We were so excited to help a small Italian brewer re brand his very distinct beers earlier this year. Massimiliano is a beer craftsman who for years had been lovingly crafting a very unique range of beers taking local and traditional ingredients and hand processing the bottle. The selection of grain ‘Solina’ (the oldest varieties of local wheat), Senator hats (local wheat), water sources Del Verde, acacia honey, spices and flowers come directly from the ‘Majella’ mountain region. His amazing beer soon gave him local notoriety and it became obvious that it was time to share his amazing beer outside the local region.
Door6 took them through our branding process, taking time to understand their company history, the region that they were from and how they wanted to be seen in market place. Our brief was to take the essence of the original branding and re-invent the label without loosing the unique handcrafted heritage. Door6, created a full package for them including logo, colour pallette, font and graphic style and website direction. Keep your eye out in your local craft beer supplier as Birrificio Maiella will be making an arrival to Australian shores soon.
In September Birrificio Maiella hosted a local beer festival, which drew more than seven thousand beer fans to the region. They Loved the festival poster we created for them.
Here is what our client had to say:
“Hello Lisa, Thanks for sending through the amendments so quickly.. The updates look brilliant.. Massimiliano really likes the design. Many close colleagues think it is a very fresh and exciting change for him.”
You can visit their website here.
Door 6 offer a free business assessment service which is perfect for businesses wanting to move into new markets. You can find out more here
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Whether you are starting out in business or you are an established brand who is looking for a freshen up, you will eventually find yourself asking this question.
How much should I pay for a logo?
I’m going to try and answer that as best as I can, but here is some simple things to consider.
WHO IS GOING TO DESIGN IT FOR YOU?
Agency. If you ask an international branding agency to design your logo, they will do a very good job and provide you with a full branded execution, but you will be looking at the multiple thousands of dollars, depending on who you are as a business. For example the Pepsi Logo was redesigned in 2008 and cost $1,000,000. The BBC logo price tag is $1,800,000 and was redesigned in 1997. BP logo wins the jackpot at a massive $211,000,000 for it’s redesign in 2008. So you can see Logo’s are big money in the agency world.
Freelance Graphic Designer or a Small Design Studio. If you are a small or medium size business then this is perfect for you. They will give you brilliant personalized service and give you a fantastic brand logo and website and stationary for a much more competitive price. Each Designer has their own pricing structure so the best thing to do is ask for a quote. You can expect to pay between $400 – $1800 on a logo with a freelancer. Make sure you find someone who has a lot of years experience and has designed several great logo’s already. You do get what you paid for, so try and find an experienced and trusted designer first time around.
Yourself. This of course is the entrepreneurs preference. The Twitter logo was designed by Simon Oxley in 2009 and it only cost $15. Other companies who have successfully pulled off the self designed logo’s are Coco-cola, Google and Nike.
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I’m spending a bit of time looking at retail marketing and giving you tips and tricks for how thrive in retail. The facts are that retail in Australia is tough. When you combine, low consumer confidence with high rents, high wages and incoming international major brands, retailers have to think smart in order to get their share of the consumer dollar.
Have you defined your brand personality? Strange question I know, but let me explain. If you produced a series of campaigns for your brand and forgot to include your logo, would your customers still recognize your brand? That’s because ‘brand’ is so much bigger than a logo. A great example of this is the Jamie Oliver brand. Yes he is a person, but he has built a brilliant brand that is unmistakable when you see it. The language that he uses in every media form is cheeky, passionate and edgy. The graphic styling all have a street, retro appeal. His dress is always casual and his set’s are always homey and welcoming, not clean shiny and commercial.
Defining you brand personality takes a lot of though and a lot of work, but here are a few things to think about to get you started. Q: Is there a graphic or photographic style that you will use consistently across the brand? Q: What language tone will your brand use. e.g. humor?
