Griib Design blog

I wasn’t fortunate enough to go on to university, but was lucky enough to go the practical route via the C&G apprenticeship system. After being selected for a job (and feeling very privileged), I worked my way through print, marketing, advertising and design agencies, before freelancing in London for some top design agencies. However, I always felt at a disadvantage because I didn’t have a degree. Something I felt I needed to prove I could do.

I applied for the Master’s programme at Brunel studying Design and Branding strategy at 35 and was accepted because of practical experience, so funded myself while running the design consultancy.

It wasn’t easy but was a great experience. Not only because of the inspirational people I met, but because I felt ready and was so committed.

We had the chance to interview some great brand professionals as part of our assignments and they shared their secrets of building great brands.

Landor Associates was one of those companies. They were fantastic. Gave us their time, listened to our questions and gave us loads of data and info on how they approach brand development.

Building brands at a corporate level isn’t too different from building brands at SME level; just the service and product distribution systems vary.

Landor Associates believe brands are built on four pillars: differentiation, relevance, esteem and knowledge. Differentiation is the perceived distinctiveness of the brand. Relevance is the personal appropriateness or connections it makes with an individual. Esteem is the regard for the brand and Knowledge is the understanding of what the brand stands for.

This is a very logical approach that is supported by measurable data. They know more about their client’s brand than their client…and that’s impressive.

The great thing about these design tools is that they aim to bring some structure and measurable systems to justify spend on design.

I believe we, as design professionals do need to measure our successes by ROI and offer clients justification to spend money on design, just as you would expect from other professions.

Also, I think it is right to exchange and debate tools and techniques to help colleagues and strengthen professional design and brand management as a credible business tool.

Oh yes, and I can’t promise everytime, but if I can assist design students understand the theory and practical application of design and brand strategy, I am happy to help.

Andy Griib

(p.s really chuffed, passed with distinction)

Had a great day out yesterday at Colchester Zoo. I was impressed with many new enclosures that had benefited from financial investment, investment that made my (and no doubt the animals) experience, a good one.

Captive animals have several reasons for being in a zoo and not just to educate the likes of me, but to inform those who insist a baby iguana or monkey will make a great pet (cute now, …but here’s one that was made earlier!) and to protect endangered species and stabilise numbers for future generations.

It was then my mind wondered to think about organisations again, particularly the similarities companies face communicating their reasons for ‘being’ and to avoid becoming endangered species. Organisations are all different, yet many are often expected to fit inside an enclosure when it comes to their brand or business communications strategy.

A zoo has to advertise to encourage us to go, build a relationship with us through their brand, create an experience for customers (and animals and staff) that inform, educate and connect, and if that’s not enough, ensure the animal well fair and zoo financial commitments are met.

I was in the Orangutan enclosure (yeah yeah, okay, looking in! …thinking it’s wild hair looked just like may daughters in the morning before she tries to comb the knots) when more similarities struck me. In order for the zoo to succeed, it has to research behaviour and animal characteristics, ensuring our experience and the animal’s welfare continue to be positive.

So, we know continued research is important for businesses to innovate new products and services, but how much thought do we give the user’s (or customer’s) experience after we have developed and articulated the brand essence through brand identity? Shouldn’t we try harder to embed brand attributes that create a compelling experience to show what that company’s reason for being, really is?

These brand attributes develop into ‘touchpoints’ or customer engagement areas that can be measured and should be aligned carefully to ensure the ‘enclosure’ around the brand essence communicates a relevant and unique species of organisation, for failure could lead to creating, well, erm, a bit of an animal.

Some key brand solutions to resolve different organisational situations include:

Brand strategy for a new product offering or promise
Differentiation for strong, nimble competition
A unique customer experience for savvy or demanding customers
Differential value will help avoid price and margin pressures
Clear relevance will assist sales and market share
Company repositioning is needed for combinations and investiture
For organic growth, the brand response would be new markets, line extensions and co-branding
New revenue streams could be helps with licensing initiatives
…and attraction, retention and productivity require internal brand alignment.

If you have a spare day, I thoroughly recommend Colchester Zoo, especially the Orangutans.

Andy