MORNING STAR GOLD
Morning Star Gold is presently breathing new life into the Morning Star Mine in the remote alpine region of north-east Victoria – once Australia’s premier gold mine. The local township of Woods Point sprang up when gold was discovered by Irishman Willliam Gooley in 1861 while prospecting near the Goulburn River. This prompted a wild rush for gold and by the mid 1860s around 50 large mines were in operation. To celebrate MSG’s commitment to the local Woods Point community and these pioneering miners, we have created the inaugural William Gooley Memorial Award for Community Service. This award, sponsored by Morning Star Gold, will be presented to a standout contributor to the local community in early 2011. Our involvement included concept, copy writing and design of logos, award and poster.
I’d love to wax lyrical on the influence strong branding has on voters but it may just grate with my supporters in the House. I believe it is a very personal and complex psychological process choosing a political party, akin to the decision-making traumas afflicting many people when compatibility checking a future life partner. It’s like the stuff the fairer sex look out for when selecting a partner… colour of hair, bad breath, IQ, yellow teeth, skin condition, colour of skin, bank account, the Marks & Spencer label on his jacket, gym membership, alimony payments, parking offences, record of mental illness in the family, tattoos expressing his admiration for Mum, sexual preferences, size of ego and other stuff, previous conquests, previous convictions. You know the stuff. They ask pertinent questions along the lines of “Will he discuss the attributes of MasterChef whilst devouring one of Ahmed’s finest shish kebabs after the pub closes?”. “Does he have a sustainable and well paying job in the city or a greengrocer’s shop in Hackney?” “Is that his Hyundai parked outside with the go-faster stripes?” “Does he belong to an exclusive club in the city or Rotherham United Supporters Club?” “Does he talk about his Mum all the time?” “Is that tattooed girl in the corner balancing beer bottles on her head his sister by any chance?” Does he read the Beano in bed?” “Does he prefer to holiday in Bognor Regis?” “Does he have a soft spot for repeats of The Benny Hill Show?”
Well we don’t wear a T-shirt emblazoned with our own personal logo when we’re posturing in the pub eyeing up the opposite sex do we?… lager in hand and Brut liberally applied. ‘Metallica’ yes. ‘Harvard 1997’ possibly, depending on the venue.
I guess it’s much the same when choosing the leader of a political party. I suppose the same questions were running through Samantha’s mind when David Cameron proposed to her. Or was it the visionary Conservative Party logo monogrammed on his Hawes & Curtis shirt that grabbed her? Or the logo etched into his gold cufflinks? The discrete logo tattooed on his buttocks? The bumper sticker on the Bentley? The flag waving gnome sitting beside his garden pond? The monogrammed hankie with which he wiped away her tears after jamming her finger in the car door outside No.10? What do you think?
Looking at the random collection of logos on this page, I’d say there’s room for a rethink. Will a rose really do it for you? Will a green pyramid bring a brave new ecologically satisfying and sustainable lifestyle into your world? Will a tree adjust your thinking? Will Labor in Western Australia have voters reaching for the stars? Will the ‘flashback to 70s Australia’ Liberal logo grab their retro vote?
I reckon the yellow bird would look good on a T-shirt while listening to Nick Clegg and the Democrats down the Nags Head in Bromley High Street next Saturday night. Fair go. It gets my vote. It could do with a more stylish font though.
Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney and London with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, Singapore and Mumbai.
Nielsen’s 2010 Social Media Report has been digging deep inside the minds of Australian internet users and consumers and finding out how aligned they are with social media.
They discovered two important statistics about our online habits:
To source opinions and information about products, services and brands, 86% of internet users rely on social media.
Nearly two in five are interacting with companies via social media.
14% of consumers followed companies/organisations via Twitter – up from 5% in 2008.
Considering that social media is still in its infancy, this is quite a result. With Twitter’s audience alone growing by more than 400% in 2009, expect big things to happen in this space. I wonder however how many of these are switched on baby boomers?
Mobile social networking is the domain of the young, with 66% under the age of 35 leading the way. And it’s Facebook the winner with 92% of visits, YouTube and Twittter at 18% and not so MySpace at 9%.
Anyway, what does all this mean for mainstream consumers and the companies who sell to them? It suggests that there are big opportunities for brands and companies to engage consumers online.
Does this suggest many Australian need to get a life? Facebook continues to dominate in the world of social networking – 83% of users have it as their main social networking platform. And guess what – they spend an average of more than eight hours each month on the site! Good for online marketers!
