Food delivery vans can be boring, however this one is designed around a great idea.
And it’s selling the product in a very appetising way.
I found this one in Haverfordwest, Wales.
Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category
Another great idea.
Wednesday, September 21st, 2022Dam clever those Portuguese.
Friday, July 22nd, 2022
Every piece of packaging contains a barcode.
I found this one on a milk carton in Porto, Portugal.
How clever of the designer to use the graphics of the bar code to emphasise the freshness of their milk.
A big healthy cow munching on fresh nutritious grass.
A total disaster.
Thursday, June 23rd, 2022
Total, the French multinational petroleum company, has decided to move into the area of sustainable power and rebranded itself as TotalEnergies.
This move to green energy is laudable, however the newly developed name and logo is to my mind, a fiasco.
It’s too complex, too long and not memorable, or even aesthetically pleasing.
The company website goes to great lengths to rationalise the new design. Which is in itself is an indication that it’s not self expiatory.
‘Total’ as a word means ‘complete’ and ‘absolute.’ So why not stay with a perfectly simple name and let the design and the accompanying PR do the work.
After all isn’t a picture worth a thousand words.
This whole project has been over thought and I can see the client’s ‘guiding hand’ being a major factor in this disaster.
Selling a speed limit.
Friday, June 18th, 2021
Driving around we see dozens of speed signs every day.
But how much do we take notice of them?
This particular one, on Kerferd Avenue in Sorrento, is just down from the local primary school.
I noticed it, as it gave me an emotional reason to slow down.
It was more than a traffic sign, it was a pull on the heart strings as well.
The marketing of a road.
Wednesday, May 26th, 2021
The day we returned from our Back to Yack adventure we took, what’s now known as, The Great River Road.
The website describes the road as:
‘Set between two of Australia’s most beloved landscape icons, the Murray River and the Snowy Mountains, the Great River Road showcases 155 kilometres of beautiful high-country in Victoria’s North East – perfect for exploring at any pace.’
We started at Corryong, in the east, and then drove westward to the edge of the Hume Weir. The scenery was spectacular and there were many points of interest along the way. These included lookouts, odd bits of sculpture and historic markers.
The road was originally not one designated drive but a number of different routes.
The logo that has been recently developed is used for both The Great River Road and the Upper Murray region.
Although there isn’t much information about the development of the Upper Murray marketing program, it seems to be a joint venture between the local councils, community groups and even Upper Murray Health and Community Services.
It’s clever marketing that can take something, that many people already know about, and turn it into a new adventure and experience.
However, the idea isn’t original.
The Great River Road was first created in the United States in 1938 and was used to market the Mississippi River.
The US website describes it as:
‘The Great River Road is a collection of state and local roads that follow the course of the Mississippi River through ten states of the United States.’
The US road also has a logo, which is a little outdated. I much prefer the Australian one, as it actually has an idea.
Nonetheless, I do think that a trip up, or down, the Mississippi River road would be great – especially considering they have a craft beer trail already mapped out for me.
It’s an epic craft beer experience that takes you to 43 breweries in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana.
It does seem an odd combination of drinking and driving.
Now the craft is in the label.
Saturday, October 31st, 2020I love craft beer.
So much so that when we travelled across the US, from west to east and visa versa, we always looked for a brewpub first for the evening meal.
These places not only had great beers but also excellent wines and food. Their food and drinks were well priced, and they weren’t a slave to the US practice of tipping.
Most of the owners paid their staff a good basic wage and therefore they weren’t reliant on a tip to survive.
Most craft breweries have a very different approach to creating and marketing their products. Especially compared to the big breweries, who are just after volume and usually develop beers that are basic and designed not to challenge the drinker in any way – they don’t want to offend.
Over the last few years I have seen a profound change in the design of beer labels.
The craft breweries’ strategy of creating a unique product now extends to their labels as well.