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I have been working directly in the retail industry with nearly a dozen national retailers for over a decade. I have lost count of the number of campaigns I have produced, and worked with some of the countries most talented marketing managers. Over the next few post’s I am going to unveil some of the tips and tricks that I have learned along the way that are specific to retail.
It’s not all about SALE SALE SALE When running a marketing campaign as a retailer, the focus is always on the bottom line. Which is why there is natural pull towards the “SALE SALE SALE” style of campaigns. Budgets and targets do need to be meet, and there will be times when you need to pull out the “big dirty guns” to get customers in through the door, but this should never be your entire marketing strategy. Over a year your customer will begin to hear a certain dialogue coming from your brand. A visual and a verbal dialogue. If they are constantly hearing phrases like, “super clearance sale”, “spring sell out sale” or “huge price blitz” then they are going to very quickly form a picture of your brand based around this language. If you rely heavily on the “SALE” slogans to get in your customers in the door it can change your brand perception so much that will start to expect on going sales and cheaper prices all of the time. There will be no rush to jump at your next campaign, because they are 99.9% sure that every future sale will be just as good. A great example of this.. Years ago I worked for a large nation retailer with over 130 stores in Australia. We had a HUGE budget to meet and the pressure was on, so we pulled out the “big dirty guns” at 30% off storewide. To say there was chaos in the stores was and understatement. Customers were fighting over product and the lines to the registers went out the doors. It worked so well and we congratulated ourselves on our brilliance. Fast forward one year and we have the same scenario. Big budgets had to be meet. We did the same 30% off storewide offer, but this year, the reaction was only ho-hum. The customers knew they could rely on us for regular great offers. Fast forward another year and we knew we had to go big, so we jumped to 40% off storewide. Again the reaction was like watching a pack of crazed hyenas fighting over their kill. You can see the sort of downward spiral that has started here. This branding behaviour is not sustainable to your profit margin and needless to say this brand is no longer in business.
Stick around, as I will post more on this topic soon.
Read more →Read more →In a crowded marketplace, a unique brand personality makes you stand out in the crowd. #door6
How many times have you walked into a store only to turn around and walk out thinking “Well I’m never going back into that store again” or how many times have to clicked on a website only to click off thinking. “Well that was a waste of my time”. We have all had experiences like this, but we hate to think that our customers are having those experiences with our business. Here is a quick checklist to run through for every business owner.
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If your brand was a person and you meet them at a party, what would your first impression be?
Business owners work in their businesses day in and day out, they are completely familiar with what they provide and how it is delivered. It would be easy to forget how your brand is performing with first your customers first impression.
First impressions for a customer is critical to your sales conversion rates. Regardless if you business is online, a bricks and mortar or a service, you need to be able to communicate with your customers clearly about who your business is and what they are about.
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As a business owner, more than likely you are busy doing business and not so busy worrying about your logo. If you have a very good logo, branding and marketing strategy, then chances are that your existing logo has given you a significant and successful run for the investment that you originally made on it.
Your business is changing direction. Say for example you were a commercial cleaner. You were very good at it and your current logo reflects that, however you see a great opportunity in the market for residential pool and garden maintenance. This would be an ideal time to revisit your logo and branding to make sure that it is current to your target market.
When your business is changing names. This one should be a no brainier, however you need to resist the urge to just change the name in your logo and move on. It’s highly likely that along with a name change has come a new set of values or a new product offering or location.
It’s been more years then you can remember Well designed logo’s will last longer before they start looking outdated. A great example is the Australia Post logo which hasn’t changed since its design in 1975 by Pieter Huveneers.
Logo’s that were designed around different trends and have a lot of “design effects” tend to date much quicker and need replacing more frequently. For years, designers can fall prey to “trends” instead of designing a logo that will not only represent your brand properly, but also give you that longevity. The longer you can keep your logo, the more trust and reliability your brand portrays, so the tip here is… If you are getting a new logo, take the time to invest is a good designer and get a logo that will last the distance.
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