It's all go at Account Planning School of the Web Towers. Assignment 5 is due in today (Friday) and I've decided, once again, to lean on the crutch of a guest lecturer for Assignment 6.
This time the estimable folk at The Design Conspiracy. They've set the excellent task below, and, just in case it's not obvious, they've made this up :
Accidental Brand – Organarchie
In 2000 two cousins Nigel and Zac set up an organic café called Organarchie. Approximately 80% of the food they sell is organic, they don’t sell Coke or Pepsi but they do sell juices and smoothies. They sell coffee and tea, which isn’t organic but is Fairtrade.
The first café was opened in Spitalfields and they now have 7 branches. Crouch End, the City, Waterloo, Tottenham Court Rd, Chelsea and Embankment. The Chelsea one doesn’t do very well, whereas the Waterloo one is booming. Tourists coming straight off the Eurostar seem to love the place.
In 2004 they were voted the 3rd best ‘Healthy Place to Eat in London’ by Time Out. In 2005 they were voted the 2nd best.
The two founders disagree slightly on the future direction of the business. Nigel wants to close the Chelsea store, consolidate their offer and work towards selling 100% organic products. Zac wants to expand and in particular to open a café in Paris and then Brussels.
Nigel and Zac have never done any branding or marketing. The logo was designed by a friend of Zac’s when they opened (see above). The café features no promotional stuff at all and the only thing that could be tentatively called marketing is the big yellow menu board.
Which ever route they take they realise that they need to take the brand to the next level. They are aware that they have an Accidental Brand and they have called upon a brand consultancy to help them move the brand forward and give them advice on what to do next. Nigel and Zac are not wedded to the logo (Nigel doesn’t really like it) but they insist on keeping the name, obviously.
You need to decide what Nigel and Zac should do next and how they will achieve these goals. How will the brand need to change and how will the brand get to the “next level”?
Once you have your strategy you need to brief the designers, giving them a background to the brand and the new direction. Make the company come alive and really give the designers a feel for the place. The food, the customers, the atmosphere.
The brief will be a PowerPoint presentation (no word docs, no PDF’s and definitely no blogs) containing no more than 10 slides.
And that's it. Interesting isn't it? Entries are to be in by the end of April (midnight GMT). They will be judged by Ben and his fellow conspirators but send all your entries to me at the usual address: russell at russelldavies.com
Great brief.
Posted by: Rob Mortimer | March 31, 2006 at 06:41 PM