that tells you something about his character.



So, back to the ad that aired for the first time over the weekend. It shows a giant Fred - not the small iconic character that we all remember - helping Mum in the kitchen to add a bit of cook in sauce excitement to dishes for the family to enjoy. Nothing particularly wrong with that - except for the fact he’s so huge and a bit wobbly on his feet.

The real trouble comes at the end, when Dad discovers that Fred is taking that excitement a little too far. He is seen in the bathroom with Mum in the bath, readying himself to scrub her back. Now, whilst I think the idea is somewhat tacky (and a little pervy), I can see it might give way to a Carry On style of humour.

But the problem is this: for the past 18 months we’ve been using social media (Facebook & Twitter) to nurture Homepride Flour and its Fred character into that charming, helpful, knowledgeable and lovable being that we want to project for the brand - licensed to Kerry Foods and not strictly owned outright by Premier Foods, who owns Homepride cooking sauce.

So, having nurtured Fred and his character to promote Homepride Flour, we now have the cooking sauces side of the business building a character that has quite a different take on charm and lovability. And particularly with heritage brands that have been off the radar for a few years, they still have emotional values attached. So it’s vital that they are understood and re-presented to a modern audience in a way that retains integrity.

To me, the take on Fred from the sauces side has dangerously ignored what Fred has always stood for and his personality. And all for a cheap laugh.

five golden rules in foodservice branding and packaging

Traditionally, brand designers have shied away from working with foodservice brands because there hasn't been the scope to do anything creative.

This isn’t helped by foodservice brand owners that pay little attention to their packs’ branding and design. They tend to want to keep their brands nice and functional. And you just need to look at well known, great quality products from the likes of Pritchitts, Bladen and Meadowland in the dairy category to appreciate the power of function.

This is quite understandable, as it’s the product quality that is of the utmost importance. For many products, if it came in a white bag or bottle with the product name printed on the front in Arial, professional chefs would still choose the tried and tested, no matter what the packaging looked like. Quite right too if the product does the job.

But the influence of brands in foodservice IS changing. Of course, many household brands have been part of the foodservice landscape for a long while. Ambrosia, Knorr, Heinz and McCain are examples of brands that cross the divides of both retail and foodservice. But for those brands that put themselves firmly in foodservice, there’s a sense that a more functional approach to branding is a more acceptable one.

But, as I said, the influence of brands is changing. There are lots more variables now. There’s price - naturally. But taste, performance and availability are also hugely important too. And, of course, there are more good quality products to choose from, which means the tried and trusted ones are not perhaps the automatic choices they once were.

Our recent work with Kerrymaid and its range of dairy ingredients made us question a few of the givens. According to research by the respected Cambridge Direction Group, Kerrymaid was an ‘invisible brand’. It had low impact, little recall and often was mistaken for Kerrygold. Yet the quality and performance of its products were second to none.

Having been tasked to develop the Kerrymaid branding, we questioned just how functional the brand should be on pack and across it marketing communications. It was important that the brand should get noticed, have some appeal yet could present itself as a serious player in foodservice.

Give the brand some emotional appeal, we said. Give it some distinctiveness. Give it some branding! But be clear about each product’s benefits and how it will perform. Cambridge Direction undertook some research and after an anxious wait came back with a green light from professional caterers to develop it and apply to packaging, its trade press advertising and sales collateral.

So what have we learned? Well, I see it as five golden rules to ensure that the right balance is struck between having brand appeal and maintaining that professional credibility in foodservice – whatever the category:

 

The new Kerrymaid range:

limited edition packaging - a chance to jump on the bandwagon or add real value to your brand?

London, UK 2012

Red, white and blue dominate the retail environment at the moment. With a busy year for Great Britain including the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, a Brit in the Wimbledon Finals and the Olympics being hosted here, there is surely every reason to drape the Union Jack around the shoulders of your brand and join in the patriotic spirit….and of course hope for a lift in sales during these otherwise quite dreary times of austerity and rain!

But is all this really adding brand value, or simply hopping onto the bandwagon of nationalistic pride in the hope of some short lived commercial gain?

Take for example Twinings. Awarded the Royal Warrant in 1837 and now offering over 100 varieties, the launch of a limited edition range in celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee is wholly in keeping with the brand’s core values, as is the stunning detail of the packaging. No flags here – just a gold carriage and commemorative ‘royal’ detailing beautifully embossed around the oval caddies (loose tea) and rectangular caddies (tea bags) – something to suit every street party. And each format is available in 3 colourways, making the set not only collectable but the packaging reusable too. 

