The “Best of Local Business” Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the US Local Business Association (USLBA) identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These businesses are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

Brand Engine was recently selected to receive the 2009 Best of Sausalito Award in the Graphic Arts category for the second consecutive year. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the USLBA and data provided by third parties. Nationwide, only 1.4% of 2008 Award recipients qualified as 2009 winners.

Click here to read USLBA’s press release on Brand Engine’s Award.

The American Design Awards offers an ethical platform for designers to showcase their work, and exhibit their creativity and talent, marketability and effectiveness, as well as practicality and general design abilities. Brand Engine impressed the judges as a previous winner of an American Design Award, and was selected as a featured design firm under their ‘Spotlight Review’.

To quote the ADA Editor: “Brand Engine has impressed our judges through their clean, modern, and impactful design pieces. Their design sense combined with marketability and true understanding of the end-user has enabled them to soar above their competition.”

Click here to visit Brand Engine’s ‘Spotlight Review’ on ADA’s Web site or click here for the pdf.

Brand Engine Executive Team

Sausalito, CA (March 4 2009) — Brand Engine, an internationally recognized strategic branding and design consultancy firm, names Heidi Caldwell as Vice President of Marketing & Strategic Development. Ms. Caldwell’s responsibilities include developing partnerships with business leaders, while assisting current clients in their strategic branding and design goals.

“Heidi has an impressive track record for driving strong business results and anticipating marketplace opportunities for both global brands and smaller startups,” says Will Burke, Co-Founder and CEO of Brand Engine. “She’s a master of innovation, and has educated many major brands on powerful new ways of connecting with their consumer. We believe her contributions will be instrumental in taking our client’s brand leadership to the next phase of growth,” he adds.

Ms. Caldwell brings a wealth of branding, packaging and marketing experience from both the corporate and agency side. Accomplished in brand creation and renewal, she has directed product launches and design programs for world-class consumer product brands in diverse categories. Companies include Nestlé, Unilever, Pepsi, Anheuser-Busch, Annie’s, Hormel Foods, NatureMade and Hill’s Pet Nutrition.

“I’m truly excited to be part of the Brand Engine family and culture. Their creative excellence, rooted in solid strategic branding, is a great compliment to my background,” says Ms. Caldwell.

For More Information
Alden Domini
Public Relations
415 339 4220 x124
alden.domin@brandengine.com

About Brand Engine
Brand Engine is an internationally recognized strategic branding and design consultancy firm that partners with companies of all sizes to grow their business. Our commitment to beauty and business success in all that we do for our clients has resulted in increased revenue, distribution and market share. Clients include companies that are #1 in their category, such as Hewlett-Packard, Duraflame, Logitech, Mighty Leaf Tea and Plum Organics.

Sausalito, CA (March 4 2009) — Brand Engine, an internationally recognized strategic branding and design consultancy firm, names Tom Davidson as Associate Creative Director. Mr. Davidson will be responsible for creating strong and compelling visual branding communications in partnership with client management and implementation teams.

“Tom’s innovative concepts have elevated and energized numerous global consumer brands. He brings a solid creative background to our team,” says Will Burke, Co-Founder and CEO of Brand Engine. “We believe Tom’s distinctive leadership and intuitive design skills will be instrumental in taking Brand Engine to the next level in branding excellence,” he adds.

Mr. Davidson brings 20 years of experience in design strategy, packaging, product design and brand identity. Skilled in global design perspective and emotional branding, he has inspired exceptional creative solutions for international consumer brands and corporate entities. Mr. Davidson’s vision has shaped such globally recognized brands as Coca-Cola, Evian, Williams-Sonoma, Reebok, Target, AOL and Abercrombie & Fitch.

“I’m thrilled about the move to Brand Engine. It’s an amazing company with a dynamic creative culture,” says Mr. Davidson. “I look forward to thriving with my new west coast design family.”

For More Information
Alden Domini
Public Relations
415 339 4220 x124
alden.domin@brandengine.com

About Brand Engine
Brand Engine is an internationally recognized strategic branding and design consultancy firm that partners with companies of all sizes to grow their business. Our commitment to beauty and business success in all that we do for our clients has resulted in increased revenue, distribution and market share. Clients include companies that are #1 in their category, such as Hewlett-Packard, Duraflame, Logitech, Mighty Leaf Tea and Plum Organics.

Although a healthy planet is its own reward, we are proud to be one of the first full-service branding and design firms to be certified by the Bay Area and Marin County Green Business Program.

