A nice way to conclude 2024: my name in a real article by a real journalist with quotations attributed to me that are actually by me. I’m so grateful to Tejashee Kashyap and Luxury Facts for interviewing me and my friend Dr Cristián Saracco, and to our friend Philippe Mihailovich for connecting Tejashee and me […]
Read More… from Luxury Facts on the Jaguar rebrand (featuring Cristián Saracco and me)
In the editorial to one of our print publications—not yet at liberty to say which—I show a 2004 cover of Lucire featuring Jennifer Siebel inset in the text. It got me thinking how, when I first designed the cover, with Jon Moe’s photograph, I was aiming for a classical timelessness. Now nearly 20 years on—in […]
One thing that marketing teaches you is that you need to have a market orientation: put yourselves in the shoes of the consumer and figure out what they want, rather than force something on them. And one thing that leadership teaches you is owning up to when you’ve got it wrong, and making the necessary […]
I have to agree with Yang Jian, managing editor of Automotive News China, that Baojun’s new models ‘obviously’ failed to reverse the brand’s sales’ decline. It is obvious given that the vehicles are priced considerably above the previous ones, and despite its next-gen tech, there’s no real alignment with what Baojun stands for. […]
Read More… from Baojun doesn’t scream ‘premium’ and ‘next-gen tech’ to me
A rebrand should be done with consultation, and that should be factored in to any decision-making. In the 2010s, it should consider out-of-the-box suggestions, especially in an increasingly cluttered market-place. It should be launched internally first, then externally. A new logo would surface after months of exhaustive design work. The result should be something distinctive […]
Read More… from How not to do a rebrand, and feeling #UnWell
The city’s new logo—it is not a rebrand if the underlying tenets are the same—has not met with much support. The next question must be: all right, if we’re all so smart, can we do better? Ian Apperley and I think we can. Ian approached me yesterday morning to ask whether we should […]
The below was written on the 4th inst., the morning of the release of Absolutely Positively Wellington’s “plus sign” logo, and ran on Scoop, where I am told it is one of the most liked for the Wellington section. As it is to do with branding, I have republished it in full here. (The parody […]
Read More… from Absolutely Positively Wellington’s new logo: where’s the plus side?
Wordpress, with its automatic deactivation of Jetpack after each update, messed up, so I have no metrics for the last two months of this blog. Nor did it send me emails notifying me of your comments. It would have been useful to know how the last couple of posts went, to gauge your reaction to […]
Read More… from Responding to blog comments—and where to from here?
My good friend and colleague Stanley Moss has written a new book, What Is a Brand?, which provokes some thought on the question in the title. Those who know Stanley and have followed his work know that each year, he issues a Brand Letter, which closes with various definitions of branding. If […]
Read More… from What Is a Brand? Well, there is one we’ve relaunched …
I walked into the National Bank yesterday to sort out something for Dad—years ago, we gave each other signing authority on our accounts. They had misplaced that authority—a bit worrying if a bank doesn’t hold on to things over 10 years old—but, with the transition of the National Bank branding to ANZ, it reminded me […]
Read More… from What’s on the door can count more than who runs the shop