Sadia

According to its website, Sadia, which is Portuguese for “healthy,” is the largest poultry producer in Brazil and one of the world’s leading producers of chilled and frozen foods. Its product offerings range from chicken breasts to prepared products such as chicken nuggets, cordon bleu or coated/flavored chicken fillets and frozen ready meals, and it uses 2.5 million tons of chicken, turkey, pork and beef protein-based products.

The brand was founded more than 60 years ago in southern Brazil, and since then Sadia has established distribution points in more than 100 countries across the world, particularly in the Middle East, Europe and Russia, but also in the Caucasus, Asia, the Americas and Africa. Before the current economic crisis, the American stock projection website The Motley Fool declared Brazilian food processing and distributing brand Sadia a hot stock pick, giving it a five-star CAPS rating. But on May 19, 2009, it was announced that Sadia would be gobbled up by larger processed food company Perdigão, after the smaller rival posted the first annual loss in its 65-year history because of wrong-way bets on the Brazilian currency. Founded in 1934 by Italian immigrants, Perdigão is one of the largest food companies in Latin America, employing more than 55,000 people. It ranks third in poultry slaughtering and ranks among the ten largest hog slaughtering companies in the world. It is also one of the leading Brazilian companies in milk collection. A brand with a considerable worldwide reach, its products are sold to more than 110 countries, and it acts as an umbrella to sub-brands such as Batavo, Elegê, Perdix, Chester and Cotochés. We paid a visit to Sadia.com to see where the brand stands in comparison to Perdigão online. To support its global presence, Sadia.com can be viewed in four languages: Portuguese, English, German and Russian. But from a branding standpoint, the look, feel and messaging leave much to be desired. Dry, static and looking like it hasn’t been updated since 1996, Sadia.com is sorely lacking in brand establishment, value-added content and innovation. It seems as if it was constructed with the sole purpose to serve as a receptacle for rudimentary brand information like corporate information and quality assurance, investor relations and brief product descriptions—not to provide consumers with an inviting brand experience. But a visit to and study of Perdigão’s website portends that renovations may be in store for the Sadia online presence. Perdigão launched its global brand, Perdix, in 2001 because, according to that website, “Perdix was developed to have an easy to pronounce brand name as well as keeping all the qualities by which Perdigão is already known all over the world. In this way, it has the same prefix as Perdigão, resulting in an easy association, transmitting the values of the well-known brand to Perdix. And the suffix ‘x’ brings to mind modernity and technology. Therefore, Perdix products combine the tradition of preparing delicious food and always innovating for over 70 years, with high quality international standards.” At the least, this demonstrates consideration for the user experience, and the website for Perdix follows suit. The site appears current, its look and feel maintains continuity and its animated visuals present their products in a moderately appetizing manner—all features that Sadia.com is lacking, but may not be for long. Also, visitors are invited to interact with the brand through streaming TV ads and a collection of easily searchable recipes for Perdix products. It probably would benefit the brand to delve deeper into the consumer realm, creating a community to tap into consumer feedback. But Perdix-International.com serves its corporate function well by providing comprehensive investor information such as mission statements, sustainability, accountability—even streaming stock info and an earnings update via webcast. From a branding standpoint, Sadia’s online presence is in sore need of a revamp, and Perdix is a good fit to bring it into the 21st century. And not a moment too soon.

Pirate's Booty :::snack fight!

	The snack food market is one of almost limitless opportunity combined with unequalled competition. While it is dominated by such food giants as Frito-Lay (PepsiCo) and Nabisco (Kraft), the industry just as readily supports smaller companies.

