Tag: culture

18
Dec

Rules of Engagement…

Well bombarding people with lots of technical information is not a good start. I sometimes think that our job, as a branding consultancy, is to build a bridge between our clients and their audiences.

An accountancy firm’s technical proficiency may be terribly interesting to the firm itself but in all honesty their clients couldn’t care less.

Initially at least…

I have always worked on this premise; clients don’t care HOW you do things as long as you get them done. And you only have milliseconds to interest them.

Now that may be a bit harsh. I am sure several of our clients are very interested in font weights, graphical systems and photography styles. But usually not at the beginning. Get them more into the process and that’s a different story.

‘Strictly come dancing’ is an analogy I enjoy sharing. How many people are genuinely interested in ballroom dancing?

The weekly viewing figures have 10 million souls tuning in for their weekly fix. I very much doubt they’re all ballroom dancing fanatics. However, chuck in some celebrities, Bruce Forsyth and some amusing judges and it becomes a different proposition.

It may be the fluffy stuff that engages us but we get there in the end. What businesses (and professional service firms in general) need to realise is that the fluffy stuff matters. Being interesting is the price you pay for the right to get a good hearing. It buys time and builds the bridge between your audience and the technical data of your subject matter.

It’s why the likes of Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Barack Obama are amongst the more successful politicians of our time. Just human enough to want to hear more but substantive enough to be credible. They bridge the gap between emotive content and technical credibility very well. Technical wonks like Al Gore, Gordon Brown and Hillary Clinton fall just a little bit short.

What I am finding a lot right now is that professional service companies (good companies) are still continuing to bombard their potential clients with heavy technical information at the initial point of engagement. Even, on the front page of their websites and print materials.

Why?

No offense, but would you share every last detail of yourself on a first date?

No

And yes, the other person would rightfully want to run away.

Words are lazy.

Anybody can churn out absolutely everything they’ve got.

That’s the easy bit.

Editing is where the work comes in; thinking about what to include? What to leave out? Too dry? Too coarse? Too technical? Too light even?? This is the process that makes it more palatable to the audience. It’s the most critical bit and unfortunately the most widely ignored.

It’s also where the work is.

“I’m going to give a long speech today. I haven’t had time to prepare a short one.”

Sir Winston Churchill once famously quipped. You could forgive him, he had the right idea.

Yes, the technical info is important; it’s the substance that you need to be credible. But have the good manners to give it to your audience on a need to know basis. Keep it light, make it interesting, images speak louder than words and people are impatient for you to get to the point.

The gap between what you think your client wants to hear and what they actually want to hear, when you first engage, tends to be bigger than you think.

And you only have milliseconds to close it.

I do hope I haven’t ran on…

Benedetto

About the Author

BB Profile Pic Small
 
Benedetto Bordone
Creative Director of the loft.

Benedetto runs the creative design consultancy, the loft. Based in the centre of Glasgow, the loft creates emotionally engaging brand identities.

Benedetto began his design career aged 9, sketching cars in the loft bedroom of his parents house. Even then he realised some eternal truths. Alfa Romeos are infinitely cooler than Ferraris and always have been. Time has only hardened this opinion. Since then, he has been on a journey taking him from his hometown in Kilmarnock to Coventry, studying car design aged 17, three separate spells in Italy followed where he interned, worked & freelanced for distinguished design companies – BeeStudio, Alfa Romeo, Honda Advanced design & Stile Bertone.

Setting up his own business was a natural step for somebody as independently minded as Benedetto. The loft was set up in 2008 and offers a comprehensive branding and communication service to its clients. The company combines a deeply analytical approach into the clients culture and commercial targets before engaging in creative design work to build emotive brands.

22
Nov

Briefest Blog Post Ever (For Me…)

Most of my blog posts tend to be about 800 words, take about an hour to write and probably 10 minutes to read. This time I thought I would be a little more succinct. I was chatting with a client last week and was trying to briefly explain what branding is and why it would be important for their business? A regular question.

“Think of exactly what you want your client to think about when they think of your company. Then work backwards from there.”

Best effort yet I guess. We help with the ‘working backwards from there’ bit.

Give us a bell if you’d like to find out more…

Benedetto

About the Author

BB Profile Pic Small
 
Benedetto Bordone
Creative Director of the loft.

Benedetto runs the creative design consultancy, the loft. Based in the centre of Glasgow, the loft creates emotionally engaging brand identities.