Tony Heywood is an international branding consultant and founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
It was reported this week that Facebook has risen to new heights. Evidently in the week ended 13 March more Americans visited Facebook than Google. It achieved 7.07 percent of total web traffic compared to 7.03 percent for Google. This is the first time Facebook has outdone Google in weekly traffic.
The market share of visits to Facebook.com increased 185 percent during this week as compared with the same week in the previous year. What does all this mean? Do people want to be entertained more than just finding information? Are we now a fully electronically and socially networked society?
The growing popularity of Facebook’s online games is being suggested as the explanation for the site’s surge in traffic. Have we become a planet full of gamers? Is life just one big game?
Here are more stats. Facebook now has more than 400 million regular users around the world. It is suggested that half of these visit Facebook daily to post photos, check their friends’ updates and play games. Do they have a life we ask?
Analysts are encouraging businesses to seriously consider Facebook, and leverage a thriving marketing platform to launch a campaign, information network or even shopfront.
Whatever your views however, I guess this represents 400 million reasons why so many companies are keen to establish their presence and bring a smile to client’s faces.
Tony Heywood is an international branding consultant and founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
Peugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroen, the second largest European car maker.Its vehicles are distributed in more than 150 countries and are universally recognised by their lion logo.
Peugeot’s roots go back to 19th-century coffee mill and bicycle manufacturing in France. The company produced its first automobile in 1891. It was on 20 November 1858 that Emile Peugeot first registered the use of a lion as the brand’s emblem. He asked Julien Blazer, a goldsmith and engraver in the Franche-Comté region of France, to produce the logo for identifying all Peugeot products.
To celebrate its 200th anniversary Peugeot has rebranded courtesy of an in-house design team. The new age lion has apparently got faster and more sensitive with the tagline ‘motion and emotion’. But is it a lion? The reworking or re-interpretation of many high profile corporate logos inevitably prompts often adverse comment from the design community, and this one has not escaped the critical gaze of many outspoken brand experts….
The reworking has been likened to a bear, a wolf, a jaguar on hind legs, a man in a silly rigid bear suit, a man/bear/pig, video game creature or the cowardly lion from the Wizard of Oz!
One of the more intelligent comments was “the least appealing and emotive rendering they (Peugeot) have ever used”.
I think it is certainly more modern but has strayed from its classical lion heritage. Compare it to the Holden lion and it could be suggested that some unfortunate breeding with other species may have occurred. Naughty lion.
What do you think?
Tony Heywood is an international branding consultant and founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
Here are a few choice statements that have motivated the team here recently and which seem very pertinent to the challenges and opportunities we perceive for 2010…
“The man who starts out going nowhere generally gets there”.
Dale Carnegie
“If we are to achieve results never before accomplished, we must expect to employ methods never before attempted”.
F Bacon
“Wherever you see a successful business, someone has made a courageous decision”.
Peter Drucker
“Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right thing”.
Peter Drucker
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change”.
Charles Darwin
“Imagination rules the world”.
Napoleon Bonaparte
“He who is not courageous to take risks in life will achieve nothing in life”.
Muhammad Ali
“If things seem under control, you are just not going fast enough”.
Mario Andretti
Tony Heywood is an international branding consultant and founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
Prior to undertaking a branding review, you need to gather all applications – tangible and intangible – which contribute to the success of the brand. These range from business cards to mainstream advertising to the way your receptionist is answering the phone to the way your salespeople are dressed to what your employees are saying on Twitter. The objective is to determine how applications are being used, guidelines adhered to, levels of quality and consistency and how these are impacting on the experience your audiences have of the brand and their perception of it.
Putting all of an organisation’s materials side-by-side in the one place can be a sobering experience for many. It inevitably identifies shortcomings such as…
quality issues
levels of inconsistency
relevance to the task
whether materials are outdated
omissions
relevance to the organisation’s short and long term business objectives
A visual audit however, can only achieve so much. The way in which the materials are used is important as this tends to identify whether they remain appropriate for their intended purpose since they were introduced or whether they need to be changed or even deleted. Do employee induction materials reflect the downturn-driven changes the company has made in the last 12 months? Are point-of-sale messages consistent with the organisation’s current advertising? Are machinery operating instructions consistent with workplace safety requirements? Does the organisation’s product packaging suitably reflect its stance on sustainability? Do the messages on motivational posters throughout the organisation truly reflect the culture of the organisation and its attitude to employees? Are customer communications saying the right things for the way in which the organisation wishes to conduct its business moving forward into 2010 and beyond? Is your marketing department disengaged by the events of 2009 and operating with blinkered vision that may just be detrimental to how the business and its products need to be perceived to capture new market opportunities?
