When lockdown happened, I imagined that everything was going to hell in a handcart and I’d cling on to things I knew and trusted. A metaphorical reaching out for the banister rail.
In fact, I’ve done the opposite. BBC Radio has been the first casualty. I never want to hear a politician ever again, so bang, out goes the Today programme. You and Yours and Woman’s Hour make me glum, so no thanks. I have discovered Scala Radio as I wake with the sunrise and it’s as though I’m in the park. Lockdown bliss.
Roaming the supermarket aisles, as I have always done since I started out as a designer, is now strictly verboten. Packaging design was, and remains, my first love and the supermarket has been both my art gallery and social anthropology laboratory. Watching people scan the shelves and pick up something we’ve been involved in has always had a frisson about it. How did we capture their attention and what tipped them over the line into putting the product into their basket? Online grocery shopping offers none of this. It is like the difference between Spotify and vinyl. Super convenient, but utterly soulless. Nothing beats picking up a product, turning it over in the hand, feeling its weight and, of course, looking at the label. Call me sad, but it is one of life’s simple pleasures.
Back to my first supermarket love
An unexpected change is the enforced switch of supermarkets. After years of loyal shopping, Waitrose doesn’t seem to want me and Ocado is too unpredictable, so I’m back where I started. Sainsbury’s is ‘my supermarket’ again. They were dead easy to sign up with and their delivery people are delightful, but what has happened to the brand that Peter Dixon and, on occasions, Williams Murray Hamm laboured so hard to make classy, intelligent and joyful? As one unloads the bags, where’s the story? I just can’t make out what the brand stands for. What is all this ‘by Sainsbury’s’ branding and what in heaven’s name is ‘Stamford Street Food Company’? Has anyone walked down Stamford Street lately? Let’s just say it’s not Tenterden High Street. If ever there were a right time to reshape Sainsbury’s, to make us fall back in love with it, it is now.
I didn’t expect to drop the BBC and I thought that Waitrose and I were pals for life. We will see if those relationships are revived if lockdown ever ends. One other quite unexpected change of behaviour is the joy to be found in anticipation. I am not gifted with patience. It is not a virtue and generally gets in the way of doing stuff, but my lockdown has seen a subtle change in this.
I am to be found, for the odd hour or two, wielding power tools and timber as I attempt to rebuild some rotten decking. With the closure of DIY stores, I have to rely on various businesses all around the country to deliver the multitude of fixings that Builder Bodge needs.
The excitement of home deliveries
‘My 6-inch Hex bolts have arrived!’ won last week’s loudest whoop. The big tease was that they couldn’t be touched until the next day in case there was Covid all over them. They took on the same lure as the Hornby Trains Royal Mail Van I lusted over in a Boxing Day shop window in 1960. Learning to wait has been rather wonderful.
There are, of course, vital items that one misses in lockdown. Marmite went AWOL from Sainsbury’s online. If you were desperate it could be found on eBay for £6.99 for a jar, plus £4 postage. Apparently, they’ve sold 48 of them so far. It makes one think about brand value. What brands would you pay extortionate prices for if they went missing? A quick scan of eBay shows a can of Ambrosia custard selling for £7 (inc postage) and a 1.5kg pack of Allinson’s Strong White Bread flour for £12 (admittedly the postage is a whopping £8). But then eBay is a mad place. Who in their right minds would buy Andrex ‘Natural Pebble’ lavatory rolls? A snip at £33.78 for 45 rolls by the way – it seems they are in ‘New Condition’ which is, no pun intended, a relief.
Many people will have never witnessed a worldwide emergency like COVID-19. The banking crisis was twelve years ago and 9/11 nineteen. We all thought things would never be the same again. For the young, COVID-19 must seem earth shattering, but for people of a certain age age, well, it’s just another global catastrophe from which the commercial world always seems to recover.
However, seismic events do engender new behaviours and we never quite go back to our old ways, but the effects of these events are not always what we might have predicted.
When the PLO took to blowing up civilian aircraft in the late 1960s and 70s, we thought we’d stop flying because it had become so unsafe. That did not happen – there were 4.5bn air passengers in 2019. Instead, we created a massive new airport security industry. There were new jobs for security officers, expensive new detection devices became essential and airlines screwed more money out of us by creating Fast Track. A crisis is always an opportunity to make money.
In 1973 OPEC made oil prices quadruple. For a time, Americans resorted to buying smaller cars made by Japanese companies they’d never heard of, but once the crisis passed, they reverted to their old gas guzzling ways. By then the Japanese had a foothold in the market that they’ve never lost. Japanese cars subsequently destroyed Detroit and their manufacturing methods had a huge influence on worldwide manufacturing – all courtesy of OPEC.
Beyond gloves and face masks becoming fashion accessories, what might change thanks to COVID-19?
1. Air travel
Hundreds of passengers, cooped up for 14 hours, sharing the same air and spreading their germs offers a business opportunity. Imagine sterilised air becoming the value added. Business and First Class would be ‘Cleanroom’ clean, while poor old coach class breathes its own fug. Who is going to be ‘The World’s Most Hygienic Airline”?
2. Business meetings
For most telepresence is Skype or Zoom. Better than nothing, but a bit rubbish. Video conferencing will improve, but the real breakthrough will come when we feel we are really together. That transformation will happen when virtual reality meets telepresence. If you are sceptical, shell out £140 and try an Oculus Go. You will look an idiot wearing it, but things will never seem the same again – you are really there, in the jungle, in a Spitfire or perhaps, in a meeting.
