Persona Design

Good & Murray Smith Solicitors, a long established niche litigation practice based in Dublin have relaunched their brand to market both on and offline.

 

 

Established in 1895, the firm has an enduring reputation, highly regarded for both its expertise and experience. They service clients in both the Irish and overseas markets with acclaimed success. To find out more visit their new web site http://www.goodmurraysmith.ie

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Fact: Strong brands make more money, are more profitable and increase company value. They enable you to command a premium, ensure customer preference in buying decisions and build customer loyalty which reduces cost of sales and fends off competition. 

 

If your profits are falling and sales are not performing a "Brand Audit" will help give you insights into your brand's impact and performance in the marketplace and, most importantly, why it's not delivering.  

 

Fact: All brands, global or national or regional, need a health check. Brands are like living entities with life cycles. They start with much excitement and promise, grow and then eventually plateau. 

 

It's at this mature stage of evolvement, when they potentially start to loose relevance as the market evolves and customers move on to the latest hot new thing, that you need to conduct a Brand Audit. 

 

A Brand Audit helps you monitor this cycle so you keep your brand fresh and relevant and know when to reinvigorate or revitalise before sales start to slip.

 

 

Need some more reasons to use a Brand Audit to increase your bottom line ? Here's 15 more to chew on . . .

 

1. Use it to grow your bottom line, your money's in your brand. 

    N.B.: Products can be copied, brands can't.

2. Get clarity with your marketing activities and step up a gear.

3. Know what your core customers think of your brand NOW and re-evaluate.

4. Create sharp focus in your bullseye customers mind.

5. Revitalise with multi-channel emotional connections with your customers.

6. Re-energise what your brand stands for and make it hit home.

7. Leverage it to be seen as an innovative trail blazer and increase your visability.

8. Get distinct and memorable competitive advantage.

9. Attract and develop more effective raving brand advocates.

10. Enhance your brand credibility and generate more buzz.

11. Differentiate your brand more strongly to become a money making magnet.

12. Enhance your internal sense of proud brand ownership with both the board and employees. It massively impacts on how everybody engages and interacts with the brand and your customers.

13. Leverage growth by using external professional validation. 

14. Discover new ideas, insights, tactics and strategies for your brand.

15. Get an outside experts point of view. You are too close to your brand and invariably can't see your own brand shortcomings to address the problems objectively.

 

 

These are just some reasons to engage in a Brand Audit. Do you really know how your brand is performing and where it could be improved ?

 

Is it coasting along but in need of re-evaluation before the competition catches up ? Or is it disconnected, out of touch, caught up in price discounting and endless promotions with a shrinking market and failing sales that will ultimately put you out of business ?

Now is the time for an audit to reinvigorate your brand to stay on top or, more critically, provide a life saver to identify and address the problem areas so you can turn things around and grow your bottom line. 

 

 

To find out more about what's involved in our proprietary brand audit process, and how you can use our Persona Brand Audit to greatly increase your performance, drop us a line or give us call today. 

We're here to help you address your brand challenges and support you in growing your business/brand.

T: +353 1 8322724

E: brand@personadesign.ie

 

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Exciting news for all you beauty aficionados, The Lash Emporium has launched to market with an exclusive range of easy to apply, long lasting, handmade lashes in their newly revamped lash packaging.

 

 

 

With true commitment to market research the girls have all tried them out extensively and are now, needless to say, complete brand advocates ! 

 

With over 40 different sorts to choose from they're selling like hot cakes. You'll find them in your nearest Avoca Store, beauty salons and select pharmacies !

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Brands are constantly evolving to ensure they keep abreast of changing needs in the market place. Even some of the greatest brands in the world need rejuvenation.

Brands like Guinness, Coca-Cola, Starbucks and Kellogg's are iconic, global in their status. Yet when you look at their market leadership over the decades, they have all changed even if it has been in a more evolutionary sense over time, rather then radical overhauls. However some branding does require an extensive change in order for the business to achieve the required regeneration for growth and profitable returns.

 

 

 

Revitalisation maintains and celebrates the history and heritage of the brand but shows its target audience (current and future) that you are adaptive to change. Change is necessary to stay relevant to the times in which a brand exists and to ensure its future success.