Benedetto began his design career aged 9, sketching cars in the loft bedroom of his parents house. Even then he realised some eternal truths. Alfa Romeos are infinitely cooler than Ferraris and always have been. Time has only hardened this opinion. Since then, he has been on a journey taking him from his hometown in Kilmarnock to Coventry, studying car design aged 17, three separate spells in Italy followed where he interned, worked & freelanced for distinguished design companies – BeeStudio, Alfa Romeo, Honda Advanced design & Stile Bertone.

Setting up his own business was a natural step for somebody as independently minded as Benedetto. The loft was set up in 2008 and offers a comprehensive branding and communication service to its clients. The company combines a deeply analytical approach into the clients culture and commercial targets before engaging in creative design work to build emotive brands.

22
Nov

BBM Troubles

I don’t know what it is. But I just seem to have a magnet-like attraction to brands in financial difficulties. Apple computers made more sense to me when they were the outsiders choice and almost going bankrupt, give me an Alfa Romeo over a BMW or Audi any day and I had a real soft spot for Borders,the book store. Rest in piece. Dont ask why? I don’t know what this trend is with me and companies facing down bankruptcy. Which leads me nicely to Blackberry. My new favourite brand.

I have had Blackberries for close to four years now. I actually first learned about them from a book I read a few years back. Unfortunately, I cant remember the name of the book, some multinational spy thriller. But this was in 2004, pre I-Phone. The fact you could have a phone that also took care of e-mails was terribly exotic sounding. They were heady days for Blackberry, the Blackberry became the default choice for corporates while traditional mobile phone companies like Nokia and Ericsson struggled with the transformation to e-mail and software giants like Microsoft similarly struggled with the hardware of their Palm devices. ‘Push E-mail’ was a simple but significant innovation that left its competitors playing catch up for quite some time.

Having a Blackberry back in the early noughties was quite something. It was the only phone to comfortably give its users access to e-mails. Its main customer demographic was the business community, the people on the move, people who would start the morning in London, end it in Shanghai with two meetings in Zurich in between. Blackberry had the premium end of the mobile phone market sown up. The huge number of celebrities using Blackberries at the time was the icing on the cake. Even Barack Obama in 2009, couldnt be drawn away from his beloved Blackberry. Brand endorsements dont come much higher. I bought mine in 2009 and I loved the fact that they provided 3 separate charging extensions for UK, Europe and the USA. It was all part of the brand feeling. This was a device for the busy, jet-setting global traveller. Yes, Its mostly fluff but I still loved it and I know I wasn’t the only one.

The arrival of the I-Phone undoubtedly gave Blackberry problems. But it was more Blackberry’s reaction to the I-Phone than the Phone itself that quickened the decline. Obviously intimidated by the cool new kid on the block, Blackberry’ death writ was initially drafted by intimidation (BB Storm.) Instead of concentrating on what made their products so cool they started playing catch-up. A rapidly growing market, may have allowed them to temporarily paper over the cracks.

But, what happened next catapulted Blackberry’s brand into the gutter. And to think it was once thought of Blackberrys greatest innovation.

BlackBerry Messenger. BBM.

BBM, 3 years ago, was a very useful feature. Allowing people to use their Blackberries to keep in touch online like a mobile MSN Messenger (remember that?) It caught the imagination. Blackberry totally changed their target market and strategy, on the basis of one innovation. The phone was snapped up by hundreds of thousands of new customers- students, adolescents, school kids. Blackberry made pink ones, green ones, sparkly ones. They sponsored festivals and supported the NME. Cheap ones like the Curve rocketed Blackberry to its most profitable year ever in 2010.

As a Blackberry owner, I remember it well. I was a bit uneasy about it all despite the success. I can always see trouble when tactics overcome strategy and I sensed the worst.

Blackberry may have cashed in and grabbed a huge dollop of market share. But BBM was not really a technology that would be difficult to replicate. So once their rivals had it, what next? Unfortunately a fundamental strategy based on an ‘easily-copiable’ innovation was a silly one.

What was worst was having the same phone as a teenager and having Blackberry playing up to it. Nothing could have tarnished their brand more. Suddenly they were no longer special, they were no longer exclusive and I for one did not want to have the same phone as a 13-year old. I remember thinking the Blackberry brand was toast. Once the relentless march of the Apple App store kicked in. They were.

The riots in the UK in 2011 by a bunch of idiotic children using BBM must have been just about the final nail. You can have no worst brand vandalisation. I cringed every time I heard the term ‘BBM’ and Blackberry used on the news during the riots.

