I’m spending a few weeks in the heat and cloudless skies of Spain.
Escaping.
I mean, escaping ‘Brand’.
Brand positioning, brand values, brand essence, etc, etc.
Forget it. I’m on my hols.
But, for people like me who are fascinated by it, it isn’t that easy.
For example, whilst in a foreign country, we are constantly presented with new and unfamiliar brands at every turn.
El Supermercado (hey, bit of Spanish creeping in there!) is a nightmare. The names either sound like anagrams, or a dubious medical condition. Yet, even with the language difference, when selecting from a range of products, there are ‘signals’ in the presentation of the design, typography and colour to convey which is the brand leader.
Fine, but let me share an anecdote from today.
Buying bottled water.
Basic, functional, cheap- something to reach out for whilst on the beach after too much sun, or something to reach out for during the night after too much Spanish brandy.
But, there I was. Faced with several brands containing, essentially, the same product.
I narrowed it down by logical elimination of shape and proportions of the plastic container – would it easily slide out of my hand due to the coating of Factor 6 or would it fall over and roll down the beach?
So, I was faced with two choices. The first, designed with a delicate post-modern typography style of letter-spaced Copperplate, contrasting with the pleasing cleanliness of Standard Light Caps. Or the second -a bolder, brutal, reassuring option of dated – yet strangely comforting – Times New Roman reversed out of a deep blue panel.
This was the big moment.
Then I heard the words echoing from my internal focus group – “Its only water for Christ’s sake. Just buy it and get to the beach”
David Bailey, Creative Director
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