 

 

Some of the reasons for rebranding, relaunching and revitalising a brand include the following: 

 

1. Relevance:

Brands need to stay relevant to their target market, to keep up with the times and keep pace with changing customer needs (e.g. services, accessibility, convenience, choice, changing trends, technology). A brand that has become old-fashioned in the eyes of its audience is in danger of stagnation if not already in a state of erosion and loss of market share.

 

2. Competition:

In a fast moving environment with aggressive competition, rebranding may be required to change the offering to the market in order to create a more compelling reason to buy, in the minds of the target audience. Rebranding can be used as a means of blocking or outmanoeuvring competitors or a way of handling increased price competitiveness.

 

3. Globalisation:

Sometimes rebranding is required because of globalisation where the same product sold across multiple markets is inconsistent or different e.g. Marathon's change to Snickers, Opal Fruits change to Starburst, Jif's change to Cif. 

 

 

4. Mergers & Acquisitions:

When two entities combine there are typically two unique audiences left to communicate with. Sometimes this can require a rebrand or relaunch in a way that will appeal to both. In other cases one of the brands may be more dominant requiring more of a revitalisation or refresh with it becoming the sole dominant player. 

 

5. Innovation:

Technology is constantly evolving and the rate of change often exponential. If a brand is technology related e.g. internet, software, hardware and the product offering constantly innovating then a rebrand frequently follows the natural and fast rate of change. Rebranding or revitalisation becomes an outward expression of the companies evolution and ensures the brand's change hungry customers keep coming back to see "what's new".

 

 

6. Repositioning:

Taking a brand to a new position is an involved process e.g. from an economy price fighter to a premium position, and invariably requires a rebrand to signal a change in direction, focus, attitude or strategy to its target market. Also again used as a means of blocking or outmanoeuvring competitors or a way of handling increased price competitiveness.

 

7. Rationalisation:

Rebranding can be used to decrease business development and operational costs, or a way of countering declining profitability or consumer confidence. It can also be used where there are complex and sometimes confusing mixes of product portfolios which frequently undermine the brands impact, (along with considerable advertising, branding clutter and media proliferation) all of which causes brand incongruence and audience fragmentation and consequently badly needs consolidation through rebranding to achieve brand impact and strong growth again. 

 

 

8. Outgrowth:

When small companies grow into bigger entities they and/or their products frequently require a rebrand or revitalisation to meet the needs of the bigger business. Typically smaller companies start with more modest brand offering, due to budget restrictions, which are inadequate to meet the needs of a bigger more sophisticated business and a rebrand is required.

 

9. Legal Requirements:

Occasionally legal issues may arise that require a company to make changes to their branding such as copyright issues or bankruptcy e.g. similarities between naming and designs e.g. The Jelly Bean Factory became The Jelly Bean Planet in Ireland to ensure differentiation from the USA brand Jelly Belly.

 

10. Morale & Reputation:

If a company brand has demoralised employees or confused customers then a rebrand may required. A thorough rebrand process will work to unearth the issues that need addressing and could be solved through key changes, including a completely new look and feel to the organisation. A rebrand in this instance can improve a brand's competitiveness by creating a common sense of purpose and unified identity, building staff morale and pride, as well as a way of attracting new customers, enhancing relationships with existing customers and attracting the best talent to the business.

 

In the case of compromised or damaged reputations rebranding becomes a more pressing requirement. Obvious examples in the current market include certain aspects of the financial sector and banking institutions with damaged reputations which in time will need rebranding. BP is another example and its handling of the Gulf spill which may also require a rebrand in the US the help rebuild its reputation.

 

If you're considering a rebrand to grow your business and would like to know more, give us a call. We'd love to talk T: +353 1 8322724

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Great News !

The new O'Egg Free Range White Egg packaging is a Winning Exhibit with ICOGRADA Galleria International, the world body for professional design founded in 1963.

Officially launched at Bloom in Dublin this month, these delicious large white eggs are only available from O'Egg, straight from the family farm.

Look out for the distinctive pink packs in your nearest supermarket and independent stores.

 

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A QR Code (short for Quick Response) is a specific matrix barcode, storing information in both the vertical and horizontal directions, readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and smart phones / camera phones. 

 

QR Codes were originally developed in 1994 and used in the vehicle manufacturing industry for tracking parts etc, but are now being used very successfully in integrated marketing campaigns across the globe. The technology has seen a huge uptake in Japan and South Korea.

