Brief 1 and 6 Responses from studios

I have had three responses from the studios I targeted on 28 April so thats makes a total of five.  The quotes wull be used across the book as they address three different chapters in the book:

Ian Anderson (Designers Republic)

The three questions I would appreciate your input on are:

 1. In your experience, should Brands always have an authentic and true back story? Please explain why you think this.

they should at least appear to have. without they lack credibility... would you buy into something which lacked credibility in your mind. if you think of the identity as being how you look and the brand as being the personality, i think you can answer your own question. whether the back story is genuine is a different matter, and maybe it only matters if you don't feel or care if its genuine. personally i don't think its essential for the back story to be genuine, you're buying into the idea whether coke genuinely adds life doesn't matter, you support the product based on the aspiration it creates / projects it's all a game anyway it only becomes crucial if the claim the brand makes is a lie in the sense of a cover up - if someone claims to be ethical when they operate sweatshops for example otherwise it's just a narrative can you think of any examples where we're not lied to? consumerism? politics? religion? there is no one truth, there's only your perspective and what you choose to do with it

 2. Would your Agency ever turn down a brief from a Client for reasons other than capacity and if so why?
 every one has to draw a line in the sand which they won't cross as a matter of conscience in whatever we do. i think where someone draws the line is primarily a matter between them and their conscience... if you want some examples, i won't work for the tories, the blades or tobacco companies. 

3. How important is Social Media to you as an Agency and also within the context of a branding brief?

 it's increasingly important in the context of networking and profile, decreasingly important in terms of a call to action / response. facebook for example tends to show little real return even relative to people who respond positively to shout outs. in that respect its a little like flyposting and other street media - its difficult and sometimes misleading to correlate success in relation to exposure.

James Acton (The Brand Nursery)

Hope this helps?

 Q1. It is all a question of context and the category you are entering into. Brands or branding give you competitive commercial advantage (that’s the reason brands exist) therefore you need to be aware of the competitive set. The art of good branding is to move other brands to another place (reposition other brands to make yours more relevant, understood and appealing) So, should the back-story be true and authentic? Not necessarily. If you are entering a category where there are no rules or conventions then the back-story can be a flight of pure fantasy as long as the rational attributes of the brand perform beyond the consumer’s expectation. If the product or service is crap, consumers will ditch you no matter what the back-story! If a brand were entering a category filled with provenance and history then you would expect to have a credible, true and authentic back-story that was inherent in the brand and competed hard against the competition.

Q2. Yes we would. Grounds for not accepting a brief are usually existing client confidentially agreements that we have in place or moral grounds where we wouldn’t work on certain products or categories.

Q3. Social media plays a very small role in our overall thinking when it comes to brand strategy. Liking a brand on Facebook does not make a brand (see below from Bloomberg). You can have as many ‘thumbs up’ as you like but that is no guarantee of commercial success. Always remember that consumers say one thing and do another! Social media is a communication channel driven largely by user generated content, ground swell and opinion which is absolutely fine but you need to place your brand more meaningfully in front of people in an appropriate manner so that they receive the message, understand the message and act upon it in terms of purchasing, behaviour or intent. In short Social Media is ‘ok’ for some brands but it’s not for every brand (as once was considered). “The dirty secret social-media gurus won’t reveal is that Facebook likes are becoming a devalued currency. Facebook now receives 1.17 trillion likes and comments from consumers annually, which works out to 3.5 per Facebook user per day. Forty-two million Facebook pages now have 10 or more likes. In a world where liking is as common as blinking, a like no longer signals that a consumer loves your brand…” James Acton Director The Brand Nursery Limited Angels Wing I | Whitehouse Street | Leeds | LS10 1AD

To be fair there is an alternative view on Brands and Social Media. Take a look at what these guys are doing. US lead the way in this I'm afraid! http://percolate.com/


Earlier responses from Simon Manchipp and Noel Lyons

Lee Bennett Design Director at Propaganda
please see my answers below: 1. Yes they should. We always try and give brands a story, as that's what sets brand apart. The stories also give a solid foundation to the brand, so that consumers know what the brand stands for, and importantly this also spreads to staff and employees within the company so they know who they are. And stories should always be based on truth, otherwise they're worthless and can be found out! 2. We turn down briefs a lot. Usually for us its because the projects isn't the right 'fit' for our agency. We only do work where we are allowed to spend months researching the client and the sector, and we only work with clients that let up operate at a senior level within their company, this is to ensure we have a positive impact in their business. Some clients just want an odd tactic (brochure, web site, logo, etc) producing, but we wont do that, we only to large brand led projects. 3. It's very important, brand can no live or die with the management if their social media. We built the Illamasqua's brand through social channels, not through advertising, that shows how impactful social media is. It's also great that people and brand can interact more closely now, and if you're dishonest then you will get caught out. Apologies if this is brief. If you need more info we could chat on the phone. I hope this has helped!