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Brand-idea: Workouts That Work Out

2012-02-10T06:40:00.000-08:00

Following on from the positioning work that I did for the fitness brand in December of last year (click on fitness comparison platform above), I convinced my client to let me generate names using my proprietary naming presentation format, which has proved so valuable to my previous clients.

In order to keep costs down, of the two brand consulting options I proposed, my client choose the option that included getting to know the business and consulting on supplied names only.

I felt there wasn't a strong enough case presented for any of the supplied names and that the top name choice was profoundly problematic. Confident that I would impress my client I proposed to generate a naming presentation to take up the remaining time bought from me but that would also require a significant investment on my part as we hadn't negotiated any additional fees to cover this as a cost. The start-up looked like a great opportunity to create an outstanding brand experience and I intended to give it my best shot.

As with all my naming presentations I look to find a name that is likely to lead an entire experience made up of various other related brand-marks. To this end I build a case for each of my top recommended names and often include a brand-idea or a brandline to help demonstrate the potential of each name.

I believe I delivered of my best work as demonstrated in the brandline above: 'Workouts That Work Out'. Not only is it a strong brandline but I believe it's an opportunity to create an unprecedented brand experience. And, not only is the wordplay clever it's exactly what the brand will deliver in what looks to be a category defining business.

I proposed to contract the brandline to simply 'Workout' in some instances, not necessarily as a name, which is what it would effectively be perceived as under some circumstances, but handled, rather, as a piece of brand communication of a suggestive or instructive kind and on this basis probably wouldn't necessitate the ownership of 'Workout' as a trademark.

Unfortunately, perhaps also because I didn't charge my client for this presentation, my ideas received almost no time and the entire presentation was rejected in a matter of minutes after I emailed it over. I was devastated to find my work so unappreciated. Other names worth mentioning were Fisiq and Tautology but given the short shrift my work received I found myself like a man taking a stubborn horse to water.

So, sadly, for the first time in my career I suggested my client find another designer to work with who wouldn't challenge his brand name and merely supply him with a logo. Fortunately I hadn't accepted the 50% advance for the creative brand design stage that my client seemed intent on paying me. I didn't want to take a name forward that wouldn't reflect well on my work and this was a condition I'd set on reviewing the supplied names.

Click on 'Workouts That Work Out' above to view the naming presentation in case studies where you can also download the entire presentation.

Bac A Bank – Brand strategy

2012-02-06T03:57:00.000-08:00

After working on two banking projects with Allen International earlier in the year, in late 2010 I was brought in again to work on the rebranding of a Vietnamese investment bank.

Having learned from the two previous projects, the lead strategist, retail Design Director and Creative Director identified that I could offer valuable strategic input in the strategy phase. Having worked closely with brand strategists in the past I've learned how to uncover insights within the overlapping areas of business consulting and brand identity design, towards creating a more fully realised brand strategy.

With the heavy-lifting business consulting component of the strategy in place, which benefitted from in-depth research, client meetings and interviews, my job was to help define a brand personality and generate brand-ideas to lead the creative brand design stage. Without the benefit of further direct client input I generated four pre-emptive brand character scenarios that we then reduced to three to present to the client.

To Allen International's existing methodology I added the Brand Crystalliser to get to a brand story with distinct character attributes and a strong sense of purpose. Working with the lead strategist we identified three broadly relevant territories within which I described distinct brand personalities using as a basis the Brand Bullseye that had already been populated in collaboration with the client.

The three territories we presented were 'humanistic', 'holistic' and 'pioneering' and for which I conceived of the brand-ideas: 'kindred spirits', 'means well-placed' and 'uplifting', respectively. But, unfortunately, our client spoke no English and so we had to forfeit some of the richness and clever nuances of these English ideas. Most notably 'means well-placed' suffered as the double meaning was lost entirely as we were forced to simplify the ideas to 'kindred', 'well-placed' and 'uplifting'.

'Means well-placed' we thought was particularly inspired for a brand-idea as 'means' is another way to describe resources, and Bac A Bank is well-placed to continue improving the quality of life for the Vietnamese people. The bank is also well-placed to pioneer firsts for Vietnam and so the client selected the broad territory of 'pioneering' led by the brand-idea 'uplifting'.

Click on the image above to go to this project as entered in my portfolio.

Ashley House – Brand workshop

2012-01-18T09:51:00.001-08:00

Following on from the Ashley House strategy post in this news feed in mid-November last year, and as part of a series of posts about the rebrand that I led at The Design Portfolio in May 2011, the above diagram is the outcome of the Brand Crystalliser methodology that encapsulates the fundamental characteristics of the Ashley House brand.

The Brand Crystalliser is based on a type of brand consulting methodology widely used by top-tier brand consultancies. The particular variant or 'strain' of the Brand Crystalliser is inherited from Dragon's Ellipse Analysis, which I learned during my time with the business brands division of the company (now Dragon Rouge).

The Brand Crystalliser featured above is the outcome of a workshop that I structured and ran. The workshop day was coordinated and supported by The Design Portfolio and involved the senior managers of various divisions at Ashley House. Before the workshop I put together a questionnaire that was completed by the participants in advance and provided a springboard for the various exercises during the day.

The workshop itself was comprised of various brand personality exercises, a variation of the Brand Bullseye (which I learned while working with Allen International) and, finally, the Brand Crystalliser. The Brand Bullseye enabled us to find a broad range of values, attributes, benefits and personality traits which we distilled to one or two of the most important of each using the Brand Crystalliser. The Brand Bullseye also delivered a core brand DNA, which doubles up as a positioning line and describes the scope of work of the business.

Without going into too much detail about how each component relates to the Ashley House business it suffices to say that the combined content describes a unique brand character with a strong sense of purpose and a singular ambition that drives the brand's core messages.

Click on the image above to view the Brand Crystalliser as entered in my portfolio.