by Miriam Hara | Jan 28, 2025 | Agency, Branding, Business Success, Creative, Marketing
If there is one thing that has remained with the test of time in the brand marketing world, it is ‘The Brief’. It has been the ‘one document’ that bridges streamlined information about the brand between brand marketers and creative marketing agencies since… or even before madmen.
It’s in the Brief.
The Brief is about providing the right information, so that it can create and offer up the best possible solution for the brand objective at hand and deliver on the brand strategies it stipulated. It provides the agency with the “objective reference” to assess their creative concepts and innovations against.
It’s the Brief that Counts.
Regardless of the tools that marketers have at their disposal to reach their audiences and to measure the effectiveness of their tactics, It’s the brief that counts. In today’s business world overflowing with marketing tools, data analytics, and performance metrics and, let’s face it, information overload.
As a result of all these metrics there is an undeniable pressure for corporations, brand marketers and agencies to create ideas that deliver on specific KPIs and of course, ROIs. And the only way to achieve this is in the creation of a good brief.
It’s all about The Brief.
What constitutes a good brief is simple, but it isn’t easy to create by any stretch of the imagination. A good brief is based on solid strategic thinking, providing the foundational work for the agency to pick up the baton and run with in.
What’s in The Brief.
Over the decades of running this agency, both my team and myself have had the distinct privilege of attending numerous strategic sessions for many brands… providing our agency an additional vision of the brand. But that is not always the case. Often, more than I would like, we are in a competitive situation where every word and subtlety is weighed heavily. A well written brief provides strategic clarity that enables the agency to deliver on the objectives and perhaps even exceed expectations based on the defined parameters that is set within it.
Where’s the Brief?
When we receive a mandate, this is the first question my teams always ask… Because every great campaign starts with one thing: a great brief.
by Miriam Hara | Nov 19, 2024 | Branding, Creative, Design, Marketing
Embracing Bold Moves: When and How to Rebrand a Legacy Brand’s Packaging Without Losing Heritage
Legacy brands carry a rich history, often evoking nostalgia and trust among loyal consumers. However, as consumer tastes evolve, even iconic brands must refresh their image to remain relevant. Rebranding packaging is a delicate process, especially for brands with a deep heritage, where there’s a fine balance between staying true to tradition and embracing modernity. Here’s how to revamp your brand’s packaging while honoring its legacy and maintaining loyal customers.
1. Recognizing the Need for a Packaging Refresh
For legacy brands, the decision to refresh packaging often comes from shifting market trends or consumer demands. The key here is to understand that a brand’s packaging speaks volumes about its identity. Is your current design feeling outdated in today’s sleek, minimalist world? Are competitors’ modern designs outshining yours on the shelves? A refresh doesn’t mean losing your brand’s heritage, but rather making sure it stays relevant.
Example: Look at how Coca-Cola has kept its iconic red and white colour scheme but continuously evolves its packaging. The subtle tweaks ensure the brand looks fresh without losing its instantly recognizable identity.
2. Stay True to Key Elements
Just like Dunkin’ retained its vibrant colours and recognizable font during its rebrand, legacy brands should maintain the visual elements that make them iconic. Think about the core aspects of your packaging design—colours, logos, fonts, or symbols that have emotional resonance with consumers. These elements anchor your brand’s identity.
Example: When Guinness refreshed its packaging, they kept the familiar harp symbol but modernized its design to appeal to a younger audience while retaining the essence of their heritage.
3. Balance Tradition with Modern Design
The challenge of rebranding a legacy brand’s packaging lies in walking the line between tradition and innovation. Your packaging must evolve to meet current market demands but also pay homage to the rich history your brand embodies. Modern design trends such as minimalism, flat design, or even eco-friendly packaging can be introduced in ways that highlight your brand’s authenticity rather than overshadow it.
Tip: Consider simplifying your design while keeping classic elements like colour schemes and logos. Streamlining the package can communicate modernity without diminishing the brand’s heritage.
