New identity for Imperial War Museums

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/october/hat-tricks-new-identity-for-imperial-war-museums

Well, I don't get it. I appreciate that the IWM logo has to be versatile across the many sorts of media that the museums deal with but this doesn't do it for me. The idea that the logo needs to be strong to withstand use reversed out on stock photos, videos as well as regular corporate material lends itself to this BBC style design but I think it is left wanting. The proportions of the key stone element are unkind and the step up between the words is just silly. (Low voice) Imperial, (high voice) War,  (Low voice) Museums.

Like the idea of bringing the plural Museums into play to reflect the nationwide aspect and also the great vibrant colours used but overall feels quite unbalanced and Eye Double Ewe Em isn't that much less of a mouthful than Imperial War Museums…

Secrets of the Superbrands: tonight BBC3

Interesting looking documentary on BBC3 tonight regarding 'Superbrands' and how cunning marketing can get us to buy their stuff . How do these companies market their products and tap into our basic needs.

"With the help of marketeers, brain scientists and exclusive access to the world of the superbrands Alex sets out to find out why we buy them, trust them, even idolise them."

Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13416598

Programme page: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011fjbp

Santander takes over

"The bank says that rebranding will cost it £12m, although this does not include any of the cost of advertising or expenses. The savings by integrating the businesses has been estimated by the bank as £180m."

So Santander wants to bowl over Bradford and Bingley, Alliance and Leicester and Abbey and there's much talk about why and will it pay off? For me it has to be a no-brainer. Santander wants to consolidate (ok) and I think they realise now is the time as people have lost faith in bank names all over but especially the UK. I'm sure there are high level strategic reasons for repositioning services and products and giving a Europe-wide portfolio for customers but really, are they risking anything? This article says some customers will be lost but to which other trustworthy bank? Are there any?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8070335.stm

Beyond the logo: building the customer experience

Most of my clients, I have to admit, don't know what a brand is. Well who does!? It's a recognisable logo, right? So please design me a brand.

The difficulty is telling the client that they're wrong. And to be honest they mostly don't want to hear. Building a brand is about taking care of your customers and projecting the right values about your product or service in whatever you do as a business.

I'll be interested to see how my sore little problem turns out in terms of customer experience. Let me shed some light on this for you...

I love shaving! It's bizarre, I know. I think I prefer to pamper myself rather than the act of shaving off skin and hair from my face. In any case I fell for this beautifully packaged and messaged shaving gel: Real Shaving Company. It promised me "anti-razor burn" , "professional formula" for "sensitive skin"!

"This clear gel provides an invisible coating to give incredible slip for against the grain shave with no burning or redness and allows you to see where you're shaving." (Their words not mine)

Oh yeah baby! I'm getting it! This is for me! Total connection with this product- GIMME more! So I shelled out near enough 5 quid for this professional product which promised me no burn or redness. YESSSSSSS!

But I've been having a few problems with it. It doesn't seem to give me the clean results I anticipated from the values the packaging portrayed, nor the details written on the side. Quite sore, no smooth shaving experience, quite painful: tugging at the beard and LOTS of redness...But hey, I persevered with it thinking maybe I wasn't exactly following the instructions. I tend to leave my beard a long time before cutting and it gets quite thick. Maybe that was it. I cut the gel some slack huh!?

But this time, I did everything to the letter. Result:

AAAAAGH!

New razor, washed face, towel dry, shave along grain of beard at first, pulling skin taut to help the shave.

Look at the state of my poor face :-(

But I'm not here to moan about the gel really. I'm telling you about my brand dissatisfaction: my expectations (which were reinforced by the packaging and the website) were not met. In fact if anything all it's achieved is negative brand experience.... up to now!

But let's see how they respond to a letter I'll send them. After all I feel the product has let me down (at the least) and possibly even misled me! Painfully!

So I want to see if the Real Shaving Company can re-establish some of its values with me by its response. How will they react to my complaint? Let's see.... I'll post a letter soon to their Peterborough address. Can a brand be re-built in the customer's mind?

A suivre.....