Ah, the Ides of March and it is a great day to be in Sausalito. My first official ride on the MV Agusta today. Crisp, clear unflitered air under a bright full body yellow sun set against an expansive blue sky. And why am I indoors writing this post?! It’s been a while since my last post and today seemed like the best day to make my return.

Much has happened in the branding and design world over the last few months and with Brand Engine as well. Come back often over the next few weeks as I tell you more about some of the exciting changes happening at Brand Engine and share more of my personal insights and perspectives on branding and design. For now, I’ll leave you with one question to ponder: Does your brand and packaging have Spark?

Will Burke was recently asked by thedieline.com to contribute to their feature series, ‘Top Packaging Advice from the Pros’. The series, targeted to brand owners that want to rebrand their product or students looking to enter the package design profession, offers advice from top designers in the fields of branding and package design.

Will’s article, ‘How to Make Your Creative Energy Work for You’,  offers tips to develop skills that support the design process, guide your creativity and create excellent results.

To read the article, click here.

Brand Engine was recently added to dexinger.com’s directory for Logo and Branding Design. Click here to see our listing.

Clear Beverage’s Kid Fuel Naturally Flavored Water Beverage was recently featured in Contract Packaging’s Magazine’s July/August issue. The article, “Stepping up for the little guys”, focuses on Kid Fuel’s success in utilizing value-added services of contract packagers and others in the supply chain to achieve measurable cost efficiencies while also keeping desired package designs intact.

Click here to read the article on Contract Packaging’s Web site, or click here to read the article pdf.

Will Burke has been invited to participate in AIGA Reno Tahoe’s Principal Display Panel in North Tahoe on August 20th.

Other panel members include Michael Osborne of MOD and Steven DuPuis of The DuPuis Group. Moderated by Andrew Gibbs, Editor in Chief of The Dieline, the group will discuss the trends, psychology, art, and engineering of some of the worlds most trusted brands…..and the box they come in.

For more information on the event and to register, click here.

You are at a social function, and have gone through the horderve line and you can’t find a place for your drink.

As I see it, you have three options:

1. Abandon your drink at someone else’s table.
2. Place your beverage on the ground and hope that it doesn’t get kicked.
3. Awkwardly place your plate on your forearm, risking an embarrassing spill.

Now we have more options, thanks to the Go Plate. Genius.

Link via Uncrate.

You’ve read it in the NY Times, on TheDieline, on BNET and other news sources. Arnell Group’s redesign of the Tropicana Pure Premium line has been recalled. This is big news in the branding and design community. I believe this is the first time that a package design has been recalled and replaced by the previous design. Usually our profession is all about innovating the future not regurgitating the past.

Like many of my branding and design colleagues and more important, Tropicana’s loyal consumers (I include myself as a 20+ year loyal drinker – Grovestand, please), I share many of the same misgivings of the Arnell design. My first experience with the new package was in our studio refridgerator. I said to myself, “Why are we buying generic orange juice?” Only after a second, longer glance (something that real-world consumer may not do) did I realize it was Tropicana. Wow! What a change.

And since I’m all about Changing the Conversation, I applaud that Arnell Group and Pepsi Co. were open to dramatically changing the packaging/conversation with their consumer. The big misstep from my perspective is that they got the conversation wrong. And when you start with the wrong conversation, every branding touchpoint thereafter is doomed to failure. The true expression of the Tropicana Pure Premium brand story was never about the glass of orange juice, the end result – anyone can serve you a glass of orange juice or any other juice, it’s ubiquitous. No, the true expression of the brand story was and has always been the orange itself, the before state, the pure state, unaltered. Straw or no straw. As important, this brand story about the “Orange” was authentic, memorable, meaningful and ownable. The glass of orange juice?

Think of all the other brands that continue to compete with Pure Premium. It’s always an uphill battle. They don’t have a better, different or more compelling brand story to tell. Tropicana hit a home run from the start and wisely stayed true to that story until the Arnell design.

Does the decision to go back to the previous package design mean that the conversation has plateaued? Will the brand and thus the package become tired and uninspiring to a new generation? The answer is a resounding NO. There is room for change and innovation. The key is to be clear about your brand story, and the conversation you are having with your consumer. The right package design will reveal itself. And while the new branding and package design may be dramatically different or unexpected at first glance, your consumer will be saying, “Yes, this is my Tropicana.”

Want to read more? Here are a couple links we find informative on this topic.

Peter Arnell explains the new package design in this video posted on AdAge.
Matt Everson, founder and principal of Astuteo, a web development firm, dissects the new vs. old package design, here.
Sean Silverthorne, editor of HBS Working Knowledge comments on the role of the consumer in this post on BNET.

In Package Design Magazine’s latest design podcast, James Krouse interviews Will Burke, Founder and CEO on the topic ‘Why Branding Matters — Building Long-Lasting Brands.’ Will discusses where branding is today, where’s it’s heading, and strategies for building a successful and sustainable brand.

Click here to listen to the podcast. (Runtime: 10:45)

Nice polo shirts! Our client Sugar Bowl Bakery is featured in the February issue of The Costco Connection. The article revisits the beginnings of the bakery, and how through hard work and being true to their core family values have grown from a small doughnut shop into a $45 million company and one of San Francisco’s most successful businesses of the past 20 years. Read the complete story.

We’ll have a profile of our branding and design work for Sugar Bowl Bakery in the PROJECTS section of our website in the near future.

Perspectives from my day at CES 2009.

Function meets Fashion
The influx of fashion into consumer electronics was more evident this year. I saw more brands such as Built, Speck and Golla that make non-electronic products such as bags, sleeves, protectors for your consumer electronics – laptops, phones, cameras, mp3 players, etc. Unlike years past, they were not hidden away in a quite, dark back corner or confined to small cubicles at the Hilton. Instead they had relatively big spaces in prominent locations. Some of the “fashion” booths even overshadow more established, traditional (i.e. electronics) brands. Both in design creativity and visual presence.

Consumer electronics have become such an essential part of our everyday lives that we need to personalize, accessorize it. The market opportunity is huge. As a fashion brand, how are you positioned to stand out from the crowd?

The Next Big Thing
There really was not much breakthrough innovation year – I can’t see better than HD, WiFi is so yesterday, micro-(fill in the blank) are ubiquitous, and another (ho-hum) variation on the mp3 player. Major improvements in functionality and usability, and more value to the consumer for sure – just not compelling enough to upgrade or switch from what I have. The only exception was SONY. Last year they introduced the 3mm OLED (see more here) screen. This year they introduced the flexible OLED screen. Amazing is not even the close to describing this new screen. Sony presented some concepts for how this technology could be used – a “paperback” note book and a mp3 bracelet were two compelling examples (see images above). Here is a video of the technology on YouTube.

Brand and Performance can Overcome Price
I spoke with John Falcone, President and CEO of Sennheiser Electronics Corporation and he showed me their new audiophile headset, the HD800 with a retail price of $1,500. Yes, 2 zeros! I’m into high-end audio equipment and even that price was beyond my comprehension. Yet in less than a day (actually less than 2 hours), they sold out the entire 6 month product run.

It goes to show that when you have a compelling product by a trusted brand and having the right conversation with the right audience, price is less of a factor. In this case, none.

Best Quote
Comes from Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony.

“We need to provide consumers with a user experience that is so compelling and clearly life-enhancing that our products and services will become must-haves at affordable prices.”

Now that applies to every brand out there. Does your user experience achieve that goal? If not, why not?