At the other end of the spectrum I see M&Ms – a wholly American brand which, with a little help from UK band Little Mix, has chosen to launch a limited edition pack of red, white and blue sweets (or should that be candies) with the Union Jack proudly splashed across their packaging. With no apparent link back to the brand at all, beyond the limited edition packaging there really is not much for the consumer to engage with. Shame on you MARS! 

That’s not to say that only British brands should benefit in 2012. P&G, another US multinational (and Worldwide Partner of the 2012 Games), has joined forces with Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, to launch limited edition packaging to support the P&G Capital Clean up campaign, a series of clean up events designed to bring an army of 1,700 community champions together to spruce up more neglected areas of the city ahead of the Olympics. This links the household cleaning brands of P&G perfectly with the trend of growing local community spirit and pride, and of course with the Olympics. 

So, the launch of limited edition packaging can be hugely beneficial to brands - it can refresh awareness, deliver shelf standout and drive consumer interest. But it will only add real value to the consumer if it responds to a true insight and reinforces their own present associations with the brand, and demonstrates a genuine reason to purchase beyond price alone.

flatpack TV

I've always been a great believer in approaching problems and ideas from unexpected angles. One of the best examples of this I've come across recently is a new Ikea product, set to launch in the UK in early 2013. It's call Uppleva (which I'm reliably informed by my Swedish friends means 'revolution'). And it's not a sofa, or a new bed, or a potato masher, or even a fancy new type of tea light. It's a TV.

Ikea, making TV's? It doesn't make sense. Except it does: because Ikea have cleverly recognised the problem with TVs today. Its not about screen size, HD, 3D, smart or being able to download apps. It's the fact that most TV's today are bloated, oversized, badly designed monsters, which when combined with the plethora of boxes we now attach to them and all the associated cables that involves means our living rooms all have a proverbial (televisual) elephant in the corner.

Being a furniture maker and renowned for design, Ikea have identified this problem and produced a cleverly Swedish solution to it. A TV that doesn't compete on tech smartness and which doesn't compete with the rest of your living room. Instead, we can now consider it part of the furniture. It's very clever, and it will be interesting to see if it takes off. And if it comes in flatpack. Nik

goodbye nostalgia, hello über-nostalgia

I've been reading that nostalgia is the key to marketing in a recession (writes Peter): see the design blog of Gloucester agency Alias and the Marketing Society's debate.

From past experience I've noticed that our love for nostalgia does always seem to increase in a recession (this being my fourth).

However, it is ironic that to give the nostalgic experience any life and authenticity these days requires the talent and dedication of extremely skillful designers, artists, film makers and marketeers (and arguably requires more effort than is needed than to create something new and contemporary).

The current nostalgic decade of choice has to be the roaring '20s. And now that artists, musicians and film makers have access to such powerful digital technology, any nostalgia-based creations can be digitally enhanced to make a sort of über-nostalgia that goes beyond the realms of the pastiche.

A few examples of über-nostalgia:

FILM: The extraordinarily successful film 'The Artist' is a tribute to silent movies so faithful that it remains 'silent' throughout. Capturing that old movie feel required ultra modern movie technology, which was then projected onto purpose built and smaller flat screens, as found back in the 1920's.

Has the adorable Uggie from The Artist walked straight out of the 1920's HMV logo?

MUSIC: Take a listen to C. W. Stoneking but with your eyes closed for the first few minutes. Doesn't it sound like he's a black blues hero straight out of Mississippi in the Depression? But no, C.W. is a 30-year old Australian living in Bristol!

PACKAGING: Hendrick's Gin is a beautifully constructed pastiche of the "flapper's tipple of choice". Has this been stolen straight out of the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising in London?

1920's Gordon's Gin (with medicinal serving suggestion!) vs. 2011 Hendrick's Gin

issue 8 of the looking glass out now!

issue 7 of the looking glass out now!

range architecture - the blueprint for brand success

Just as great buildings need good foundations and a clear structure, brand and product architectures are no different in how they should be approached (writes Lawrence, MD).

Brands have a life span. For many it's short, but others flourish and generate meaningful income. Consumers’ relationships with brands also have a life span, driven by generational changes or more quickly by changes in habits, taste and lifestyle.

