Cultural Branding

020.011MAGAZINE ISSUE

something for your mind

yeah, we did this!AL JAZEERA NETWORK BROCHURE FOR 2011

2 thoughts. 019.010 020.011 thoughts. 3

creditsIssue Writers

Anthony RymanAndreas Ioannou David Omi

Designer

Mae M. Alkuino

Photography

Jason Añonuevo

Editor

Anthony Ryman

AL JAZEERA NETWORK - BROCHURE FOR 2011

yeah, we did this!

Cover Artwork

Mae M. Alkuino

Note to readers:

grow is a refreshingly creative Doha-based advertising and design agency focused on brands. For more information please visit our website http://www.growqatar.com or [email protected]

CHALLENGE

Al Jazeera Network is an international news media network dedicated to in-depth coverage and analysis of global issues and events. Over the last 15 years, they have expanded their offering to include news channels in several languages, interactive news channel, studies and training centre, websites, online and mobile.

How to communicate the scope of activities in a simple but visually engaging way?

Al Jazeera approached grow with this challenge.

CREATIVE RESPONSE

We decided that, as most of their services were visually very powerful, we would begin with a pure white cover to reinforce their values, ie transparency and offset the rich colours and photography within the brochure.

At the same time, we focused on the visual marquee and used that visual device in silver to offset the white.

We chose to communicate within a landscape information tool-kit, visually very rich and yet very easy to read.

We used a colour-coded bar, reminiscent of the TV colour bars to delineate the various chapter heading, supported by key words to reinforce the activity and nature of the business.

We also art directed the photo shoot and handled the print production.

THE RESULT

A powerful sales kit that help Al Jazeera communicate their activities and breadth of scale in a visually interesting and simple manner. It reflects the dynamism, commitment to service and expertise that Al Jazeera provides. It’s used as a media and marketing tool e.g. at international conferences, to promote the Al Jazeera brand worldwide and demonstrate its global reach and expansion plans.

Brand is much more than a logo, a uniform, packaging, an advert or a look and feel. It’s all of these and more!

Your brand is your DNA, your brand promise. It’s emotive and it’s an asset with intrinsic value. Moreover, brand is about “tribes” or “identity”.

In this world of complex messaging, where we are constantly getting bombarded by thousands of advertising messages per day trying to sell us stuff, brand is a shorthand to cut through all the hype, enabling you to find the brand that reflects and reinforces who you are, or who you want to be. It’s a shorthand for self expression.

From a corporate perspective, brands are at the core of communications, focusing thinking and action internally and externally and guiding the entire customer and stakeholder experience.

Brands and the idea of branding are the most significant developments that commerce has ever brought to modern culture

A great brand should set you apart from your competition, and speak to the world about who you are, what you do, how you do it and what you stand for. Ultimately, it should get you noticed and drive people to want you and what you offer.

Great brands are based around a “BIG IDEA”, a brand story, that is true, authentic, believable, campaignable and compelling. It’s an idea so simple, so powerful and so insightful, that it gives the company a real sense of purpose and belief that drives everything they do. It fundamentally answers the question “Why?”. Why should I care? Why does it matter?

Essentially if you’re easy to understand, you’re easy to trust and if you’re easy to trust, you’re easy to do business with.

In our design process, this “BIG IDEA” acts as the creative and communications catalyst and platform from which we design how your brand looks, feels, talks and acts. Essentially we give the brand its own voice, character and personality.

Based on our core understanding of brands and how they are formed, we have created our grow process to create and define your brand in six key steps.

Discovery is about finding out about who you are, what you do and how you do it. We learn about your business strategy, your industry sector and the competitive landscape to gain a clear understanding of your business.

1 Discovery

We develop a positioning matrix to compare you to your competitors. We identify key words that define you, your uniqueness, your specialism, your value proposition and your DNA. This helps us to understand how and what to communicate to your audiences and which channels to use. We now define your positioning and differentiation and build your brand story, so you’re easy to understand, easy to trust and easy to do business with.

2 Definition

We start to develop the positioning ideas and insights into a visual context through imagery and colour palette, form, shape and typography. There’s a lot of work here behind the scenes, much scouring the Internet, magazines, much cutting and pasting, brainstorming and discussing.

3 Development

We create a graphic board to show the visual expression and creative orientation. We then develop our thinking to a focused set of imagery and colours and explore different concept routes for presentation across various applications so we can show you how well the ideas work.

