1. When and where was B Brand founded?
B! Brand Design was created at the beginning of 2008 by Alicia
Burton and Rainer Bulach, but the seed was planted much earlier when the pair
worked together at various packaging design agencies around Melbourne. In
response to shared frustrations, Alicia and Rainer devised an approach to
deliver big agency process, strategy and creative –
with responsiveness, care and flexibility unmatched by their previous
employers. And so B! Brand was born.
2. Who were the founders and what expertise did they bring to
the business?
B! Brand was forged on the back of Alicia and Rainer’s
30+ years of collective FMCG packaging experience. The successful pairing of
Alicia’s marketing and business experience with
Rainer’s creative acumen, has resulted in an
approach that is neither creatively nor strategically led, but delivers a
balanced approach. A model where design aesthetic is supported by strategic
rigour and commercial reality. On top of that, their personable, no-nonsense,
can-do approach has really struck a chord with clients. This ethos has been
embraced by B! Brand’s team of responsive account mangers,
exceptional designers and fastidious finished artists.
3. What are some of the key principles and values that B Brand
was founded on and how have these shaped the business?
The driving motivation for B! Brand was to establish a business
model that would deliver what clients were crying out for: responsiveness,
care and flexibility above and beyond the outstanding creative they already
expected from their design agency. This desire resonated with the principals,
as it closely reflected their own personal style and values.
As such, B! Brand is a commercially driven, accountable agency
that combines clear thinking, straight talking and practical problem solving,
with open creative exploration to ensure that all critical design aspects are
covered and all possible solutions are revealed.
The business has also been shaped by an innate understanding of
the retail environment and the way in which consumers shop. This means B! Brand
deliver only commercially viable solutions and measure design effectiveness in
dollars and cents.
4. What are some key points in the company’s timeline (eg significant growth, extension of
services, key clients)?
B! Brand started from scratch without a single client. From
personal networking, pro-active pitches and endless persistence, the business
gained a foothold with two major food clients by the end of the first year:
Lion D&D and Simplot Australia.
Over the following 7 years, B! Brand’s unique approach
gained traction with many medium to large FMCG Grocery clients including Mondelez (Cadbury/Kraft),
Vitasoy, BiC and Popina Foods. From here the
business organically branched out into Hardware and Pharmacy with clients
Dulux, HPM Legrand and Asaleo Care (Libra, Tena).
In the last 24 months B! Brand has grown quickly. The business
has created Brand and Portfolio Strategies, and orchestrated huge pack
roll-outs for Libra, Big M, Dulux
Wash&Wear, Vitasoy, Dairy Farmers and Yoplait –
just to name a few.
5. What are the measures of B Brand’s success (eg awards, client sales growth)?
B! Brand doesn’t focus on sales growth or awards, but
rather is committed to achieving real, measurable outcomes for our clients.
Internally, we evaluate our success by the number of solid, long standing
client relationships we hold, and the calibre of the iconic brands we are
entrusted with. This combination validates our differentiated business offer,
and the quality of our design work, and is steering the business towards
continued growth in 2015 and beyond. Today, B! Brand serves over 15 clients.
6. What services does B! Brand provide?
We create, evolve and activate brands that engage consumers in
store and beyond. And we see it through from go to whoa, specifically:
Strategy & planning – innovation partnering, brand creation and
NPD
Research – stimulus testing and audits for
categories, brands, consumers and products
Design – create, evolve and activate brands,
packaging and POS material
Image creation – Photography, styling, art direction and
retouching
Production –
supervision and finished artwork
7. How do brand needs in the FMCG/grocery space differ from
other channels and how does B! Brand support this?
The Grocery segment is ruthless and cut-throat. Brands live or
die on their ability to stand out at store level. So clearly, packaging is
paramount here.
As time poor
consumers spend less of their valuable time at the supermarket shelf,
brands need to stop shoppers in their tracks. Products need to jump from the
shelf, engage consumers and clearly call out their unique proposition –
and do this more succinctly and more impact-fully than ever before.
Brand’s must be easy to recognise, ranges must
be simple to navigate, and product benefits must be clear. Ultimately,
effective packaging must make shopping effortless for consumers and should
drive purchase behaviour.
B! Brand pride ourselves on an unrivalled understanding of the
Retail Environment and the Consumer Shopping Process, which enables us to help our clients’ create differentiated, robust, engaging
and successful brands.
8. What design trends are currently shaping the FMCG/grocery
sector.
‘One size fits all’ no longer seems to
fit, as consumers search for products specifically designed to match their own
unique profiles, needs and lifestyles. In response, more and more brands are
breaking the FMCG mould, and adopting striking, modern and engaging packaging
to target a specific need or occasion – and
distance their offers from the stock standard. The idea of ‘category
language’ and visual sameness across a segment are
fast giving way to artisan cues, embellishments, rustic treatments, retro
elements and hand crafted sensibilities. And suddenly packaging that hasn't
kept pace, is beginning to feel incredibly old fashioned and dated.
9. What issues are affecting you business (eg consumer trends,
retail trends, technology innovations)?
The retail environment is an ever expanding and evolving beast,
throwing up many and varied challenges on an almost daily basis. Adapting to
this is par for the course for B! Brand, who have responded to changing market
dynamics since conception.
Interestingly, the greatest challenge facing the business moving
forward is how to deliver and stay true to our core purpose, vision and values
as we continue to grow. After all, these principles are the reason for our
success in the first place.
10. What are B! Brand’s
goals for the next five years?
B! Brand’s vision for the next 5 years is no
different to the last 5. We are not on a mission for global domination, or to
become so large we lose our personal and personable style. B! Brand simply
wishes to continue to work on a diverse yet quality mix of high profile clients
and brands, and do what we do best: deliver brilliant brand outcomes to our
clients.
Visit b-branddesign.com.au to know more about Brand Design Agency