 

A smart phone user can now scan one of these QR Codes in magazines, newspapers, on transport and billboards, business cards, products, packaging, on a PC, TV or cinema screen and it can take the user to a URL (webpage), video, send them a text message, save a vCard or event to the users contact book or calendar and even compose an email. QR Codes effectively create a direct link between the physical world and online arena. 

 

 

While the adoption of QR Codes in some markets has been slower to take off, the technology is gaining some serious traction in the smartphone market. Ireland has some of the highest smart phone penetration rates in Europe with an estimated 1.3 million users. 

 

Indeed many Android, Nokia, and Blackberry phones come with QR Code readers pre-installed and iphone has a large selection of free downloadable QR Code reader apps available in iTunes. QR reader software is now available for most mobile platforms.

 

For any savvy business owners, brand custodians and marketeers, QR Codes are of particular interest as they give them the "ability to measure response rates with a high degree of precision" allowing for easier ROI (return on investment) calculation, thus helping assess effective spend in marketing budgets.

 

 

Examples of QR Codes Used to Promote & Grow Your Brand:

 

1. Food & Drink Producers:

QR Codes on packaging, leaflets, posters, vehicle livery, advertising and indoor displays can be used to launch an event or provide information relating to online promotions, Facebook competitions, information about where food/drink/beverages have been grown and produced, consumption suggestions together with recipes and serving suggestions on your brand's web site.

 

2. Professional Services:

Add QR Codes to your business cards, stationery, newsletters, white papers, videos and presentations etc. to provide customers with a direct link to additional information about your business and new services, launch a conferences or announce a seminar, identify calendar fixtures (scan the code and save the date, time and place of an event), LinkedIn page and more in-depth news updates.

 

3. Pharmaceutical Industry:

Use QR Codes to drive your target audience (professionals or consumers) towards accessing more in-depth information specifically about health, therapies, OTC brands, products, usage, white papers, research and development, innovation, responsibility, mission, investors, media releases, seminars, conferences, careers etc.

 

4. Retailers:

Retailers can use QR Codes printed in window displays or on brand promotion collateral with special offers delivered to the consumers smart phone when scanned, together with appliance/product instructions, new product launches, competitions, Facebook incentives etc. They can also use QR Codes on clothing tags, books, electronic goods and toys. QR Codes can also be used on staff uniforms, name tags and signage. 

 

 

5. Publishers:

Whether you are producing books, magazines, newspapers or newsletters you can add interactive elements online to support and enhance your hard copy content making your brand material more valuable and a front of mind brand, as a "go-to-resource" for your consumers e.g. more in-depth article analysis, video content and interviews, interactive entertainment guide, sports clips/profiles, interactive exhibition reviews etc.

 

6. Tourism & Wayfinding Systems:

Restaurateurs, hotels, guest houses, cities, countries (Tourism Ireland) you can use QR Codes on posters, advertising to promote and bring your audience directly to your destination and give them an interactive "feel or experience" using video etc., for what you have to offer, together with incentives such as discount or promotional/ticket codes. QR Codes can also be used to interpret natural and historical points of interest in museums, walking tours and on nature trails, adding to or enhancing the user experience through the signs.

 

7. Estate Agents:

Put a QR Code beside each property listed, or on "For Sale" signs, and interested customers can scan the relevant code supplying them with information such as GPS coordinates, a Google Map with directions, house plans, property features, launch a video or photo tour of the property etc.

 

8. Politicians & Celebrities: 

Use QR Codes in appropriate locations or in relevant media so the target audience can scan and see the VIP speak about their policies or promote an upcoming event, movie or participate in an interview etc. 

 

 

Some recent examples of effective use of QR Codes include the following. 

 

In January 2011, the Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum launched a line of branded museum t-shirts and apparel which featured museum brand logos and designs on the fronts and a QR Code screened on the right back shoulder, which directed to the museum's web site or artist interviews.

 

The U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan in Seoul, South Korea became the first Army organisation to use QR Codes for official media campaigns in January this year.

 

The Japanese are using QR Codes in cemeteries on grave stones as a way to remember and share more information about their loved ones and unite mourners !

 

The Lviv Tourism Movement (Ukraine) have placed QR Codes on more than 80 tourism objects helping individual tourists easily access information about the city.

 

Sun-Maid, that iconic centennial brand, has used QR Codes on its canister and six-pack raisin packaging in a bid to increase brand loyalty/awareness and give it the competitive edge. 

