Blog

Why is it more trendy to reuse vs brand new and rent vs. own?

Posted on by Knom

We want brands that are enablers of experiences.

You probably remember the slogan ‘It’s not what I have, it’s who I am’. And that phrase has probably never been more topical. The fact is that, at the moment, the experiences we have with products are more important than the products themselves.

A change in consumer habits that has been accelerated by many factors such as growing environmental awareness, a change in our priorities, or the lower purchasing power of the middle class.

All this translates into a certain shift in market supply, where brands in all sectors are beginning to rethink their business model or, at least, to propose alternatives to satisfy an audience that is looking for products that adapt to their lifestyle without renouncing sustainability.

A good example of this is Ikea Rental. The Swedish brand has been able to see that part of its audience is not looking for a piece of furniture in its catalogue that will last a lifetime, but one that meets their current needs and that they can change if one day their needs change. But it has also understood an increasingly aware public, which is no longer comfortable with the ‘throwaway’ and is looking for alternatives that help it to slow down a rhythm of consumption that competes with its value system. Many more brands are responding to this phenomenon, which brings with it a boom in the ‘second-hand’ market in the fashion industry or proposals such as ‘renting’ in the automotive sector. New models that are more committed to the circular economy and that understand that brands, at the end of the day, must be facilitators of experiences.

Why are digital native brands going physical?

Posted on by Knom

Brands have understood the value of physical contact to connect and build loyalty with their audience.

Touching the fabric of a garment, using a smartphone before buying it, or simply meeting someone to go shopping. While the pandemic has turned our consumer priorities upside down and accelerated the digitisation of many sectors, it has also revalued real contact and real experiences.

Brands have realised the potential of the physical shop to activate the brand promise and generate a deeper bond with the customer. As a result, more and more digital-native brands are deciding to make a move away from in-person.

We saw it in March with the arrival of Amazon Go in London and we see it now with the arrival of Google in New York. But it’s not just the big brands that are making this journey. Startups such as Hawkers and Pompeii decided days ago to go for more direct contact with their public.

The crux of the matter is that these big brands have in mind something much more ambitious than a point of sale. These spaces plan to take technological innovation a step further, to host workshops and product presentations, to inspire users by letting them experiment with the brand… In short, to create a community with which to strengthen ties, share values and have memorable experiences around their brand.

You only have to walk into any bank branch to realise that experience is now at the heart of the business. And a simple, quick and intuitive exchange is no longer enough; it is taken for granted. Brands must now go further to differentiate themselves.

According to an Accenture study, nearly half of Gen Y and Z prefer brands that make them part of something bigger and help them engage with causes they believe in.

In any case, we cannot forget that the point of sale, however experiential it may be, is just one more point of contact and that we must work the brand holistically, being consistent and coherent with our brand promise in every moment we share with the consumer.

Should we understand cities as brands?

Posted on by Knom

The city-brand as a tool for building a project that connects with insiders and attracts outsiders.

Approaching cities as brands helps us to rethink them and to generate a city project for the future. To establish an umbrella that gives them coherence, that respects the collective imaginary, but that manages to take it a step further. Generating a sense of community and pride of belonging through a narrative that attracts visitors and outside capital, while at the same time being friendly to its neighbours.

In such an interconnected and demanding context, cities today compete fiercely with each other for talent, tourism and investment. And while one of their objectives is undoubtedly to boost competitiveness, it is important not to neglect internal audiences. This means competing also on quality of life and putting people at the centre.

After all, it is people who create prosperity, who start businesses, who invest and who provide talent. Hence, more and more cities are promoting participatory initiatives that involve citizens in transformation and management processes.

The challenge is to build a narrative that truly reflects the idiosyncrasies of the place, a story that residents feel is their own. The city-brand must be the backbone not only of outward-facing communication but also of the city’s day-to-day life and its relationship with its citizens.

Although their public is much more transversal and heterogeneous, cities, like brands, must take care of their values and have a clear position on major issues such as sustainability or health. And, in the same way, they must know what city they are today and what they want to be tomorrow. Define a purpose that will guide them in the long term and help them to be the city that their citizens demand.

Because a city brand, more than a nice and colourful visual system to show off on banners and communications, should position the city and serve as a lever for the future.

Why is good design important in ‘the public’?

Posted on by Knom

The Administration must serve the public in both form and substance.

If design and good communication are effective and widespread tools in the business environment, why are they not also used in the public sector?

One only has to observe the controversies that arise every time something public is redesigned, with better or worse success, to realise that there are many who consider design as something merely aesthetic. An artistic and accessory element for which public money should not be spent.

