2009 | Thoughts & Notions | Blackcoffee

Archive for 2009

Visualizing Brand Architecture

Monday, October 5th, 2009

Brand architecture is yet another area within the discipline of branding that becomes more effective as strategy and aesthetic are practiced as one. Brand architecture provides a blueprint for growing and managing a company’s brand portfolio by defining relationships between sibling brands. However, those relationships are often lost within the context of a spreadsheet, and the result is inadvertent competition and market cannibalization. This can be avoided by ensuring that your brand architecture is depicted though visual maps that define each brand’s areas of focus and overall market space. (more…)

Posted in Brand Management, Brand Strategy | 64710 Comments »Visualizing+Brand+Architecture2009-10-05+19%3A37%3A08Laura+Savard

Merging Strategy and Execution

Monday, September 21st, 2009

First-in-Flight

There is no question that the traditional agency model is broken. However, the reason may not be due to a shift in how people consume media. The traditional assembly line mentality forces everyone to focus on their own part of the puzzle rather than the greater whole. This division of thinking simply doesn’t work in today’s world, because it leaves too much to be misinterpreted and works toward predetermined solutions. (more…)

Posted in Brand Expression, Brand Identity, Brand Management, Brand Signals, Brand Strategy | 57611 Comments »Merging+Strategy+and+Execution2009-09-21+15%3A58%3A58Laura+Savard

Out On The Edge

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

“I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.”—Kurt Vonnegut

Mainstream culture is derived from sub-culture through a process of influence and refinement. Over the years we have seen numerous influences of sub-culture on mainstream fashion and music, even science and technology. But as these things that used to exist only out on the fringe are brought to the mainstream, they often become sterilized and refined losing all their character and appeal and eventually collapsing under their own weight, pulling next big thing into the mainstream.

So ideas and ideals move from sub-culture to hip, to cool, to the next big thing, finally becoming mainstream. (but of course not all survive the journey)

Sub-culture: There’s some weird stuff going on out here
Hip: Bridging the gap and fusing cultures
Cool: Your kids know about it, but you don’t
Next Big Thing: Kind of self explanatory
Mainstream: Everyone’s doing it

(more…)

Posted in Brand Expression, Brand Management, Brand Strategy | 43617 Comments »Out+On+The+Edge2009-09-09+20%3A08%3A20Laura+Savard