Branding extends way beyond products and services, I believe. It’s about adding value to meet changing consumer needs. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Shakespeare captured the essence of branding in his tragedy, Romeo & Juliet, written in 1595 and set in Verona. To paraphrase, what matters is what something is, not what it is called.Fast forward five centuries to VinItaly 2010, the International Wine & Spirits Exhibition in Verona, and Shakespeare’s understanding of branding still has strong currency - wine producers can add value to their businesses by communicating the essence of their brands.
At Minale Tattersfield, we have 46 years’ experience working with major blue chip clients and global brands to design and develop brands and brand strategies, which create and add value for the medium- to longer-term.
The first step in adding value is to understand the company’s objectives and the nature of its business, in particular the way in which it has changed as a result of a flatter, more interconnected world. Growing globalisation has driven five key trends:
• Increased competition
• More informed and knowledgeable consumers
• More product choice
• A global village where the world is regarded as a single community
• The importance of value and values
Learning how companies have evolved and dealt with these trends is crucial because a brand must address all of these points.
Phase two is to create and define the platform to address these trends, summarised in a brand. But brand owners should beware. While brands are largely manifested through products and services, companies which ignore communication or give it a secondary role, do so at their peril.
Businesses who focus solely on the day-to-day marketing of products ie sales, and have no clear focus on the brand’s objectives, will begin to dilute the core design and the value of the brand to the consumer. Brand owners must strike the right balance. If they continually drive sales by reducing cost, they will devalue the brand and eventually there is nowhere else to go.
A case in point is the Costa Blanca in Southern Spain. After 15 years’ of aggressive growth through budget marketing, the area has become so unattractive and has lost its initial charm. Affordability has destroyed its unique characteristics and, once destroyed, it is very difficult to win them back.
Conversely, we are working with the Trentino region, in north east Italy, on a regional branding project, which is not focused on selling any specific product or service but taking responsibility for the businesses and enterprises from the region and helping to guarantee them a future. We are creating and defining what Trentino is and one objective is to capitalise on the mountains (dolomites), a very predominant feature of the region, to attract winter activities. However, natural resources have a limit and must be managed, so these cannot be too successful in the short term. Similarly with products like wine, if a brand owner is solely focused on sales and talking to one consumer, the consumer will only be interested in having a good product for less. But it is not just about pleasing the consumer through price, there are other means. In the wine sector, competitions and critiques are important.
Provenance and people play a critical role too - the history of the production of the products. These are the stories and emotions that give a simple product perceived and real value. Which leads back to territories such as Trentino and the aim of branding the region as a pristine, natural environment, which is respected and protected by the people in the communities who live there. That branding transfers back into products from the territory, which are consumed; stories are shared, the value is enhanced and the circle continues.
The brand’s visual identity conveys the action known as ‘remuage’, where two bottles are rotated simultaneously during the second fermentation process. The logo is independent of the wine label to avoid confusion and create consistency across all the producers. Verbal and visual branding are designed to reinforce the category in the short term - building awareness in five versus 50 years - and the visual identity in line with the verbal is more powerful than the verbal on its own. Consumers associate Trentodoc with Trentino, which raises awareness and enhances the value of the product.
In a similar vein, Santa Margherita, the number one Pinot Grigio in the US in volume terms, has built value by consolidating a clear brand message. Despite being a respected and established brand, it had begun to lose some appeal among younger consumers. The identity was weak and inconsistent and the history and story did not align with what customers were presented. Santa Margherita engaged Minale Tattersfield to overhaul the design, retain the heritage and take it forward.
We created a uniform design for the brand’s visual identity, represented by the Marzotto Villa, one of the stately homes of the Marzotto dynasty. Developing the visual identity is key in communicating what the brand is and what it stands for. The identity provides consistency and ease of recognition leading to memorability, while the label design can change to match the different need states or expectations of the brand’s loyal consumers.
This concept is clearly demonstrated in a subsequent design project for the exclusive Luna dei Feldi wine from the Santa Margherita stable. Here, the label is key in communicating the story behind the wine’s production - the importance of the vineyards and terroir and the fact it is produced in smaller quantities. The label addresses and meets the needs of a more discerning consumer while the Santa Margherita, mother brand, provides an endorsement of product quality and assurance.
In order to express the company’s empathic approach Minale Tattersfield created a ‘family crown’ featuring a silhouette of three key family members in an embrace. The design chimes with the family involvement in the business and its approachability versus a crest, which would suggest nobility and a more distant, hands-off enterprise.
The care and nurture the family give the brand is captured in the design and those elements are expanded in company literature, brochures and online.
The care and nurture the family give the brand is captured in the design and those elements are expanded in company literature, brochures and online.
Whether a small, large or co-operative business, it is the stories behind the brands that matter and it is our job to help organisations tell them. An organisation that invests in telling its brand story well is an organisation that is investing in its future. This adds value and translates not only into sales but also provides reassurance and continuity for the brand, thus maintaining and increasing shareholder value.
VinItaly 2010 is billed as ‘Another love story in Verona’ - I will look forward to hearing more of your stories at the event.
Marcello Mario Minale
April 2010 © Minale Tattersfield
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