Weniger ist Mehr
Why 3 German words are the only challenger brand strategy you’ll ever need
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a famously difficult man to get along with. Arguably one of the finest architects of all time, he was cantankerous, mercurial and intimidatingly bejowelled, forever blowing plumes of thick smoke from one of his beloved Cuban Robustos. Other than a string of exquisite buildings, he gifted mankind an enduringly poignant insight, delivered with fitting clarity: “Weniger ist mehr”, he bellowed, “Less is more”.
Post Category: HOW
Keep reading 480 WORDS >
Stores We Love
What DTC brands can learn from great stores around the world
It’s great direct to consumer (DTC) brands are opening a small number of new physical stores around the world. But a lot of them could be better. Stores can feel soulless and vacant, displays don’t survive first contact with customers, and so on. We identify things we can learn from a handful of great stores around the world.
Post Category: HOW
Keep Reading 1134 WORDS >
Physical Retail is Dead. Or is it?
How physical stores can be good for your brand, even if everyone else is struggling.
Stores are closing in their thousands across the world, and yet there are direct to consumer (DTC) brands opening a small number of physical stores. Companies like Allbirds and Deciem/ The Ordinary.
Physical stores can make financial sense, increasing sales in the region and purchases by loyal customers. More powerfully, they can be the embodiment of the brand for customers and the business itself. But crucially, don’t open too many of them.
Post Category: HOW
Keep Reading 854 WORDS >
The Poison Chalice of Coolness
Or: how to avoid your one-way ticket to irrelevance
We live in extraordinary times, where new, digitally-activated startup brands continually topple the hegemony of big-business with unruffled ease. The product landscape in many consumer categories already looks unrecognisable compared to just a few years ago - and when Fever-Tree tonic replaces Schweppes even on board British Airways flights, you know that no holy cow is safe anymore. How fabulously exciting that is.
Post Category: HOW
Keep reading 344 WORDS >
Are agencies unintentional incubators?
It’s hard to feel an iota of sympathy for the legions of Suits complaining about how hard it is for ‘creative agencies’ these days.
But consider for a moment the thinkers and craftspeople stuck in that quicksand - confronted daily by risk averse ‘managers’, sour lemonade budgets, cocaine expectations, and slag heaps of data.
Perhaps then it’s no surprise that some of the most interesting challenger brands have been/are being conceived by agency creatives sick to the back teeth of big clients who don’t listen.
Post Category: WHAT
Keep Reading 624 WORDS >