One of those companies is Robert’s American Gourmet, maker of the somewhat notorious Pirate’s Booty brand. Pirate’s Booty is a quirky little brand with a backstory that reads like the American dream. Robert Ehrlich was a commodity trader who founded Robert’s American Gourmet in 1986 with the intention of creating “American” salad dressings. But he quickly gained a passion for developing healthy snacks. “I first got the idea for Pirate’s Booty while watching the pirate ship at Treasure Island,” Ehrlich says on his website. “Pirate’s Booty was initially named Pirate’s Treasure. The name didn’t matter—people just loved our air-puffed rice and corn with aged white cheddar.” Well actually, the name did matter, at least in terms of brand recognition. What Ehrlich did was differentiate the brand from the competition with a memorable identity—a unique name accompanied by a cartoon of a pirate character, drawn in a humorous rather than threatening way. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Pirate’s Booty was also a healthy, natural snack food. It had the kind of unique appeal that crossed over from parents to their kids. When Pirate’s Booty came to market in the mid-1980s, snack food companies were just beginning to discover natural, healthy snacks. Most competitors were using packaging that had the natural, healthy, nutritious, good-for-you, serious look. Only a few, such as Smartfood Popcorn, broke the brand mold. Smartfood launched its product in a reclosable black bag—highly unusual for a snack food. Frito-Lay purchased the company in 1989, but the black bag remains its signature. Pirate’s Booty ventured to the other side of the creative spectrum, employing a package that featured the cartoon pirate and an old-fashioned typeface set against a colorful background. As the product line expanded, color was used to differentiate brands and line extensions; for example, green is used for Veggie Booty, red signifies Pirate’s Cannon Balls and purple represents Smart Puffs. The pirate became one of numerous cartoon brand mascots used on Robert’s American Gourmet products. The model for the pirate was Ehrlich himself, while his father inspired the character on the Smart Puffs bag. It’s all part of a look and feel that is fun and a bit off-center. Jim Hardison, a creative director at San Francisco design agency Character, says, “These are characters who refused to accept the standard way of doing things, either by pioneering revolutionary approaches or by living outside the normal rules of society” (“Ay, Matey, Pirate’s Booty Hopes Mascot Sells Snacks,” FSB Magazine, October 2006). Pirate’s Booty is the flagship product of a company that generates some US $50 million in annual sales. Robert’s plays in a natural snacks segment in the United States that is a US $2 billion-a-year business, growing at over 15 percent per year, according to Kara Cissell-Roell, managing director of VMG Partners. A private equity firm, VMG invested in Robert’s American Gourmet in November 2008. Today Robert’s sells Pirate’s Booty and its other snack foods in all 50 states, as well as in Canada, Europe and Asia. Robert’s American Gourmet has had a few stumbles along the way. The company has been criticized in the past for misrepresenting the fat content in some of its products. In 2007, Robert’s was forced to recall Veggie Booty and Super Veggie Tings Crunchy Corn Sticks because of salmonella contamination. In recent years, Robert’s has significantly reduced its snack offerings from over 50 products to less than ten. And it’s anybody’s guess if events surrounding Somalian pirate attacks will help or hurt the image of Pirate’s Booty. But Pirate’s Booty has survived these challenges, and its popularity has apparently not diminished. Journalist Rob Walker, author of the book Buying In, says Ehrlich told him his company overcame past adversity because “it reacted quickly and openly” to problems such as the salmonella contamination. “He [Ehrlich] also notes that the company had long-established goodwill with its customers—it’s been around since 1986—drawn to its ‘authenticity’” (“Snack Mentality,” The New York Times, June 29, 2008). The company’s new challenge will be growing beyond its niche product status. While Pirate’s Booty and its companion brands have maintained their appeal to loyal customers, the brands now increasingly face look-alike competition. Small and large companies alike have Pirate’s Booty in their sights, and they are anxious to eat into the multibillion-dollar healthy snack food market. Despite the global recession, snack foods are doing well because people turn to them for comfort, even when they are pulling back on spending. Foods like chocolate, chips, cookies and other snacks give consumers a quick burst of energy and make them feel good, if only for a fleeting moment. If snack foods are healthy, so much the better. Yet the question remains: Will consumers continue to treasure Pirate’s Booty?