4. Communicate the Story Behind the Refresh
One of the most effective ways to ensure a successful rebrand for a legacy brand is to communicate the why behind the change. Share the journey of the brand, explain the significance of the updated design, and ensure that consumers understand this is not a departure from tradition, but rather a step forward. Tell a compelling story that bridges the old with the new, creating an emotional connection.
Example: When luxury chocolate brand Godiva updated its packaging, they told the story of the craftsmanship and passion that still go into each box. The new design felt luxurious yet modern, without forgetting its Belgian roots.
5. Test and Involve Your Audience
A legacy brand’s audience often feels a strong attachment to its existing packaging. Testing potential designs with a group of loyal customers can provide valuable insights and help you fine-tune the refresh without straying too far from what they love. Involving them in the process makes them feel like stakeholders in the brand’s future.
Tip: A/B testing or focus groups can help gauge reactions before the full-scale rollout, ensuring you don’t alienate your core audience.
6. Ensure a Gradual Rollout
Just as Dunkin’ gradually transitioned its branding from “Dunkin Donuts” to “Dunkin,” a legacy brand’s packaging refresh should be rolled out in phases. A sudden overhaul can alienate loyal customers, while a gradual transition helps them adjust to the changes. During the transition, it’s vital to reinforce your brand’s legacy by highlighting the heritage elements that have been retained.
7. Prepare for Pushback—and Address It Gracefully
Change, especially for legacy brands, can often lead to pushback from die-hard fans. Prepare for this with clear messaging. Be transparent about why the refresh was necessary and how it benefits the brand and its consumers. Respond to concerns respectfully, reassuring customers that the brand they love is still very much intact.
Example: Burberry faced backlash when they updated their iconic logo. However, they handled it by explaining the need to modernize while staying true to their British roots, which helped ease the transition.
8. Celebrate the Brand’s Evolution
Finally, celebrate the evolution of your brand. Show consumers that the refresh is part of your brand’s journey and continued commitment to excellence. Use the opportunity to highlight the brand’s history while embracing its future. Special edition packaging or promotional campaigns that nod to the brand’s past can help reinforce the feeling that while the packaging may change, the core of the brand remains the same.
Stay True to your Roots
Refreshing the packaging of a legacy brand is a bold move but can be done without losing your heritage. By staying true to your roots, involving your audience, and embracing a modern, forward-thinking approach, you can ensure your brand continues to stand out on shelves while honouring its legacy. A successful rebrand isn’t about forgetting the past—it’s about respecting it while evolving to meet the future.
by Miriam Hara | Oct 8, 2024 | Branding, Business Success
So You’re a Market Leader
As a brand manager, it’s easy to become comfortable when your brand is riding high on a wave of loyalty with the market share and sales to prove it. But here’s the truth: brand loyalty isn’t a given and it isn’t easily earned either. Sometimes based on market conditions, being the market leader doesn’t always translate into true brand loyalty. Regardless, it’s certainly not something that remains static.
Brand loyalty doesn’t come about simply because your brand is out there – and I would go even further to say – if you’re the only one out there.
A brand loyal customer base is the result of constant nurturing, respect, and—most importantly—consistent evolution. Your customers may love you today, but if you don’t continue to invest in that relationship, tomorrow’s landscape could look very different.
Why Complacency is the Enemy of Loyalty
I have always maintained that brand is a living organism. It must evolve and grow. When a brand reaches a certain level of success, there’s a temptation to pull back, thinking the hard work is over. However, like brand, brand loyalty is a living, breathing thing. It needs attention, care, and—yes—respect.
Consumers want to feel valued, and part of that value comes from knowing the brand they’re committed to is committed to them… and is in constant improving and growing mode.
Ignoring the need for continuous investment and evolution sends the wrong message to your consumer base: “We’ve done enough.” Even if you are a brand staple, there are ways for your brand to become more than that. Consumers need to know that you’ve got their back… that your mission is always to serve up things that make their lives, easier, better, warmer, happier and effortless.
