John Lyle's new brand thinking

Meeting Marty Neumeier – Part Two

Posted on April 17, 2013 by John Lyle

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my opportunity to meet Marty Neumeier, well last week, I did as a guest of my friends at Liquid Agency at the Design Council and he was everything he promised and more. I had a good chat with him and he was friendly, insightful and passionate about what he does, which is create differentiated brands.

Alfredo Muccino, Johnny Lyle and Marty Neumeier

Alfredo Muccino, myself and Marty Neumeier at the event at the Design Council

As you can see, he signed my copy of his new book ‘Meta Skills‘, which I will read and review, but also shared that he thought that his previous book ‘The Designful Company‘ was in his opinion, his best. I have to confess I hadn’t read that, so as you can see, I now have a copy of that too and will read it in due course (as soon as I finish Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell). What was interesting was that he said The Designful Company had been his worst seller because it was targeted so tightly at CEO’s and what they could to in order to transform their companies. There’s a lesson in this in thinking about the audience you address when you are planning your brand.

The books signed by Marty Neumeier – now i just need to read them!

Filed under: branding | Tagged: Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell, Design Council, differentiated brands, Liquid Agency, Marty Neumeier, Meta Skills, The Designful Company | Leave a Comment »

Great brands still focus on quality

Posted on April 15, 2013 by John Lyle

Mephisto refurbishment from footwear4you.co.uk

Back in September 2010 I was predicting that with the recession being in full grip, it would change the way we behave. I believed that We would make do and mend more. Buy fewer better things and repair them. I got a few of my other predictions quite wrong in that I said we would get bored of electronics and that hasn’t happened.

But at almost exactly that time, I splashed out an a very expensive but massively comfortable pair of Mephisto shoes. (it is a sign of age I guess). And after nearly 2.5 years of wearing them to death and walking well over 2,500 miles in them they began to look a little tired.

But you know a brand is solid and their product is of exceptionally high quality when they are confident enough to completely refurbish them for about half the price of a new pair. New sole, all new stitching, new insoles, new laces. The lot.

Anyway, I got them back this week. Geoff at Footwear4you.co.uk rang me to tell me they were ready and in his lovely understated way told me he thought i’d be pleased with the results.

Well, they are perfect. I swear you wouldn’t be able to tell they weren’t brand new.

Mephisto isn’t a brand I knew before I bought them and they do look a bit like lecturers shoes, but any brand that has this much faith in its quality has to be good.

There are still an enormous amount of good businesses going to the wall by chasing prices to the bottom. This is a sure fire road to failure. Quality lasts and quality brands last too.

Right, I’m off for a walk.

Filed under: branding | Tagged: clothing, fewer better things, Footwear4you.co.uk, Mephisto | Leave a Comment »

Meeting Marty Neumeier

Posted on April 5, 2013 by John Lyle

I’ve learnt a lot from Marty Neumeier over the years and next Wednesday at 18.00 at the Design Council in London, I am going down to London to meet him and I have to confess, i’m a little nervous. Two of his books, The Brand Gap and Zag are at joint number two in my list of branding books you have to read. As books go, neither say that much more than the rather excellent Purple Cow by Seth Godin, but what they do achieve is to completely raise the bar in how text books look and read. Both read like poetry and just flow, because they have been distilled down to just the points you need to understand with none of the silly language that the design industry occasionally hides behind.

So there’s still a chance to join me there if you’d like by emailing kat.barrows@liquidagency.com and booking a FREE place. Photos and thoughts next week.

Filed under: branding | Tagged: books, gap, literature, Marty Neumeier, place photos, Purple Cow, Seth Godin, text books, The Brand Gap, Zag | 1 Comment »

London Underground – Evidence of a brand emerging

Posted on February 23, 2013 by John Lyle

Excuse the roughness of this video, but listen to the sentiment. The conductor/announcer could easily be a dry old chap with no joy in his heart and no understanding about how he can influence the start of people’s day. But listen to this man Carl Downer in action.

What he says is “This train is for all the Brixton crew. Service update, everything irie, everyting cris. Chill out, kick back, no need let anybody cramp your style” And then just before the train leaves he announces “Rastaman driver, take these beautiful people to their destination.”

This is the same announcer, during the Olympics.

And even better, the industry are promoting him too and he’s up for an outstanding customer service award. Good luck Carl.