Certification is awarded based on continuous compliance with environmental regulations, conserving energy, water, and other materials, implementing sound environmental practices that prevent pollution and waste generation, and sharing environmentally responsible practices with other businesses in our community.

To read more about the Green Business Program, click here.

Brand Engine was recently awarded the 2008 Best of Sausalito Award for Graphic Arts by the US Local Business Association.

The “Best of Local Business” Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USLBA identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category.

Click here to read more on the Best of Local Business Award Program.

AIGA San Francisco and Brand Engine invite you to attend the October Studio Tour, “Creative Tourisme”, at Brand Engine’s Studios on October 14th, 6 pm to 8 pm. Join us for an inspirational evening of creative stimulation.

Click here for additional information and to register for Brand Engine’s Studio Tour.

McKinsey & Co. recently released a report on what countries can do to reduce overall greenhouse emissions. BusinesWeek captured the essence of the report in a simple, easy to read chart that shows a range from the cheapest to the most expensive measures to reduce greenhouse emissions. McKinsey states that by doing all the measures — “would cut 3 billion metric tons of emissions per year in 2030 vs. what they would be at current growth rates. That would put emissions below current levels.” What I found most interesting is that the cheaper measures are something that most consumers and businesses can do today. Change your lighting. Upgrade your home appliances (refrigerator, hot water heater, HVAC, washer and dryer, TV, to name a few) to more energy-efficient models, drive a more fuel-efficient car or truck.

Yes, there is an initial investment to make these changes. And yet your return may be realized in just a few months. At Brand Engine, we replaced all of our lighting at the studio — reducing our carbon emissions by over 50% (just from the lights) while increasing the quality of the light (color and brightness) and the visual comfort level for our employees ( e.g. less eye strain) — and will recoup our investment in less than 10 months based on a lower monthly electrical bill. Not bad.

Day 2: Rob Wallace started the second and last day with ROI. Rob has been championing the measurement of Brand Communication ROI for over 15 years. Over that time he has put together over two dozen case studies. Half where the advertising and package design changes and half where only the package design changes.

While there is no industry established methodology for calculating Brand Communication ROI, Rob’s approach seems logical and well thought out. And I would say his assumptions are on the conservative side resulting in a lower ROI number. The big question is it believable. With both advertising and package design changed the average ROI was $7.21. With only package design changed the average ROI was $415. WOW! Rob’s firm works with large multi-national brands and just a small increase in sales can have a profound impact on ROI.

My own experience following Rob’s methodology has resulted in ROI ranging from $5 to over $40. Our clients are much smaller in size than Rob’s, yet these ROI results would also have them saying, “WOW!” So back to the big question, is it believable? My response is a resounding YES!

More speakers …

Ricardo Crespo, Worldwide Creative Director, Hot Wheels, Mattel, spoke on Brand DNA and evaluating brands on three criteria: brand experience, brand relationship, and brand dialog. He also ran us through an exercise on distilling your Brand DNA down to three key points. Challenging and very rewarding. Have Ricardo tell you more.

Josh Handy, Senior Director of Industrial Design, Method, spoke on the guiding principles that focus their design efforts when developing new products. These principles are: 1. be useful; revisit how consumers use the product and how can you make it better. For example their new bathroom cleaner where the bottle has an indent at the top to hold a sponge. 2. don’t design fugly products; are they “counter-worthy”? Most Method product have minimal graphics and in some cases you can remove the graphics before putting them in use. In other words, the product becomes a reflection of the user’s lifestyle. 3. Be safe for you, your cat, and the earth. The new packaging for their Omop, uses recycled paper and bamboo. Nice. My family has become big fans of Method and those three design principles are exactly why.

My favorite presentation was from Renee Peet, Executive Director, Brand Strategist, Desgrippes Gobe. Titled Karaoke Killed the Design Star, she spoke on creating your own unique music rather than singing lyrics written by someone else. Think about how many logos have a “swoosh” as part of the design, or are three-dimensional, or … you get the idea. And she is right. We remember the first Swoosh, all others just fade into the background. Is that how you want your brand to be remembered? A copy-cat? A me-too? I think not. So just stop and stand up for YOU. It’s not about being different, it’s about being you.

Renee’s case study on Payless Shoes – Why can’t functional mean fun? – was right on target. Paying less for shoes does not have to be a boring, unmotivated, unappealing, disgusting experience. The results from changing that experience included: 30% increase in sales, ability to acquire Stride Rite, a partnership with Nike (something they were unable to do in 10 years), coverage by the fashion press, and a presence at Fashion Week 08. Any questions on the value of design?