For brand owners, reacting to these changes can be a challenge, and this often results in brand and product portfolios becoming bloated and poorly focused with little differentiation. Ironically, it's often easier to add another product to a brand's range than it is to change or delist an existing product. This is partly due to brand owners hedging their bets, and partly due to a production-led management strategy. Consequently, these bloated portfolios are more likely to confuse consumers and cause them to lose engagement with the brand they once cherished. And they become expensive to support.

The answer to this set of problems lies in range architecture
A range architecture review should begin at the point that will effect the best commercial outcome, which means exploring the brand's connection to the company's business and product strategy.

Range architecture should always refer back to commercial priorities, meaning fewer distractions from the softer science of tactical qualitative research, good guesses or an over reaction to market changes.

Of course, many businesses have extended their brands’ product portfolios over recent years. Good brands are powerful assets and consequently are seen by their owners as having the capability to accommodate more products, beyond those they might be recognised for. But this needs to be carefully managed.

Examples of good and not so good
In health and beauty, for example, Johnson’s has managed to retain brand integrity across its entire portfolio as it moved from its core offer of baby care through to women's face and body care. Branding maintains its authority across the portfolio whilst the use of colour, graphics and message hierarchy effortlessly enables the brand to reach across the categories.

However, I find Nivea much more difficult to deal with. Anti-wrinkle, firming creams, firm and natural body lotions, Nivea Visage, Nivea Soft, Nivea Pure, Nivea Sun through to Nivea Men... between them creating a plethora of range names and sub brands that makes it difficult to decipher what I am being offered and how I should find what I actually need.

And there are many more examples. Biscuits, for instance, are becoming ever more diverse, and Fox’s does a good job of presenting its variety of biscuits by using design to reflect the different styles of each one.

And whilst Old El Paso in the Mexican wraps category does a terrific job on consistency and stand out on shelf, I’m left wondering what’s inside the boxes and the wrappers!

Getting the range architecture right ensures that the platform is there for branding, design and message to be used to convey product or brand differentiation to optimum effect. Get it right and you’re away. Get it wrong and even a small range can create confusion.

sweet charity

Would you visit your bank manager for a loan wearing a tracksuit? (writes Julia)

Its probably an outdated question given that nobody even has a bank manager these days (and banks aren't handling out loans that easily either)! However, the relevance of the question refers to a conundrum facing a client of ours recently. They are a small, ambitious, driven and extremely needy charity. Through a timely set of circumstances, we offered our services pro bono to develop their identity and presence. This was largely in response to the usual charity objectives: to increase membership, sponsorship and awareness in a very busy and competitive market.

In much of our other work with a diverse range of corporate and FMCG clients, we help develop brands with similar objectives in mind. However, never in my experience with these clients have I heard concern in the form of the question I was asked by the charity's CEO:

"Now we look so great, will we be perceived as less needy and therefore not achieve our objectives?"

Slightly taken aback - after month of hard work to get to this point - I thought that maybe he was right. After all he is the CEO of the charity and has a lot more experience in the industry than we could ever claim. Had we overlooked a fundamental aspect of the challenge of working with a charity?

But, after some thought, I decided that we were absolutely right in our approach. Charity or not, there can only be a positive outcome from a brand being assured of its place in the market. Possession of a clear set of values, a distinctive personality and a unique and relevant position can only be a positive. And presenting this in a consistent manner across all touchpoints with consumers can surely only build awareness?

Anyone investing money or time in an organisation - charitable or not - could only be reassured by the fact that these resources aren't being wasted on inconsistent sales material, recreating the wheel every time a quarterly newsletter has to be sent out.

Creating a brand model, templates and guidelines that offer consistency yet allow flexibility for creative interpretation is the key - every time. After all, why do businessmen wear suits to meetings, and why did women wear short skirts to visit the bank manager (in the old days)? Because it was the template for success.

So, having been reassured of all this, was our charity client rewarded with a positive result? Launched at the 2010 Farnborough Air Show, it's too early for quantitative results, but the new identity has brought fresh energy to the team of volunteers running the charity, a consistent look and feel across web, print and all other media, and an increased drive to get out there and spread the word. Their Air Show stand was one of the most-visited, and the team are still following up on all the leads received, a much greater percentage of which seem to be leading somewhere than in previous years.

However, I can't say it's all down to the fresh look, after all the CEO was wearing a suit and that must have said something for them too.

flying colours

I've always wondered what would have happened if Paul Rand had chosen a different colour for his famous IBM logo (writes Peter). Maybe a bright orange, a lush green or a rich purple?

