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.

And so farewell Cadbury. The nation’s favourite chocolate brand has been gobbled up by US processed cheese giant Kraft. Will we ever see your like again?

The news that Cadbury has fallen to the foreigners is obviously a major business story -it’s the biggest outside acquisition of a British business for at least two years. The weird thing is the effect that the news of Cadbury’s demise has had on the business-savvy brand junkies at CPB.

The overwhelming reaction here hasn’t been ‘Oh what are the new business opportunities?’ There hasn’t even been a dispassionate analysis of the new entity’s brand portfolio. No, it has been sadness. Anyone would think that Kraft had bayoneted our teddy bears from the reaction. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that people wept in the corridors while hardened brand warriors rent their clothes and tore out their hair, when they heard.

Sadness? Sadness? How can that be? In what way is that an appropriate reaction to a business takeover?

Of course there’s a jingoistic element to our collective response. “We don’t want foreigners taking over our brands,” said one sophisticated strategic planner who normally has a markedly global perspective.

Others cite concern for the Cadbury work force. “Kraft are paying too much and will have to make deep cuts to finance the purchase. I’m worried they will compromise the values of this ethical corporation.” said an ambitious young account exec.

But one of our account directors came closer to the truth when she said, “I hope they don’t mess with the chocolate. I don’t think I could bear it if they started to change Cadbury’s. It’s the best chocolate in the world. That’s how proper chocolate should taste.”

What she was saying was that Cadbury, the brand, doesn’t belong to Cadbury’ shareholders -or even Kraft’s. It is hers. It resides in her. As a child it defined the taste of how chocolate should be. It reminds her of parental love and infantile indulgence. Even as an adult it puts her in close touch with her inner child.

And that’s an important point for any brand owner to remember when they are considering tampering with their most famous products. Brands reside not in brand rooms or marketing plans or ad campaigns, but in the hearts and minds of consumers -and other stakeholders. If you mess with them, the response is unlikely to be measured and analytical. It will be emotional, visceral even.

Sadness is only the start of it. The next stage in the bereavement process is often anger. Brand owners beware.

There’s nothing more beautiful than the human form. Welcome to this month’s Wonder Wall with our celebration of its symmetry.

As part of our Creative Quarter, we had a life drawing lesson and we’ve bared the results here, for all to see.

Something’s bound to tickle your fancy. It could be Tom’s curves, or Amanda’s left-handed loop. Or perhaps Habib’s ovals.

And if you wanted to take someone naked home, we’re selling these portraits. All proceeds will go towards our Ugandan charity appeal.

It’s amazing what a little nudity can do.

We have a had very good start to the year with 2 awards already under our belt . We won Gold Chicago Atheneum GOOD DESIGN Awards for our Inishturkbeg and Museum of London Corporate Brand Identities .

In the words of Lary Sommers of The Chicago Atheneum :

‘Founded in Chicago in 1950 by architects Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, and Edgar Kaufmann, GOOD DESIGN bestows international recognition upon the worlds most prominent designers and manufacturers for advancing new, visionary, and innovative product concepts, invention and originality, and for stretching the envelope beyond what is considered ordinary product and consumer design’

Thank you to both the Inishturkbeg and the Museum of London client teams for helping us to create two beautiful identities that we are immensely proud of.

For Christmas we have found you five pieces of beautiful inspiration with a festive theme. We hope you enjoy them.

At Coley Porter Bell we believe in making brands beautiful. Beautiful brands are based on a beautiful truth. They stand out from the crowd, they play on your mind and leave a lasting impression.They are beautifully thought, beautifully realised and beautifully effective.

We hope you all have a beautiful Christmas and New Year.

With our best wishes for 2010

december 2009

beautifully dressed for christmas: Luella Bartley, Liberty’s

This year, the beautifully eclectic department store Liberty has teamed up
with British designer Luella Bartley to create a unique take on British
Christmas traditions. With a giant tinsel robin and traditional patriotic
scenes of living rooms over-decorated with paper chains, Christmas cards
and tacky decorations, this window display is guaranteed to get you in
the Christmas spirit… well worth a look if you can brave Regent Street
this year!

To get into the festive mood, what better way than to be greeted each morning this month by our joyous Wonder Wall at Coley Porter Bell. Kitsch, festive, bright and humorous, our Wonder Wall has been decorated with an army of blow-up santas and snowmen all dressed in red, green and white.

You can’t help but smile when you see 30 round faces smiling back at you! Happy Christmas one and all!