3. Working hours and time zones
If COVID-19 proves anything, it illustrates just how strongly we are interconnected. With technology that lets us meet sufficiently well online, how long is it before we adopt more aligned working hours/days? It is mad that the UK and Europe do not share the same time zone. Should the US become a magnet for our trade, might we see a swathe of businesses running two shifts, one for Europe and one for the US? It’s called service and Americans swear by it.
4. Exercise
Do we really want to go to a sweaty gym and share unhygienic equipment? Peloton has paved the way for online training. Expect exercise to be done at home, with innovatively designed trainer devices that morph like Transformers into the exercise device of your choice that you can keep under the bed.
These are just some random thoughts and they probably won’t happen, of course. Please get involved and add your own comments and observations. Tell us what you think the consequences might be and remember…the exception to the rule is always the rule.
Boris Johnson recently revealed that a ban on selling new petrol, diesel or hybrid cars in the UK will be brought forward to 2035 so we can be carbon zero by 2050. In the not too distant future, our ‘personal mobility solution’ will be an autonomous electric vehicle that we will call up whenever we need it. This will be the final nail in the coffin of our century old love of the automobile.
No more lovingly polishing the beast in the driveway (it’s already banned in Germany) and no more excuses to treat your wife to a chrome exhaust or a pair of leather driving gloves. All this will be a thought crime – in some parts of woke Britain it already is. Sports cars will disappear and Formula 1, that great testing ground for automotive development will go the way of Linoleum. While we stress over whether our hummus pot is recyclable, Formula 1’s annual carbon emissions are about 256,600 tonnes. It’s done for.
It’s electrifying!
Unsurprisingly, “I’ve just bought a Nissan Leaf” is a conversation stopper, even at a vegan dinner party. Electric cars just aren’t sexy, but there is some light on the horizon for those who can’t live without a bit of four wheeled derring-do on their TV screen. Last Saturday a Kiwi chap called Mitch Evans won an accident strewn race in Mexico City without using any petrol and making hardly any noise.
To many race fans Formula E, the electric racing series, is a poor show. There is some truth in this. The drivers are all has beens and the upcoming ‘London E Prix’ will actually race through a shed called the ExCel exhibition centre somewhere in East London and nobody will bother going. However, Formula E is the perfect testing ground for electric vehicle development and it’s why Porsche, Jaguar, Mahindra, BMW, Audi, Citroen, Mercedes and Nissan have all piled in.
Electric vehicles are not perfect. They drop minute and harmful particles into the atmosphere from their brakes and tyres and electricity still needs to be generated, much of it still from dirty fossil fuels. As for Lithium mining, don’t even go there. However, Formula E will be the laboratory for all sorts of innovation from braking systems to low wear, low emission tyres and high-tech lubricants that the drivetrain manufacturer puts in that you’ll never see – we are working on these with Castrol already.
EVs will spawn a massive growth of new supporting brands to service the biggest revolution in private transport since the introduction of the internal combustion engine. So far, the Formula E paddock is a bit short on sponsors. Where is the trusted international charging network, the ethically source lithium brand or the wiper free glass? For anyone interested in innovation and branding look no further than the EV revolution and Formula E. There’s tons to do.
Author: Richard Williams – Founder Williams Murray Hamm
This week’s #ThrowbackThursday is a nod to the creative foundations of WMH – quite literally. It comes courtesy of our esteemed co-founder, Richard Williams, who created these pet food packaging labels when he began his design career working for Peter Dixon’s famous in-house design team at Sainsbury’s.
“The cats were portraits of the first cats my wife and I had. A nod to dear friend, the late Nick Wurr (co-founder of The Partners) who inspired the silhouettes and yellow eyes and to the great Peter Dixon. A fine man.”
It’s not lost on anyone how WMH once again worked with Sainsbury’s (some years later) designing their Basics and SO Organics ranges – the latter is still in store today.
You can find further examples of Richard’s early work in ‘Own Label: Sainsbury’s Design Studio 1962-1977 (ISBN: 0956356281, Fuel Publishing).
FUTURE LONDON ACADEMY FACEBOOK LIVE INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD WILLIAMS – Wednesday, May 31st at 16.00 UK time (GMT+1)
Our esteemed and humble Co-Founder, Richard Williams, had the privilege of taking part in the very first WMH Facebook Live interview with Future London Academy.
Sharing anecdotes and advice from WMH’s 20-year history, Richard talks about creating difference, first bosses, starting your own creative agency and inspirations.
Future London Academy provides immersive courses for like-minded creative professionals to broaden their horizons, expand their personal networks and find inspiration in one of the world’s most exciting cities.
Through practical experiential learning, their mission is simply this to erase borders between creative communities from different countries – and to inspire people around the world to achieve more every single day.
Williams Murray Hamm is a brand innovation, design & strategy agency. We have 20-years’ award-winning, creative expertise of inventing and reinventing brands. Clients include Castrol, Jamie Oliver, Barclays, Fortnum & Mason, Carlsberg, Absolut and many others.
Startups change the world. But what happens when big brands bite back?
Richard Williamsjoins Adam Morgan (Founder of strategic brand consultancy eatbigfish), David Harold (VP Marketing & Communications, Imagination Technologies), Lee Thompson (Founder of travel company Flash Pack) and Dana Tobak (CEO of fibre broadband provider Hyperoptic) to discuss small business disruptors.
In late April, Selfridges will be hosting a Heinz Beans pop-up bar to celebrate 50 years of the ‘Beanz Meanz Heinz’ ad campaign. Dishes will include beans with crispy bacon, beans with smoked ham hock and beans with scrambled egg, all at £3 each.
