David Lemley has written an article featured in Design and Display Ideas Magazine. The article, ‘The Indelible Brand, Bonding with the Customer’ is featured in the publications ‘Think Tank’ section, a monthly column for industry leaders to provide innovative perspective on branding and design. ‘The Indelible Brand’ emphasizes the importance of bonding with the customer through a brand’s unique individual character communicated through its personality.
The article explains the importance of understanding the personality of the customer in conjunction with the personality of the brand.
As an example, Lemley states: (more…)
I was invited to be a judge for the Retail Advertising Awards (RAMA) in NYC with Robert Raible, Mike Gatti, Greg Clark, Kathy Doyle Thomas, Michael Tam and several others who ended up doing their part on a different day. One of which I was dying to meet and not just because she is a stellar creative director like all of the others. I am talking about Andrea Vollmer, VP at Best Buy. Why? Because she was officially the first person to subscribe to my newsletter, BrandTail.
Now about the work. Outside of broadcast it was mostly just okay (sorry, but its true.) There were a few stand-out pieces including Leo Burnett’s outdoor sundial for McDonalds and Copacino’s work for Seattle Aquarium. The most comprehensive and thoughtful muliti-discipline work that integrated brand strategy beyond merely an advertising hook was Sak’s Fifth Avenue, created by their in-house agency. Everything else paled in comparison.
I think there is a struggle among retailers and their creative partners that, when I look at most of the work in this competition, and even the winners, feels compromised somehow. I want to call it lack of trust on both sides.
My first international audience of brand marketing professionals was filled with people from large multinational CPG companies. Wayfast, an informal breakfast format, sponsored by Way Marketing, was held at the ultra-swanky Sheraton Hotel in downtown Lisbon.
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Package Design Magazine, an authority on best practices in Package Design today published with permission, the article from the September 2007 issues of our company newsletter by linking directly to the article from its eForum section.
Editor-in-Chief, Ron Romink said, “This article is packed with important information about the necessity for brand stewards to become authentic or return to authenticity in today’s marketplace. I think will help a lot of people struggling to manage brands in these over communicated times.”
Package Design Magazine features profiles of extraordinary design projects, teams, and processes. The features present insight into the products, workflow, and the technologies that go into creating the finest packaging in the world.
See Package Design Magazine’s eSolutions Issue #20
Lemley’s feature article written for the Brazilian corporate marketing and design community, discusses the importance of developing a brand’s character as a guide map for every other decision in the design and development process.
In the article, Lemley advises companies to be genuine with their representation by keeping the brand character paramount throughout the design process. He also emphasizes that character traits can only be attributable if the message matches the reality.
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A recent speaking engagement in Chicago forced me to become absolutely clear on how to discuss brand’s relationship to business. I was planning to keep it separate and available only to audience participants, but Forbes recently published two articles that made me realize there are people still evangelizing the Old Testament (The Four P’s of Marketing, as introduced in 1960’s America). I can no longer sit back and let them screw up a bunch of well educated people’s understanding of the New Covenant: The Experience Economy. (more…)
Lemley’s feature article for the July issue of Package Design Magazine compares the unique process of brand building with the process of method acting. Just as an actor ‘becomes’ his character, a brand ‘becomes’ those key characteristics that differentiate the brand for its competitors.
The article appears in both the print edition and the online version of Package Design.
Addressing the importance of creating ‘theatrical experiences’ around the brand, Lemley emphasizes the importance of embodying the brand’s character traits into every step of the design and development process.
Lemley states: “An actor connects with the audience based on a truthful expression of the character brought out through his own feelings, memories and experiences. By internalizing the core characteristics of the brand with the persona of the customer, the product will become that character.”
Package Design Magazine is one of the top packaging magazines in the country covering the packaging and branding of worldwide products in all industries, news and trends in package design technology, materials and innovation. With a distribution of 30,000, Package Design is read by industry leaders in top consumer product companies, worldwide. Read the article here.
“Don’t panic, It’s Organic!” These are the words used by my first intern’s Father when explaining to his impressionable young-en that its okay to throw an apple core out of the car window because it’ll rot.
It was 1970 and the hippie movement was in full bloom… free love, flower power and support for the organic farmer as a way to “Stick it to The Man” and denounce popular culture of the day.
The hippies had immediate influence over music, movies and family values. Why did it take forty years for the organics movement to go mainstream?
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From the brochure…
Brand Therapy 101: Integrating Branding and Design into the Boardroom
Branding and design have become key business objectives for those companies that intend to survive the experience economy. Designers and brand consultancies can facilitate this therapeutic rebirth of corporate senior management by relating profitability to brand experience, and sustainability to meaningful design within a cultural context. However, this can only be attained if embraced at the top and integrated throughout the organization.
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Is Perception Latin for Reality?
Are discount stores finally realizing that they can’t be something they’re not? Attention retailers: just be yourselves (’cause if you don’t, customers will see right through you). And, by the way, you cannot be everything to everybody. Case in point: First there was Kmart. Then came Wal-Mart. Then came Target. Then the fun started. Kmart tried to be like Wal-Mart. Mistake. Kmart filed for bankruptcy. Then Wal-Mart wanted to be like Target. Mistake. Wal-Mart realized it, and fired its marketing guru and ad agency. Wal-Mart is for low-price shoppers. Target is for shoppers with a little less concern about price and more concern about style. Kmart, you can’t fall somewhere in between. In the Experience Economy, retailers will not be successful mimicking a concept. They have to seize the opportunity to create their own unique personalities. To be themselves.
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David Lemley has written an article featured in Design and Display Ideas Magazine. The article, ‘The Indelible Brand, Bonding with the Customer’ is featured in the publications ‘Think Tank’ section, a monthly column for industry leaders to provide innovative perspective on branding and design. ‘The Indelible Brand’ emphasizes the importance of bonding with the customer through a brand’s unique individual character communicated through its personality. 