Or was 'corporate blue' already the default back in the late 1950s? {Must re-watch Mad Men to find out}

IBM even gained the nickname 'The Big Blue', and for as long as I can recall blue has been the safe colour of choice for corporations.

Move on 50 years from the design of IBM's logo, and surely the web has started to dilute corporate blue? No expensive multi-coloured inks to mix and print, plus access to may 1,000s of web safe colours - major corporates must be a riot of colour on the web?

Well, this chart from colourlovers.com suggests not - or at least not yet.

Skype, Twitter, AOL, PayPal, RealPlayer, WordPress, LinkedIn - all major brands born out of the web. And their corporate colour of choice? Paul Rand would be proud.

how being too nice put paid to the banks

I used to have a mortgage with Abbey (writes Lawrence). They were brilliant - easy to read statements, I could talk to them on the phone quickly, even visit a branch where someone would be happy to sit me down in an office, give me a coffee and answer any questions. I even took a credit card out with them because they were so efficient and easy to deal with.

Then came the crunch. And a name change from Abbey to the less convincing Santander coincided with a greater change, not just for Abbey but for all the banks and insurance companies.

Prior to the crunch the high street banks had become rather good at talking to people. They were approachable, generally easy to deal with, and were more than happy to sell you anything from investments to insurance.

This nice and easy approach stemmed from changes in the early nineties. I remember working with NatWest (who'd recently changed from from the stiffer National Westminster Bank), as they embarked on a programme to move the perception of the bank away from a corporate institution towards a more customer-friendly business.

The bank tore down the steel bars and thick glass separating cashiers from customers. They were replaced with comfy sofas, open plan areas with discreet screening and plenty of pot plants. Simple, friendly illustrations adorned the covers of its in-branch booklets and window displays. The NatWest logo and its complementary typefaces became rounder and softer to reflect its newfound love of the customer.

And the other banks followed suit. Adverts for banks became the ones you didn't mind watching and plain English was enforced on every piece of written communication to make sure real people could understand.

Marketers who trained in FMCG environments started to infiltrate financial services. Banks became nice places to visit, to the extent that coffee shops were given concessions in branches. And at that point, it had gone too far. Banks forgot what they were about - there to deal with important aspects of people's lives. Essentially they lost their authority and with it their integrity.

So perhaps what started at NatWest all those years ago contributed to the downfall of the high street banks. They had become too easy, too nice and too friendly, handing out cash like they'd hand out a café latte. It become the norm.

But when everything changed, all those lessons in approachability were forgotten overnight, and banks went from "couldn't do more for you" to "we don't want to talk to you".

Which takes me back to my Santander situation. When I recently sold my house and needed a new mortgage my experience with Santander was tortuous. I gave them all the information they asked for but they kept asking for more. No-one with authority would speak to me, no mortgage offer was forthcoming. So I gave up. And when I tried to notify them of even the simplest of administrative tasks - a change of address - another long-winded battle ensued.

So while it's understandable that banks have pulled in the reins, they need to strike a balance between being discerning and being plain unhelpful, lacking in the most basic forms of common sense.

Perhaps all the advertising and design agencies working with banks - or indeed hoping to work with them - could think about how they can help their clients become customer-focussed and approachable again, without losing their integrity.

is the logo dead?

A logo is broadly defined as a graphic mark or emblem used by organisations to promote and gain recognition. In the good old days they sat proudly on corporate letterheads, plastered as big as possible on packaging, hung enticingly above shop fronts and featured prominently in advertising. Designers slaved religiously on logo bibles explaining in minute detail how the logo should be used and what you could (or more often couldn't) do with it.

The logo was the ultimate expression of a company's beliefs, personality and values, feverishly protected and consistently applied. Could this art form that can be traced back over 4,000 years be nearing extinction?

There's been much talk in the design press and blogs in the last few months predicting the death of the logo as we know it. Indeed some experts claim that the logo is nothing more than "an old fashioned approach to identifying products and services" and "a waste of time, money and effort." What is the role of a logo in today's branded world and have we really reached a point where the logo has become so commonplace that there's not much to be gained by having one?

why is the logo under threat?

Brand blindness is a term that's gaining currency online. Apparently the average person is subjected to over 30,000 commercial messages every day, most of them visual. Because of this, today's consumers are adept at quickly editing the information passed before them, looking for recognition in the sea of the unfamiliar. Is there any point crafting a new logo when anything 'new' is mostly ignored? If brand blindness becomes an epidemic, how does any brand stand out?

The digital environment has had profound influence on logo design development. Previously, the black and white fax was the ultimate logo test. Today it's ensuring your logo works on an ever changing palette of platforms and devices, whether it's on your company's website or as a Facebook icon. May logos just don't work on screen because they weren't designed to be seen on screen - many brands are now racing to solve this problem.

Digital also provides a tempting platform to bring the logo to life - make it move, wink, shimmer - desperately (and often inappropriately) trying to 'modernise' the mark and make it more relevant to today's social networking audience.

The most profound shift in logo design was undoubtedly when organisations and companies became brands. This seismic change saw a shift from a company's product or service to a focus on emotion; Apple no longer sell computers, they market a lifestyle. This shift has led to a flurry of complicated 'touchy-feely' logos that try to capture the desired emotion but often just lack clear focus.

Look at the new Kraft Foods corporate logo, a desperate example of this trend. Emotions are blurred and difficult to grasp concepts that need a bigger canvas than a single logo can provide. Logos function best when they simply and memorably explain who you are (Apple) or what you do (FedEx). Try to load too much meaning in your logo at your peril.

The public (and the press) love to hate logos too. £400,000 for the London 2012 logos? Waste of money! Especially when you can buy a ready-made logo online for $50 or less. The value of what a good logo can bring (and the skill and expertise required to create it) is slowly but surely being eroded.

the new logo

Some brave pioneers are challenging the traditional understanding of what a logo is and how it should be used. No weighty corporate manuals for these guys. Instead, a logo is created in the traditional sense, but then colour, texture, application, size, weight, orientation are all exploited to provide not just one logo but a multitude of variations and possibilities for any and every application.

The London 2012 logo was an early adopter of this approach. The initial reaction to the logo was one of near universal derision. Look beyond the jagged shapes and you'll see a clever way to use the logo to hold many different feelings, meanings and subjects without compromising the immediate impact and recognition of those sharp, pointy numbers.

The recent redesign of AOL takes this principles several steps further. Those much hated BA tail fins from the 80s were perhaps the first example of new logo thinking. Why have one logo when you can have (literally) hundreds?

Or why have any logo at all? Burnley, a small town in Lancashire famous only for electing a BNP member onto the council, recently rebranded itself to present the town in a new light. Any expected small town logo design is thrown out of the window, replaced by a squiggly, swirling, scribbly animation - visit burnley.co.uk to see it in full effect. It's not a logo, it's something entirely brave and new - a living identity perhaps? Whether it's appropriate for a town like Burnley remains to be seen.

future-brand

One of the biggest threats to the logo is the so-called 'brand world'. This is a hot phrase recently coined to describe the visual and verbal noise that surrounds a brand. The thinking goes that a brand world can create a rich tapestry of colours, images, sounds, textures and typography across any medium to engage the audience emotionally whilst being unique and recognised as identifying a brand or organisation. So identifiable in fact, the role of the logo could be about to be redundant.

Think of O2 and you will inevitably picture bubbles, shades of blue and perhaps even hear that nice man with the very reassuring and friendly voice. The actual O2 logo, whilst simple and effective, is actually pretty forgettable - it's the brand world that is memorable.

Deli Garage is a food brand in Germany that treats the packaging for its products as a brand world. There is no big logo, no typical food cues; instead a collection of products unified by strong colour, illustration, typography and physical structure that create a unique and effective packaged brand world. It's an intriguing idea, and one that potentially offers consumers a much deeper and more rewarding experience than the standard big logo approach.

rest in peace

So is the logo dead? Does the pressure from digital platforms, meaningless metaphors and public outrage sound the death knell for identity? Is the brand world approach really the brave new world?

Undoubtedly the traditional role of the logo is facing many challenged. By being pushed to communicate more and more it has actually become meaningless. On the flipside, the brand world is really nothing new, but the strength of a coherent and relevant brand experience is only just starting to be realised. One is not a replacement for the other - a logo can never tell the full story of your brand. Similarly a brand world can't ever be trademarked.

in remembrance

Let the logo do what it does best - simply say who you are or what you do. Leave it to the brand world to immerse and engage your audience. Don't get the two mixed up but make sure they work together.

In today's connected world, the bigger the palette your brand owns, the greater its reach and flexibility across the ever growing number of touchpoints. Consistency is old news. Coherency is the new visual currency.

form vs. function

form

{via TheCoolist}

Is this the world's most jaw-dropping car? The 1948 Buick Streamliner (by Norman E. Timbs) was found in the LA desert in 2002 and restored by Dave Crouse at Custom Auto, who spent 2 years bringing the car back to life.