Rebranding exercises in Arabia::: Looking ahead of Logos

In Arabia Mainstream brands have undertaken rebranding initiatives to shed their old corporate images and position themselves in a new, more modern light. Some have simply upgraded their logos, while others went much deeper. Which leads branding enthusiasts to wonder, just what is the difference between an identity refresher” face lift” and a true rebranding?

People are sensory beings. Yet branding is typically defined through the single sense of sight. To merely focus on the visual element of a person's interaction of a brand (logo, pantone colours and so on), it fundamentally misunderstanding people. Sound alone has an immense impact on the experience that people have with a brand. This realisation amongst brands has led to a significant increase in brands investigating what the Sound of their Brand is, what it means to consumers and how it needs to evolve.

It is true that the rebranding goes beyond logos but it is an interesting place to start. As visually oriented creatures, we conceptualize a brand into a logo (and perhaps the sum of its parts). If the brand represents an interface, through which the consumer interacts with the organization, then the logo is a useful touch point.

Is changing the logo enough?
In situations where firmly established brands become outdated, rebrands can be tricky, and often resemble identity makeovers rather than full-blown rebrands.

But is this logo change enough to bring brand’s into the modern marketplace—especially one that’s hypercompetitive?

There is no reason to completely rebrand a brand that isn’t suffering from an internal identity complex. Sometimes creating an effective logo is enough to upgrade an identity and penetrate markets. According to an executive creative director “There are some brands where heritage is important and it is foolish to get rid of it, in order to stay relevant with the times.”

Brand identity in Arabia
“The notion of brand identity as representative of something more than a recognizable symbol is relatively new in India…brand names and symbols in the past often did not represent something that the brand stands for.”

Today, however, brands in Arabia are moving beyond a simplified view of the marketing and advertising world and see the need to comprehensively rebrand themselves. The proliferation of several international brands in recent years has caused several homegrown brands to undertake an all-embracing approach to their brands.

Simply because of:

1. Higher disposable incomes,

2. change in consumer demography

3. and greater reach through media

Brand makeover boutiques.

pressure on brands to resort to an identity makeover, to realign themselves in the new environment is increasing “It should not be like a trip to a hair salon, where after two weeks your hair goes back to normal. It should go beyond just a cosmetic change, where only the logo is altered, but should reflect a fundamental change in the company.”

Rebranding beyond logos

Tweaking a logo and leaving everything else unchanged is pointless. “A logo change raises expectations, both internally and externally,” . The branding exercise should not be isolated to the letterhead; it should be an experience for the customer. The moment one steps into the office, employees should be able to feel it just as they expect their customers to. As a rule ;The old logo portrayed trust, warmth and confidence. However, with the entry of many me-too’s trust could no longer be the key differentiator for the brand. So the new logo, along with the tagline supporting the logo upgrade might add a fashionable, young and international image of any brand.

The logo change was only a small part of the rebrand. “ a deep-rooted A 360-degree approach across customer touch-points to be taken to convey the new identity (merchandising display exhibits, new uniforms …etc.)

But change isn’t always easy.

In organizations that are several decades old, employees are entrenched within the system and find it difficult to come to work one morning and adopt newer systems.” Change must be gradual in order to be effective.

For a new identity - image overhaul -to be effective ..the makeover has to be an experiential makeover, and not an advertising makeover in a way to involves integrated transition in systems, processes, employee orientation and customer experience without destroying the core values it was founded on.

Smart transformation is the key driver here to retain the essence of the brand’s heritage, while projects a contemporary image in sync with today’s lifestyle.

Finally , talk to your users “consumers”… they know better …

Toyota IQ:::When driving becomes writing / Full making of iQ font

Happiness Brussles, and agency based in Belgium recently completed a project to design a new font for the Toyota IQ to demonstrate the small car’s agility. Instead of going the usual route on sitting down at the computer and tweaking vectors, they decided to let the car design the font itself. Assisting the process were two typographers, a motion capture programmer, and a racing driver. The car was filmed in a warehouse and the movements were translated digitally into each corresponding letter.

iQ font - When driving becomes writing / Full making of from wireless on Vimeo.