In the face of this perception, we must explain that design is much more and that, when used well, it is a very powerful tool for an administration that, in addition to managing, must know how to communicate effectively both what it does and the consequences that its management has on the people.

Because good design is more than just finding a beautiful and creative piece. Good design has an impact on the target audience, increasing the effectiveness of communication. Good design modulates tone and language, facilitating understanding and connecting emotionally. Good design makes procedures intuitive and accessible to all groups regardless of their socio-cultural level. In short, good design reduces the distance between citizens and the administration.

Because, as Louise Downe, the former Design Director of the UK Government, says, the citizen is a user and not a client and, unlike the client, the citizen has no choice but to deal with government services day in and day out.

For this reason, it is essential to redesign the administration in a way that, once and for all, brings public administration closer to the street, facilitates the completion of bureaucratic procedures, encourages political participation and, above all, empowers the citizen.

Why should your brand tell a story?

Posted on by Knom

A brand is a story that we want to be part of.

Human beings connect with stories, with the stories we create either to better understand the reality in which we live or to unite around common goals.

Because let’s not forget that a brand is a shared fiction, a set of meanings and perceptions. Of course, behind that fiction there has to be a truth, a basis on which that perception is built because, if it does not exist, that image will quickly fade away.

Unlike traditional stories, brand storytelling does not have an end. Instead, brands evolve indefinitely. This requires constant brand building, a continuous dialogue with the consumer, and also a balance between flexibility and coherence that allows us to adapt to the new context without losing our essence.

On the other hand, social networks make it impossible to have complete control over the narrative of our brand. Today, managing a brand is not about talking one-way but about generating initiatives and actions that allow the public (external but also internal) to express themselves and, in some way, to make the brand their own. More than generating conversation and interaction, it is about co-creating the brand together with our audience.

In such a fragmented and individualistic society, consumers are hungry for inspiring stories that connect with their values and allow them to act on the world in their own way.

Narrative gives us the power to turn our brand into a motivation beyond the product or service we offer; into a state of mind that inspires a lifestyle. In short, to build coherent stories with our brand that excite and mobilise, allowing us to endure over time and become part of the collective imagination.

What do the most relevant brands of the moment have in common?

Posted on by Knom

They listen to the consumer and adapt based on their brand value.

This past year has been an earthquake for society as a whole, brands included. The pandemic has not only had a huge economic impact but has also shaken the relevance of brands for consumers who, from one moment to the next, re-evaluated their priorities.

The latest Prophet Brand Relevance Index makes it clear that brands that knew how to get truly involved in making the most of such a difficult time came out stronger. However, those that failed to respond to new needs were quickly replaced by consumers, who looked for other options.

The index shows that technology companies, such as Apple, experienced a sweet moment in terms of relevance, as they made it possible to connect with other people in a context in which it was not possible to relate to them physically. Moreover, in many cases, they enabled teleworking, providing users with health and job security.

Entertainment also came on many occasions through this medium. Thus, TikTok experienced the biggest boom during the confinement by entertaining the younger audience who, beyond being spectators, actively created and shared content on the platform. Little pills of joy that gave us a break, and that were key to our emotional wellbeing.

But we not only entertained ourselves on social networks or watching Netflix; we also spent more time playing with family and friends (Lego, Playstation) and recovered hobbies such as cooking, which in addition to killing off the flour in some supermarkets led to the rise of brands such as Amazon or KitchenAid in the US.

During this time, we have also become more aware of the importance of health and physical exercise, very limited by restrictions. Here, brands that were already betting on the digital experience stand out, such as Sanitas with blua, its digital insurance. It is also the case of Peloton which, when gyms closed, kept its users active and connected with each other; gaining in relevance but also in business (it practically doubled the sales of its bicycles and treadmills).

You don’t have to be a commodity to achieve relevance in difficult times, but rather understand the consumer through active listening, adjusting the brand experience to offer them an enriching experience that responds to their new needs.

Can you judge a brand by the company he keeps?

Posted on by Knom

Unite to win.

Brands are what they project and therefore should not only control what they are and say, but also what they do. And yes, also with whom they do it.

This is why cobranding is a very interesting strategic tool, as it allows us to associate with other brands and benefit in some way from their image, adding new meanings and broadening the imaginary of our brand.

This alliance can help us to make an impact on an audience that would otherwise be beyond our reach, but also to enter new markets or fields of action hitherto alien to our brand.

So far, everything seems ideal and beneficial. However, we must know how to choose with whom we establish this collaboration in order to maintain the coherence of our brand and not generate mistrust in our current audience. As your mother would say, “beware of bad company”.

