“One of the core challenges, particularly in North America, is overcoming the development of strategies from silos. Market strategies are often done without consideration for the overall retail environment. Advertising can be done in the absence of looking at the actual store. How many times have you been to a store and then seen the TV ad and felt like they could be two different businesses? They have to bring that integrated message together or it gets lost in the noise.

“The winners in retail after this recession will be those who operate from a truly brand-centric point of view. [This means] the core essence of an idea that translates into all the touch points of your customer.”

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.

“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?

Catch the full interview with Klotz at The Hundreds blog.

“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 ponds. Fort McMurray, AB. Photo by Edward Burtynsky.)

For some, Ed Burtynsky’s aerial photos of the tar sands are the only insight into the operations happening in our own back yard. Or, they would be if anyone here had paid attention.

“The value and importance of the oil sands will make that much harder the choices that Albertans and all Canadians suddenly face. Canada has now become a major-league merchant of one of the most desirable—and dirtiest—sources of energy. The money is flowing in, and the profits are rolling out—good news for stockholders, the Canadian dollar and government coffers.

“But there are environmental and social costs to stuffing our pockets while the oil speeds south. And Canadians will have to answer a question already being asked by many Albertans: When does a boom become a burden?” —Erin Anderssen, Shawn McCarthy and Eric Reguly, An empire from a tub of goo, Globe and Mail.

See also: Better Nation Building Through Design, via Design Observer.