Read about the big issues and challenges that brands are facing in a highly competitive and always connected world. And what smart companies are doing to stay one step ahead of change.
A new sense of style on the Sunshine Coast
Brand consultancy Principals has today unveiled a new luxury residential brand “The Coolum Residences”. The Coolum Residences property development is a joint venture between Lend Lease and Sekisui House, located adjacent to the Hyatt Regency Coolum resort on the Sunshine Coast.
The new brand was created after the sale of Hyatt Coolum earlier this year, with the launch timed to coincide with the 2011 Australian PGA Championship .
Press Release - Principals - 7th October 2011 0 Comment(s) 
Brands need to get in on the game
To say that the writing is on the wall for passive, one-way media is an understatement. Interactive content that deeply engages and addictively rewards its users is the new normal. So little wonder marketers are scrambling to find ways to connect their brands in to the internet-enabled gaming craze.
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) - 10th November 2011 0 Comment(s)
Principals launches Catalyst, Money for the thinkers
Ends.
For further information contact:
Tom Brigstocke
Managing Director
Principals
T: 0418 447 094
E: tom@principals.com.
Press Release - Principals - 7th October 2011 0 Comment(s)
Who’s wearing the pants around here?
At least three times in the last few months we’ve read of major brand owners, mostly in the field of fashion and sportswear, getting uppity about who wears their brand and what it is says about them.
Firstly there was Abercrombie & Fitch, apparently offering to pay Michael Sorrentino, star of the MTV show Jersey Shore, to stop wearing their branded clothing, as they feared it was damaging their brand.
More recently, we had Lacoste begging that Danish mass murderer Anders Breivik ‘be banned from wearing its garments because it fears the company’s reputation is being damaged”.
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) - 3rd October 2011 0 Comment(s)
Principals and the Song Company win the NSW AbaF SME Award
(L-R): Deborah Mills, The Song Company; Jane Haley, AbaF and Sandy Belford, Principals.
Each year the AbaF Awards (Australian Business Arts Foundation) honour the finest relationships between the private sector and the arts, in the areas of partnering, volunteering and giving. It’s a chance for businesses to show innovative thinking through their support for the arts – and for the arts to showcase best practice by partnering with the private sector.
Press Release - Principals - 8th September 2011 0 Comment(s)
Lukewarm welcome for location-based apps
While the uptake of web-connected mobile phones and tablets has been swift in Australia, the majority of their owners have yet to take the next step and embrace the use of location-sensing apps.
Principals’ latest Digital Pulse study, published this week, reveals there is considerable discomfort, across the ages and genders, about these location-aware apps and the personal information they might disclose to others.
It will come as no great surprise Australia’s most popular location-aware mobile app is Google Maps.
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) - 11th August 2011 0 Comment(s)
Keeping brands where they belong
Words, they come and go. They evolve, they change and sometimes lose their original meaning altogether.
It’s easy to get into a strop about it.
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) - 7th July 2011 1 Comment(s)
Principals launches new corporate identity for The Bionics Institute
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Media Release - Principals - 17th June 2011 0 Comment(s)
Principals creates Mallesons’ Facebook page to engage law graduates
Mallesons Stephen Jaques, one of the leading law firms in the Asia Pacific region, has launched a Facebook page to help recruit potential summer clerks and graduates.
Their social media strategy, developed by branding agency Principals, aims to help candidates to get a real sense of what the firm cares about, reveal career opportunities and display the firm's culture - all through starting conversations with law students.
Sam Garner, Graduate Resourcing Manager, said: " Facebook is a natural place to engage law students: it’s where they spend a lot of time and a key source for information.
Media Release - Principals - 20th January 2011 0 Comment(s)
A new age of customer revolt
In the pre-dawn hours of Friday last week, 300 citizens pitched battle with 160 police in a street riot that raged for seven hours. The unrest, fought over burning barricades, was sparked by heavy-handed police efforts to arrest local residents believed to possess petrol bombs.
Another Twitter-fuelled uprising from the streets of Libya, Syria or Bahrain? No, it's the unlikely story of a fierce community protest in the English city of Bristol against the powerful supermarket group Tesco.
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) - 28th April 2011 0 Comment(s)
When a brand is not a brand
The success of an idea - or, in this case, a word - often comes back to haunt it, sometimes from over exposure, sometimes from opportunism. And that currently seems to be the fate of the word "brand".
The word is everywhere.