It could have all been so different in 2007. Instead of being intimidated by the I-Phone, they should have consolidated their position. Instead of cheaper phones, they should have looked at different products built on the exclusivity and specialness of the brand. They should have innovated on the values and ideas that once made them great. Focused greater attention on the business community that once loved their Blackberries. These were the customers that would buy more expensive phones, appreciate more bespoke features and pay a higher margin per product. They should not have cheaply imitated the new kid on the block. I remember once saying to my girlfriend at the time that my BB was a tool while her I-phone was a mere toy. Well the tool started to cheaply imitate the toy. There may have been no other way. Maybe doing what I said previously is easier said than done. Apple is a formidable rival, as is Google.

Fast forward to 2012. I am glad to see fewer coloured Blackberries on sale and the new Bold I have is actually a pretty good phone. But in such a brutal market as the smart phone market where apps and availability of apps is king. The heady days of 2010 fuelled by BBM are gone. Blackberry is almost obsolete, the momentum may be too difficult to recover. Product and technical difficulties can be overcome with time but its the brand damage that will be hardest to recover. It seems unthinkable but Skoda still have brand problems, 20 years after they were taken over by VW and many, many good product lines later. For somebody that hates having the same phone as everybody else (I-Phone) and can’t fathom the thought of an Android phone. I hope BB recover their mojo soon!! Its a lesson to all not to betray their brand values. Otherwise the only person that will still buy anything will be me…

Benedetto

About the Author


 
Benedetto Bordone
Creative Director of the loft.

Benedetto runs the creative design consultancy, the loft. Based in the centre of Glasgow, the loft creates emotionally engaging brand identities.

Benedetto began his design career aged 9, sketching cars in the loft bedroom of his parents house. Even then he realised some eternal truths. Alfa Romeos are infinitely cooler than Ferraris and always have been. Time has only hardened this opinion. Since then, he has been on a journey taking him from his hometown in Kilmarnock to Coventry, studying car design aged 17, three separate spells in Italy followed where he interned, worked & freelanced for distinguished design companies – BeeStudio, Alfa Romeo, Honda Advanced design & Stile Bertone.

Setting up his own business was a natural step for somebody as independently minded as Benedetto. The loft was set up in 2008 and offers a comprehensive branding and communication service to its clients. The company combines a deeply analytical approach into the clients culture and commercial targets before engaging in creative design work to build emotive brands.

14
Nov

More Pirlo, less Parker…

Most of you who know me understand that I can be slightly excitable at times. And nothing gets me more excited than watching the beautiful game, particularly in the big set piece events every second summer. As you may guess from my name, I usually support Italy, particularly as Scotland hasn’t qualified in a while. And this summer, as an Italy fan I was able to enjoy the genius of Andrea Pirlo. 131 passes made against England this summer, 114 completed. His accuracy and precision in the quarter final giving his team an almost total dominance of a game they should have won sooner. Many of you may remember Pirlos penalty which was itself, the height of precision and execution.

You may ask yourself, why am I talking about football?

Well, you see the analogy came back into my mind this week. The loft is building a new co-operative called The Finance Gap. The Finance Gap currently consists of two companies – our own and Designate Marketing in Edinburgh; we are likely to grow in size but it is our intention to offer a specialised service for the finance sector beginning with IFAs, accountancy practices and small investment houses. We are still at the pre-launch phase, discussing it with our friends and associates. The reason for my excitement is that the more we discuss it with others, the more valuable I think our service will become.

The main problem with the branding and communication work I do is that its commercial success lies, to a great extent, in where and how it is used. The most beautiful or interesting poster, website or brochure isn’t going to make the slightest bit of commercial impact if it’s aimed at the wrong market. And the biggest criticism I would have of my own sector, the creative sector, is that we aren’t really qualified to be doing the marketing part. It’s just that a lot of my colleagues seem to have forgotten that. In this respect, they are all a bit Scott Parker. Just hit it and hope for the best. The problem with a great number of marketing companies (and there are exceptions) is that many of them think they are creative agencies and offer every creative service under the sun, none of which they tend to be very good at. The general consensus among a lot of my colleagues is that lots of activity is good activity, well actually it isn’t. It’s simply wasteful.

With the Finance Gap, both the loft and Designate believe in delivering work that has the highest commercial impact. Not the highest quantity but the best quality. We don’t stray onto each other’s turfs and we can work together to benefit the client. We are the antithesis of the wasteful integrated agency.

Last week I met several associates who could become potential clients of the Finance Gap and with every good conversation we had; we began to chat about business and the challenges they faced. As with most conversations I can’t help but discuss what kind of brand they could build. I definitely believe that the loft could assist most of these companies carve out a unique position in the marketplace. So we started to talk about all of the different, interesting things that could be done to help build this great brand which I am sure would add value.