4 Design

Once we have the strategic choices fleshed out in a visual context, we recommend a final creative route to design develop in consultation with you. The objective is to choose a creative route that not only works, but is powerful, compelling and sustainable.

5 Decision

Armed with a clear direction and action plan, we are now able to roll out the communication deliverables against a clearly articulated plan. Our role is now often to become your brand champions and deliver regular brand health checks or assist inside the rollout to ensure the enterprise fully and properly engages.

6 Deployment

of growThe DimensionsOnbrand

By Anthony Ryman, Managing Director

020.011 thoughts. 54 thoughts. 020.011

Keeping it simple: when we say ‘brand’ we mean the personality of an entity – whether product, service, organisation, nation, or a person. Personalities (and brands) are shaped by two fundamental sets of features:¬ EXTERNAL, the way they present themselves – it could be the style of their clothes or their graphic identity or the colour palette on their communications ¬ INTERNAL, the way they allow their character traits and values to be perceived – they could be outgoing, understanding, trustworthy, or conservative.

RATIONAL brand connections

what the customer may say¬ the price is just right for me¬ the features are great – easy to use¬ I like their contemporary image

> this product / service is for me

EMOTIONAL brand connections

how the customer may feel¬ I trust them¬ they respect my time¬ they understand my needs

> this brand is for me

Brand consumers develop rational connections with the brand’s external features and emotional connections with its internal features (as shown in the model below). Value is maximised when brands achieve both types of consumer connections.

Adding a new dimension to the model to get cultural branding: in addition to achieving emotional connections in the conventional sense, some brands have managed to form an additional powerful bond with the consumer – through becoming cultural, iconic symbols representing ideas and ideals often disassociated from the core product or service (and the main essence of the brand). Think of BBC as a carrier of ‘Britishness’ and not as a broadcasting corporation; think of Elvis as a prototype of ‘achieving a dream’ and not as a rock-and-roll singer; think of the Olympic Games as ‘building a bridge over the world’ and not as a series of sports events; think of the value such iconic dimensions can bring to a brand.

By Andreas Ioannou, Brand Consultant

Virgineven during economic meldowns ‘life is never dull’

Applein a complex world they bridge the cultural gap with creativity and simplicity

Coca Colafrom “I’d like to teach the world to sing” to polar bears injecting a sense of innocence in our complex cultures

Developing and nurturing a brand as a cultural iconFirst, the prerequisite: the rational connections with the brand have to be in place (a modern airline cannot become a cultural icon if, for example, its tariff structure is not in-line with customer expectations). Managing cultural branding, creating that ‘iconic bond’ takes time and strategic effort. Brands need to:¬ identify and respond tightly to people’s current ideals and values or provide a perceived relief to their social or economic concerns and worries – or cultural disruptions¬ be the vehicle to fulfill people’s social or personal ambitions and desires – people know what they want to achieve but cannot always achieve it – for example, a worthwhile contribution towards environmental protection¬ keep re-inventing the brand but keep it relevant to society’s needs and attitudes (British Airways damaged its iconic status during their 1997 rebranding by introducing multi-ethnic art that went against the collective ethos of a nation and upset politicians)

¬ have a story to tell – communicate through characters, metaphors, or messages the brand’s empathy towards society’s contemporary beliefs make it real, turn words and promises into actions (eg, people want to see how a brand is Corporately Responsible – not simply read about it).

The benefits of cultural branding are realIt takes time and effort to create an iconic brand, but it can pay off through: ¬ being top-of-mind – they get the attention from journalists, they feature heavily in social networks ¬ (viral marketing), and generally the brand awareness is maximised ¬ increased brand equity and therefore increased customer loyalty¬ attracting quality co-branding and quality business partnerships¬ being hard to replicate – creating barriers to current and future competition¬ attracting and retaining talent¬ the ‘halo effect’ – more easily forgiven during slip-ups having a ‘protected’ quality reputation.

A last thought …When consumers connect deeply and emotionally to a brand that articulates and brings to life their inner beliefs (and ‘completes’ their identity), they want to stay connected to that brand. So brands need to think big and attempt to enter the world of our wider culture. Even if they don’t achieve an iconic status, they can still leverage the benefits of a differentiated, fresh positioning.