How beautiful is this car? And what a strangely compelling paradox...

Who wouldn't want to drive it along Highway 101 with the stereo on full blast? But think again - perhaps this car's a piece of junk. After all, it's completely inadequate at providing even the most basic function of a real life car. Imagine that journey on Highway 101. It starts to rain - where's the roof? You need to take a suitcase - where's the boot? Passengers? Hope they're small. Let's not even think about parking. Highway 101? Not in this car.

function

For those of us who live in crowded, polluted cities the G-Wiz must be the perfect vehicle. Small (very), electric, easy to park, quiet, it even has a roof. But as a car it looks repellant. I couldn't bring myself to touch it let alone drive it.

If design is about matching form and function, which is more important? Maybe good design is no more than the sum of the best compromises.

Peter

battle of the sexes

In our modern, getting-close-to-equality world, are the lines between products for women and products or men becoming blurred? And, if that is the case, should we insist on shakily redrawing them?

While there are - of course - products that really are distinct to a particular sex (think Tampax and King of Shaves), many are just positioned one way or the other, through packaging, marketing or both. We've been looking at the roles of each of these, and have picked out some examples that might help us cross what can be a bit of a minefield.

gorgeous pink

You'd think that by now, we'd have all grasped that turning a product pink, lowering its calorie content and calling it gorgeous won't give it automatic appeal to women, but is likely to patronise and alienate many of them. However, the recent launch of Chicago Town's Gorgeous Pizza, and the very existence of pink power tools, goes to show that the message hasn't got through. Yes, there's a time and a place for pink, but that's not always and everywhere. For products that have been mindfully designed for - and marketed to - women, taking their lifestyles into consideration, look at HP's new Tord Boontje-designed laptop (OK it's floral, but no pink in sight and, being limited edition, it has that aspirational factor. Or car manufacturers like Ford who've made curvy, simple interiors that speak to women's sense of form whilst retaining all function.

extreme sport

Similarly, it seems to be an accepted wisdom that if you whack 'Extreme' or 'Sport' on a product, men will be instantly drawn to its masculine vibe. This is particularly rampant in the personal care category - where there's still a need for some macho reassurance - and has swiftly become something of a cliché (one that Dove has moved away from with the new Men+Care range). Also choosing to bypass that self-conscious machismo, look at how Pot Noodle, Yorkie and McCoy's have stamped their successful 'men only' positionings with their wholeheartedly masculine - yet humorous - campaigns.

for him. for her. for them.

Sometimes it's right to target one gender or the other, but at other times it's just the easy way out, and it can backfire (e.g. Aero's struggles to win back the male consumers they alienated a couple of years ago with their very female-targeted advertising campaign).

Bearing in mind the fact that women are more likely to buy 'male' products than men are to buy anything 'female', it makes sense to keep the product unisex, the packaging lightly masculine, and the promotion appealing all round. OK it's simplistic, but take that classic beer companies' conundrum - a successful 'women's beer'. Could they open up their existing products more to women just by tweaking their exclusive-to-men advertising campaigns? Speculation aside, what it comes down to is that it's no good deciding on gender-based design/marketing for the sake of it. As ever, those involved should first and foremost focus on the actual consumer - be it male or female. Stay in touch with your consumers and their needs, and the rest will follow.

We've talked the gender talk, but can we walk the walk (so to speak)? We'd like to share a couple of our own projects and explain how we've tackled the issues.

carnaby brown

Launching in the UK in March, Carnaby Brown is a new lightly sparkling fruit wine that is - resolutely - for girls. This is a case where it's the product (original and rosé variants, 5.5% abv) that decides the positioning, but we haven't gone near the aforementioned 'gorgeous pink' look. Our design does justice to the product - elegant and stylish - and avoids being overly girly. We like to think that a man wouldn't feel embarrassed picking up a bottle of Carnaby for his girlfriend!

jinxWe've talked about Jinx before, but it's really worth another look in this context. Jinx launched last year as a new Swedish RTD made with real fruit. Whereas in the UK (male orientated brand WKD excepted) these drinks are generally produced with women in mind, in Sweden both men and women enjoy them. So our designs maintain a fruity party spirit while successfully appealing to both sexes- a notoriously tricky feat in the alcohol category.

löfbergs lila

In many minds, there are foods and drinks that have a natural gender-bias (so beer/crisps are for men and chocolate/wine are for women). But some products completely transcend gender, and coffee is one of those. Coffee is a unifier - with its consumers often tending towards the zealous. We kept that in mind when designing these new packs, which focus on the coffee experience with designs that are inclusive to all coffee lovers whether male or female.

euro + organic = nil points

I was intrigued when I heard there was to be a new European standard logo to label organic products. I was even more intrigued when I found out the logo would be decided through a Europe-wide design competition (open to design students and recent graduates only). Unfortunately, I discovered all this long after the entry deadline (and 3442 entries), and after the likes of typo-god Erik Spiekermann had judged the results and the winner had been selected.

