By Lane Casteix
We keep saying, "The products you use are the ones you know and trust. Be Seen - Be Heard - Be Known."
And now this from the Media Research Bureau, "Companies that place ads in traditional media are more trusted, and campaigns for products that are placed in traditional media are most trusted."
By Lane Casteix
The Mac computer by Apple is a mainstay of graphics departments and ad agencies. SPAR uses Macs almost exclusively and has since we got our first computer back in the eighties. From the start the Mac graphic user interface (GUI) seemed perfectly suited for graphics people who by their nature are very "visually oriented" in the way they work. The fact that the best graphics software was for a long time only available on the Mac also helped endear the platform to designers.
Steve Jobs of Apple made a marketing decision years ago that doomed the Mac to a secondary position behind the PC and the MS DOS operating system, when he refused to license the Mac OS to other computer manufacturers (except for a brief period in the nineties).
All that is water under the marketing bridge. Apple's stock is growing in value steadily, and much of that has to do with the innovations Steve Jobs is bringing to the computer industry these days, not to mention entertainment and communications with the iPod, iTunes, and now, the iPhone.
This is bringing new attention to the Mac, and Mac users are growing in numbers, as they discover the many advantages of the Mac OS. Which brings me to the subject of this post - advertising (that is our business!).
Apple has come out with a series of outstanding commercials, comparing the PC to the Mac, which I am sure all of you have seen at least a few. This series has been hugely successful for Apple and has helped grow the Mac business. If you want to see the whole series and catch any you might have missed, go here.
What is really great about these commercials is their consistency, the clear messages, and the way that message is presented in a humorous and entertaining way. You enjoy the commercial and come away better informed without being lectured. Each commercial does an amazing job or re-enforcing the others. These are among the top commercials ever.
By Lane Casteix
We firmly believe the graphic identity of a packaged goods product is not isolated to the brand's logo alone. The customer does not generally walk around the store looking for a logo when they seek a brand. What they look for and what they recognize is what trademark attorneys call "trade dress." This term captures the distinct appearance of the package as a whole, and even though the individual elements of the design of two packages are quite different, if the overall appearance of the two packages is similar enough to cause confusion (even if only in the mind of an attorney), you have a potential trade dress issue and a potential law suit.
Yanko Design gets it! They understand the whole package is the design, not just the logo or even a combination of elements making up the decoration on the package. This is what we have been preaching for years ourselves.
The Non-Object designed package for Vertikal Vodka is a perfect example of this concept. (It is also a package we wish we had designed!) The logo on the Vertikal package is almost insignificant to the design, but the package as a whole, especially its tubular shaped bottle without a neck, will have a very strong shelf presence and be easily recognized by consumers.
Take a look and see what I mean.
By Lane Casteix
Being "green" is wonderful, right? Maybe not as wonderful as we first thought.
The green movement was supposed to help the environment, but it is turning out to have a dark side also that is harmful to the environment. With all these biodegradable packages moving into commerce there is no longer guilt associated with littering. Formerly environmentally conscious folks suddenly feel free to toss their crap out the window with the expectation it will biodegrade and return to the earth as natural elements. Litter is increasing!
Perhaps this is where we say something about the law of unintended results?
By Lane Casteix
Smirnoff Vodka illustrates its "extraordinary purification" in this "Clearly Smirnoff" commercial. It clearly makes the point for the brand and the environment. It sets the bar quite a bit higher for everyone else in the process.
