Coley Porter Bell has helped location-based business Inish Turk Beg enter the fmcg brand arena by developing a range of premium, artisan-made fish and meat products.

The agency has created the brand and produced packaging designs for smoked tuna, mackerel and salmon as well as back and streaky bacon. As part of a ‘top-down’ distribution strategy they’ll be sold initially only in the most exclusive outlets such as Harrods, Harvey Nichols and Selfridges. The new products will be rolled out to other outlets during 2010.

Last week when the French were knocked out of the world cup, there was murmuring amongst French intellectuals that the players, many of whom have worked in England, had caught the Anglo-Saxon bug of the cult of the individual. That explained why they were apparently unable to play as a team.

Another area where Anglo-Saxons excel is brands and branding. The French are also-rans in this discipline. Or so I thought until I visited Paris a couple of weeks ago.

So there we were, strolling down the Champs Elysee, en famille, when my eye was caught by some elegant blue neon lettering. ‘200 Ans et plus’ it read. Intrigued I investigated the shop which turned out to be Peugeot’s flagship showroom and brand show case.

Then on the next window I saw this.

In the Times supplement today, Heston Blumenthal talks about naming his new restaurant.  He says it’s as fraught as naming your first child.  He has a point – with his profile, anyone with even a passing interest will be sure to have an opinion on the name. Good or bad.

Imagine being in that position. It must be agonising to know if you’ve got it right. Will people like it? What does it say about your business? What does it say about you?

Recently, quite a few of my friends have become parents for the first time. Many have kept their shortlist of names a closely guarded secret until the birth is announced.  On the whole I think this is probably a wise move.  I have heard numerous stories of parents revealing their preferred baby names, only to have them critiqued and sometimes even shot down on the basis of someone’s prior experience of the name – the school bully, the scaredy cat at school etc etc!

Are you psyched about May 6th? You know, The General Election. Are you really looking forward to it? Are you enthusiastically engaged with the thinking, the campaigning, the issues, the people, the ideas?

Thought not.

Sadly you are not alone in your indifference. Over the past few weeks it has become increasingly apparent that there is a near universal lack of engagement in the country with our upcoming quadrennial vote-fest.

Even antagonism would be preferable. At least that implies some interest. But instead we seem to be in the grip of the most severe outbreak of mass apathy we have seen for decades, perhaps ever. And we cant help wondering why?

Newspapers are multi-faceted things, addressing the needs of many different groups of readers. But that makes the need for a coherent thread, a single unifying idea or characteristic, -a set of brand values if you like, more not less important.

It’s a point that Guardian newspapers might care to consider when they assess the effectiveness –or otherwise of this week’s last-throw-of-the-dice redesign of The Observer.

It is in part brilliant, in part dire and on the whole, totally confusing. I suspect that my confusion as a reader reflects the lack of certainty at Guardian newspapers over exactly what the paper should be doing.

The overhaul has been thorough, starting with the paper’s most basic ‘architecture’ - its rag bag of supplements and sections. Three of the excellent monthly magazines have been spiked and the paper has been reduced to four sections: news, sport, an expanded Review section and the magazine.

So far so good. It feels more focussed and somehow more confident.

bye bye ladies

When Unilever’s Persil launched its ‘dirt is good campaign’ a couple of years ago, P&G’s Ariel responded with a campaign based on the thought that ‘clean is better’.

That episode sums up one of the biggest dilemmas facing any brand manager: Sell the product and you’re in danger of competing for your customers’ business on a purely transactional or functional basis. Sell benefits or the social role of the brand and you are always vulnerable to rivals like Ariel coming along with a better product.

So it was fascinating to read in this week’s Marketing magazine, that Unilever’s Dove is shifting from a communication platform based on ‘real beauty’ to a more science-based, product efficacy story.

Gone are the real women in their white underwear. Instead we’ll get the image of a flower and raindrops “intended to represent the product’s three moisturising ingredients,” according to the report. Advertising will explain how the product helps to hold moisture at the surface of the skin.

I have recently returned from a trip to China. I was there to conduct a market audit for an International brand with Western heritage to work out how to build its appeal with a changing Chinese consumer.

As has widely been discussed and rightfully recognised, China has established itself as the new super power. This shift in leadership from the West has got me pondering - in ten years time will we all be sitting here at our Lenovo computers, sending texts via China Mobile before heading out with friends to share a Tsingtao beer?

The logic I am following is that we have for some time all been buying into the American Dream which has been the foundation of many successful brands. As America created itself as the global leader we all wanted to share in their glory by associating ourselves with their home grown brands - from Levi jeans and Nike trainers to Apple Macs and Google searches.

So the challenge that I keep coming back to is: what is the dream that China will be able to sell to the world? How are they going to successfully and legitimately market their national brands to create a universal appeal to a global audience?

The news that the Mayor of London has appointed Wally Ollins’ brand consultancy Saffron to create a visual identity for London at a cost of £500,000, has prompted the same predictable press reaction we get every time a design project is reported: “What half a million pounds for a logo?”

Yes that’s right. Cash-strapped City Hall with its legions of procurement professionals has paid some bloke in thick glasses half a mill for a bit of colouring in.

The implication is of course that Saffron (and by extension the entire design industry) are thieves and con men who will happily part their gullible clients from a small fortune. In return they get doodles a four year old might not be proud of.

I’m not sure if it’s wilful ignorance on the part of the media or just that our industry hasn’t explained itself better, but I feel the overpowering need to set the record straight.

I haven’t worked on the London branding project, so I don’t know the precise costs. But lets look more closely at what City Hall might get for its half million.

From my own experience working on the rebranding of the Museum of London, I know that a major issue facing anyone involved with branding London is its extraordinary diversity. That’s what the London 2012 brand was about, that’s what our Museum of London work is about. And that’s what City Hall’s brand London will be about.

That makes the initial research stage particularly expensive. Saffron will have to gather the opinions and attitudes of a huge number of stakeholders to find out what London means to them. They’ll have to consult politicians, business people, Londoners of all races, classes and hues, opinion formers, foreigners and tourists -to name but a few.

Last night I attended a networking evening held by the lovely people at LS:N Global

For those of you that don’t know who they are - LS:N is an online consumer news and insights network set up by The Future Laboratory.  In its simplest form the guys at LS:N provide news of whats going on around the globe in fashion, interiors, architecture, design you name it they are on to it and last night they held a fascinating evening at The Connaught Hotel in London.

The topic of the evening was luxury and the way the evening was set up was a bit like speed dating.  6 tables, 6 speakers, 6 minutes all we had to do was sit and listen.

The speakers included Stephen Alden, CEO of the Maybourne Hotel Group who spoke about how luxury is becoming more meaningful in 2010.  ‘Frivolity, excess & waste’ have become a thing of the past, consumers are looking for values, authenticity and craftsmanship in their luxury brands.

For those of you that missed our latest Visual Futures presentation ‘Bitesize’ earlier this month, we have made a 3 minute bitesized version which covers some of the key points from the full presentation.

Take a look and if you’re interested in having us present the full story to you, please don’t hesitate to contact me at vicky.bullen@cpb.co.uk.

Enjoy.