So imagine my disappointment when I unearthed the winning entry. It's not that it's a bad idea - putting the stars from the European flag into a leaf shape makes sense and forms a simple, easily understood symbol. It's just the execution of the mark I'm totally let down by! For one, I'm not even sure it's a leaf. Second, why the dodgy perspective? Surely a simple flat and graphic design would have been more successful? And please don't get me started on that badly drawn 'stem' of the leaf shooting out from the star. I'd be tempted to give douze points for the simple idea, but I'm afraid it's nil points for the crafting.

Interestingly, there's a page on Facebook where a lot of the shortlisted entries in the competition can be seen. As you'd expect, there's a lot of shockers in there, but also some real gems - see what you think...

Create the new EU Organic Logo!

Nik, Creative Director

letter to the editor

Our MD Lawrence picked up on a recent article in Design Week on provenance and how brands are capitalising on their product's origins, and sent in a letter to the magazine that sees the issue in a slightly different light. His missive was published in last week's issue - you can see it online here if you're a Design Week subscriber, otherwise here's a clipping (click to enlarge)...

retail therapy

Nik, our creative director, contributed this piece for the 'Inspired' column in the latest issue of Design Week...

The most important thing about inspiration is to never go looking for it. It has a habit of finding you. But if I'm in need of a fix, I go shopping.

One of my earliest memories is from when I was about four years old, riding in the back of my mum's trolley in Asda back up North. I was in awe of this vast warehouse filled with shapes, colours, pictures and typefaces. I'd be dragged around Blackburn town centre on a Saturday to the food hall in BHS, in the days when its logo was a retro bold, grotesque affair (which remains on show outside the Wood Green branch in north London even now).

To this day, I find supermarkets fascinating, inspirational places - though now I'm just as a t home in Liberty as I am in Lidl. They let me indulge my passion for good (and bad) typography, and offer interesting ideas.

And it's not just the shelves that groan with inspiration. The shops themselves are increasingly becoming works of retail art - visit Anthropologie on London's Regent Street and see for yourself.

Best of all, you never know what you'll find in store, but some kind of inspiration is always available to take home - budget permitting - in a rather fetching carrier bag.

trust in us

In our latest newsletter, we explored the value of brand action in these times of mistrust. We've examined five categories we think are particularly interesting for the current market, and have looked at how they establish and maintain consumer trust.

These proactive brands anticipate social changes, prepare, understand consumers' needs and provide for them, rather than begging to join the party after consumers have had to ask for what they want. In doing so these brands earn respect and maintain a trust that truly runs deep.

clean brands

were originally championed by premium and organic foods such as Daylesford Organic, and body and pharmaceutical products like Ren, and are often distinguished visually by translucent white and clear packaging with colourful pastel accents. Consumer trust in clean brands is based on transparency: product sourcing, production and manufacture, fair trade policies, organic credentials and environmental awareness are all unblemished and open to public scrutiny. These brands become most volatile when trying to conceal something they do.

keywords: fair trade, untainted, organic, free-from, untouched, transparent, pure

do brands are actively earning consumer trust and respect through the activities they do. They might be giving back to the community, providing particularly worthy services or promoting causes beyond their own remit through experiences like Innocent's Village Fête, or the recently launched RockCorps by Orange. Their promotion of charitable, community activities turns brand ambassadors into brand

activists as they invest in doing rather than just saying.

keywords: involve, give back, participation, action, community, engagement, provide

inherited brands are trustworthy because they've been passed from generation to generation. Their brand status has less to do with branding and everything to do with how people come to know about the product. Inherited brands need little marketing and often draw simply on nostalgic value when they do. Even more than other categories, inherited brands such as Heinz, Lyle's Golden Syrup or even British Airways are the 'brands your grandmother recommends', and trust is lost usually through re-designs and brand re-positionings that disregard their past and alienate existing loyal customers.

keywords: heritage, authentic, local, &Sons, classic, original

useful brands make your life better, easier and exist as invisible daily staples in our lives. Trustworthy for their sheer utility and seamless integration in our world, brands like Google, Oyster, IKEA, meat producers, banks and other financial institutions are usually only noticed as brands when they cause problems or stop working properly. In other words, if we notice these brands, they've done something wrong.

