these4wallsgroup

INTERESTING ...

Russell Davies' Interesting2007 is coming along apace. Check out the original post HERE. For other information about the event, you can have a look at the subsequent blogs about it. Hope that all goes well with it ... should be ... well ... interesting.

HAPPY MEMORIES OF EVENTS PAST ...

THESE4WALLS HEADS TO FACEBOOK

At long last, we've made our way into the social networking phenomenon that is Facebook and have set t4w up in there. You can join the Facebook group HERE.

THESE4WALLS CAREER NETWORK NIGHT

Details of our latest event - a Career Network Night - are HERE. Get yourself registered and head along.

GOD BLESS BARRY

LOVELY PIANO LESSONS AD ...

Lovely piece of work ... more than likely an award winner ...

CHE MAGAZINE AMBIENT HIT

More of the sweet campaign for Italian lads' mag, Che with some cracking ambient work ...

PENGUIN CAMPAIGN

Loving the latest work from Penguin, who have now published a handful of their titles with blank covers and have invited people to send in their ideas for the designs ... see the gallery HERE.

NOVEL APPROACH FOR NON-ALCOHOL BEER

Can't imagine that pregnant women were the target for these ads, nor that it is going to do much for male lager drinkers, but it made us smile a lot.

WE HATE IT WHEN OUR FRIENDS BECOME FAMOUS

Morrissey once said that we hate it when our friends become famous. Regardless of whether there was any validity in this comment, an interesting thing occurred ... that we also hate it when our brands become successful.

I once loved EAT - a coffee bar that I could only ever find near the Embankment and on Avery Row. Everyone else like Pret. Or Subway. But for me, EAT was all there was. I liked the food, the latte (organic milk, fairtrade beans), the salads. And I liked that I was the person who brought EAT to my friends. EAT was MY brand, dammit.

Now, I cannot move to EATs. There are three within two minutes of the office. Everyone goes to EAT. And I actually resent the money-men who have taken the brand that I loved - that I discovered - and shared it with everyone.

The thing that was done with effortless ease in the early stores is now in a brand book and employee guideline manual. The design that was under-stated and somehow genuine seems now ubiquitous.

So, how do you take a small, home-grown brand that has developed on its own for years and create a super-brand from it? And how do you keep the principles and practices that were home-grown and genuine complete in a superbrand that is run by manuals?

This, it strikes me, is going to be an increasingly major issue for brands that are growing out of small-scale, often local production and retail bases to become national and international brands.

Two things combine:

1) The continued veneration of local brands creating brands that grow from local, small-scale businesses - Tyrrells, Rachels' Organic, Innocent, Stormhoek wine, The Real Greek, Bombay Bicycle.

2) The internet, and therefore the ease with which brands can quickly and easily find an international audience of enthusiasts.

This is going to make the growth of the global microbrand more possible. But it is also going to make it possible for these brands to expand and become superbrands in their own right. How do we as marketers help to manage this process - keeping the essence of what makes these brands special, while helping them to expand and grow?

Er ... discuss?