The first craft beer that I discovered, with a very different marketing approach and attitude, was BrewDog. This Scottish brewery has become international with manufacturing in the USA, Europe and now Australia.
However their labels were nothing to brag about. Their point of difference was their attitude and they did go out of their way to offend in as many ways as possible.
It certainly didn’t damage their sales.
As the craft beer market, both in Australia and around the world has becomes more crowded, brewers needed to find another edge.
Now the label has become a tool to express their point of difference.
Below are a few that I have discovered.
BrewDog (the original) from Scotland. Brio from Berlin, Kaiju from Melbourne, KCBC (Kings Country Brewing Collective) from New York, Mikkeller from Copenhagen and the very minimalist designs of Singlecut, again from NYC.
Is the Coca Cola Company clutching at straws?
Saturday, February 29th, 2020
On our most recent trip to Berlin, I was surprised to see this street poster for Coke.
Roughly translated it proudly proclaims: ‘For serious pizza serve the original.’
I fully understand food and wine, matching, even food and beer matching, but food and Coke is just silly.
While the uptake of bottled water is growing worldwide, Coke’s market share, especially in Germany, is on the slide. Their worldwide business has shrunk by 2% per annum over the last ten years.
So it’s no wonder that they have adopted the rather bizarre strategy of trying to make a fizzy, sugar laden soft drink match with food.
Is the truth really out there?
Wednesday, April 6th, 2016
Recently I watched six new episodes of the very successful science fiction TV series, ‘The X-Files’.
The original series ran from September 1993 to May 2002. Written by Chris Carter and staring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, there were 202 episodes and two feature films. The second film was released in 2008.
It was the longest running science fiction series in US history.
I think that this latest 6 episode series is a fishing expedition by 20th Century Fox Television. Each episode was so completely different that I can’t help but feel they are all part of an elaborate market research program.
Some episodes were verging on ‘slap-stick’ while others continued with the old protagonists and conspiracy theories.
The producers even introduced Fox and Scully clones.
Its been 8 years since the last film and 14 years since since the last series, so the market’s attitudes towards the characters and plots may well have shifted.
Will there be more X-Files and what will be the theme?
The truth is probably out there, or at least buried in the market research.
‘F’ is for Ford or is it for frightened?
Monday, January 11th, 2016
What does the latest Ford posters say about the company?
For one it says they are frightened; frightened that their ever dwindling market share is going to vanish completely into an Australian heat haze.
Why else would you feature a poster campaign where the logo is larger than the product and the proposition is even smaller still.
Ford will stop manufacturing cars in Australia later this year, and it’s my guess that these ads are more about propping up confidence in the dealer network, than they are about selling vehicles.
Given the new car sales figures for 2015, they should be worried.
Ford were 6th, with 70,454 sales (down 11.6%) and behind, of all manufactures, Mitsubishi with 71,752.
2015 was a bumper year for car sales with 1,155,408 vehicles sold – a 3.8% rise on the previous year.
Holden and Ford were the only companies to post a sales decline, with Ford having its worst year since 1966. Even the Mercedes-Benz C-Class comfortably outsold the Ford Falcon.
It appears that Australians have already given up on Henry.
“A picture is worth a thousand words.” As they say.
Thursday, November 24th, 2022During our recent travels, I found this old Guinness poster in Derry, Southern Ireland.
This one was probably developed in the 1940s or 1950s and could have been illustrated by the famous British artist, John Gilroy.
Unfortunately the available information is a little sketchy.
Around the world Guinness is an exceptionally strong brand and it’s advertising like this that has made it that way.
Arthur Guinness founded the company in St James’s Gate, Dublin, Ireland in 1759. However it wasn’t until 1929 that the Guinness family permitted the beer to be advertised. And that was with the stipulation that “The quality of the advertising was as good as the quality of the beer.”
The result is that Guinness has always differentiated itself from other ‘beers’ in a unique and interesting way.
There are many stouts but only one Guinness.
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