I've been working on a few projects recently where the inevitable questions around brand architectures and 'brand houses' are starting to come up in order to funnel all of the thinking and research into the right framework. Perfectly fine questions and expectations, but I think like many people, I'm dissatisfied with brand architecture models many of us are used to (and unfortunately often still use due to the lack of readily implementable solutions that could work across clients). Further adding to the current situation is that people (like Adrian among others) have been talking about this for years, and yet it seems to me that we still haven't collectively found a model or even a set of models/tools that we all feel is the right leap forward (and that have proven to be effective in bringing internal and external parties along for the ride). Good place to start would be with a couple models that have gotten me pretty excited in the last year or a bit more. In mid 2008 when The Open Brand (written by the very smart Kelly Mooney and Nita Rollins) came out, I thought that it might be a framework I could start using with even the more conservative clients and brands, but it hasn't quite caught broader recognition and attention that I expected (though I still find the experience framework overall to be quite useful).
Specifically, putting shared passion at the center of more familiar elements I think is a no-brainer today
More recently, have been spending some time thinking about The Molecular Brand laid out by the also smart folks at Nouve, which I think is spot on for the times and pushes brands to think beyond the traditional notions of 'the big idea' and more about how brands can mean different things to different people, with different approaches, and many moving parts. (In fact, just in case you haven't read up on their thinking, definitely worth your time)
via avin.posterous.com
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February 8 2010, 1:25pm | Original Link »