 

 

In a promotional tie with the Dreamworks animated movie "Kung Fu Panda 2", debuting later this month, they are using QR Codes to take consumers to a mobile website where they can enter a contest to potentially win the grand prize, a trip for four to Zoo Atlanta. Top winners will get VIP treatment at the Zoos Giant Panda centre and the company will also give out "Kung Fu Panda 2" toys to 100 other sweepstakes winners. Sun-Maid raisins are a favourite brand for kids, so the "Kung Fu Panda 2" cross-promotion is a natural tie-in. 

 

As a brand awareness, marketing and business growth tool QR Codes offer almost limitless innovation and opportunities, with definitive measurability. Be it a teaser, guerrilla marketing campaign, event management or information resource, the list is endless !

 

Some examples of QR Code readers for your smart phones include:

iphone: Qrafter, i-nigma QR Code Reader  

Blackberry: QR Code Scanner, ScanLife 2D Code Reader, ATT Code Scanner

Android: Barcode Scanner

 

How would you like to leverage the use of QR Codes to grow your brand and increase your sales ?

 

Give us a call, we'd love to hear your thoughts and share some of our more exciting ideas to make your brand grow and come alive !  

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Over the years I have seen a lot of different brand design briefs of all shapes and sizes from the brilliant to simply dreadful, with too many in-between lacking sufficient substance to really get the best potential return for the resources invested. 

 

Why is the brand design brief so important ? This might sound obvious, but you need to know what you're aiming for to hit the goal ! In short it's a critical factor in ensuring your brand design project is successful and you get a real return on your investment. 

 

Think who, what, where, when, why and how ? Your brief should be, to some extent, an extension of your business strategy. It should reflect the desired commercial endeavours of your business and provide all the detailed information necessary to understand your business dynamics in depth and should clearly define the results you want to achieve i.e. the commercial objectives of the project. 

 

In many cases over the years we've had to write the client brief, following in-depth discussions, questioning and probing, to ensure project clarity on all fronts, which the client has then endorsed and signed off before the project commences.

 

The following are some tips on how, and what to include, to write a great brand design brief so you can get the best return for your money. The questions posed should give you roughly 80% of your brief content with the remainder resulting from and thorough an in-depth discussion with your chosen brand design agency.

 

 

1. What does your business/organisation do ?

Be clear and concise, providing as much detail as possible. Avoid industry jargon and don't assume your chosen brand design company knows your company or market intimately.

 

2. What are your business/organisation goals and why ?

How do these goals relate to the brand design project ?

 

3. What are your primary communication objectives and why ?

Are your trying to create greater brand/product awareness or sell more product ?

 

4. How do you differ from your competitors ? 

Be objective and tangible in the description of your differences.

What are their advantages and disadvantages compared to your business/product/organisation ?

 

5. Do you have industry, market or category insights ? 

Are they up-to-date ? It is essential to share this information with your brand design partners so they can develop an in-depth understanding of your needs. Have you completed formal/informal market research into to your market, product etc. ?

 

6. Do you need brand profiling and positioning work ? 

This will provide the strategic direction for your marketing activities, distinction within your business's market and drive the inspiration for the creative delivery of your marketing messages.

 

 

7. Are you revamping, relaunching your business/product/organisation or launching a completely new product/venture to market ?

If revamping or relaunching, how does your old offering compare with the new ? Does your brand/business/product/organsiation have an existing brand style guide ?

 

8. Who is your primary target market ?

What are their demographics and psychographics ? Describe them in detail.

If you have a secondary market or multiple audiences ? List them in terms of priority.

 

9. Have you considered the text content required for your project ? 

Do you need professional copywriting input ? How many languages do you need and do you need professional translation services ? A printed brochure or website will have an entirely different requirement and writing style to a brand packaging design project. Compile some raw copy where possible, even in short bullet form, to give some indication of your text content requirements.

 

10. Does your business, industry, market or organization have legal mandatory information which must be included in all your communications ?

Does your product or market have mandatory information such as colour coding which must be used in specific ways, on or in, your communications e.g. European egg packaging has EU colour coding for designated egg sizes ? If so, it is essential you provide all this information fully proofed, up front with clear guidelines on usage.

 

11. Do you need commissioned professional photography or illustration ? 

Does your project have specific visual content which should be included ? If so why and what is it ? 

