Never mind the Micky Mouse watch, get a Barack Obama one.

Another article I came across recently I thought would be of interest to you, constant reader, is this one by Naomi Klein from Saturday’s Guardian. Naomi, as I like to call her, is the author of the thought-provoking bit of zeitgeist called  No Logo 10 years ago. The book studied how the growth in branding was affecting many elements of our lives and also looked in particular at how big multinationals like Nike and Starbucks had, in effect, become marketing businesses, having outsourced pretty much everything else that they did.

As a PR practitioner, No Logo made for a fascinating if slightly schizophrenic read. On the one hand, I was appalled by some of the corporate sleight-of-brand (ooo, I like that); on the other, there were some great ideas. I particularly recall the beer company that held a series of free rock concerts to promote itself but, in order to ensure maximum coverage for the brand, only released the names of the performers the day before the gig. Genius.

In this new article, Naomi talks about what’s happened in the decade since No Logo was first published. She looks at how branding has thrived and adapted and become subsumed into corporate culture. She also examines how Barack Obama has become the first president to be a superbrand in his own right.

Really worth a read so click here.

Written by Adrian Beeby

In a perverse way, an economic downturn can be a good thing for the creative industry.  Clients are reluctant to green light jobs and more design agencies are battling for fewer accounts.  Therefore, agencies need to raise their game and deliver stand-out creatives to win or retain clients…and enhance their reputation in the eyes of prospective clients.

More specifically, branding tends to be better placed to ride out recessions than advertising.  Advertising is often, lazily, classified as an expensive luxury.  However, an organisation cannot afford to disregard the basic marketing materials that communicate its brand identity altogether.

With financial services, the situation is slightly different to most other organisations as it’s ‘that lot that got us in the mess in the first place with their excess and recklessness’ (or words to that effect, minus expletives).  Even relatively innocent parties such as insurers, for example, tend to be lumped in with the investment bankers as part of a greedy and irresponsible whole.  More than ever, customers need to believe in and trust an organisation to handle its money prudently.

With regard to financial services clients’ reputations (or their brand image) branding designers can play a critical part.  People are especially astute nowadays and will sieve through superfluous ‘nice’ graphics to get to the necessary information – i.e. is an organisation to be trusted, what can it guarantee and especially pertinent today, will it even be here next year!

Indeed, trust and belief are possibly the two most crucial messages in financial services brands today.  Of course, we will always want to be attracted visually to a brand, but this has taken a back seat in the current climate.  Straightforward, incisive and more spartan brand identities may well become the order of the day.  Or put another way, cut out the fluff and cut to the chase.

This already seems to be happening across the pond with creative heavy weights Landor Associates observing more modest and restrained branding already starting to emerge in America and expecting it to follow suit in the UK.  Fears about the economy mean flaunting excess and luxury has become bad taste.  Echoes of more simple, bold 1940s and 50s-style branding could well be on their way.

On the subject of 50s design, here’s a YouTube homage to one of the heroes of that era, Saul Bass, famous for classic film posters and title sequences (such as Vertigo, Psycho, West Side Story) and international corporate identities (including AT&AT & United Airlines).  Here’s how the Star Wars title sequence could have panned out if it had been commissioned from Saul Bass in the 50s…

Written by Nick Patchitt