And if that’s not enough of an incentive to keep investing and growing, remember that no market is foolproof, you can count on market dynamics shifting, and competitors are always ready to pounce, when they see an opening to just nudge it and take a little bite out of your loyal following.
Loyalty is More Than a Transaction—It’s Validation
I’ve mentioned it before, even if your brand is a market leader, it’s not enough to simply assume that dominance guarantees loyalty. Consumers want to feel validated in their choice of brand, especially when they’ve been loyal for years. It’s about recognizing their support and providing them with reassurance that they’ve made the right decision. This means brand managers needs to continuously invest in their brand to maintain a constant relationship with their customer base.
The Investment That Keeps Giving
Consistent investment, whether in marketing, customer experience, or product innovation, is key to maintaining your brand’s place in the hearts and minds of your customers. This investment can take many forms. It can be through new product innovations or offerings, exclusive offers other than rebates or coupons. The investment must reinforce the values that drew consumers to your brand in the first place. It can take the form of usage tips, how to, DIY or entering in a fun contest, information that is authentic and true to the brand persona.
Your consumers are your best brand ambassadors, but they need to be reassured that their advocacy is well-placed.
By continuing to engage with your audience and offering them these reminders, you’re not just thanking them—you’re reinforcing the connection and giving them reasons to keep choosing you.
Showing Respect is Powerful
Staying relevant by evolving is one of the most powerful ways for a brand to show respect. It demonstrates to brand loyalists that their loyalty is being recognized and isn’t being taken for granted. Whether it’s adapting your messaging, launching new products, or updating your brand identity to better reflect today’s cultural landscape, keeping things fresh demonstrates to your customers that you’re in it for the long haul—just like they are.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to this. When a brand understands the ongoing relationship it needs to have with its consumer base, it doesn’t just keep them—it keeps growing alongside them.
by Miriam Hara | Oct 1, 2024 | Agency, Creative, Design
Graphic Design: Making the Pieces Fit…And More
The need of graphic design may stem from making things look good, but that’s not what it’s all about. Professional graphic designers are strategic partners in communication. The need to design a visual message that does so much more than fill a space is paramount. With the decentralization of brand communication ownership, where many different graphic design agencies/freelancers/consultants are co-responsible for the managing and deploying of a single brand’s positioning and persona, the understanding of brand at a deeper level is a must. Professional graphic designers aren’t just making things look good—they are strategic partners in communication. The need to design a visual message that does so much more than fill a space is paramount.
Designers have become the essential link between a brand’s ideas and its audience, and that’s what truly elevates their role.
From Social Media to Video Editing….Technology Reigns
With the advent of technology and the acceleration of plentiful super duper software (yay!), all of these have merged into one, and then some (i.e.multi-media, etc). Along with this proliferation of software, design is accessible to all…and many call themselves visual designers and graphic designers. Mastering computer programs that all designers use may lead to the misconception that this is all graphic design is about. It may seem that all a graphic designers does is search for images and rearrange images and text on a screen, but that really isn’t what graphic design is all about.
Back in the day (and yes, I am dating myself), there were what we called commerical artists, production artist and graphic artists. Although these terms are still used…the term designer not artist is more often than not, the descriptor. Knowing that this next statement may meet with some outrage, I mean no disrespect. Knowing and mastering the likes of Canva, Procreate and Adobe Acrobat, does not make a graphic designer. All computer software does is facilitate the production of visual content that can be appealing and even riveting… but that does not make the producer of the visual content a graphic designer by profession.
Mastering Graphic Design: 5 Must-Do Practices
1. A designer’s role is to communicate with purpose, aligning visuals with business goals and audience needs. It’s no longer just about aesthetics (pretty pictures!)—it’s about creating connections.
2. At the core of every design is a message, and a designer’s job is to understand what that message is—and how to prioritize it. It’s not just slapping text onto a pretty picture. It’s digging deeper, understanding the goals behind the message, and ensuring that every design choice amplifies it.
3. Not every element in a design should have the same level of importance, and skilled professional graphic designers know how to highlight the most critical part. It’s about using hierarchy, contrast, and space in a way that draws the eye to the right spot, ensuring that the key message doesn’t get lost in the noise.