The car movements were tracked using a custom software, designed by interactive artist Zachary Lieberman. ( openframeworks.cc )

Download the font here: nl.toyota.be/iqfont
More pictures here: flickr.com/photos/40243214@N05/sets/72157621047564023/

Tengu Instant Noodles

Designed by Rory Phillips, "The goal of this project was to create a brand and design it's identity and various deliverables to support the brand.

Instant noodles are super yummy, but they are also unhealthy because they are made with processed ingredients and fried. The idea was to market a brand of noodles that was made from organic whole grain and baked not fried, with high quality delicious gourmet flavors.

Tengu is a type of mischievous Japanese demon, in this case a fox. The fox in Japaneses mythology is the guardian spirit of Daikoku the god of the harvest and kitchen. Fox shrines are found all over japan and people leave treats for the fox spirits for good fortune. After a lot of research Tengu became the name and symbol for the brand. The food of Chef Chen Kenichi was the inspiration for the different flavors of the noodles.

In order to differentiate the healthy delicious Tengu noodles from the processed junk noodles, the packaging is of a longer rectangular shape instead of the usual square. This was meant to evoke the idea of fine gourmet pastas.

The packaging was designed to be made from unbleached recycled materials to remind the consumer of the unprocessed nature of the product and to avoid the bright and cheap mass produced look of the junk brands. The message is this is a premium handcrafted item.

The 'obi' or sash around the packaging designates the flavor this allows the company to easily add new seasonal flavors without changing and printing entirely new packages. The inside of the 'obi' has more information on the brand message; Tengu makes traditional Healthy, Delicious and Sustainable noodles everyone can enjoy."

Perrier’s Conversations

Perrier’s ‘Social Media’ Packaging

HartlandVilla, a graphic studio based in Paris developed Perrier "Conversations", a limited edition series, this year, the theme is “conversation”.

We used the “French” aspect as it is an important value attached to the brand abroad. We played with words and “bubbles” to recreate surreal conversations, collages of words that work well together and evoke sensual and creative conversations in an ironical way. The idea is to leave room for the audience’s imagination to fantasize about situations and ambiences.

The choice of words projects the idea of “learning French with Perrier”: as many of the expressions we chose evoke clichés of French culture, they make up a totally absurd French language lesson. In this absurdity lies the humor, creativity and as such, the quality of the project."

Perrier

Vaseline - Resilient / Skin - (2009) :45 (USA)

The ad shows surface materials wasting away, even the toughest materials like steel and wood.

Credits:

• Advertising Agency: Bartle Bogle Hegarty, New York, USA
• Production Company: Park Pictures, Bicoastal
• Post Production Company: MassMarket, New York, NY

Stop motion animation treatments...

Chateau Bonne Entente - Summer - (2009) :30 (Canada)

Credits:

• Advertising Agency: Brad, Québec, Canada
• Production: 6ix degrés
• Music and sound: Studio Expression

Olympus PEN camera ....busted.....

Original

Less original by DSG

Tictac::: "Redefining viral" Micha

http://www.tictacmicha.com/

How to Use Facebook for Professional Networking

by Aneta Hall

How do you use Facebook? Is it to connect with long forgotten friends or share fun tidbits of your personal life with extended family? If that’s you, well… you are not alone. A great majority of Facebook users maintain Facebook profiles exclusively for personal networking and do not feel Facebook is appropriate for professional networking. I disagree with this approach. Facebook social networking experience should be what you want to make of it and more and more professionals turn to Facebook to maintain professional and/or business presence in addition to a personal one.

What’s wrong with using LinkedIn for my professional networking?

Nothing really. LinkedIn is definitely the channel of choice for professional networking. However, Facebook continues to grow and mature making its security and sharing options more and more robust. All this to ensure that you have choices and your social networking experience is precisely what YOU want to make of it. While you won’t post pictures of your family vacation on LinkedIn, a balanced mix of professional information along with a limited and tasteful glimpse into your personal life could prove to make Facebook the new LinkedIn for those who what to use Facebook for both.