Is this the ultimate irony? A humble ad campaign for an everyday staple turned into a celebrity? Or, like the Cereal Killer Café, is this another illustration of just how out of touch London is with the rest of the country?
Baked beans are one of those dirty secrets amongst the chattering classes. Nobody really admits to eating them, but Waitrose does a roaring trade in them. What other grubby brands should we be celebrating?
Birds Eye Iglo missed a trick last year in reintroducing Findus Crispy Pancakes. How could they be so sotto voce about this tea time masterpiece? Admittedly, the product is now slightly less Chernobyl, but it’s an absolute shoo-in for bogus posh nosh. Who’s for a smoked chorizo variant for serving on a bed of quinoa salad? Lamentably, they didn’t even do in-store tastings as part of their relaunch strategy.
Spam is 80 years old this year. Armies marched on Spam in WW2 and there’s even a Spam Museum, but now, thanks to Monty Python, we just take the mickey out of it. Maybe, Hawaiians have the right idea. According to Wikipedia (so it must be true) they are prone to eat it as sushi. This may well be the next hipster trend.
Walkers need to get their skates on, it’s 40 years since Monster Munch launched and there’s much to celebrate. They’ve restored them to their original, inconvenient size and three of the four original monsters have been retained. There’s no need for a pop-up bar, they just need to do ads that have our favourite dishes where spuds are replaced by Monster Munch. Chicken Kiev, baked beans and pickled onion Monster Munch – could anything be better?
Not only did Alfred Bird created ‘instant custard’ 180 years ago this year, but 50 years ago his eponymous company completely disrupted the dessert shelves with ‘Angel Delight’. This simple kid’s dessert has been in decline for some time, but owners Premier Foods announced this month that they are relaunching it in a pot for ‘on the go snacking’. Sadly, they’ve failed to tell anyone. Surely it’s not beyond the wit of their marketing and PR teams to get a celebrity chef to do something elaborate to get it into the newspapers. Where is Heston’s snail topped Butterscotch Angel Delight when you need it?
WMH has a track record of getting loved and forgotten brands back into consumers’ heads. Our work on Hovis (those beans again) turned the brand around, as did our self centred Jaffa Cakes cartons. There are tons of these hidden gems just ripe for relaunch. Anyone for Homepride sauce poured over a Fray Bentos pie and Bovril gravy, or should that read ‘jus’?
Why shareholders should protect businesses like Unilever from accountants.
Unilever and P&G’s operating margins are seen, by some, as not being world leading. In Unilever’s case, Kraft Heinz thinks it’s time to apply some of Mr Buffett’s patent remedy – taking out jobs, slashing salaries, closing factories, cutting R&D and, of course, taking a knife to marketing spend.
There’s nothing wrong with seeking efficiencies – every company does that, indeed most are permanently engaged in a maelstrom of restructuring and McKinsey executive invasions, but, who will be interested in the consumers of brands that are being Buffetted as the knives are wielded?
Who will be doing the research into making their products better? How will those food and product developers care about the brand they’re working on when the accountants, who run the business, have just made them reapply for their job with the added ingredient of a sizeable pay cut?
Manufacturers have a responsibility to the general public, beyond lowering prices. It’s about what we consume actually being good for us and being made in a sustainable way and it’s about innovation – creating products that we will need in the future, as our lives change.
Does anyone seriously think that will happen under accountants masquerading as food companies?
There are reasons why Unilever is a great company, just as there are with Nestle and P&G (all of whom WMH has worked with in the distant past). They hire the best, most intelligent people and treat them with respect – the sort of behaviour that gets the best out of them.
Above all, these companies pour billions into research to make their products better for their customers. Nestle, in particular, is a world leader in health, wellness and, of course, nutrition, but that costs money. Money that accountants, like Warren Buffett’s partners 3G, would prefer to slash.
In this world of Trumptastic Fake News, the real news is that Kraft Heinz and their ilk should be sent packing by shareholders of businesses that set out to care for the well-being of their customers and who actually improve peoples’ lives.
Sadly Kraft Heinz’s foray into Unilever’s territory has forced Paul Polman to seek further efficiencies if he is to fend off further unwanted attacks. Wouldn’t it be great if Unilever’s shareholders decided, en masse, to allow the company to continue to invest in the things that matter, rather than chase a quick return?
Amazon Go’s ‘Just Walk Out’ technology spells the end of supermarket checkout staff.[1] We’ve seen this coming for some time. Now, middle and higher income jobs are endangered, according to this weekend’sSunday Times (still delivered in paper form by a human delivery person).[2]
At high risk from ‘robots’, amongst others, are insurance underwriters, accountants and auditors and at medium risk are judges and economists. Even dental hygienists are under threat.
When chess computers have to play each other because mere humans can no longer beat them, then, perhaps, there is some truth in robots replacing many jobs. Happily, for occupational therapists, surgeons and psychologists the report suggests they will see out their days unchallenged.
Marketing people do not appear to be threatened, because they have to make decisions that can’t be automated, but they are reliant on some services that could change dramatically over the next few years.
There’s little to suggest that procurement cannot be handled completely by robotics. Many RFIs are already handled online, what’s to stop all legal aspects of appointment being handled in the same way? Indeed, what’s to stop the auctioning of projects to a wide range of businesses that have already passed through online assessment? It will be just another step in the direction of dehumanising client/consultant relationships that were once based around trust and the simple shake of a hand.
