The Stafix brand offers a wide range of electric fence energizers and accessories to professional farmers across the globe, but since it was first acquired by Tru-Test Group in 1998, its core branding has remained largely unchanged.

Dow Design’s strategic development director Andy Jaquet says it was important the new look retain some of the elements of familiarity and trust associated with the brand of old.

“Brand preference is important when purchasing an energiser, but in most other product categories, there was little consumer differentiation between brands,” he says. “Stafix lacked the strong personality and brand promise needed to standout, often resulting in a ‘commodity’ status.”

As for High Noon, his talents come all the way from South Dakota, USA. Dow Design account director Carolynn Easton says High Noon’s image across Stafix product packaging “captures attention” and achieves strong cut through and memorability. She says research shows this subtlety can make the difference between brand acceptance or brand rejection. Who would’ve thought?

A new strap line, ‘Powering Your Land’, was added next to the bull, to reinforce the brand promise, and brand values of strength, stability and performance guaranteed.

With up to 150 products in a category, Dow says clear sub-categories were also added within each range from economy to professional, with sub-category tiers denoted by colours; yellow for standard efficiency, silver for premium, and gold for extreme. The cross selling of complementary products was also added.

The new...

...versus the old

So, we got what we expected from the Super City logo competition: a rather staid, traditional, old fashioned, unimaginative mark that looks like the old Regional Parks emblem. From the Super City I wanted a logo that expresses the modern, dynamic, diverse, creative, vibrant, commercial city that is Auckland. And I don’t get that from this.

And why not? It’s because there was no process, brief, strategy or vision. Without a proper design process what chance was there? If this is how the Super City is going to operate, I fear for all our services.

I think Jim Dean, a retired commercial artist, has created a perfectly adequate, if somewhat traditional logo. But what values does it convey to you, the rest of New Zealand and the world about Auckland?

Jim Dean with his flowery graphic creations (via www.ata.govt.nz)

I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised, given the style in which this competition was run. According to the New Zealand Herald: “The Transition Agency is still deciding how to use Mr Dean’s three designs.” Brilliant, they don’t even know how it will be used. Even the applause at the unveiling had to be prompted. It all seems to be rather flat.

Auckland Regional Parks logo via nzherald.co.nz

It is time for New Zealand and the Super City as our commercial centre to support one of our greatest strengths. New Zealanders have a reputation for superb creativity, but it has to be creativity built on a strong commercial foundation with aims, objectives and deliverables clearly identified. It’s about aligning the brand to the business objectives of the company or service.

Branding is not a beauty contest. It is about emotionally connecting with your intended audience to convey the values and principles of your service or product. In the Super City’s first opportunity to demonstrate a new dynamic attitude, it fell at the first hurdle. Come on Auckland Super City, it’s time to support the great commercial creativity that your city has to offer.

]]> http://www.stoppress.co.nz/opinion/2010/04/super-city-logo-fails-to-support-aucklands-commercial-creativity/feed/ 4 http://www.stoppress.co.nz/news/2010/03/brand-by-lottery/ http://www.stoppress.co.nz/news/2010/03/brand-by-lottery/#comments Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:08:10 +0000 Ben Fahy http://www.stoppress.co.nz/?p=7960 What is Auckland Super City thinking? As we in the design world have always thought, everyone is a designer, so why not throw a competition out to all New Zealanders and get them to design a random logo for the country’s commercial centre. That’ll give us international credibility. Yeah right!

You can hear the discussions in the corridors of power: “Alright guys, we need to get a new logo for the Super City. Bear in mind, however, that whatever we come up with is going to be blasted by every newspaper and media outlet, as well as every Auckland ratepayer.”

Why so? Firstly, because nobody will like it (remember the furore around ‘Auckland A!’) and secondly because it will be seen as costing too much. As Bill Ralston has said, whoever gets the job has a hospital pass anyway, so why not dodge the issue entirely. Pretty clever.

Maybe it’s because as designers we feel slighted. But isn’t this sending out the wrong message to New Zealand businesses? As the rest of the world embraces the design generation, what message is New Zealand sending out? This is what Bob Harvey, Waitakere Mayor and head judge had to say: “Anyone who can draw, print, scribble with crayon, pencil, pen or computer can go for this.”

And he went on: “Somewhere out there is someone who can do that. Maybe a 10-year-old, maybe an eight-year-old, maybe a man or woman that simply scribbles something on a piece of paper at work.” How sweet.

It was interesting to see arts doyen and logo judge Hamish Keith rolled out on Breakfast TV to explain this position. In my opinion, he looked very uncomfortable, as I’m not sure it felt in line with his beliefs at all. It will be interesting to know if the judges are being paid for their professional contribution.

But surely Bob Harvey and his friends are missing the point. A brand or logo is only as good as the underpinning brand story and brief that it comes from. The research, understanding and complexities of a stunning mark cannot be made from a 10-year-old on his PC. It’s the story behind the brand that gives it value. Why would Coca Cola, Disney, Apple, Vodafone and others spend so much time and energy defending the integrity of their simple logos?

In their discussions the judges mentioned how good the Melbourne City logo is. This logo cost $91,000 for the initial research, with the design costing a further $148,000. It was designed by Landor (not a 10-year-old), one of the top design agencies in the world, and the cost, while high, was not excessive for a brand identity of this size, especially considering it underpins all of the marketing collateral.

Click here to view the embedded video.

My concern is that this goes far beyond a council not being brave enough to do the right thing and getting professionals involved for fear of bad publicity. It is about diminishing the value of design in New Zealand.

If we are to become a great export nation, close the income gap with Australia and compete on the world stage, design has a fundamental role to play. We create government institutions like Better by Design to heighten the value of the design, only to rubbish its value by asking anyone in New Zealand able to “scribble something on a piece of paper” to come up with our commercial capital’s identity.

Maybe it was because the judges discovered that no design company in New Zealand wants to play in the sand pit of broken glass that is the Super City logo design, coupled with the negative response they would receive by giving it to an Aussie company, that led to this ‘peoples competition’.

Who knows? However, the fall-out is a bad reflection on how we value design in New Zealand.

Name and title: Andy Jaquet, strategic development director
Company name: Dow Design
No. of staff: 16
Offices in NZ: 1
1. Notable clients: Fonterra brands, Pernod Ricard, Robert Harris, Hellers, Schweppes and Arano.

2. Sell yourself in a sentence: Exceptional brand design has made a fundamental difference to growing the profit of our clients. Brand design is the new, sexy black.

3. Campaign you’re most proud of: Fresh’N Fruity, Robert Harris, many more and some still waiting to be launched out of the studio.

4. If TV isn’t dead, why? Dunno, is it on a life support machine?

5. The future of advertising is: Packaging design – nothing works harder or more directly with the consumer.

6. Dream account you haven’t got yet: Seychelles Tourism with a six month research visit.

Anyone else in the marcomms sector who deserves a probing? Send in your suggestions to editor@stoppress.co.nz and you will be rewarded with a selection of rare jewels and ancient artefacts*.

*Prize may not exist.