To see how ingrained brands have become in our lives, take the brand alphabet test. I’m willing to bet you’ll recognize more than a few of the brands chosen for this online quiz.
Next week, I’m attending the International Brand Design Conference here in Cincinnati. I’ll also be blogging it so you can expect a heavy dose of brand content at Strategic Public Relations next week.Brochureaccent
Disclaimer #1: This is also work-related as two FRCH Design Worldwide vice presidents will be presenting at the event. Their presentation is entitled “Immersive Design: Creating Environments that Bring Brands to Life.” However, the content I post here will stick to the usual focus on marketing and public relations.
The conference is focusing on what it calls “the innovation imperative in consumer goods.” The news release claims that “innovation and new strategies are aligning design, product development, and marketing into new, interconnected partnerships that are driving product success and ultimately changing the future of consumer goods brands. Leading practitioners and brand thought-leaders from consumer goods companies, brand consultancies, and academia will come together to examine new approaches to brand management.”
The perfect example of this alignment is Issac Mizrahi and Target. Target offers Mizrahi’s designer goods at an affordable price and creates a competitive advantage over Wal-Mart in the process. Cool.
The presentations should be interesting, including a keynote from Claudia Kotchka, Vice President of Design Innovation and Strategy at Procter & Gamble.
Kotchka will discuss how innovative changes in design at P&G are not only helping exceed the demands of the consumer goods market but are also producing a change within the P&G culture.
Additionally, Bruce Nussbaum, Editorial Page Editor of BusinessWeek, will address the shift underway from a technology economy into an experience economy, where the new value proposition is based on co-creating products and services with customers that fill their needs, makes them happy, and increase earnings. He will discuss how companies are using “design thinking” to transform into innovation powerhouses, and how this is reshaping the future of design.
More on the event and Cincinnati’s branding prowess can be found here. Disclaimer #2: my firm is quoted in this article.
Links: Brand Alphabet Test
Kevin Dugan is the author of the popular Strategic Public Relations blog. Kevin is Director of Marketing Communications for FRCH Design Worldwide.
Visit Kevin’s blog: Strategic Public Relations.