So brands need to think big and attempt to enter the world of our wider culture.

Bank of Cyprusfor over 100 years remains etched in local people’s lives and memories

BBCa symbol of Britishness



The UK Brand NowI was recently in Heathrow’s Terminal Five building and happened upon the souvenir gift shop. As I walked around the aisles festooned with double-decker bus piggy banks, teddy bears wearing tiny sweaters emblazoned with Union Jacks and ludicrously priced Fortnum and Mason tea selections, I was overcome with a growing sense of woe and frustration.

Being a Brit and a long time expat I am appalled at how my country insists on portraying itself to the outside world. The picture we paint of ourselves is misleading at best. My heckles rise when people of other nationalities describe the UK as being a nation that cannot cook, a place that suffers constant rain, and a quiet and reserved people with a stiff upper lip. Nothing could be further from the truth. There appears to be a profound

disconnect between who we really are and who we are perceived to be. Which means that we do not have an effective cultural brand.

Cultural identity as ambassadorAn effective cultural brand serves as an ambassador to the world. The role of ambassador is to represent everything that is good and authentic about a country. You can tell a lot about a culture from what it chooses to say about itself: a willingness to trade in cultural cliché belies a lack of confidence and fails to offer the world

anything new.

An effective cultural brand provides a powerful insight into the collective psyche of a people and the

social and political mores of a country. Effective cultural representation can give business leaders valuable

insights into a country vis-a-vis how their businesses might integrate into the

local culture and avoid any political missteps by offering authentic insight

into the potential threats, opportunities and practicalities

of doing business there.

By David Omi

10 thoughts. 019.010

But effective cultural representation requires a certain degree of accuracy. Cultures are always in a state of transition. None more so than the Middle East and its constituent nations.

The Qatari Brand NowQatar right now smacks of a country in a hurry to be loved by the world. It wants to show it is culturally progressive, having recently hosted the Doha (New York) Tribeca Film Festival and a TED (New York, Vancouver) conference. University College London is setting up a campus in the country and the Qatari powers that be are also looking to buy the auction house Christie’s. Already Harrods is now past of Qatar’s rapidly increasing global investment portfolio.

Qatar is interested in becoming known for something beyond its untold wealth. It wants to be part of a larger cultural world and is using its vast resources to do so. But in its rush to impress the world with its cosmopolitan Rolodex, it is imperative that Qatar does not buy into the shopping mall of imported high cultural status brand names, removed from time and place. In fact, this global mall is not theirs – it is not Qatari – and paving over ancient marketplaces for such construction leaves Qatar in a cultural desert. It’s vitally important that Qatar does not lose its essence by smothering its traditions and cultural nuances because the specificities of its culture are what the world will ultimately fall in love with. Hence why places like the Souq Waqif, Museum of Islamic Art and Katara are loved by the people who have embraced and adopted them as their own. Heritage, tradition and family values fused with enormous ambition, it seems, represent the Qatari DNA and as these are expressed outwardly in a truly authentic manner, monuments to Qatar’s brand will remain and emit Qatar’s brand as a legacy for generations.

The Arab world’s struggle to recreate itself for the modern age provides Qatar with a fabulous opportunity. Namely the possibility to develop a cultural identity that represents not only Qatari society but also one that reflects in microcosm, everything that is beautiful about the Arab world’s newly emerging socio-political selfhood

As for the UK’s souvenir gift shop in Heathrow’s Terminal Five, it remains a wasted opportunity in terms of conveying the true nature of our national character. The Arab Spring has directed the world’s rapt attention to this corner of the globe. Let’s not waste the opportunity by peddling in worn-out clichés.

_________________________________________________

David Omi is Chief Creative Officer and Vissionary at Sine, New York.

Qatar is interested in becoming known for something beyond its untold wealth. It wants to be part of a larger cultural world and is using its vast resources to do so.


12 thoughts. 019.010

grow 3rd Floor

Thani Bin Abdullah Complex Ibn Seena Street, Doha, Qatar

T +974 4444 6222 F +974 4431 4982

E [email protected] www.growqatar.com

© grow 2011. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior written permission of grow.

The contents, layout and design are copyrighted and are protected by worldwide

copyright laws and treaty provisions including Qatar Law No.9 of 2002

on the protection of copyrights and related rights.

Documents

Cultural Branding