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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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.
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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Retail branding consultancy, Lemley Design, sweeps first annual Graphic Design: USA’s InStore Design Competition. With five awards, Lemley Design topped all other submitting firms for winning entries. The award winners were featured in the March 2007 issue of Graphic Design: USA, the country’s leading monthly trade magazine for the graphic design industry and read by over 100,000 design professionals and clients.
“We are humbled to receive recognition from such an esteemed publication,” states David Lemley, President and Chief Brand Strategist for Lemley Design. “Our firm’s primary focus is to create a design strategy that integrates the brand voice in every aspect of the design process.” He explains, “The design industry is no longer about creating esthetically pleasing or killer design, it’s about defining and communicating the brand within the elements of design.”
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This is an excerpt from an article I wrote for Marketingprofs.com
“How companies deal with negative experiences is just as important as creating positive experiences.In light of the recent pet food poisoning scare, several companies have taken the lead in reassuring pet owners that they are being proactive in responding to their concerns. Brands like Eukanuba, Iams and retailers such as PETCO and PetSmart, have endeavored to be proactive in addressing the crisis by pulling product, providing notice information and updating their websites with information about the recall. Reacting immediately and proactively is not an option. It’s the right thing to do from both a humane perspective and from a brand sustainability perspective.”
Read the whole article at Marketingprofs.com.
2007 Rockport publishers New book 1000 Retail Graphic, edited by JGA, features eleven projects created by Lemley Design.
The book’s jacket reads, “The retail industry is one of the most competitive and, as a result, challenging arenas in design today. The expectation for creativity and originality is extremely high, yet the success rate of many retail ventures is quite low-so getting the marketing and branding right is essential for survival. This book provides a wealth of design inspiration from a variety of retail businesses, offering designers, retail marketers, and business owners a vast collection of innovative options. Like the other books in Rockport’s 1,000 series, the pages pop with ideas for promotions, signage, tags, advertisements, flyers, bags, logos, and ad premiums such as novelties, giveaways, and more.”
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. 