Consumer research could spread its wings into far greater automation. Imagine a research programme that learns, just as chess computers do, more about consumers every time they interact. Being online, it has the ability to speak to a vast number of people, to understand the particular nuances of how they see things courtesy of their social status and where they live. Automation will be able to tell us far more about people than we could ever glean. Computers don’t get tired and they keep on learning.
For designers who ‘maintain’ brands, as many of the bigger agencies do, automation could be a massive threat.If you seamlessly join research and design robotics, automating ‘brand tweaking,’ you’ve suddenly wiped half the agencies in the world. Refining logos, ‘premiumising’ and adding ‘wine values’ are grunt work for which many businesses charge a fortune.
One of the benefits of this roboticised future will be that we get to see the real value of ideas. They are the bedrock of great advertising and design and have been undervalued for far too long, sacrificed on the altar of pragmatics and brand conservatism.
WMH foresaw the “Trump Factor” in 2002, but we didn’t recognise it for what it was.
Our radical, baked bean smothered, Hovis rebrand, failed dismally in research. No consumers polled would admit to feeding their family baked beans, in spite of it being one of the country’s favourite grocery products.
The research firm suggested that the design be dropped for something with more wheat on it, or perhaps a picture of a loaf. Brave management ignored this wisdom and ‘Big Food Hovis’ went on to become the fastest growing grocery brand in the country. Saving the brand and saving scores of jobs.
Unwittingly we had encountered an early case of ‘Shy respondents’.
When the Conservatives won the last election, against all odds, pollsters put it down to ‘Shy Tories’, people who wouldn’t admit to voting for Mr Cameron. The Donald’s extraordinary win is put down to the same phenomenon – a fear of admitting who you’re voting for because you’re rather, or very, ashamed.
We are in the ‘post truth’ era, where nobody trusts experts and everyone follows their emotions – think Brexit.
So what’s new? Advertising and branding has always done this. When two products are similar, we in marketing use emotion to carve out our space. Facts, in the world of pasta sauce, luxury perfumes, tinned custard and frozen ready meals don’t count for much, but the emotional pull of a great brand can be irresistible.
The conundrum lies in that no manufacturer worth their salt would ever go to market without asking consumers what they think.
‘Consumers lie’ the late Richard Murray used to cry ‘If research is infallible, why do so many products fail?”
Of the experts we no longer trust, pollsters have tumbled to the same depth as politicians, financial forecasters, priests and latterly, football coaches. For years, research has kicked the hell out of great ideas in advertising and design. We all know it, as do our clients.
“We need great creativity and great work to cut through that. Far too often we get scared and go back to the easier thing to do because it’s not going to be terribly damaging – but we can do something bigger and better and braver.”
He is absolutely right. The problem is that research will most likely kill the brave ideas that he wants. ‘Shy’ consumers and conservative marketers looking for the next career move, will conspire to normalise everything.
It’s time for those who seek the public’s opinion to get better at what they do. They need to create measures that really work, that allow us a true picture of what’s going on. Hopefully, it’ll also allow companies the ability to break through into better, braver, more effective marketing too. It’s long overdue.
A celebration of an infectious spirit and an incredible talent.
Today, it is with great sadness and a heavy heart that we bid a final farewell to our beloved friend and illustrator extraordinaire, Geoff Appleton, following a battle with pancreatic cancer. During a year that has seen the loss of many great talents, we will remember and celebrate Geoff’s memory as one of the greatest.
Williams Murray Hamm co-founder, Richard Williams, remembers Geoff’s infectious spirit:
“I’ve been at Williams Murray Hamm for 20 years and I can honestly say that I’ve not seen a freelancer more loved by our people and our clients than Geoff.
They broke the mould when they made him. He was the last of a breed of artists who could earn a good living by drawing on paper and never doing stuff he didn’t want to do.
We’ll miss his jolly banter and his great work and, in particular, I’ll miss talking to him about the finer points of Bob Dylan…”
Our thoughts are with Geoff’s family and to commemorate his legacy WMH has made a donation to his nominated charity, Children and the Arts.
Children & the Arts is an independent educational charity that engages with disadvantaged children nationwide who do not have access to high-quality arts activity because of either social or economic barriers… [read more]
WILLIAMS MURRAY HAMM DESIGNS STATE OF THE ART INNOVATION CENTRE FOR LAMB WESTON.
Following the creation of a new brand purpose and visual identity for Lamb Weston’s global business, WMH was asked to design the interior of an innovation centre where possibilities become reality.
Lamb Weston, a ConAgra Foods brand, has more than 60 years’ experience as one of the world’s leading suppliers of frozen potato products to restaurants and consumers. An industry pioneer, the company planned a new, state of the art, innovation centre with co-creation spaces, fully functioning kitchens, pilot line, interactive areas and a resource for employees; in short a place where possibilities could become reality.
Having already started the building phase for the project, Lamb Weston approached long time collaborating agency WMH in March 2016 to create the overall theme and interiors. The Centre opened to employees on 24 June and to Lamb Weston customers soon after.
WMH had previously helped Lamb Weston relaunch its new global positioning and identity: to be the most inventive potato company in the world. The Innovation Centre would express this purpose and help find new, more inventive ways of collaboration between customers and Lamb Weston staff.
Intended as a flagship Lamb Weston US building, the Innovation Centre needed to be a place that captured the imagination and be worthy of the claim ‘if you dream it, you can make it here’.
Deborah L. Dihel, Ph.D. Senior Director Research and Innovation at Lamb Weston said:
“Our new Innovation Centre is absolutely incredible. WMH was the perfect partner to help us communicate Lamb Weston’s brand promise throughout the building in a distinctive and memorable way. The design elements set the stage as soon as our visitors see us from the street, and their experiences are enhanced further as they enter and work in the space. WMH’s design communicates our history of successful innovation, yet at the same time, inspires all who enter to be futuristic, be inventive and make their potato dreams a reality.”
Using the playful design it had created for the brand identity, WMH produced a fully sensory experience for the many spaces in the Centre. Bright and light, visitors encounter witty and striking wall graphics at every turn. Interactive areas have been created to bring to life the history of the business, its vision and values and to relate employee stories. Breakout rooms inspire new and innovative ways of working together.
On the experience, Garrick Hamm, Creative Director of Williams Murray Hamm said:
“We love working with Lamb Weston. Once again, WMH has been there to help them bring their Innovation Centre to life. Their strength of purpose, reflected in the Innovation Centre design, really encourages their employees and customers to be as inventive and imaginative as they like – the possibilities are endless”.
A guest blog by innovation and marketing expert, Giles Atwell
Brexit means Brexit, but what does it mean for British food?
Buy British!
“[Eating is not just an agricultural act] It is also an ecological act, and a political act, too… To eat with a fuller consciousness of all that is at stake might sound like a burden, but in practice few things in life can afford quite as much satisfaction.” Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Since the Brexit vote of 23 June, the press has served us a diet of cascading bond yields, frozen property funds and sliding sterling: a daunting menu, beyond the comprehension of most consumers. But in these times of change, I wanted to reflect on a more palatable subject. One that is a little closer to home for us all – food.
Opportunities in adversity!
Seventy-five years ago Britain faced another crisis, finding itself isolated as an island nation while battle raged across Europe. Prior to the Second World War, the country imported two thirds of its food by sea, approximately 55 million tons a year. But by 1940 the threat posed by German U-Boats, which succeeded in sinking 728,000 tons of produce that year, had reduced imports of food to just 12 million tons. Britain was forced to retool its whole food supply and re-educate its population.
Though Brexit doesn’t pose such a dire and direct threat, Britain still imports over half its food and so remains vulnerable to the vagaries of international trade. Given the Brexit news, this situation is unlikely to improve. A recent study by the National Farmers Union predicted that by the mid-2040s, the country would only be able to produce enough food to feed 53% of its population.[1]
The famous patriotic posters of WW2 told Britain to ‘Dig for Victory!’, ‘Don’t Waste Food’ and ‘Doctor Carrot’ will guard your health.[2] As we consider our next steps in the Brexit flux, maybe there are lessons for action here on how we source and consume our food. Lessons that could help not only improve our own health but also that of the British food industry as a whole.
I’m not advocating the kind of control Lord Woolton, Minister of Food during WW2, had. He had free reign to create and issue ration books whilst managing the UK’s food supply; “making him the envy of nutritionists, dieticians, and indeed anyone interested in the health of the nation, before or since.”[3] But, we could use these economically challenged times of change to improve in three areas:
The economy is already softening and there is a very real chance we will go into recession. There is a horrible disconnect between the estimated 3 million people in the UK thought to be living with malnutrition or at risk because they do not eat enough, and the 1.9 million tons of food waste the UK is estimated to have created in 2014-15 alone.[4]
In this respect, the Grocer’s “Waste not want not” campaign to reduce food waste is laudable, as are Asda’s £3.50 wonky veg boxes, Waitrose’s policy to ensure none of its food goes to landfill, and the cooperation of many supermarkets with food banks.[5]
Manufacturers too have a responsibility to sensibly apply ‘best before’ dates and consumers need to make better judgements on both the quantity purchased vs eaten, as well as when a food in the fridge is genuinely ‘past it’.
A concerted effort by all parties could drastically reduce the nation’s food and financial waste, but it will take both coordination and education.
2) Buying British
The weakened pound and a general desire for all of us to support the country in our new ‘solo’ quest represents a golden opportunity to celebrate British-grown food and boost our nation’s self-sufficiency whilst reducing our food-miles.
This need not be akin to the somewhat masochistic support my father gave in the 1970s to our failing motor industry by buying a succession of Triumphs & Rovers that simply fell-apart. We have our own delicious cheeses, seasonal fruit, meat, and vegetables together with an explosion of alternative British food & drink brands (think Dorset Cereals, Charlie Bigham’s pies and Fever Tree drinks) that deserve to be more locally and widely consumed as well as exported to our neighbours, near and far.
Food that is produced in Britain should shout it loud(er) and producers should strive to collaborate to create more of the ‘Protected Designation of Origin’ – PDO or ‘Protected Geographical Indication’ – PGI that the EU had previously helped us to sustain.
Clearly buying British will not only keep the money in Britain but may even help insulate British consumers from potential future trade tariffs and a continued weak pound.
3) Improving Food Education
A 2015 study by the ONS (Office for National Statistics), showed that of the £530 the average UK household spends each week, 20% goes on food & drink (including eating out, alcohol and tobacco). While much of the other 80% of the spend (from gas bills to holidays) has a physical impact on us (breathed in as fumes from transport or felt as fibres on the skin), the food budget physically enters our bodies.
In the age of convenience and fast-food, I think we have a lot to learn from our continental neighbours. The perennially slender French take meals very seriously, spending more time eating than their fellow Europeans; two hours, 22 minutes per day in 2010, 13 minutes longer than in 1986. French meals are also treated as a shared experience, with 80% eaten with others.[6]
In contrast, the NHS spends £6 billion a year on diet-related diseases. Britain is “…sleepwalking into a major health crisis because of poor diets among young children” according to a coalition of restaurateurs, food manufacturers and medical experts.[7] The change needs to start with children, as food habits are formed in childhood and a child’s weight and diet has a big impact on their adult health outcomes. This is a cause already gaining momentum thanks to celebrities like Jamie Oliver and his ‘Food Revolution’, but it needs concerted backing and funding to roll it out across the country and to save future generations from a lifetime of poor eating habits and diet-related disease.
Conclusion
Times are very different to the crisis felt during WW2 when only about 2% of households owned a fridge and the country was under a real siege. However, the next few weeks, months and years could see us under a ‘virtual’ siege of pressure to sign the infamous Article 50 and formally sever links with the EU. I personally struggle to see a lot of positive from these turbulent and uncertain times ahead, but if we become prouder to buy and responsibly consume quality British food, well, maybe there’s a little silver lining after all.
Giles Atwell started his career as a graduate trainee with Unilever in 1996 and moved to Cadbury in 2002. He has led commercial, innovation and marketing teams in Australia, Brazil, Singapore and the UK. His most recent successes include Cadbury/Milka Bitesize rollout, two years of double-digit growth in Brazil and Halls Candy global turnaround.
Having lived on 4 continents over the past decade, Giles’ children were becoming a little too well travelled. And so at the end of 2015, he and his family decided to return to the UK and their home in Oxford. He left Mondelez in June and is looking forward to the next UK-based challenge.
When not working, Giles is a keen tennis player, amateur photographer, whisky and wine enthusiast.
With today’s business pressures, we’re so busy dealing with what’s in front of us, that we rarely get a chance to talk about wider matters. This is particularly true of our clients and friends of WMH. They’re a fascinating lot, but we only dig deeper with them when we are socialising or having one of our sporadic events. A lunch with Giles Atwell, during which he spoke about food with such conviction, led to a request for him to write our first guest blog. We’re hoping it will become a regular event on our site. Giles was the kind of client we warm to. During his time on Cadbury’s at Mondelez, he was brave to appoint us to a significant innovation project and we loved working with him and have always stayed in touch. He knows the food industry inside out and we’re flattered he’s written for us.
How it’s put a spanner in the works for Chris Evans.
Top Gear has been “Bjorn Again” but it’s just not Buddy Holly. Richard Williams explores relaunched brands who have attempted to rediscover their illustrious past.
Call me an old fashioned blokey chap. I loved Top Gear with Clarkson, Hammond and May. I hated a lot of the actual driving stuff, but I really loved the banter. Here were three top motoring journalists who felt entirely comfortable with each other. Anyone can do stupid things like catapult cars or set fire to caravans, but it’s the way they played it. It was the in-jokes they let us in on that were so funny. They were our chums and we sat on the edge of our seats waiting for what we knew would be the next excruciating utterance.
There’s a parallel to life in our studio. We all know each other so well. A raised eyebrow, an admonishing cough, a riff about Reggie Perrin and we’re off. Irreplaceable. It’s hard to join WMH simply because it takes years to learn the stories.
The same is often true of businesses and brands when they try and relaunch to rediscover their illustrious past.
Phileas Fogg was a clever, entrepreneur-led snack brand that introduced the UK to posh crisps. So successful was it that United Biscuits bought it and wrecked it in very short order.
As Kettle, Tyrrell’s and a plethora of smaller brands surrounded it, it tried again and again to relaunch (we even had a go at it) but it had lost its sparkle, its point of difference, its raison d’etre. Now, it’s been relaunched yet again. The products are actually very good, but it’s a pale imitation of its former self with unfunny TV ads and dreadful packaging. It’s a poor pastiche of the past.
For many years, Trustees Saving Bank, latterly the TSB, was a common sight on our high street. It was the bank that “Likes To Say Yes”. It disappeared, having become part of Lloyd’s Banking Group, went into oblivion and was resuscitated in 2013 and subsequently sold to a Spanish business.
What’s it there for? We’d all survived quite happily without it. Apparently the Spanish think the name has ‘traction’. I think it looks like ‘The Bank Nobody Goes Into’.
Returning to the car theme, I’ll finish with an example of a car that should have been dead and buried years ago. As a kid, I loved the Chevrolet Impala. How could you not be drawn to its spaceship styling? Its rear wings reached into the middle of its vast boot and radiated out in a whoosh of glory. This was not a normal car – it moved when it was standing still. I wore the wheels out of my Dinky version.
Image source citation pending
Have you seen 2016’s Impala? Don’t bother. It looks like the illegitimate spawn of a Vauxhall and a Mazda – only worse.
Don’t misunderstand me, there are huge numbers of brands that relaunch very successfully because they understand what makes them different and get how we can continue to be in love with them, but New Top Gear isn’t anywhere near.
Top Gear, at its best, was about unlikely friendships born through a common love of cars. As a car nut or football fan, you can understand that uniting bond, despite the obvious differences between the people. Chris Evans and TFI Friday, at its best, was like that too – Chris and his workmates, feeding off the energy of a Friday night; beer, banter, music, idiotic drunken tomfoolery…. Perhaps he needs to get some of his real mates back and forget the international starring line-up.
Following the recent UK launch of Amazon Fresh, Richard Williams and Garrick Hamm explore the Love and Hate of the brand packaging ‘First Moment of Truth’ in the digital age on online grocery shopping.
Hate: Packaging
Many years ago, Procter and Gamble came up with the idea of ‘The First Moment of Truth’.
This was all about how packaging works in the supermarket and how first impressions really count. I can’t remember what the second and third moments of truth were, something about bar codes probably.