But there was one thing missing, we both had lots of ideas about how to potentially market this great brand but neither of us had a clue which way would be the most effective way. Which are the profitable revenue streams, who to target, how you find them, which channel is the most effective?

And this is where we missed the involvement of our partners Designate. Where we missed some good strategic marketing advice, not a company who wants to do lots of things for the sake of it but one that knows how to get the most out of a given marketing budget. And every company has limited resources, no matter how large.

We may be able to fire the bullets, but we need great partners to show us where to point the gun.

And that is as the heart of the Finance Gaps proposition. As a designer, I have dedicated my whole adult life to my craft, I have my 10,000 hours of experience, I probably have double that. So why would I want my company to delve into unfamiliar territory? We stick to what we’re good at and let others experts shine in their areas of expertise. Our partners in the Finance Gap, Designate have a similar expertise and focus.

It is our collective independence that allows us to stick to what we do best, but it’s our ability to work together that creates a formidable combination. One of the very good things about start-ups or smaller companies is that they are not wasteful with money, they try and eek out every last penny out of whatever budget they have. Such are the economies of scale; bigger companies tend to not be so lean. However, we don’t believe that efficient, resourceful marketing and communications should be the sole privilege of smaller companies. That doesnt mean we’re cheap but we offer tremendous value.

We want to work with our clients for a long time to help them grow but the best way to do that is by sticking to what we’re good at and collaborating where necessary. It’s why I am sure the Finance Gap is going to be such a roaring success. More Andrea Pirlo and less Scott Parker.

Watch this space!

Benedetto

About the Author


 
Benedetto Bordone
Creative Director of the loft.

Benedetto runs the creative design consultancy, the loft. Based in the centre of Glasgow, the loft creates emotionally engaging brand identities.

Benedetto began his design career aged 9, sketching cars in the loft bedroom of his parents house. Even then he realised some eternal truths. Alfa Romeos are infinitely cooler than Ferraris and always have been. Time has only hardened this opinion. Since then, he has been on a journey taking him from his hometown in Kilmarnock to Coventry, studying car design aged 17, three separate spells in Italy followed where he interned, worked & freelanced for distinguished design companies – BeeStudio, Alfa Romeo, Honda Advanced design & Stile Bertone.

Setting up his own business was a natural step for somebody as independently minded as Benedetto. The loft was set up in 2008 and offers a comprehensive branding and communication service to its clients. The company combines a deeply a

04
Nov

Where branding ends…

As most of you that know me will know. I started out my life as a car designer. That means I trained/studied/learned everything there is to know about my subject when I was at University and my subsequent career thereafter. As part of my studies, we were taught about marketing and its importance, but you could say our role was entirely on the product development side. Being a car designer meant you always had to know about the trends in the sector – in my time it was pedestrian impact legislation, hybrid power trains, modern day digital ergonomics etc. The march of progress by the car manufacturers meant that there was a never ending cycle of improvements. Mainly for the end-user. If you stand still in the car sector, you die. Simple as that. As a consequence, the cars of today are always better than their predecessors be it in functionality, performance, safety etc. Yes, todays cars may lack the character of the older ones, but this is possibly the only exception.

In terms of marketing, I was always slightly cynical. I was always of the opinion that if you have a great product, it would market itself. I now know that it’s not as simple as that. Marketing is an integral part of the process, particularly necessary to make sure that the product and its communications reach the right people. Done well, its an art form in its own right. My scepticism was never about this area of marketing, more that clever marketing should replace great products. If this were the case, Honda would have taken over the world 10 years ago with their series of stunning ads.

I bet most of you remember the ‘cogs’ ad from 2003. How many remember the car? The Honda Accord. Ads like this and the ‘power of dreams’ were stunning, unfortunately cars like the Honda Accord were not. To this day, I remain a product guy. When considering incremental innovation; don’t just look at cars. Look at the endless innovations in the smart phone or tablet markets. It is relentless.

So you may ask where I am going with all of this?