4. Graphic designers controls the flow of information. Whether it’s through colour, typography, or placement, they guide the viewer’s eye through a visual journey. It’s not just about where things are placed, but how they’re designed to be experienced.
5. The most difficult of challenges is for a graphic designers to take a lot of content and distill it into something clear and concise in very small space. It’s a constant battle and it’s a balancing act—communicating just enough to get the point across without overwhelming the audience.
In today’s design landscape, it’s clear that the graphic design profession is about far more than just creating layouts. It’s about strategic communication, prioritizing messages, and knowing how to lead the viewer through the visual experience.
by Miriam Hara | Sep 24, 2024 | Branding, Marketing
Last week we all got hit with the news that Tupperware has filed for bankruptcy. Some may have been surprised by the news, and others may have seen it coming. In this ever changing market, it’s difficult for iconic Brands to evolve in a timely way…and to maintain relevancy by staying just ever so slightly ahead of the curve. Many of us still remember Kodak and the end of an era. We’ve all read about the usual myriad of suspects as being the reason for the demise of Tupperware. Whether it resulted from the proliferation of cheaper copycat products, lack of innovation, failure to maintain its spearhead attitude when it came to sustainability, the result is the same. The end of the brand name Tupperware.
The Way of the Dodo
Perhaps the saddest aspect of this story is that Tupperware will always be part of our collective consciousness. How could a Brand name that not only developed an entire category but was its very definition (can you say Kleenex , Google and Xerox) go the way of the Dodo, and yet still be part of our everyday language? Ironically, there will be Gen Z’s who will refer to their Tupperware without ever realizing that Tupperware was once a Brand. And that is truly the real story.
How is it that a Brand that was made a household name in the 1950s mainly by the use of a new marketing initiative called the “Tupperware Party” end up here?
Brand Beware of ‘Genocide’
Well there is something to say about over exposure….especially if it’s going to be at the expense of the Brand uniqueness. A Brand’s USP disappears as it becomes synonymous with the category it developed! Becoming a category descriptor is a double edged sword. It speaks to providing consumers an innovative solution, and initially, the Brand does reap the rewards. But as they say plagiarism is the best form of flattery. If there is a need to be filled, or a new need that is identified in the market, there will be copycat competition for sure. And if brand owners don’t realize that they need to protect their Brand in context to the category, then it’s a slippery slope and the rest is history.
It’s All in the Language
Each and every one of us do it every day. At least once a day we say “google that” or “google it”. Are we actually using google, or is it another search engine? Disruptive Brands like google, are probably very much aware of how their Brand name is being used in the market. Without intention and mindfulness to the Brand they are uttering. Brand owners have to counter-act the category use of their Brand name. The basics of Brand guidelines are key…but it goes far beyond that. In today’s digital world, adopting monitoring and enforcement programs to stay informed of the market’s activities is a must. This will alert Brand owners of how their Brand’s name is being used and signal them if their Brand is slipping in to descriptive use by third parties. And don’t forget Wikipedia! Brand owners should work at actively correcting any incorrect definitions in reference sources.
The Expense of Doing Nothing
In our world market share and value, as profitability are the drivers. However, investing in protecting a Brand is a must. Albeit, extensive corrective advertising and consumer re-education is expensive for the Brand, however doing nothing, leads to the way of Tupperware. Brand owners of innovative Brands must focus on ensuring that people use descriptors with their Brand name at every instance. This reinforces the Brand with the category and cues consumers that the Brand name is a Brand. For innovative Brands, all communications would qualify the Brand name. ie. Google search engine or Kleenex facial tissues. Do not use the trademark as a noun or a verb. You can use it as an adjective. Is this subtle? Yes, but developing a brand is always one drop at a time. Little distinctions can have a significant impact over time.
As we bid farewell to the Tupperware Brand, those of us who witnessed its growth over the years can find comfort in knowing that the name Tupperware, just like the Dodo bird, will live on.