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.

Last night we held our annual Visual Futures event at The Hospital club in Covent Garden.  Visual Futures is a Coley Porter Bell initiative that has been running for over four years.  It is a design ‘visual showcase’ supported by evidence and our observations, looking how what we are seeing in design today, reflects what’s going on in society.  And last night we launched our fifth Visual Futures ‘Bitesize’.

As our lives become increasingly busy and ever more complex we have seen companies and brands respond in a bitesize way cutting through, getting straight to the point and connecting with consumers in a quick and digestible way.  This example from VW is one of my personal favourites.

By simply crossing out the majority of words the ad is transformed in to a short, sweet and potent piece of communication, it’s great.  And I love the way the brand even edits itself in its sign off.

There are lots more great examples throughout the presentation, so for those of you that missed the out last night watch this space.  Over the next few days we are going to be uploading some of the best bits and if you would like us to come and present to you we’d be more than happy.

What is is that makes my 6 year old daughter love Kinder eggs?  Is it the amazing orange and white stand-out on shelf or maybe the promise of delicious chocolate?  Who are we kidding?  The real lure is the gift inside.  Just as important, and what makes a Kinder egg over a standard bar of chocolate, is the sense of theatre.  From the nostalgic unwrapping of the crinkly foil to the breaking of the chocolate shell, you continuously engage with the brand through so many layers.  By the time you’ve popped open the little yellow egg with eager anticipation of your ‘air fix kit’ style toy, you well and truly feel that your 45p was well spent.  Then there are the hours of ‘fun’ fiddling to put it together.

This got me thinking that many of our favourite brands also secretly hold a valuable, almost hidden, invisible equity.  Admittedly many brands have been savvy enough to capitalise on brand theatre - Orangina’s shake to wake, Grolsch’s unleashing of their ceramic stopper to the heavy thud of a BMW door followed by a gentle fade of the vanity light.

But the area I find really fascinating is when, just simply through the passage of time, a brand can own a valuable equity they never intended to have.  Who doesn’t now pine for the foil on a Kit Kat bar or the little colourful embossed alphabet letters on the lid taken from a Smarties tube?  Interestingly to some brands these aren’t equities hence the move to replace the Smarties tube with a hexagonal box.  Yes I buy the argument that the new packaging is more environmentally aware but I can’t help but feel robbed of all the charm the brand has given me over the years (it took me about 5 years to collect the whole alphabet).

Sometimes it’s the oddities around the brand that make the brand.  Take Heinz Tomato Ketchup.  Sure you can put it in a neat clinical squeezy plastic bottle, but for loyalists, unless you thud the ‘diner’ style glass bottle, it just ain’t Heinz.  You can keep a jar of coffee uber fresh with a modern click vacuumed lid, but what you really want is to smash your tea spoon through that lovely gold foil on a jar of Gold Blend.

However, it’s not always negative that times change and brands move on.  One brand actually making this ‘invisible’ theatre the main crux of its latest advertising campaign is nestle cereal Shreddies.  Rather than the theatre just being tactile it’s observational too.  Watch the hilarious tongue in cheek market researchers get feedback on the taste difference of the new ‘diamond’ shape, which of course isn’t Shreddies turned 45 degrees - oh no, it’s new Diamond Shreddies!  The campaign is very clever as the theatre is running through the ‘new’ old brand.  In fact, the diamond shape and the ads have become a Youtube hero in their own right - you can even vote online for which shape you prefer.  Very design savvy - making the existing shape of the product become what’s new (and it must have saved a fortune in R&D).

But it’s not just brands, one entire category that has successfully turned around a major piece of their ownable theatre, is wine.  Who at first didn’t doubt the transition form the ceremonious de-corking to the very under whelming unscrewing of a cap?  But it worked and people have adopted the new ritual whether it’s a cheap and cheerful bottle of plonk through to more premium wines.  No more stressfully rattling around the cutlery drawer for the elusive corkscrew, and hey presto, at picnics you’re straight in.

But simply replacing theatre with convenience won’t always work.  The real trick as we design into the future is that we continue to create and protect a brand’s potentially invisible equities.  Pringles know that ‘once you pop you can’t stop’ will out live any surface graphics.  The DNA of brands aren’t just visible equities but also emotive, tactile ones.  Long live jokes on lolly sticks, crisps with salt packets, shamrocks drawn on pints of Guinness and yellow eggs with toys in them.

Adam Ellis is Design Director at Coley Porter Bell.