A summary of Brian Richards keynote speech The Fine Art of Branding at Creative New Zealand’s 21st Century Arts Conference 2009.

A summary of Brian Richards keynote speech The Fine Art of Branding at Creative New Zealand’s 21st Century Arts Conference 2009.

Brian Richards has spent more than a decade developing strategies for leading export brands, regional identities, and major corporate brands in Australasia, Asia and Europe. You can share your stories, questions and challenges with Brian Richards on a new online forum smART talk.

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For both arts organisations and commercial businesses, says Richards, our “New Zealand-ness”, and the stories and journeys that combine to make us what we are, should be at the core of your brand strategy.

Yet our manufacturers and exporters tend to do more of the same, rather than telling our quintessentially New Zealand stories. “We sell too many products too cheaply,” says Richards. “They lack style, originality and romance. We have a process obsession.” As a country, we must start to sell less for more.

Contrast our pragmatic farmer and his rough image with the romance that surrounds the products of his French counterpart. With the French winegrower/farmer, it’s all about bouquet and flavour; the story and romance of the French countryside is imbued in every product. Images of Mystery Creek, by contrast, show farmers in gumboots looking at tractors and chainsaws.  Such raw pragmatism won’t transfer to brands with international appeal, he suggests.

Part of our problem is that we are not sure who we are. Identity is a critical part of positioning a product. The “psychic premium” of a country is a critical dimension to positioning its products. But we have a backstory that is not told that well. We have to understand where we have come from to tell our stories compellingly.

The creative industries are critical to telling the stories of this country. Many of our brands offer no premium in their story content for the wine buyer in Europe or New York. What does Montana mean in the US? And Villa Maria? Contrast these with Cloudy Bay, a brand that tells a New Zealand story; one that holds amazing evocative power – and results in its wine selling for $93 a bottle in London.
Provenance – where you are and where you came from, your stories – plays an invaluable role in developing your brand and in connecting you to your customers. Profit margins are created in this intellectual property, not in producing more of the same.

The inspiration for stories about ourselves is in the connection between commerce and art. The arts have the power to excite people and show consumers something they’ve never experienced before.

Richards proposes a new positioning in the international marketplace for New Zealand products – that of “masstige”; a cross between mass commoditisation and prestige positioning. Our stories have tremendous appeal in the crowded cities of the world, says Richard. The further you get away from nature, the more you are prepared to pay for it. The creative industries can bring romance to the grotty reality of other people’s lives – and New Zealand products can do it:

• Antipodes water
• Icebreaker clothing
• Steinlager Pure

The cultural industries need to define how they can contribute to communicating New Zealand’s new cross-cultural identity, says Richards. “You are the storytellers.”

When you begin to look at telling stories, think about how they can help define us, and where we are going. Commercial brands need to be edgier than they are. “You need to show us; the creative industries have got to become involved in the commercial world. The creative community is a portal to understanding and possibility.”

But back to the realities for the arts community in branding itself. Every day you compete for your audience, says Richards, in a crowded world of choice where people probably only notice three or four brands a day.  You, too, have to have a story and a pronounced point of difference to be noticed.

Brands are about the management of difference. To be truly differentiated, you need to be sure your organisation stands on all four “pillars of brand equity”:

• Differentiation – your point of difference in your category.

• Relevance  – How new and how important are you? Are you meeting a specific want/need? Told through a unique story and great design.

• Esteem – how much do people like or have an affinity with your brand?

• Knowledge – how much people know about you.

Underpinning all these must be a supportive culture, inside and outside the company.

Marketing works on a level of wants and needs. Branding is about wants, not needs. The overture you make to a consumer should be a sensory thing; tell your story through graphics, movement and style, so they look in the “mirror of curiosity” and see something they like about themselves.

“Visualisation of stories is so important,” stresses Richards. The excitement of photography and words is critical.

Great brands are built firstly on a big idea. But they take three to five years to position themselves – you have got to have stickability.

Brian Richards: The Fine Art of Branding – breakout session

Richards highlights three key areas which underpin successful brands:

• A differentiated vision

• A supportive culture

• A unique story and design

A brand is the external expression of what you do. The equity in a brand is held externally and depends on the four pillars (see above) of how other people see you; it is the extent to which customers are emotionally connected with you. Personal relevance or perception are key. To establish that personal relevance, consider what anecdote you can give or story you can tell to update personal relevance.

A point of difference can be a real or perceived. And if you’ve got a point of difference, you must tell a story about it. “We’ve developed a techno-centric view of the world, and the commercial world has lost track of how to tell stories,” says Richards. Storytelling has been marginalised to the arts and cultural sector – which must put the arts in a prime position to build brands with emotional relevance.

Brian Richards’ Brand Tips:

• Develop a theme to your story that will turn audiences on

• Don’t overdress your story – keep it simple.

• Tell stories with arresting copy and great design.

• Communicate internally, so you all share the story. Build a supportive culture of staff and supporters (including sponsors) – and engage programme sellers, ticketing staff and others who impact on the audience’s experience.

• Brands have to be “unfolded” to people. Visualise your story and break it into key parts. Consider how to break the story into “bits” through typography and in all your publications (including your website). How you structure information and how you deliver it is critical; layer your story, with a short anecdote to introduce it.

• Information, whether written or visual, needs to be clear and simple.

• People can only understand something complex in relation to what they  already know. Tell stories that relate to people.

• Use your own vernacular; tell your story in your own words. Don’t be afraid to use wit.

• Ensure absolute design clarity. The colours you use, the visualisation of information and the imagery are as much part of the brand experience as the story you tell. Consider your use of photography, personalities and intriguing images.

• Your gallery window, front page of your website, or front page of your brochure have to intrigue and draw people in.

• Construct your website so people can use it intuitively.

• The experience must match the promise your brand offers. If I walk into Downstage one evening, what is the sensory experience? How am I greeted? The experience of the play should begin with the poster or the ad, and be delivered all the way through to the performance.

Take-outs by Participants:

• Move from technical/functional descriptors to making emotional connections. And use imagery to create those emotional connections.

• There’s a bigger audience out there than we think. We need to change the ways we engage with them.

• Listen you your community (invite feedback) and engage with them for success.

• The challenge is to differentiate yourself from others in your field. “We tried to do that by off-beat, quirky programming and cross-pollinating with other art forms. But then someone asked if our musicians still wore black and whether the ushers dressed differently.” Conclusion: there is some way to go to deliver a full brand experience.

Creative New Zealand’s 21st Century Arts Conference 2009 took place on 25th & 26th June at the Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington, New Zealand. See more presentations and conference reports from the 2009 conference here.