Andrew Miller, strategic agent of change at Carbone Smolan Agency (a Design and Branding Agency) threw himself into a particular challenge: for 100 days, he will paint white common products that he has around the house or that cost less than 10 dollars, take pictures of them, and upload them to the Tumblr entitled Brand Spirit. Miller’s challenge consists in “(…) removing all visual branding, reducing the object to its purest form” and, therefore, discover if a brand speaks louder than words.
So let’s check the picture below:
Within, at maximum, a few seconds, you can identify that that’s Tabasco. Why is that? Is it because we use it every day? When was the last time you used Tabasco? It's just funny to have this reserve of knowledge about brands and shapes and have the ability to immediately draw from that useless knowledge tank.
And this one?
My first thought was ‘french fries’. Why? How could I not know how a Heinz ketchup packet looks like, especially with the growing of fast-food chains? This project, still in its beginning (today is day 14/100), can already make us think about the power of certain brands. I say ‘certain brands’ because it’s obvious – except maybe if you have a very keen eye or a true passion about advertisement or shopping – that you won’t guess them all. I tried and got 9 out of 14. Nonetheless, I get the feeling that in spite of being painted white, some brands will be immediately indentified, which only speaks of their rock solid identity in terms of packaging.
However, and we can see it clearly in the case of the picture of the condom, that in that case it’s quite hard to have a packaging that differs from the competitors’ and it’s still identifiable. My first thought on that one was Durex or Control, not Trojan. I’m guessing that’s because I’m Portuguese and Andrew Miller is American: the brand that sells the most in both countries are Durex (or Control) and Trojan, respectively. So, geography is a very important variable here.
And so is demography. In the case of the Kleenexes, for example:
I know the brand and it’s sold in some selected stores in Portugal, but I never bought it because the house brand from my supermarket of choice has the same characteristics, offers the same results and it’s cheaper. Resuming: I could identify the brand by its packaging – so it speaks to me in a way -, but I don’t acquire it often because of my family income. Besides, I have established a loyal relationship with the house brand I referred to, so I tend to overlook other brands, especially if they’re more expensive. But perhaps if it was not a Kleenex but a Renova package, it would be best perceived by Portuguese people.
Andrew Miller, however, started this project (which you can follow at http://brandspirit.tumblr.com/) with American packaging’s and it’s directed to the American population, who can better identify the packages. Nevertheless, I think that it’s a project that it would have a positive remark in every country, given that the target was adapted to that particular country – and so were the packages.
As a result I think that, indeed, brand’s identities can be stronger than words.
Ana Nascimento
Source: http://www.psfk.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment