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Rare Blog

Read about our latest thinking!

Dec 7, 2018
5 min

High times and Soft Power

If cannabis is legalised in the UK, what branding lessons can we learn from the US and Canada? Are we on the cusp of cannabis legalisation in the UK? It’s been 90 yearssince the drug was made illegal in the UK. With more people using its cousin CBD oilon these shores, and recreational marijuana use now legalin many states across the pond, however,more and more campaigners are citing a staggering number of reasonswhy UK legalisation makes sense. So, what if the UK did legalis

Sep 13, 2018
1 min

UEFA Champions League: A Soft Power Star

The UEFA Champions League revisits its brand identity every three years, and this year has refreshed and added to existing brand assets to meet the concept of “highlighting moments that make the ultimate stage”. While established elements like the anthem, the star ball logo, the trophy and the stadium remain constant, the branding team have added new core palette colours for a fresher look, new assets to support mobile devices, a flexible colour co-branding system for commerc

Sep 6, 2018
7 min

A brief history of brand psychology

Choosing a new mobile phone can be tough. There’s a whole host of brands out there, all offering different operating systems, phone features, designs and benefits. Your decision, naturally, will be based on the phone’s functionality: a rational decision that will have been carefully deliberated. Or will it? For many, the final purchase will be an emotional choice: an intuitive and automatic decision, where conscious, rational thinking has no part to play. You’ll choose a make

Aug 21, 2018
5 min

A soft power look a behavioural economics in branding

Brand managers are, in part, tasked with driving growth and converting consumers, and they want something impressive they can show off. But in reality it's very difficult to convert someone. Change is hard, and big stunts often feel forced and alienating. In truth, it’s the little things that count. Strategies based on behavioural economics - the science of how and why customers purchase when they do - go far. From Bernays to béarnaise Branding and behavioural economics are o

Aug 15, 2018
1 min

Guinness: A Softer Power Star

While we’ve recently focused on soft power successes from new FMCG brands, it’s important not to forget the established players. For us, Guinness is a prime example. Their overarching ‘Made of more’ banner celebrates their belief that what you get out of life reflects what you put in. Launched in 2012, the campaign has seen Guinness create a variety of market-specific narratives that convey the core message while tapping into local appeal. From spots for four nations ahead of

Jul 10, 2018
3 min

The big wins and brand own goals at the 2018 World Cup

With the World Cup such a significant event in the sporting calendar, it’s unsurprising that so many brands have used the tournament in their marketing efforts. Official FIFA partner brands paid £100m for the privilege, while others teamed up with a media partner, sponsored a nation, or simply adopted a football-centric approach for the duration of the tournament. The World Cup boasts a predicted cumulative global live audience of 10.8 billion: no wonder that football-based a

Apr 18, 2018
15 min

Post-FUTR interview - Andrew Piper (Rare), Ric Flow (Millennial), Leon Tu (Gen Y)

This year’s London FUTR summit (formerly known as Millennial 20/20) took place in mid-March, sharing the latest innovations and campaigns across marketing, retail, advertising, e-commerce, social media and more. Rare’s James Hirst and Andrew Piper hosted a marketing and retail innovation panel titled ‘Post Trust - Are we getting what we want from brands?’. Rather than giving a presentation on what Generation Y and Millennials want, they invited rap therapist and Millennial Ri

Feb 20, 2018
4 min

Soft Power solution: 3 ways small changes can make a big difference to your brand

Is it soap? The term ‘Soft power’ often raises a question or two from our clients. Why are Rare Design talking about laundry powder in a discussion about brand challenges? With good reason, we say. ‘Soft power’ is an important part of hard conversations: the necessary conversations about why brands fail, and what they can do to reverse their fortunes. Taken from Joseph Nye’s political theory of hard and soft power, soft power shifts are the leanest, most cost-effective change

Jan 23, 2018
3 min

Soft Power for brand: What does it mean and why does it matter?

In an age of zero-based budgeting, savvy consumers and fierce competition, winning market share through brand design has never been more important. Or challenging. Soft power is the answer: a fast, lean, effective alternative to building new brands – helping businesses make the most of their existing brand equity to grow their sales. So what does it look like in practice? What is soft power? At its heart, soft power is an approach to problem-solving. Coined by Harvard politic

Dec 12, 2017
3 min

Brand Santa: 7 way the jolly old fat man endures

Santa has been around a long, long time - arguably since the fourth century A.D. Even his most modern incarnation - the jolly fat chap with the beard, the glasses and the fur-trimmed suit - dates back to 1823, when Clement Clarke Moore’s poem ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’ and its illustrations by Thomas Nast appeared in the New York Sentinel on 23rd December. Poem, art and newsprint launched an enduring and powerful brand that’s been sustained and reinforced ever since. We’re d

Aug 29, 2017
4 min

Beyond craft: What are the latest trends in the alcohol market?

Over the last few years, one word’s dominated the UK alcohol market - “craft”. Independent breweries and major distilleries have popularised alcoholic beverages that are high quality, created in small batches, use experimental flavours and focus on provenance. But what’s the current market focus? Can craft last? Where will booze head next? Consumption habits are changing According to research, the image of young adults binge drinking and enjoying multiple booze-fuelled nights

Aug 15, 2017
4 min

Cross border branding: How we speak to European audiences through design

When your business operates across national boundaries, some ideas…don’t translate well. Whether it’s the Vauxhall Nova - the name means “won’t go” in Spanish - or the Pepsi slogan that translates as “will bring your ancestors back from the dead” in Chinese, it’s all too easy for a brand’s message to misfire in another language. These confusions are literal translator’s errors, but there’s a more subtle danger lying in wait. Failure to apprehend the nuances of your brand’star

Aug 8, 2017
8 min

Interview: Sara Mendez

Sara Mendez-Bermudez is Head of European Brand Experience for People Against Dirty - the business behind eco-friendly home, fabric and personal care products, released under the Method and Ecover brands. Sara joined Rare’s Andrew Piper on the Solutions Stage at Millennial 20/20 in London earlier this month: now she’s back to share more of her insights on brand building, brand challenges and authenticity in the post-truth era. Rare Design (RD): Hi Sara, thanks for joining us a

Jul 31, 2017
4 min

Thank you for smoking: Why e-cigarettes are the new brand Wild West

Jazz. Rock n Roll. Punk. Hip hop. Disco. Electronica: the 20th century was packed with musical innovation, as forward thinking artists pushed the boundaries of what was possible. But what about the 21st century? It’s debatable, but has there been a defining sound of the millennium? The sounds you hear today are mostly iterations of well developed genres but ‘new’? The world of Fast Moving Consumer Goods suffers the same problem. Today, even the most innovative brands spend mu

Jun 20, 2017
3 min

Time and Money: A brand manager's guide to Rapid response creative agility

Time is a valuable resource and a crucial metric. We allocate time to projects, and we measure their success by how fast they get results. Yet we waste so much time; McKinsey reports that only 9% of executives are completely satisfied with their time priorities. In brand-agency relationships, time is especially vital. If brand managers are paying for work by the hour, is it any wonder that every delay is a cause for concern? The pressure is on for agencies to change their way

May 12, 2017
10 min

Getting down and dirty: Brand-building in the post-trust era

Last week, we were fortunate enough to lead a panel on brand-building in the post-trust era at the London edition of innovation festival Millennial 20/20. Amidst a plethora of fast-moving international brands including Facebook, Airbnb, Swarovski and Vice Media, Rare Design were on hand to offer our take on brand-building in today’s volatile, sensationalist markets. Sharing their insight with us on the Solutions Stage were Sara Mendez-Bermudez, Head of European Brand Experien

Apr 13, 2017
3 min

OTC, POS and on-shelf: The challenges and opportunities for consumer healthcare

Getting a product onto a buyer’s shopping list is easy. Getting them to purchase your brand? That’s the hard part. A beautiful brand story doesn't always correlate with an over-the-counter, point of sale presence that generates business. Consumers only consider packaging in the last ten secondsbefore they commit to a purchase, for an average of three seconds. If your design fails, they move quickly on to one of the 40,000 other packs in the average supermarket. Even packs out

Apr 4, 2017
4 min

Food of the future: The next 50 years for FMCG

Innovation is about the long view. To develop the stories and values of FMCG brands, we have to think about current trends and where they’ll take us in five, ten, or even fifty years’ time. This long-term trajectory helps a brand establish itself as future-proof and cutting-edge, and provides a vision that informs the work its design agents do. What are the key trends we’ll see over the next five decades of FMCG? Impossible burgers and dairy-free milk When we worry about clim

Mar 16, 2017
3 min

Why McDonald's is taking their brand back to basics

“Werde, der du bist” (“Become who you are”) – Friedrich Nietzsche Last week, McDonald’s – a company worth more than $100 billion, with real estate under the Eiffel Tower and at Guantanamo Bay – came to a startling conclusion about its brand identity. According to the Wall Street Journal, after a year of research, the fast food giant has decided to focus future brand activity and cultivate an identity around a singular theme: burgers. That’s right. Not clowns. Not convenience.

Mar 7, 2017
4 min

Plain packaging in FMCH: How can brands future proof for a generic future?

FMCG merchandising is about visually seducing the consumer at point-of-sale (POS). Products vie for consumer attention with loud, smart or innovative packaging, and the challenge is to build a shelf-defining visual identity. But what if that identity was stolen away? That’s the challenge facing big tobacco. Recent regulations in the UK state that cigarettes and rolling tobacco are to be sold unbranded, and hidden behind sliding doors from public view. With the tobacco industr