I wonder what P&G thinks about the FMOT of their brands as they appear in online shopping. Does it bring on an FMOH (First Moment of Horror)? Here’s the truth. Brands look dreadful on Ocado and as we’re about to be invaded by Amazon Fresh they need to do something now.
Since it’s only partially available in the UK, I had to pretend to live in the Empire State Building (ZIP code 10118) to be able to access it. What is glaringly obvious is that, if Amazon Fresh really takes off, (the British Retail Consortium predicts that 900,000 jobs will be lost by 2025 as the industry moves online) the claptrap and mumbo jumbo that packaging design agencies have peddled for years, in an effort to cover up their lack of creativity, will have no further use.
There is no ‘shelf blocking’ since there aren’t any shelves to block and you can’t see any ‘category cues’ or ‘appetite appeal’ because the pack shots are so tiny, the copy is illegible and everything is low res. The game’s up. Brands have to find a new way to work for online shopping and it’s a wonderful, thrilling opportunity.
Love: Smiles
Hopefully Amazon Fresh really will lead to a completely different way of presenting brands on screen. They’re going to have to look at simple visual mnemonics. It could even lead to a new golden era where intelligent, meaningful logos represent a brand instead of dull old packaging.
Actually, this is really just a gratuitous excuse to talk about the recently updated ‘A Smile in the Mind’. Along with Alan Fletcher’s ‘The Art of Looking Sideways’ it is one of the must-have books on engaging, intelligent design. I’ve always loved those clever little logos that give a business personality.
The original Spratt’s pet food logo is clunky and artless, but incredibly endearing. Dog happiness is built right into it. I also came across this little beauty for Knapp Shoes (obviously) by Chermayeff & Geismar Inc. in New York. It’s a lovely witty mark. Simple and clever. How could you resist? Similarly, Norbert Dutton’s 1959 logo for electronics business, Plessey, is something we’d be proud to have done today.
(left) Spratts – Logo designed by Max Field-Bush (UK). Copyright (second extension) 2016, Julien Clairet of DATA ACCESS Paris. / (middle) Knapp Shoes – Logo designed by Charmayeff & Geismar Inc. / (right) The Plessey Company Ltd – Logo designed by Norbert Dutton’s 1959
With wit like this, think what you could do for a brand like Bird’s Eye or Flash. We won’t see the end of supermarket packaging by any means and I fear that we won’t lose steamy shots of soup and stringy cheese slices on pizza packs, but perhaps Amazon Fresh, unwittingly, will lead to a design revolution where we go back to intelligent, beautifully thought through brand identities.
I can’t wait.
Authors: Richard Williams & Garrick Hamm.
For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000.
Williams Murray Hamm’s brave, bold and engaging design for Penny Market’s ‘Orto Mio’ antipasti range was awarded a Silver at last night’s International Food & Beverage Awards.
Now in their 18th year, the FAB Awards are focused entirely on work done for Food and Beverage brands. They recognise the critical contribution that outstanding creative work makes in building brands, identifying and rewarding leading practitioners from over 60 countries.
Rewe owned, Penny operates 3,550 stores in Europe. Having won a written competitive pitch against two other agencies, WMH was appointed to rejuvenate the 45+ antipasti range to reflect a more unconventional and approachable image for Orto Mio.
WMH’s new design embodies the relaxed, sociable style of eating antipasti. It suggests that the food can barely be restrained by its packaging and is bursting to get out with colour and flavour
The illustrations work in unison with lively, colourful hand drawn typefaces. Each product carries a witty copyline, such as ‘oh la la olives’, ‘we are the champignons’ and ‘you make me blush’, continuing the promise of an enjoyable eating experience.
On winning the award Garrick Hamm, Creative Director at WMH said:
“We are overjoyed that our work on ‘Orto Mio’ has been recognised by the FAB Awards. Hopefully, the witty design raised as much of a smile on the judges’ faces, as the award has on ours!”
In 2010 Coca Cola relaunched as a response to declining sales of carbonated drinks. There was no change to the product, but there was substantial change to the way the brand was presented.
Out: went years of complicated, ugly packs, replete with multi textured swooshes, condensation and all the other fripperies of soft drinks branding.
In: came a new, stripped down design that used simple flat colours and a bold, plain white Coke marque.
In: came campaign work that was a reminder of more innocent times when we all loved fizzy drinks.
How clever of Turner Duckworth to get a piece of work this good and this simple, through a behemoth like Coca Cola.
Of course, in global businesses, there’s always someone who wants to make their mark. In March this year we saw major tweaks to the design starting to appear. Suddenly the logo on cans was horizontal and then Spain launched with each variant being red with a small part of the can given over to the variant type (black for zero, green for the execrable ‘Coke Life’ etc). It was horrid, but at least it looked as though it might be confined to Spain.
This week, Coke announced a complete redesign along Spanish lines. An ‘iconistic’ red disc now appears everywhere. Apparently it’s a ‘signature asset’. When fat words like these appear in press releases you know the head of design is about to go into hiding.
This redesign is a ghastly mistake brought about by cost cutting; e.g. the ‘One Brand’ story and the fear of sugar taxes. The trouble is, the design doesn’t help. It damages the brand by reducing it to what it was in the past, complicated, ugly and spurious, losing Coke’s unique status along the way.
Launching in Mexico immediately and rolling out across the world in 2017 soon everyone associated with this rebranding will have moved on. They never get to reap what they sow nowadays. As usual, someone new will be left to pick up the pieces.