 

12. What is the full remit of your brand design requirements ? 

Does it have a printed requirement (product design, stationery, brochures, display or exhibition stands, vehicle livery, direct mail, packaging, point of sale etc. all of which is your brand collateral) ? Does it have an online marketing requirement (website, ezine newsletter, Facebook presence, LinkedIn presence, Twitter etc.) ? Do you need a branded digital showreel, video or sales presentation using, for example, Power Point or Keynote ?

 

 

13. Do you have industry or market category benchmarks ?

If so what are they ? Are these industry, cultural or category standards ? Your brand design team needs to know as much as possible to understand what is mandatory, what has worked/not worked to date and where they can aim to exceed and excel, to be distinctly different for long term competitive advantage. 

 

14. Do you need market research or focus group activity to test your new brand design outputs ? 

Don't proceed with your launch on a hunch or worse still, your own personal preferences. Your personal preferences are not relevant if they don't mirror those of your target market and even if they do you should still test and measure !

 

15. What is your budget ? 

Your chosen brand design experts need to know what your limitations and budget boundaries are to avoid a valuable waste of time and resources. They need to understand where and how they can achieve the best return for your money. 

 

16. What is your lead time or deadline for launch to market ?

Develop a detailed schedule with key milestones indicated e.g. consultation, concept development, market research, testing, photography, production, delivery and launch to market etc. Be realistic in your expectations. Unnecessary mistakes can be made if a complex project is rushed to market prematurely. Alternatively if the project must hit the market by a critical date then be upfront and honest. Some elements may need to be dropped or postponed to another occasion and a simpler solution offered to meet the deadline.

 

If you need a new name for a product, business or organization most of this information is just as essential for a brand name origination brief too.

 

Tip:

Try not to be too prescriptive on the aesthetic aspects of the brand design brief. You want to get the best out of your chosen brand design team so you need to give them room to manoeuvre creatively.

 

 

Do you have anything else you'd like to add to these tips ?

 

Drop us a line, we'd love to hear your thoughts. 

 

 

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1. Brand Design Trends

Consumers have higher expectations and are much more demanding in their need for brand authenticity and integrity. Their trust must earned and sustained on a daily basis. Brands must engage emotionally with their customers if they really want to connect with nurtured longevity because consumers feel they own and have rights to freely offer opinions on the brands in their world. Never before has business collaborated so openly with their customers and the internet has provided an explosive platform on which to do it in a heart beat with heartfelt meaning!

 

This open platform of communication is also changing the parameters of brand design. Awareness of design among the general population has never been higher and will continue to grow. Remember the GAP fiasco in 2010. Success depends on a much broader range of criteria including flexibility, transparency, innovation, engagement and ethical design that cohesively supports communication and sharing across multiple channels and marketplaces. 

 

Online design must delivery as much on functionality as it does on brand aesthetics. Splash, flash and animation don't necessarily deliver as effectively across all channels and increasing mobile connectivity requires functional, fluid, light interface designs with optimized content and clear navigation.

 

 

2. Brand Social Media Trends 

The most volatile, fast paced and ever changing of arenas. Social users are increasingly bombarded with content across multiple channels which means consequently they will become progressively more discriminate about the content they allow into their streams. Relentless promotions and excessive activity from brands can become overwhelming and irritating which in turn causes users to hide, filter or unsubscribe from brand updates as they endeavour to prioritise what's really meaningful to them and who they want to hear from.

 

Brands will have to earn the right with quality content and/or rewards to be allowed or accepted into consumer's streams. Truly compelling content will get noticed, "liked" and redistributed generating additional ripples into the marketplace. Shrewd brand managers will need to focus on engaging their market with relevant interchange and conversation together with supporting platforms in which their customers can express their opinions.

 

Also as increasing volumes of interaction take place on mobile devices, brand design interfaces will need to integrate this requirement seamlessly and congruently into all their platforms or channels of engagement.

 

 

3. Brand Packaging Design Trends

Packaging will increasingly need to deliver and exceed expectations in terms of functionality coupled with effective and aesthetically appropriate brand design. Todays consumers are shopping experts both on and offline. They share and make buying decisions based on other consumers opinions and ratings too. 