Filed under: brand values, branding | Tagged: Carl Downer, Customer Service, customer service award, London, London Underground, Olympics 2012, transportation | 1 Comment »

Where do ideas come from?

Posted on February 22, 2013 by John Lyle

Reblogged from John Lyle's new brand thinking:

One of the things that has always amazed me when working with brilliant designers is where they get their ideas from. How do they rock up every day and create brilliant work that meets and exceeds the brief we set before them?

So I asked some of those in our team, and the answer seems to be everywhere and anywhere. Which is obvious I guess, but it is the main reason that we only look at designers who have a life outside of work and have done (and continue to do) interesting things when they are not at work.

The definition of ‘Unlimited’ – according to Virgin Media

Posted on February 20, 2013 by John Lyle

According to Virgin media, Unlimited doesn’t actually mean unlimited. If you sign up for their Unlimited package, they charge you extra if you make long calls.

What Unlimited means according to Virgin is that you can make calls for 59 minutes and 59 seconds, or you get charged at an eye watering 9.94 pence per minute. So, if you are on a conference call, and it is likely to run over the hour, you have to hang up and then dial back in to avoid any extra naughty costs. To find this out, you have to read 637 words into their legals buried at the very bottom of the details page in six point and even then you need to download a PDF to get the actual price.

Doesn’t sound very unlimited to me. It doesn’t sound very much like the Virgin way of doing things to me either.

Anyone got the number for Talk Talk?

Just sayin…..

Filed under: brand values, branding | Tagged: Call charges, gadgets, gaming, Richard Branson, Talk Talk, technology, Unlimited, Virgin, Virgin Media | Leave a Comment »

Why reviews matter – don’t trust a brand without them

Posted on February 18, 2013 by John Lyle

An Express Queue with Goldcar, where you can expect to wait over two hours and then get royally fleeced

I’m not going to hide the fact that I am involved with Feefo who manage customer reviews. It’s obviously made me more aware of why reviews matter. But when I went overseas a few weeks ago, I broke my own golden rule and made an online purchase from a supplier I had used many times before even though they had no real reviews on their site. So I thought it was worth writing down my experience and learnings from it.

The company is Do You Spain. I must have booked cars through them ten times in the past. This time, on our way to ski with family in Andorra, I was lured by an amazingly low price of €42 for the week for a Ford Focus. Wow. It was with Goldcar as Do You Spain are a broker for lots of different car hire companies.

I read the small print that went with it and found a few little treats. Firstly €62 to take it out of the country and into Andorra. and then a full to empty policy on the fuel. So I figured say 55 lites at €1.40 per litre. By this stage we are up to a figure of €181 with no real chance to burn a whole tank of fuel on a 350k round trip to Soldeu and back. But still cheaper than five of us paying for transfers at €75 per person.

I read on and then found a hidden extra which was an €850 excess, in case I crashed it. Sensibly I thought, I can insure that with http://www.carhireexcess.com/ at £1.99 per day, that has to be £14 well spent.

So when I landed at Barcelona El Prat Airport, and after a staggering two hour wait in the Express queue I was offered the following option. An upgrade to a slightly bigger car. Okay, don’t mind if I do. Fuel at €108, which works out at €1.80 per litre, surely the most expensive fuel in the whole of Europe?

But then the real shocker. Take out our additional insurance to protect the Excess at another €14 per day, or hand over the €850 excess and we will give it back to you if the car is undamaged. Who would trust them not to find some damage after their track record so far. Anyway, the final bill was €258 against the listed price of €42. Not terribly accurate pricing in my opinion. In fact none of the costs related in any way to the quote of €42.

So, on return home, I tried to speak to DoYouSpain and guess what?

Despite many, many positive reviews, they wouldn’t reply to my concerns or answer any of my queries. When I searched around, it appears that lots of people have expressed similar concerns on Money Saving Expert and other forums.

So the simple moral of this story?

Trust brands that display honest and open reviews. Distrust those that don’t. In fact avoid them like the plague. They are hiding reviews for a reason. And sadly, for Spain to recover, it needs to begin to behave itself, treat customers with respect and offer good fair prices we can rely on. Sadly I won’t be using these companies again and when I go back in a few weeks, i’m just paying for the transfer.

Filed under: brand values, branding | Tagged: Andorra, Barcelona El Prat Airport, customer reviews, Do You Spain, feefo, Ford Focus, Goldcar, http://www.carhireexcess.com, Money Saving Expert, Soldeu, Spain | Leave a Comment »

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