Frosty jacks rebrand - Brand personality plan

PLAN

In this brief I need to consider; consistency, brand personality, colour theory, audience, values, familiarity.

Consistency - making sure once my logo, colour scheme and typeface are decided that I stick to these so all related products and marketing are easily recognizable.

Brand personality - this is really important, I want to give off a friendly, trustworthy, fun and high class brand. I want people to look at it and think it was worthy of their money.

Colour theory - looking into the connotations of colour and effects on peoples perceptions of brands due to their use is key to creating a good brand.

Audience - The current audience is considered to be people wanting something cheap and not necessarily good quality. Usually a get drunk cheap and easy solution. My aim is to change this, for the brand to become something people would be proud to drink and think of as high quality.

Values - I dont want the values of my brand to seem negative. I want to promote drinking for please and fun but also in good taste. The current brand suggests to me the values are to serve a purpose to people who possibly drink for the wrong reasons.

Familiarity - I want this to be a re-brand and reemerging of a recognizable product. I want to keep the blue element as this seems to be the best quality of the brand and suggests trustworthiness.

Colour theory

After looking at the drastic effect colour can make to a brand I want to explore the connotations of the current brands colours and assess ways of improving it.

I looked firstly at blue, its associated with stability, loyalty, intelligence and truth. These are all essential elements a strong brand should aim to portray to consumers to gain trust and brand loyalty. This gave me pleasure to know my initial thought of keeping the blue was a good one.

Red is also used for the type on the current brand. Although this has the meaning of love it also has negative connotations of stress and anger, two things I definitely do NOT want my re-brand to convey.

Black although having relation to death I feel when it comes to branding in particular definitely gives off the idea of elegance, power and formality. I addressed in my essay the fact that people often are drawn to buying products in the hope of gaining power and elegance. So black has become a consideration for a colour choice.

Green is associated with a lot of positives in the way of nature. But when reading that its often related to finance brands and banking this seemed inappropriate. I want my brand to give off the elements of class and fun (a good time) so green would do the opposite of this.

Orange and yellow both have connotations of happiness. Despite this I am unsure about using them in my re-brand as to me they remind me a little of my childhood. I want to make my product clearly for adults (considering its alcohol). They dont seem quite as appropriate as other options.

In summary im pretty sure black and blue (and white/negative) space would be a good starting point for my re-brand.

Practical research (OUGD401)

I decided for this brief that when I think of cheap and nasty things people don't really see as appealing Frosty Jacks would be perfect to re-brand as a high class product appealing to a completely different market to show the effect branding has on consumer opinion and the kind of people drawn to buying things. I thought a good place to start my research was looking at the current brand/company that makes the product (Aston Manor). One thing they advertise on the website is the different packaging you can buy their ciders in, I will consider the branding for all of these within my practical.

The company Aston Manor makes all different cider products from its orchard, I think relating more to the ciders routes in its branding and relationship with the audience will effectively increase the value of the product. Branding is just as much about attractiveness as it is brand personality. I think showing the brands background more in the aesthetic and design will effectively create a better brand-customer relationship.

Above are examples of the current packaging. The typeface is almost script and isn't very appealing to a broad audience like a more simple/minimal typeface would be, it isn't very timeless. The plastic bottles definitely make the product seem cheap, all the more expensive ciders are in glass bottles and is just automatically related to more high class brands. I do however like the blue bottles and think this element could be continued into the new branding. I aim to go for a much more minimal and sleek look, use glass bottles and overall make the brand aim towards a higher class market and increase the profit margins.

https://www.behance.net/gallery/21714645/White-Pike-Whiskey 

One of the most inspirational alcohol branding projects I looked at is this one for White Pike Whiskey. I love that the brand considered all forms of promotion and how each element of the packaging works together. This is really appealing and reinforces the brands message. I love the minimal and clean look, its classy and appeals to a wide audience because of this as theres no overpowering appeal to a certain gender or age group.

The poster is printed on thin looking stock and in black and white, this gives quite a punk zine aesthetic and gives the brand a personal touch that appeals to the audience well. I think home made looking parts to a brand makes an audience appreciate the effort put into the packaging more and will give a closer bond with the product. The layout is minimal and simple like the bottle and really effective.

The poster is made up firstly of photography, some is provocative and much like the research I did into CK perfume suggests a fun/party lifestyle related to the brand. This subliminally suggests buying the product will improve certain elements of life. It also has recipes for cocktails you can make with the product, giving your audience options and suggestions is effective as their persuaded to buy the brand to try new things and be a more adventurous person.

Close up of some smaller photographic posters.

Abstract t-shirt, could be given to bars as a promotional piece with the brand identity on the back. This is something I will consider creating for my branding.

When looking at inspirational aesthetics I focused a lot on simple geometric shapes in use, above is a good example of this.

I also looked briefly into more intricate illustration based designs. 

I actually experimented with doing a similar detailed design style for the re-brand. I hand drew letters and created a vector from them but part of the way through decided a much simpler design was more appropriate as it appeals to a wider audience but the experimentation was still good.

I really liked this design aesthetic and thought I could create a similar thing using a snowflake (relative to the name Frosty Jacks) as part of the pattern possibly? I think a lot of bottle design these days is quite decorative and overloaded with imagery so the more clean and simple designs stand out among the crowd.

This next design is focusing on pattern design, this could be effective as the pattern could change with each flavour of cider etc. I like the idea of having the type along the neck of the bottle and having a minimal main label. Also GIFs are something im really getting into at the moment as far as promotion goes as its a different and interactive way of advertisement and it would be interesting to try and use them within my branding.

More examples of inspiration and minimal branding.

These beers are brewed and designed by the design company Snask. The thing that really stood out to me about them is the colour scheme, the pastel colours on the dark background really pops and is appealing within contemporary design. The hand drawn esce type gives it a personal touch once again giving a closeness between brand and consumer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtRUnTcS5PQ

how to write a successful essay - study task 6

For this study task I read 2 dissertations to get an idea of how mine should sound and be structured.

Dissertation 1 was "Should good Typography be invisible? by William Skane-Davis 2011-2012"

Dissertation 2  was "Is print still relevant within the Digital Age? by Nathan Bolton 2014-2014"

I read these two dissertations and they gave me a good insight of the type of language that should be used when writing a formal essay and the appropriate structure. I wanted to read ones not related to the subject I was writing about so I could focus more on structure rather than content.

The first essay didn't use language that was too academic so I found it easy to understand, i'm still unsure how appropriate this is but it was comforting to know you don't have to be too formal to be successful. I felt this writing style was successful was that he always backed up each point made with quotes and evidence. I really liked that he had conducted his own interviews for his essay and although its not something I can apply to mine currently I will consider this when writing in future as its a great source of original content.

The second essay used much more academic terminology and I think this gave me a better idea of how I should aim to be writing my essays to gain higher marks. The passion about the subject was clear but everything was still informed and well backed up. The structure was also really good, using separation between sections really clearly. This is something I need to work on in my essay writing.

The three main things I learnt from this study task are...
1. My tone of voice needs to become less casual and more academic, this could envolve broadening my vocabulary and avoiding certain terminology. 

2. In future i could conduct email interveiws with people (writers) to get a good source of origional content

3. My structure needs to be clearer, introduce a theory, give examples, case study.