 

In retail supermarkets, brand designers have mere seconds to grab the attention of their target market and tempt them into trying or buying new products. New technologies can have even greater impact on the initial buying decision and ongoing repeat purchase e.g. where the packaging enhances the user experience or product longevity.

 

Reusable and sustainable packaging are increasingly important to environmentally conscious consumers and both issues can be an integral part of the brand message and indeed extend the brand message beyond the life of the product. Consumers are more thoughtful in their buying habits, considering not just the immediate product benefits but where and how the products are created and how they impact on the environment long term.

 

 

 

4. Brand Authenticity & Purpose

Social purpose as a personal and business value is an integral part of society today and brands will need to work harder to make it central to how they do business and as part of their brand activity and brand story. Consumers don't just buy products on face value, they look at how companies operate. 

 

Genuine validity is critical as brand custodians look to see how they can support society with true commitment. Brands must stand for something and engage emotionally with their target audiences which means brand design must also be beneficial in multiple ways including a expressing a real social conscience for true success.

 

 

Is your brand authentically engaging with it target audience ?

 

Does your brand have an opinion which connects with real emotion to its target market ?

 

Does your brand have an integrated policy for sustainability ?

 

Are you aware of how social media can and does impact your brand ?

 

Are you engaging strategically and thoughtfully for long term success ?

 

Drop us a line, we'd love to hear your feedback, opinion and thoughts !

 

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Last night I had the pleasure of meeting Mike Hemingway and listening to his riveting  presentation about ‘The Dove Real Beauty Campaign, The Impact & The Aftermath'.

 

 

Firstly for those of you who don't know, Mike Hemingway took over the worldwide Unilever Dove business in 2004, leading the team that created the famous Dove “Real Beauty” campaign. This now iconic work led to immediate sales increases, whilst pioneering new concepts in “brand equity innovation” and “new” mass media engagement and communication.

 

 

In Mike's opinion mass market advertising is largely dead. It lacks integrity and authenticity which with the rise of social media is increasingly important to consumers. They have opinions, freely express them and expect their brands to engage honestly. A brand can't merely espouse values anymore, it must be truly authentic.

 

In Mike Hemingway's opinion, if businesses don't have real emotion and integrity they don't deserve to be in business or survive anymore.

 

 

Mike really emphasised Dove's brand values and challenged more traditional thinking about brands, saying "a brand is an opinion about your category that the consumer must find both personal and important". "A brand must express emotion and fall in love with its customer", "treat them with respect, know them intimately, talk to them about what they want to talk about". 

 

 

Dove's mission was to broaden the definition of beauty. In researching their market, Mike and his team discovered some disturbing statistics which has since fueled the foundations for all their brand building and engagement strategies.

 

 

Perhaps unsurprisingly women feel at their least beautiful during or after childbirth, menopause and puberty. However more worryingly the majority of female children, teenagers and women are unhappy with multiple aspects of their bodies all the time. 

 

 

Every woman has a right to feel beautiful but the stereotypes the beauty industry has fed them for decades has made them feel otherwise in order to sell product. Over the decades, media has distorted and brain washed us to have a very narrow idea of how women should look, to be considered attractive or beautiful e.g. they have to be slim, have beautiful skin, style their hair and makeup a certain way etc.

 

Research found:

• only 2% of women like their appearance

• 68% of women feel worse after reading Cosmo

• a child of 15 will on average see 500 images a day of stereo typical beauty

• 60% of young girls at home using Facebook are hiding because they feel inadequate

but most disturbing and worst of all, 

• unhappiness with the body typically starts at the age of 3 !

 

 

With the western notion of beauty, little girls are now future targets before they are barely out of nappies. No wonder such a colossal percentage of young girls are growing up with eating disorders and massive self esteem issues. 

 

 

Whether you are a consumer of Dove products or not, we are all aware of the incredibly powerful images, messages and emotions the brand has evoked. The women used in all the Dove campaigns were real women with real bodies, not size 0 models, and they all fitted within their healthy BMI indexes.

 

 

In engaging with its market Dove has redefined beauty and the beauty imagery used within the public domain. Dove didn't start something, it gave a voice to a surge of feeling that was already there. 

 

 

With raised awareness through a combination of print campaigns, videos and viral media, supported by unsolicited PR, Dove successfully created an international storm to government level, which still resonates with as much relevance today.

 

The longevity of the Dove brand campaigns is a testament to Mike and his teams success,  truly experts in branding.