Heywood Innovation’s audit reports probe significantly deeper than a simple check on whether the organisation’s logo and colours are correctly reproduced! Key components of the organisation’s brand are its employees and customers. We conduct online surveys and facilitated workshops with employees, key managers, executives and customers to gauge their real perceptions of the brand at this moment in time and collect their ideas. We get to know what employees’ thoughts are on the materials with which they work – whether they are helping them do their job or hindering them, and whether the employees have ideas for improvements or something totally new.
An audit conducted by an external resource like Heywood Innovation will guarantee an objective viewpoint based around questions, comments and recommendations that would challenge most internal resources.
How does your brand stack up with the organisation’s business plans and vision for the future?
Are the materials which represent the organisation’s brand appropriate to support the organisation’s business plans and vision for 2010? Have there been significant changes to the way in which the organisation operates since the upheavals of 2009 to warrant changes to the way the brand is expressed and ultimately perceived both internally and externally?
The answers to these questions can only be answered by a well considered and executed audit. Now would be an ideal time to consider this before the post-Christmas momentum takes hold…
Tony Heywood is an international branding consultant and founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
One of the buzzwords that is increasingly used in the corporate world is ‘sustainability’. Over the last few years it has firmly entrenched itself in the vocabulary of branding. Yet I’m not entirely convinced everyone has a good grasp of what it means.
Application 1 In these ‘recovering’ times when there is still much doubt about our future business prospects, ‘sustainability’ is being used to describe an organisation’s potential to survive on a long term basis, suggesting that it will have to adopt beliefs, behaviours and practices consistent with being able to achieve this.
Application 2 ‘Sustainability’ can allude to an organisation’s responsibility and commitment to helping save the planet and its people.This can refer to the influence it has on external communities with which it may or may not come into contact, and/or the influence it has on its own employees.
Application 3 ‘Sustainability’ can also jump into the change arena and suggest ‘transformation’ and ‘innovation’ and ‘moving away from conventional thinking and practices’. It often refers to the way we live – the new options we have available as individuals to build sustainable communities, living and working harmoniously with the environment.
Not many people associate its relationship with an organisation’s brand. Not many see it as a core function of the business, relegating it to a compliance requirement associated with managing business risks and yet another box that needs to be ticked in the annual report each year. This is an increasingly regulated world where we are expected to cut emissions and move to low-carbon sources. It makes sense for an organisation to do this claim a stake in a sustainable future and add strength to its brand. For companies who are reliant on fossil fuels and water say, their sustainable actions may well determine the future viability of their business. With sustainability underpinning your brand, it may well provide a competitive edge over similar brands. Sustainability may not sell more product, but it can enhance brand credibility of the company behind the product and the potential to impress investors and attract them its way.
Because sustainability is now a consideration at most brand touchpoints, it has become one of the supporting pillars of the brand, alongside such essentials as culture and values. Audiences are increasingly aware of it as it gains more exposure in the media. This has prompted stakeholders, employees, suppliers, government and the press to ask questions on the subject relating to how an organisation manufactures and sells its products, what they’re made of, how it treats its employees, how it supports local communities and so on – questions directly relating to how it operates and whether it thinks beyond the factory gate about ‘the bigger picture’. At the end of the day, people want to know whether the organisation is a good citizen.
People are increasingly less forgiving of companies caught polluting, funding governments, covering up financial irregularities, paying outlandish bonuses and having poor attitudes to workplace relations. Organisations seen as ‘responsible’ and adopting acceptable behaviours are finding new favour in the investor community.
This has lead to companies investigating ways to leverage their sustainability focus to gain exposure and build value into their brand. Sourcing coffee from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms, cars made from high proportions of recyclable materials, energy efficient appliances, proportions of revenue donated to AIDS research, local community initiatives, educating children in Third World countries – there are many opportunities to contribute.
The challenge for companies is to align sustainability initiatives with stakeholder expectations and ensure they are consistent with the overall business strategy. There is a risk however, that some customer segments will have little or no regard for the company’s interest in this area, while some will have high expectations.