It is therefore essential that the brand with which we ally ourselves shares our values and has a personality that is “compatible” with our own. In other words, that this union does not generate contradictions and builds with our brand strategy in the medium and long term.

In short, if we do not lose control of the collaboration and we plan it well, cobranding is a very interesting strategy for standing out in a globalised and competitive context, as it will allow us to achieve objectives that would be much more complicated and costly to achieve individually.

Are we facing brand homogenisation?

Posted on by Knom

Brands with more uniform logos but with new ways to stand out.

We recently talked about how trends affect branding. Today we want to approach the subject of trends from a phenomenon that we have been observing in recent years in the world of brand design: the homogenisation of logos in some sectors such as fashion or technology apps.

From Burberry to Balenciaga, passing through Yves Saint Laurent, fashion firms have been moving away from serifs, light bodies and italics, to adopt a sans-serif style in a tall box that somehow standardises the haute couture industry.

The same is true when we enter the start-up ecosystem. While this world has specific needs in terms of usability that make some graphic solutions more suitable than others, we believe that there is plenty of room to come up with a personal and distinctive brand. You only have to look at Mailchimp’s rebranding to understand that there is life beyond logos with dry stick typography.

And it’s not just with big brands, there is a growing feeling that there is less and less variety in logos. In the past, designers lived more isolated from the work of others, which meant more freedom and braver proposals. Knowing the trends conditions us, makes us fall into what is popular, what is accepted by the majority. A phenomenon, that of homogenisation, which arises in a globalised and hyper-connected world, but which perhaps also has to do with the current of ‘liquid branding’, which advocates other ways of generating brand recognition and influence.

Because one thing is certain: the perception of a brand goes beyond the logo. We can be equally or more differentiated through the brand narrative, the art direction, the visual and typographic treatment, etc.

In any case, it is vital to understand that if we do not make this effort and let ourselves be carried away by the trends that surround us and what others are doing, we will end up creating perishable and meaningless brands.

What can brands do for feminism?

Posted on by Knom

Building the model of society in which we want to live.

Brands are a reflection of the social reality in which we live, but they are also an engine for change. Advertising, branding and communication play a very important role in normalising and implementing the social changes that emerge in our societies.

Although there is always a certain commercial interest behind this, we cannot underestimate the power and influence of brands on the population as a whole, both in reinforcing stereotypes and in breaking them.

Brands and products are part of our daily lives and that is why it is so urgent that, as consultants, designers and communicators, we learn to identify the biases that exist in the system and try to correct them. Being aware of issues such as the fact that the majority of voice assistants are women, or that the ergonomics of cars are designed for the comfort and safety of the male body is the first step in rethinking what we need to redesign in order to have the kind of society we want.

Because while there is a sector of brands that only seeks to jump on the bandwagon of a highly profitable mass movement through small, purely aesthetic and opportunistic gestures, we also find examples of truly committed brands that understand that relevance and real impact come from taking action.

An action that can be materialised in different ways: from attitude, empowering women; from information, giving them visibility and tools; but above all from design, including them in decision-making.

Because although it is great to see us starring in egalitarian spots and advertisements, it is much better to see us directing these campaigns, presiding over companies, and being a point of reference.

Because the present we design shapes the future we will be.

How trendy should a visual identity be?

Posted on by Knom

Brand design must transcend trends, but also take advantage of them.

The accelerated pace at which we live means that many trends are born and die at the same pace. What works today is likely to be obsolete in a few months. It is no longer like before, when a certain trend or movement prevailed in a more obvious way, now many different design trends coexist at the same time. That is why it is so dangerous to entrust the design of a brand to a merely aesthetic fashion.

A maxim of branding is that it should be functional, but it is also true that brands cannot (and should not) completely abstract themselves from what is happening around them, trends included. We must not forget that visual codes appeal to the social imaginary and are linked to a popular understanding. In this sense, the concepts of “modern”, “classic” or “technological” are not static but vary with the historical moment.

Good design handles this with great skill, always finding the balance between trend and universal codes, those that steer clear of the volatility of taste. A good brand design will find current graphic solutions and at the same time contain that intrinsic ‘truth’ to the brand that makes it solid and different from the base.

Branding must be approached from a long-term perspective and, although it is fine to play with the trends of the moment, we must know how to choose them. We must transcend the trend or the designer’s own style and think about what the project, the sector or the specific client demands. Before being guided by a particular trend, we must consider whether it is relevant to our category, our current positioning or the consumer group we are targeting.