 

How does your brand really engage with its consumers ?

 

Does it stand for something that matters ?

 

Does it have an opinion ?

 

Does it express emotion ?

 

What opinion do your consumers have about your brand ?

 

Get in touch, we'd love to hear your thoughts . . .

 

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Innovation, that oh-so-elusive yet desirable trait touted as the engine for economic growth by our hackneyed politicians, is actually the life blood of any business but never more so then in our current economic market. 

 

Fresher, smarter thinking is critical in business for ongoing growth and prosperity. Product and service development is a constant, iterative process to respond to competition and market demands.

 

New products, methods and ideas are about constant change which for some can be uncomfortable and stressful while for others it's the essential variety on which they thrive. 

 

Take the humble egg, largely overlooked and seen as a commodity purchase with generally poor packaging, weak brands and negligible consumer recognition. Clonarn Clover, a small Irish family artisan egg producer has launched a new brand, O'Egg, to market with white eggs in a pink box ! They are the only artisan free range producer of white eggs in Ireland, said to be far superior for lightness in baking, and sold at a higher price to the common brown egg. 

 

 

 

The O'Egg white eggs are packaged in an unlikely bright pink box, ensuring on shelf impact, targeted at a female consumer. Also the O'Egg brand is supporting "Action Breast Cancer", with the logo for same prominently displayed on pack which also resonates with their target market. Product, brand, packaging and marketing inventiveness on a modest budget to shake up a sector which has seen very little ingenuity in a quite a while.

 

In this period of economic fluctuation, armed with the immeasurable online resources at our finger tips, we are actually presented with multiple opportunities unlike any generation before.

 

 

A great online example is EBookFling, a startup that creates a virtual e-book swap, facilitating lending of e-books between consumers using lending features enabled by Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook. 

 

 

Borrowers upload titles of what they own and can swop with anybody signed up to the service for a temporary swop enabling them to "try before they buy". Readers get exposure to try new authors without the risk of up front expense and the author gets a type of exposure not previously available. It's a win:win with a service facilitating more fluid transactions between buyer and seller. 

 

 

Some might say our economy is in the toilet but Poo-Pourri is a fantastic example of entrepreneurship and product innovation. In a little over three years this start up business has grown to a €3 million enterprise. Poo-Pourri is made from a secret mix of essential oils sprayed into the toilet bowl and used to mask the smell in the bathroom before the deed is done, rather then after, like traditional deodorisers. Its far more effective and eco friendly ! Today the range consists of more then 60 products successfully selling in five countries.

 

 

It is essential to become a fast discoverer with low cost, swift experimentation, prototyping and piloting, all of which leads to new insights and opportunities. Successful innovation (product or service) requires key ingredients some of which include:

• Ideas which solve important problems for your customer whose needs you must understand intimately

• An ability to get to market quickly before the market changes or your customer needs shift

• A fully integrated branding, design and marketing strategy focussed on your target markets needs

• Knowledge of barriers, adoption cycles and inertia within your target market

• Adequate resources and funding

 

Start with the end in mind. If your solution solves a problem that real customers have, your chances of success are increased. If your innovation is easily adopted by your target customers, based on a thorough understanding of their needs, then you have a much greater chance of success.

 

 

Country Crest is another Irish food manufacturer turning the highly competitive ready meal market on its head with innovative packaging and added pack functionality to meet their customers needs with its From the Orient range. A "collectibles" range of complete meal solutions in a NY style deli box, which is very different and distinctive on shelf compared to its competitors (all in trays and carton sleeves), the food is a "grab and go" solution which can be heated in 3 minutes and eaten from the box.

 

When you produce something really successful you can't afford to slide into complacency. Your competitors are aggressively assessing the market looking for the next big thing or how they can topple you or take a chunk of your market share. Even when you're on the crest of the wave your business must have a proactive strategy to relentless innovate, develop and search for new opportunities to stay ahead.

 

Most importantly though you have to get noticed to sell your product or service, capture your target markets imagination and create excitement through powerful branding and great design.

 

Do you have a great new innovation ready to bring to market ?

Is there an area of your business or market, tired and overlooked, crying out to be reinvigorated and transformed? 

 

Drop us a line or give us a call.

We'd love to help you make your brand the next big success story.

T: +353 1 8322724

E: hello@personadesign.ie

 

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