Failing to address sustainable business practices can have dire consequences either directly or through supplier relationships. Nike’s image has been battered on several occasions with revelations concerning its supply arrangements with Third World ‘sweat shops’. An article in the San Francisco Bay Guardian from an Indonesian worker summed up her experience of Nike “… labourers faced with forced overtime, minimum-wage violations, illegally low training wages, and abusive employers in countries such as China, South Korea and Indonesia to which Nike has contracted its manufacturing.” This is the stuff that PR company dreams are made of.
Organisations must recognise that ‘sustainability’ needs to be a recognisable mindset, not a part time indulgence. There are many instances of ‘greenwashing’, jumping on the sustainability band wagon and using public relations activities to crank up false perceptions. It is surprisingly easy to identify these organisations.
An organisation’s attitude to sustainability therefore has a direct bearing on people’s perception of the organisation, its brand and the ultimate value of the brand.
Tony Heywood is an international branding consultant and founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
So the two love birds have plighted their corporate troth. The bride cares not one whit for her loss of name and even less so for her loss of virginity in the matrimonial stakes. What a reception. The bride and groom are looking resplendent in their new livery. Thompson Epicyclics and Robinson Ratchets are now merged into a new darling of the stock market – Episylinus. Or so they think. The corporate advisors seemed pretty happy with things during the pre-nuptials, but now they seem noticeably absent (in the south of France). Your HR director has just informed you that there have been a few senior management resignations in the past few days, but that was to be expected. What can possibly go wrong?
Those branding consultants have been knocking on the door for a few months now – trying to get their hands on a new logo commission no doubt. They even managed to push a piece of paper under the CEO’s door. Its tone seemed a little sombre and not in the spirit of the moment. It warned of dire consequences if a strategic approach to post merger branding was not addressed and a competent communications program put in place. “That’s a marketing function isn’t it? Just as if the Board needs another admin consideration to distract them right now! ” announces one of the directors in passing. Your PA gives a discreet cough as she peers round your office door “I thought I’d better inform you… there appears to have been an alarming drop in our share price today”. The consultant’s note painted a dark picture:
> brand equity will suffer > customers will be confused > competitors will steal them > employees will fear for their jobs > analysts will see the writing on the wall … and the share price will drop
Somewhere in the distance a bell started to ring.
In the note those ‘branding people’ also quoted some sobering merger statistics:
> 70 percent of merger objectives go unrealised – Booz-Allen & Hamilton > Productivity drops off 50 percent overall in the first 4-8 months and only 23% earn their cost of capital – CFO Magazine > Revenue drops in the first three quarters after a merger – McKinsey Consulting > Merger failure is not a western phenomenon – this year, only a third of the mergers and acquisitions by Chinese companies were considered successful – China Council for the Promotion of International Trade
In these recovering markets, cashed up companies are scrutinising competitors which are low on funding and strategically positioned for growth. Low acquisition price and elimination of a previously troublesome competitor can be compulsive drivers that corporate advisers are once again excited by. Who needs incremental and cautious growth steps when you can make one giant leap for mankind, or at least for your own business (and ego)?
Building a business is not easy. Tell me about it. It’s difficult enough to put together from scratch (and hold together) a talented team, build a culture of excellence and apply leading edge technologies and processes. Try and do this with two existing groups who may have been sworn enemies, who have their own beliefs, values, ways of doing things and their own unshakeable view of the future and how to get there… and you may just have yourself a few challenges, which may just cast some doubt on your own future.
So you’ve probably now got two of everything. And this tends to be expensive. You reach into the cupboard and dust off your grip reaper outfit. Cost cutting looms large. Who goes and who stays? Swoosh goes the scythe. Do we need two brands? Of course not. Swoosh goes the scythe again. Branding consultants. Definitely not. Swoosh. Feels good doesn’t it? Corporate cleansing. Your PA hands you an impressive looking document with the new Episylinus logo emblazoned on its cover. The inside pages are manna from heaven. “Look at the money we just saved”. Back into the cupboard goes the outfit. Out with the Armani. You have yourself some analyst presentations to give.
