Being obsessed with brands we always like to look at everyday situations as though they were brands. We thought the much maligned England football squad would make a good analogy. Anybody who watched the England vs Croatia match last week would have to say that England were disappointing to say the least- disjointed, at odds and lacking cohesion. A team full of gifted individuals being took to school by a team everybody expected us to beat. It has been a perennial problem, and the underlying reason for many managers losing their jobs that the expectation levels for England are too high. If we were looking at the team as a brand we would say that their brand promise is over exaggerating what they are delivering in reality- a bit like the Wonderbra of football teams. Yet it’s not just this over promising where we could apply the brand analogy, the lack of direction and sense of cohesion is like a company with no central idea and values. The players were acting exactly as staff that didn’t have a grip of the bigger picture, who didn’t know the part they were meant to be playing in achieving an overall goal. Steve McClaren, the man tasked with providing this vision and direction and communicating it failed miserably. Like every other England fan, eternal optimists we still hold out hope for someone to come in and provide this direction. Jose Mourinho, must surely be the man to inject some life into our national squad and provide the perfect antidote to last week’s pitiful sight of McClaren, umbrella in hand, beleaguered and at sea in the pissing down rain.
Archive for November, 2007
McClaren's England Team
Monday, November 26th, 2007Tags: brand, cohesion, communication, direction, England, England vs Croatia, football team, Jose Mourinho, Steve McClaren, vision, Wonderbra
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Subaru's Magnolia Approach
Friday, November 23rd, 2007Phew! At last we have got some time to update the blog- the studio has been pretty busy to say the least. Talking about time we like to give some new designs a bit of time to settle down in our heads. Sometimes the things that look wrong and jar at the outset start to look truly great once the initial newness has worn off. Chris Bangle’s BMW designs are now looking inspirational when you consider the range that preceded his and where BMW car designs were heading prior to his appointment. The 2012 London Olympics logo will we are sure, by the time of the Olympics, really stand up as a great bit of communication. It would have been so easy to have produced a safe, generic identity that would have blended in with every other event; in any case the genius of such a thinly disguised sex act in a logo brilliantly sums up Britishness in a way none of us could consciously articulate. And so we come on to the new Subaru Impreza- the rally inspired road car that more than any other car of recent times sums up the ‘Marmite’ syndrome in people (you either love it or hate it). You either think it is everything an exciting car should be and conjures up ideas of motor sport and pine forests, or you just think no……no, no ,no , no. So in the infinite wisdom of Subaru and following Ford’s world car approach (Ford who incidentally are losing money like there is no tomorrow) decided that what we really need is a magnolia approach, something neutral that appeals to everybody. This is the new Subaru Impreza. Aside from the fact that their idea of a neutral car looks like a rehashed Mazda, Subaru may have really deeply damaged their brand. In the past it was so clear to customers what the brand stood for; owners knew they were very different from those that wouldn’t touch the car with a barge pole. In a potential take-over bid the brand value would have been high and very clearly defined.
Only time will tell, but in our opinion this attempt to win more customers and be more profitable has went very wrong. We will get back to you in about 5 years on this one.
Tags: BMW, brand, brand value, Branding, Chris Bangle, Ford, London 2012 Olympics logo, New Subaru Impreza, Subaru, Wolff Olins
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