It proves that in today’s company structure, no matter how high flying your design management is, it doesn’t get listened to. This is a triumph of cost cutting management and poor use of ‘consumer insights’ over what’s good for the brand long term.
Many years ago, my late business partner, Richard Murray wrote to Coca Cola betting them his house that Minute Maid would fail in the market. It did. He’d be safe in betting on this new Coke design too.
Williams Murray Hamm, with client Purity Soft Drinks, won gold for Brand Design with its groundbreaking work on JuiceBurst, at this year’s Design Effectiveness Awards.
Recognised as one of the UK’s most prestigious design for business awards, Thursday night’s annual turnout was held at Tobacco Dock, London. The guest list of shortlisted winners included many of the top 20 creative and design businesses in this country.
Judged by business leaders and entered jointly by client and designer, the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards are both rigorous and authoritative. They celebrate the power of design to drive business success and provide compelling proof of why design is a sound commercial investment.
Popular with small, independent retailers, JuiceBurst was missing a massive opportunity by having no presence amongst large convenience retailers like WHSmith. In order to achieve significant retail listings to drive growth, WMH defined a target audience, positioned the brand and created highly differentiated packaging that would really engage consumers.
Building on the brand’s name, WMH used fruit being detonated as the central motif. This overarching idea connected the packaging to social media and digital content via Blippar, the augmented reality app.
Since re-launch, JuiceBurst has become one of the nation’s fastest growing beverage brands. In a market declining by -9%, it is growing at 93% year on year. There has been an amazing 75% annual profit increase and distribution has increased from one to nine national retailers.
WMH Creative Director Garrick Hamm said ‘It just illustrates, again, that great, simple creative ideas can make a difference to the bottom line. I’m delighted for our long-standing and supportive client Jon Evans at Purity and, of course, our hard working team at WMH’.
For press enquiries contact press@wmhagency.com or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000.
(All images copyright of Williams Murray Hamm 2016, all rights reserved)
Thursday 4th February, Williams Murray Hamm hosted an intimate dinner with esteemed guest speaker, Luke Johnson, for friends of the business at the Haymarket Hotel, London.
Luke Johnson is one of Britain’s most interesting serial investors. He’s probably best known as the former chairman of Channel 4 and the man who grew Pizza Express into a household name.
He’s an author, philanthropist and hugely popular Sunday Times columnist, as well as being chairman of Risk Capital Partners LLP, the business behind Gail’s Bakeries and Patisseries Valerie.
With his wealth of entrepreneurial knowledge and maverick views, this was an evening not to be missed.
On this day of all, I’d like to tell you how much I love you.
You are the first significant business person, since marketing became besotted with social media, to say
“It is crazy how significant packaging is”.
OMG!
What’s more, you went on to say “I think, realistically, for most FMCG products the packaging is more important than the product, it is how you get noticed and create desire, and impute what it is you are and stand for.”
Thank you for restoring this old man’s faith in the discipline he’s followed since 1974.
A couple of weeks ago we were lamenting the death of David Bowie and last week it was the end of 500 years of eel catching in Britain. This weekend it’s been the end of traffic wardens (they are all ‘civil enforcement officers’).
We hate losing things, people and traditions. Until last week, we couldn’t have cared less about eel catching. Now it’s a symbol of the pace of change, our loss of a simpler way of life. Along with the demise of gas street lamps, steam trains and holidays in Clacton-on-Sea, we seem to believe that life was better in the past. Perhaps that’s why there’s so much fuss about the new Dad’s Army movie.
Heaven forfend, there’s even nostalgia for the 1970s and ’80s – when the High Street was really humming. There was Woolies, Our Price Records, Comet, MFI, House of Holland and the rest. We conveniently forget that it was a period of mostly terrible music, catastrophic industrial unrest, the 3 day week, horrific inflation, stratospheric oil prices, ugly furniture (unless you lived near a Habitat), naff TV, loon pants…and the Austin Allegro.
How could they?
Politicians and the likes of Mary Portas still mourn the death of the High Street, but the truth is, it offered a dreadful customer experience and buying online is a whole lot easier. If Amazon would just pay its taxes and level the playing field, we could all rest easy.
No, the past wasn’t a better time. Product reliability was appalling, customer service non-existent, the trains worked even less well, the GPO took weeks to install your phone, the Gas Board had to connect your gas cooker and never showed up and British Airways was owned by the government and as bad as Aeroflot.
Back to my first supermarket love
There are, of course, vital items that one misses in lockdown. Marmite went AWOL from Sainsbury’s online. If you were desperate it could be found on eBay for £6.99 for a jar, plus £4 postage. Apparently, they’ve sold 48 of them so far. It makes one think about brand value. What brands would you pay extortionate prices for if they went missing? A quick scan of eBay shows a can of Ambrosia custard selling for £7 (inc postage) and a 1.5kg pack of Allinson’s Strong White Bread flour for £12 (admittedly the postage is a whopping £8). But then eBay is a mad place. Who in their right minds would buy Andrex ‘Natural Pebble’ lavatory rolls? A snip at £33.78 for 45 rolls by the way – it seems they are in ‘New Condition’ which is, no pun intended, a relief.
Many people will have never witnessed a worldwide emergency like COVID-19. The banking crisis was twelve years ago and 9/11 nineteen. We all thought things would never be the same again. For the young, COVID-19 must seem earth shattering, but for people of a certain age age, well, it’s just another global catastrophe from which the commercial world always seems to recover.
Images: ‘Own Label: Sainsbury’s Design Studio 1962-1977’ © Fuel Publishing, all rights reserved.
© copyright Alamy Stock Photo, all rights reserved.
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