Useful products and services should focus on their inherent utility and avoid letting expansion and marketing expose these invisible brands to potential mistrust.

keywords: utility, customer, services, staple, lifeline, daily

innovation brands change as quickly as the times, evolving, ducking and diving to make sure they're always ahead of the curve. These brands become known for change, innovation, creativity and style. Innovation brands like Apple, Nokia, Topshop and Audi take revoltionary change seriously, and they do it on a regular basis. The brand doesn't change, but products do. Every season provides an opportunity to re-establish trust, and their greatest risk is in not delivering enough change. Every product launch becomes an event, consumers become fans, and their leaders become icons.

keywords: evolution, season, innovation, leader, trendsetter

stockholm calling

Sweden is well known for its great design and sense of aesthetic. We’re lucky to be regular visitors, working with Spendrups, Löfbergs Lila and Brämhults to name but three. When we’re Stockholm bound, we always try and make time to have a nose about to see what’s new, what catches our eye and what inspires us. Here are some of our favourite finds, showcasing the Swedish love of colour, type, illustration and above all, simplicity, alongside some of our own work (click for larger images)…

1 & 11 Saltå Kvarn; an organic food brand with a wonderful colour palette and naïve illustration style; 2 Renée Voltaire, another organic brand, with great quirky typography. The brand has just launched a range of feminine care products (3); 4 more simple and eye-catching illustration on these ricecakes from Friggs; 5 we designed these cute little coffees for Löfbergs Lila this year.

6 this tray sums up Swedish design for us, found in the Design Torget shop (a mecca for all things Scandinavian) at Arlanda airport; 7 ‘tea-chic’ by Friggs with more crazy but beautiful type; 8 more of our work for Löfbergs Lila; these emotional espresso packs were produced in 2006; 9 meet Pee (or‘Kiss’ in Swedish), part of a pair of brilliant toys to help young kids with toilet training; 10 we spotted these simple, bright and engaging own-label packs in ICA; 12 we designed Sweden’s no.1 water brand, Loka; and Gravendal (13), a cider with street-cred for brewers Spendrups

the genuine article

Are consumers losing trust in the authenticity of packaging claims?

Desire for authenticity has been one of the key drivers behind design aesthetics for the last few years. Authenticity in a world of superficial branding promised a richer, more meaningful and responsible choice of product. Packaging designs, in particular, have emphasised such aspects as heritage, ethics and provenance or any combination of these in an attempt to promote the authentic stories behind their brands - sadly, in a rather predictable way.

But claims of organic and heritage originals have now lost some of their previous appeal as consumers have grown more savvy about the truth and value behind them. Put simply, they don't always reflect the point of a brand anyway! Brands that have trodden this path look bland at best and contrived at worst - just so that they can fit with a consumer trend - and in so doing raise huge questions of credibility.

Our recently launched redesign of Brecon Carreg bottled water wanted to find a refreshing, relevant way of communicating the brand's Welsh provenance of outdoor refreshment. The pack shape and design are focussed on the unique geography of the Brecon landscape whilst bright, impactful graphics move away from the dull greens and blues among illustrated mountains so characteristic of bottled waters.

Standard, authentic pack shapes, colours and stories are beginning to lighten up and reflect a desire, particularly among younger consumers, for fun and escapism. Consider Jinx. An exciting new brand just launching into the Swedish alcopop market, Jinx does something very different from the rest of the category: it contains raw organic fruit juices. But instead of drawing inspiration from the organic market or emphasising its natural juice credentials, our designs picked up on the pleasures of its taste and sociability. Worthy organic, natural hues gave way to pure energy and enjoyment - a perfect fit with the core audience and a direct reflection of their clubbing habitat. It's a brand confident enough in its authenticity to focus on raw pleasure.

For younger markets, authenticity and honesty are the norm, but synthetic and GM foods aren't necessarily seen as scary or dangerous either. If brands tell the right story in a modern way and offer both fun and escapism, they don't need to see authenticity as the Holy Grail - although it might be a genuine claim. The question we should be asking is not just how to make brand experiences more authentic, but how to make them more interesting and enjoyable.