Well on Thursday evening. I attended the Service Design Network’s official Launch at the Lighthouse and a good evening it was too. I was curious to learn more about service design. In the end it’s what I expected, mainly a way of designing services and processes in a more holistic way to improve the user experience. Kind of like product design but designing services and not products. I was chatting to one of the main guys Phil before the event and we both agreed that the ‘brand experience’ didn’t end with the marketing or the communications or even with the final product or service. The brand experience should span the entire process and even touch into operations, human resources, marketing, product, after-care etc. Its the reason I am not keen on the word brand or the term ‘branding’ as, done well, it’s a lot more fundamental than that. I am not sure I am even that crazy about ‘service design’ as a profession. My reasoning is that great companies, great organisations will always innovate endlessly based on their values/vision. For example, I doubt Michael O’Leary never stops dreaming of ways to reduce the cost of flying. And that culture is embedded from the top all the way down and touches all parts of the organisation from the final customer experience to the way the staff are trained. Frightening as that may be for us the flyer. On the other hand, a company like Bowers and Wilkins are continuously dreaming up innovative ways to create the a better sound experience. There’s something greater than branding going on here, it’s more of a cultural thing.

So where does branding end? Well despite my dislike of the term branding. The cultural elements that must inform the branding process don’t end with communications or even with the final product/service experience. It should inform everything the company does.

Where there is a real opportunity for the discipline of service design is in the traditional areas of professional services. This is an area ripe for improvement and a real shake up. Like the examples I have mentioned, there are one or two companies that are really pushing the game forward, but in general, the practices haven’t kept pace in the way they should have. For whatever reason, there just isn’t the same culture of innovation. It’s a real shame, there are some real gains to be made. People want better services. But it all starts with culture. Every company’s got it lying there somewhere. It may be dormant but it’s still there. If you need some help finding it, give us a call…

Benedetto

For those of you that want to see the ‘Cogs’ ad again… Simply wonderful

About the Author


 
Benedetto Bordone
Creative Director of the loft.

Benedetto runs the creative design consultancy, the loft. Based in the centre of Glasgow, the loft creates emotionally engaging brand identities.

Benedetto began his design career aged 9, sketching cars in the loft bedroom of his parents house. Even then he realised some eternal truths. Alfa Romeos are infinitely cooler than Ferraris and always have been. Time has only hardened this opinion. Since then, he has been on a journey taking him from his hometown in Kilmarnock to Coventry, studying car design aged 17, three separate spells in Italy followed where he interned, worked & freelanced for distinguished design companies – BeeStudio, Alfa Romeo, Honda Advanced design & Stile Bertone.

Setting up his own business was a natural step for somebody as independently minded as Benedetto. The loft was set up in 2008 and offers a comprehensive branding and communication service to its clients. The company combines a deeply analytical approach into the clients culture and commercial targets before engaging in creative design work to build emotive brands.

15
Oct

Red Bull Gives You Wings!

FelixBaumgartner in Red Bull Stratos

How many of us watched Felix Baumgartner’s amazing jump yesterday?

Incredible, awe-inspiring, terrifying! There seems to be no lack of superlatives for this incredible feat of mankind. Whilst watching the amazing jump, I zoned out for a moment before realising which company was supporting him. I don’t know the exact mantra of the Red Bull brand but I have a reasonable idea of what they’re trying to convey – adrenaline, living on the edge, performance, live for the moment etc. It doesn’t really need a label, as we all pretty much get the gist of it anyway. And for those of us that are involved in branding, I can safely say that yesterday’s event was pure brand gold.

At the loft, we are forever saying that great brands transcend what they do. Red Bull keeps giving us further proof. Baumgartners jump was the latest in a long line of ‘extra-curricular’ activities that the Red Bull brand has engaged in recent years. We all know Red Bull makes energy drinks but could you really imagine Red Bull feasibly making say…

A car?

A plane?

A bike?

Well they already do all three! (See below.) And in none of the above, is it an ill-fitting match. The Red Bull brand blends in perfectly with the likes of Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes on the F1 grid. And it appears that Baumgartners jump wasn’t a cynical sponsorship option either. Yes, they would have been delighted at the subsequent brand kudos they received. But like F1, they get right into the nuts and bolts of the operation, actually getting their hands dirty along the way. I can also say that something could have very easily gone wrong yesterday. It takes a certain amount of guts to put your company name on such a dangerous activity. Red Bull really walks the walk in this respect. It probably explains why Toyota, a company, that is great at making road cars were so hapless in F1. Although familiar with the concept of making cars, the disciplines involved in F1 have nothing to do with those involved in making efficient and reliable road cars.

It is Red Bulls extraordinary culture that enables a soft drinks company to credibly sell energy drinks and at the same time, help individuals to perform minor miracles like Baumgartners jump yesterday? Red Bull means something more than just energy drinks, they know exactly what they’re about and their actions never betray the brand. They will gain huge amounts of brand credibility from yesterday and sell more energy drinks at a greater profit as a result. Bravo!

One further note, which car won yesterdays South Korean GP?