Blacks and Millets – is the great outdoors big enough for two?

I note from an article in Design Week, that Blacks Leisure, the parent company of Blacks and Millets, is looking to rebrand the two subsidiaries. The group was recently rescued from administration by JD Sports. It always gives me a slightly queasy feeling when businesses in trouble see re-branding as part of some solution. Far [...]

Who would play your brand in the movie?

A quick snapshot of brand personality – start casting your brand movie. For a couple of decades now, I have used the brand-as-person model when working with clients, to help them get to grips with the intangible issues of brand and corporate personality. We all saw the recent findings from Interbrand, that people like brands [...]

Differentiation and problem brands

Brand specialists talk glibly about the importance for brand differentiation, but in the real world, businesses may have to struggle with ‘me-too’ brands. In practice they will find they have just two levers to pull. They can look to differentiate the brand, or they can look to differentiate the brand communications. The matrix below looks [...]

Will visual networking mean a return to strong visual branding?

All the hype at the moment seems to be about visual networking. Pinterest, Tumblr and others seem to be the current hot properties. The attraction is clear: brand owners can quickly throw images of their brand assets and products onto the web and in front of their communities and networks. The old adage that a [...]

iPad3, 4, 5 and the leapfrog scenario.

I’m a bit of a techead, but not what would normally be described as an early-adopter, so it was just a few months ago that I invested in my iPad2. I love it. Eventually somebody will have to prize it from my cold dead hands… or so I believed. But no, on the horizon appears [...]

The power of brand narratives – Facebook, Microsoft and Apple

Part of the power of brand narratives is that they tell a story over time. Rather than be a usual snapshot in time, the story of a brand will build. It informs our knowledge and perception of the brand and its values. Importantly, it appreciates the capacity for change – for better or worse. The [...]

Brand vision and the dangers of losing sight of the big picture.

What business is your brand actually in? This may sound like examining the obvious, but it is an important question. It is often enticing to focus upon the detail of the service or product you are currently delivering and missing the wider offer. For example, a business manufacturing lights for cars might easily define themselves [...]

Will proposed banking changes affect the way banks approach branding?

There has been a great deal of government rhetoric regarding a shake up of the banking system. Both members of the coalition have argued for  break-up, but  Tories want to limit the split to the ‘casino’ activities of proprietary trading while  Lib Dems propose going further and ‘separating low-risk deposit taking banking from high-risk investment [...]

Apple, Steve Jobs and the dilema of the strong man and the strong brand.

Brand leadership is a curious discipline: some people drive their brands from the inside, quietly managing, inspiring, encouraging and cultivating, while others become deeply entangled in the brand persona, leading from the front by strength of personality. Often such leaders become intrinsically identified with the brand and this can be a very powerful resource. They [...]

The brand and the elephant – the devil is in the detail.

You are probably familiar with the old story of the six blind men and an elephant: it appears in many versions in eastern culture and theology. In brief, six blind men encounter an elephant, one touches its side and declares an elephant is like a wall, another grabs its leg and asserts it is like [...]