Those branding consultants just won’t give up – another letter lands on your desk. They’re telling me time’s running out. It is quickly consigned to the bin. A pity, as the crumpled piece of paper asked some pertinent questions:
> do your people clearly understand whether this is a merger or an acquisition? – sounds silly, but get this one wrong and you may have a lot of explaining to do. > do you really know who your new partner is – did it come out in the due diligence – have you met with them yet? > you did do a SWOT on their company and yours didn’t you? > did you confirm what the new brand promises to customers, shareholders and employees – and whether you can keep that promise? > is the merger the only growth you’re likely to experience? – if so, you’d better invest in some organic growth fertiliser. > are you focused on how customers are going to react? – yes, both sets! > are you ploughing ahead doing it all your own way or consulting with ‘the other party’? > how are you going to judge merger success? – new sales, profitability, growth, employee retention or a slap on the back from fellow directors? > you’ve decided on the name and identity of the ‘new’ entity haven’t you? > is your brand implementation team working to a plan? – if so, are you aware of it? > is your senior team fully briefed on and motivated by the changes? – do any of them have doubts they haven’t shared with you? > what changes are necessary to your marketing and communication activities? – are the relevant teams on top of all this? > did you thoroughly test and register the new name(s)? > who’s in charge of rallying the troops and telling them about the brave new future? – I guess it must be you! > did anyone remember to tell the PR company what an important job they have to perform? > are your employees as engaged and raring to go to the same degree as before the merger? If not, why not?
So what are you going to get out of all this hard work? You could probably…
> gain loyalty – from those really important people – customers, shareholders and employees > integrate into one success story two companies, two cultures, two brands and two sets of employees > drive new cost efficiencies > motivate your workforce like never before > enhance your bottom line > write your name in the history books > stay away from the divorce courts
Tony Heywood is a Sydney-based brand guidance counsellor, founder of Heywood Innovation in Australia, United Kingdom and India, and joint founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
With a thankful sigh, the CEO signs the last letter of the day. It is 6.45pm on a cool winter night in the Sydney central business district. Dark rain clouds scud across the darkening sky. The rain batters the window and the muffled sounds of homeward bound traffic are heard in the street below. His secretary, standing close by, clutching her soft kid handbag against her stylish raincoat, takes it from his hand, folds it neatly and inserts it into the waiting envelope. Her tongue briefly caresses the gummed flap. She smoothes it down and a brief smile lightens her face… “Do have a pleasant weekend Mr Donnelly”. And with that she is gone into the night. A distant door slams shut. In the meagre light from the desk lamp a mysterious grin is seen to spread across CEO Theodore Donnelly’s face and transforms his usually friendly features. His body slumps forward in the chair and his hands grip the edge of the desk. He rises awkwardly from his black leather chair, his large frame casting a dark and sinister shadow across the far wall. Slowly and unsteadily he crosses the room to where his wall safe is concealed behind a framed print of a Chinese girl with a face glowing eerily in the low light. He leans awkwardly against the wall as his tortured eyes strain to see the combination numbers of the safe. The tumblers fall into place and the heavy door yields to his anxiously tugging hand. He reaches in. Something suddenly moves in the dark recesses of the safe. His hand is grabbed by something unknown. It feels as though it is being pulled from its socket. He wrenches his arm back and forth in one mighty effort and it is released. He grabs the battered envelope before him and slams the safe door shut.
Crossing the room, he sits once more at his desk. Pulling the desk lamp nearer, he opens the envelope and slides the large dusty book out of the envelope. There before him lay the object of his innermost desires. Ye Olde Booke of Branding Spells. The faded script on the front cover proclaims ‘He who masters these spells shall have control over the hearts and minds of all before him’. He lifts the heavy cover and turns it over. He briefly notices a small imprint on the inside cover ‘First published by K. Roberts, Lancaster, Auckland and New York 1504’ which causes him to wince. His eyes move to the first page. He slowly reads the words aloud. “Mind control. The dark art of visual and verbal persuasion. Mix together words and images to control people’s minds and instil a sense of wellbeing way beyond their financial means. Ingredients: a twist of mystery, two shakes of flippancy, an ounce of bullshit, a teaspoon of hubris, a scoop of overspending and two parts of overindulgence. Mix well and apply liberally. As this is a somewhat unstable set of ingredients, results cannot be guaranteed. Ensure you stand well back following application as after affects can be catastrophic”. He looked longingly at the book. “Thank you”.
Here at Heywood Innovation we do claim to produce magical results for our clients. These however tend to be the result of tried and tested methods honed over a 20 year period and applied with loving care. There are no potions in our cupboard that transform underperforming brands into sector leaders overnight. Our BrandGuidanceSystem however, when diligently applied, triumphs every time over the dark arts. You should try it.
Lizard’s tongue or eye of newt anyone? Good for uplifting brand libido so they tell me!
Tony Heywood is an international branding consultant and founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
