Challenge
The closely held business was struggling to remain relevant in a market filled with strong national competitors such as Office Depot, Staples, WalMart and Sam’s. LAOP’s logo reflected a stagnant, unchanging image, and customers failed to appreciate the store’s value-added services and their more-than-just-office-furniture philosophy. If LAOP was to survive for the next generation of owners, it needed to make changes to keep the brand relevant and the company competitive.

Solution
Design the Planet partnered with LAOP to identify and define their unique brand differentiation and value proposition. This information was the basis for updating the company’s identity into something fresh and energetic. The redesigned action-oriented, forward-moving logo represents a company heading into a bright future. It includes a modern chair design and icons of office supplies referring to the company’s diverse offerings. Design the Planet also recommended changing the uniforms worn by delivery drivers and the sales team. This change improved the team’s perceived professionalism by addressing cleanliness and style issues. Along with these modernizations and changes to the branding, team members were trained on brand service paradigm and expectations. The company’s fleet of trucks was repositioned as a fleet of roving billboards to promote the brand with truck-side advertisements. These and other on-going changes have revitalized LAOP’s brand in a positive way.

Results
Through Design the Planet’s rebranding efforts, LAOP has moved into position as the brand-dominant local office supply and furniture store. The push to become a re-energized, competitive business gave the company’s internal brand community a much-needed boost, increasing employee morale and enthusiasm. LAOP’s new branding and attitude based upon its cultural promise was a breath of new life, and a successful strategy resulting in a significant growth in sales.

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Professional designers shouldn’t be overly influenced by their personal
interests when considering a logo design. Designers get paid to solve
other people’s problems, not chase down our own artistic pursuits. On
the other hand, designers who become indistinct from business people run
the risk of losing a creative dominance, so finding a balance is essential.

Attempting to describe the process of logo design is similar to trying
to answer the question, “How long will it take to generate a good idea?”
Some designers wrangle with a visual branding project for almost a year
or longer. Other designers will have a workable solution in mind after
the first client meeting. Because timelines can be dubious, designers
learn to trust a creative method. Usually, this method starts with the
knowledge and appreciation for the project’s vision and context. Then
the designer draws from research, goal-oriented creative briefs, and
industry trends.

Good designers prefer to not touch a computer until the idea in mind is
mostly resolved and crafted, instead sketching dozens, up to hundreds of
thumbnails. Creating many ideas throughout the creative process can be
an effective way to reach a great solution, but quantity doesn’t assure
quality. Visually and conceptually refining the idea and/or initial
artwork will follow this period of brainstorming, providing a period of
careful evaluation and resolution before being considered for a logo
design option.

One thing was obvious to me – some companies get branding and others do not. Case in point, the M&M Store is a 3-story behemoth of a store that sells clothing, jewelry, magnets, kitchen wear, custom M&M colors, more clothes, purses made of wrappers, coin banks, etc. (You get the point hopefully.) The entire store was colorful, entertaining, branded, and even smelled a bit like chocolate. One thing that particularly impressed me was how the store carried out the brand consistently throughout the store. Even the freight elevator was marked with a cute M&M character with a witty saying [look right] instead of just a sign. Very clever and it keeps you in the brand experience. The yellow M&M even holds the box upside personifying his dimwitted nature.

Across the street is the Hershey store with an elaborately designed exterior that is even more inviting than the M&Ms store. Walking into the store, my wife & I both had visions of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory in our minds. We were sadly disappointed. The store is unique for a typical mall store, but for Times Square, the inside fell flat. We walked along the crowded aisles and found our favorite candy and bought a shirt for my brother-in-law (he loves Reeses) and stood in line to check out.

After leaving the Hershey store, something stood out to me. You can not buy a bag of M&Ms at the M&M store. They had M&Ms, but they were all in tins, mugs, creative packaging, and the like. Most of the items in the Hershey store, I could buy at any drugstore or grocery store. Also, I noticed the noise, lines, and chaos at the Hershey store even know the M&M store was much louder, had more people, and had more going on. This is because the Hershey store was an store that sold candy not a place to experience a brand.

This was an eye opening experience for me that showed my money does not make the brand experience. Although, the brand experience makes money. We spent 3 times as much at the M&Ms store and went back numerous times throughout our short vacation.

If you’re in NYC, check out these two stores and the new Pop Tart World. Pop Tart Word just opened the week before we visited Times Square and they’re doing a lot of great things. It is not quite M&Ms yet, but you can make your own Pop Tart t-shirt, create a custom box of the pastries, and enjoy their Pop Tart cuisine. I think was a little too old for Pop Tart World’s impact, but I’m glad we found it (new means not on maps.)

1) Cultivate a Fanatical Fan Base: Fans of either Lady Gaga or Apple can be considered a cult by many measures. The article suggests a niche market that is catered and fed to, the gay community and the artist/music community respectively.

2) Be Technically Competent: Once you wow people with your marketing and style, you need to have something substantial for them to stick around. You can not build a community without providing a valuable product or service.

3) Got Vision?: Find a place where you can be the best even if it is a narrow piece of the market. Lady Gaga mixes glam rock with simple melodies and Apple builds innovate machines that creates a better life. Even here at Design the Planet, we’ve developed a division that specializes in construction website design & brand marketing – The Brand Constructors.

4) Simplicity Sells: Lady Gaga keeps her beats & melodies simple and Apple has a clean look and their advertising is just as clean and simple. Their brand communities known who each brand is even though they have surprises with different wardrobes or products.

5) Packaging Matters: Every time we purchase an Apple product, we are amazed by their simple, well-designed packaging. Apple’s packaging is direct and stylish no matter the piece. Lady Gaga says that she is thinking about her wardrobe on stage when writing music. She even has her own design team called the Haus of Gaga.

I would only add Be Different to the list. If you do not offer a service or product that is different than your competitor, than you are only competing on price and that is a losing battle. Lady Gaga and Apple both stand out when looking at their peers.

Guess what Brinks is doing? No, they’re not buying a stadium; they’re rebranding! I do not understand changing a powerful brand that has household name recognition. I flipped when I heard the Cingular brand was on it’s way out, but it was being replaced by the even more well known and powerful AT&T brand. Brinks is changing their home security and business security to Broadview Security. I do not think Broadview Security has the same brand dominance as AT&T. I do like the additional of the term “security” to the name, but when you have a brand that is synonymous with an industry like Brinks is to security, I am okay not having the descriptive word in the name. I agree having a different look for the personal and business sides of the security business, but I would never suggest a name change for a company with as much brand collateral as Brinks.

According to their website, Brinks is keeping the name for their “Global Security Transportation and Cash Logistics Company” so the brand will still be around. When doing some research for this post, I was even more surprised to find The Brink’s Company had a different logo.

We’ll see how this pans out over the next few years. One benefits going for Brinks & Broadview Security is the amount of money they can spend in advertising and branding the new company name. A  smaller company with a similar name recognition in a local or regional market would have a tougher time without that kind of spending power.