Charlene Kingston in her blog post advocates keeping two separate profiles on Facebook: your personal profile for friends and family and your professional one by creating a “fan page.” This works great for small businesses where the owner of the business has the authority to set up and control the fan page. What if you work in a big company and do not have that luxury? You can still use your Facebook profile as a professional networking tool as long as your follow some basic rules.

Polish your Facebook profile for professional networking

Let’s start with some basics which includes using your real and full name in your profile. This is not only important to ensure that you are easily found on Facebook and on Google when your profile is indexed but also to keep the profile professional. Don’t use nicknames, fictional names or maiden names unless that’s the name you are using in your professional life. Remember tosecure your facebook vanity domain name to make it easy to direct others to your Facebook profile with a clean and easy to type in URL.

Also, don’t forget to include your photo in your profile. No avatars, no images of kids or wedding photos please. A simple, tasteful head shot of you will do the trick.

Include detailed information about your area of expertise, your company where you work including website and any other social media channels where corporate presence is maintained. Your contact information and all of your social media channels you maintain presence on should also be listed.

Adjust your security settings

What might be appropriate to share with your family and close friends might not be appropriate to display or share with your colleagues or professional contacts. Don’t just assume the default security settings will keep you out of trouble. Take the time to go through each link in the Privacy area and make adjustments. Nick O’Neal has a great blog posts that will guide you to choose wisely when adjusting your privacy settings.

Consider setting up friends’ groups to control what information is viewable by whom. The groups are also IMPORTANT because according to Facebook you soon will have precise control of what gets shared with whom on the level of individual wall post. You will be able to direct your weekend planning posts to just your family or friends and send posts about the latest whitepaper you’ve read to just your colleagues and professional contacts. Having your friends divided into logical groups will make appropriate sharing a snap. Here is more info. about Facebook’s new privacy settings including the timeline for rolling this enhancement out (courtesy of the Marketing Pilgrim blog).

Add apps selectively

There are tons of applications available for download, but it does not mean that you should go for quantity rather than quality. Yes, you can send virtual gifts to people, play games or display love quotes, but aside from being great time wasters these types of activities will greatly diminish the quality of your profile. Opt for socializing with others through conversations, asking and answering questions, sharing resources and advice rather than playing games.

Join groups related to your business interests

Similarly to LinkedIn, finding and joining quality Facebook groups opens up great opportunities to network with professionals who are interested in what you are interested in and who will pay attention if you display your subject matter expertise there.

Not sure how to find groups? Search for them and see what groups your colleagues have joined. If you find that there is no group that matches your expertise create one, but before you do that please think about your own commitment to maintaining the group. There are a lot of dead groups on Facebook. Don’t let yours be one of them.

Interact with your Facebook friends and group members

There is nothing more powerful than personal interaction. Facebook excels at it and gives you lots of opportunities to engage. Remember though to separate your personal posts from your professional content.

For your professional network interactions consider the following activities

• Asking/answering questions or starting a new discussion thread
• Sharing a resource on your group’s wall particularly articles you have written or articles that quote you
• Commenting on a status message of your colleague
• Sharing a list of your favorite industry books or online resources
• Inviting others or accepting invitation to professional networking events

But don’t attempt to send bulk commercial or self-serving messages to all your friends. Maintaining a professional presence is about finding and developing relationships and not spamming people.

Aggregate content from other channels

If you maintain presence on other social media channels feel free to aggregate content from them and display it on your Facebook page. This includes aggregating your blog post using the notes feature , displaying your twitter feed creating your LInkedIn profile badge ordisplaing your Slideshare slides on Facebook.

Remember though that making professional relationships on Facebook is just like making relationships in real life. It takes “care and feeding” so don’t expect to gain long-term benefits with short-term efforts. Think of that networking time as an investment the same way you would do it on LinkedIn.

Image curtesy of Amit Gupta