Every time I’m tempted to overcomplicate a project, I listen to Sonny Boy Williamson and he restores my faith in simplicity. You’ll understand.
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Monthly Archives: August 2009
No Brand
Beginning Spring 2010, Rick Klotz, owner and designer for Freshjive, is stripping all brand from the firm, their marketing and indeed, soon, their website:
“Throughout the years I’ve become uncomfortable with this business of branding and brand identity. I’m not the type of person that buys something for the brand name. I’ve also never done a very good job at creating a captivating identity to our own brand logo. Also, within the streetwear culture, the promotion of a company’s brand has become downright silly to me.”
Worth noting is that Freshjive is a sub-brand of General Pants Co., which includes 70 retail locations across Austrialia, generating at least $250M in revenue annually. So: is this a ballsy corporate move? Is it punk, as Klotz states, for an iconic company with two decades of history to drop it’s name?
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Rebranding Nations
Unapologetic, and unabashed, Wally Olins speaks on the branding of nations (Note: .pdf file.):
“And the rebranding of France has proceeded sporadically and often violently ever since. Napoleon’s Empire gave way to the restored Bourbons, who were overthrown and replaced by a bourgeois Monarchy, which was followed by a Second Republic which turned itself into a Second Napoleonic Empire. In an attempt to recreate the glory of his uncle, the first and incomparably greater figure, Napoleon III and the Second Empire went down to humiliating defeat by Prussia in 1870. By the time the Third Republic emerged from the ashes of the Second Empire, French politicians had become the worlds specialists at branding and rebranding the nation.”
And further draws parallel between the brand strategy of nations and businesses:
“Businesses have to create loyalties; loyalties of the workforce, loyalties of suppliers, loyalties of the communities in which they operate, loyalties of investors and loyalties of customers. In creating these loyalties they use very similar techniques to those of nation builders. They create myths, special languages, environments which reinforce loyalties, colours, symbols, and quasi-historical myths. They even have heroes.”
Here in Alberta, there are ongoing concerns with presenting the province to the world in a positive light, sometimes controversial, sometimes regarded as expensive and ultimately unsuccessful. This has resulted in a multi-front war of words divided amongst the Provincial government, advocacy groups, environmental stewards and the news media.
(Suncor Energy upgrader and tailings…
Stadsfiets
Built around an aluminum frame, this Dutch bike features a single-speed, coaster brake, integrated solar powered LED head and tallights and not much else.
“We were inspired by the good old-fashioned Dutch bike,” explains the 28-year old Dutch designer Sjoerd Smit, “we stripped the bike from whims that can only break or cause frustration and added innovation and style”.
The VANMOOF is a thoroughly modern town bike, and looks nothing like the old stadsfiets my Old Opa would have built at our factory, (though that’s not necessarily a bad thing!) It certainly resonates with me: I suspect cycling is in my blood.
VANMOOF promises a new model every six months, and this is a firm I’ll continue to watch.
Update: Portland-based, Specialized-owned, Globe Bicycles looks to have a small, but growing collection of practical and not-so-practical models for sale. More interesting than their offering, however, is the running commentary on factory-built/imported bicycles vs. locally built by a skilled framebuilder in the post comments at the NAU blog. (via Luke Dorny/@luxuryluke.)
How to Mine the Crisis
From an interview with Patrick Rodmell, CEO of Watt International, in Monday’s Globe and Mail on what retailers can learn about branding in the recession:
Further, he identifies that customers are seeking “the right choice” over “every choice available.” Personally, I believe a curated product line is important, and would add—and firmly believe in—attention to detail and an unrelenting committment to quality.