The unmistakeable line since 1994. Hansa Pilsener was launched by SABMiller in 1975. Being a pilsener, it was marketed as 'Refreshingly different' to the brewery's other beers - they were all lagers. In 1994, with the advent of democracy in South Africa, Hansa had the opportunity to become a true pilsener - by being brewed with [...]
The line still illuminates the business. The Lighting Warehouse is a destination shop. It has lots of lights for less. How could we develop the brand? The opportunity lay in educating people about lighting: Learn what light can do. It can even add to the selling price of your home.
The heart of a brand for 30 years. Real food made real good - the brand positioning for Steers was done in the late 80s when the founder's son, John Halamandres, was a neighbour of a friend and we were dedicated consumers. Chips cut from real potatoes, buns made from real cake mix and [...]
The void waiting to be filled. Where do people find meaning in modern society? Where are the leaders to guide us? Where are the lighthouses to help us navigate our lives? Our need for meaning is as strong as ever, but where do we find the nourishment which we sense is missing? In the glamorous lifestyles of celebrities? In the quick-fixes of pop-psychology? In the slick, misinformation of [...]
The USP is dead. Long live Repetitive Pleasures. Traditionally, when products are marketed and advertised, there's a Unique Selling Proposition or a Consumer Promise at the heart of everything. "How is our product better than and/or different to its competitors? What is the one thing we can say to consumers?" Rosser Reeves of the Ted Bates agency introduced the [...]
Thoroughness. Maybe our Germanic roots are showing, but we don't feel comfortable if we don’t do our homework. We dislike skimming around on the surface of things. We prefer icebergs to ice-floes. This is why the iceberg is our logo. We spend a great deal of time out of sight, below the surface, doing our [...]
Our proposal to give Sony a unifying ethos. Something that would inspire its employees as much as its customers. It's very own Just do it. Sadly, it didn't do it.
We worked with the world’s largest global environmental organisation, IUCN, when it was part of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. IUCN has 1,200 government and NGO members and 11,000 experts in 160 countries around the world. Shortly after the summit we were invited to Geneva to design a new brand identity for [...]
We like the way Lawrence Freedman puts it. "Strategy is about getting more out of a situation than the starting balance of power would suggest. It is the art of creating power." (1) The art of creating power. (2) Getting more out of a situation than the starting balance would suggest. These two phrases capture our belief [...]
In late 2000, Satrix became South Africa's first provider of Exchange Traded Funds. It was launched as an innovative investment product for early adopters. In 2003, Varder Hulsbosch was appointed as the brand development agency. Believing that the early-adopter positioning would limit Satrix's market, we adapted Geoffrey Moore's Chasm theory and re-positioned Satrix as a [...]
