If only we had a Crystal Ball…
The new mobile company Everything Everywhere is set to launch within the next few weeks, it being the first mobile provider of the new 4G network. It involves a merge of two of the UK’s biggest mobile providers, Orange and T-Moible.
The brand, created by Wolff Olins has been subject to a bit of criticism recently.
It sparks the question of, will the identity and the initial look of the brand grow in to its own? or will it soon become a dated, unloved and forgotten? – dead before it even started?
It’s difficult to judge and predict, but thats why when you create a brand, research and development becomes such an important process. Unfortunately it is often overlooked and sometimes completely disregarded by some agencies. Personally I think it’s left to us as creatives (if we want to remain sane and true) to do our job, and to do our research at start, and to develop the brand to a state where its ready to go out in to the world in which we hope we’ve tried to do everything we can to help it be a success.
It’s interesting to hear of brands that started as nothing, they had no story, no history or emotion, but as time goes on they grow and mature, and they develop their own personalities. This is where we as creatives try to predict what a brand can become, and try to allow for this space, so the brand can grow – a bit like a kid with shoes two sizes too big.
This also raises the point of re-branding and how it can sometimes be not be an option, but a necessity. Where a brand has reached its potential and has no more room to grow, its become stale and people don’t respond to them as a brand like they used to. This is sometimes an even more exciting process to be involved with as the brand has stories and personality, and its down to us to get under the skin and bring out these in a creative way, but which (simply) improves their business.
It’s a very brief touch on what we’ve recently been discussing here in the studio, but I believe it’s an important part of the branding process that shouldn’t be missed. Sometimes its difficult to carry this process through to the depth we would like to, as budgets or time constraints don’t allow for it.
The everything everywhere brand might not mean much now, you might think it looks rubbish, but in 2 to 3 years time you may look at it in a completely different way. When creating or developing a brand, nothing is guaranteed, but its down to us to put everything in it’s (correct) place, and to give the brand solid foundations for it to grow from and to hopefully be a success.