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) - 22nd March 2011 2 Comment(s)
Big local retailers will thrive if they embrace online trading
It's a lobbyist's lot to exaggerate the misfortunes of their cause. As does the Retail Coalition, the pressure group backed by retailing heavyweights Solomon Lew, Gerry Harvey and Bernie Brookes. They're pressing the government to introduce GST on products bought from online retailers overseas, in the interests of protecting local livelihoods - their own clearly included.
First published in The Sydney Morning Herald Business Day - 18th March 2011 0 Comment(s)
Principals wins a further four REBRAND Awards
Brand consultancy Principals is today celebrating four wins at the prestigious REBRAND™ Awards.
The agency was recognised for its rebranding of Sucrogen, Peoplecare, Subaru Australia, and The Trust
Company. These four awards bring Principals’ total REBRAND Award haul to 14 – making it the most
REBRAND awarded agency in Asia Pacific, and among the top 5 most awarded internationally.
Media Release - Principals - 1st March 2011 0 Comment(s)
Finding the character in your company voice.
One of the more interesting by-products of the Social Media revolution has been the change in the way people are now using language. In the digital space, language is fresh, funny, confronting, sometimes blindingly specific and often awe-inspiringly authentic.
Whatever the subject up for debate, people are now readily conversing in ways that many companies – with their heavy grey veil of corporate language - could only dream about.
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) - 14th February 2011 0 Comment(s)
Media Release - Online privacy is a generational thing
Principals publishes the second in their Digital Pulse research series. The quarterly report reviews online attitudes and behaviours, based upon a nationally representative sample of internet users.
This quarter the study explores the extent to which Australians feel comfortable sharing different kinds of information over the internet.
Media Release - Principals - 20th January 2011 0 Comment(s)
Online privacy is a generational thing
Google CEO Eric Schmidt speaks with breathtaking candour on the topic of online privacy. He recently said, in a totally matter-of-fact way: "We know where you are. We know where you've been.
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) - 2nd December 2010 0 Comment(s)
Is the media planning art about to go client side?
If you want a sneak preview of the way in which your marketing department might be structured in future, there's no better place to look than The Coca Cola Company in Atlanta. In their search for new ways to add value to the world's most valuable brand portfolio, they've long experimented with brave organisational structures and agency partnerships.
Back in the early 1990's Coca Cola filled their advertising agencies with dread by forging a partnership with the Creative Artists Agency, to help the business tap the diverse creative talents of Hollywood and take their first tentative steps into branded content.
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) - 28th October 2010 1 Comment(s)
Principals acquires brand language specialist XXVI
‘Brand Voice is the New Black’, says Principals.
Principals has acquired brand language specialists XXVI (pronounced ‘twentysix’) in a bold move to consolidate their position as one of the leading brand agencies in the Asia Pacific region.
The only dedicated brand language specialist in Australia, XXVI has established a formidable reputation in the area of brand voice.
Media Release - Principals - 6th December 2010 1 Comment(s)
Elevating the listening post
It's hard not to grin at some of the job titles that corporates dream up to satisfy the egos of their up-and coming executives. But one recent new entrant to the career lexicon, the Chief Listening Officer, may actually deserve more serious consideration than first appearances suggest.
For what big business, anywhere in the world, doesn't struggle to sincerely listen - and appropriately respond - to the myriad opinions of its customers? To act decisively upon their ideas - and frustrations - at an online pace? And to learn from the total spectrum of brand commentary out there, not only in the traditional feedback channels but also in the chaotic social media pool?
In most classically structured management teams, there isn't a overt priority upon listening to and learning from customers.
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) - 23rd September 2010 1 Comment(s)
Measuring Australia's digital pulse
Few business leaders today would challenge the idea that the internet is a priority communications channel for their business, yet it's surprisingly hard to build up a rich picture of Australian's online behaviours and attitudes from public domain information. Many of the facts published - and even more of what is forecast - emanate from markets far, far away.
So how deeply are Australians interacting with the web? Through what devices? What tasks and applications are their favourites? And to what extent are brands permeating into their online routine? These questions are being tackled in a new quarterly study by Principals, based upon a nationally representative sample of 300 internet users per wave.
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) - 19th August 2010 0 Comment(s)
Building competitive advantage, by design
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) - 15th July 2010 0 Comment(s)
It's time to move the Australian Story forward
Simon Crean and his crew at Austrade are clocking up even more air miles than usual, as they scramble to unveil the new Australia Unlimited nation brand at an array of international business expos and sporting events.
There's really nothing new about a nation's politicians, trade commissioners and have-a-go exporters talking up their own little corner of the world, trading upon a mixture of facts, convenient cultural stereotypes and Chardonnay fumes. But, of late, the art of branding nations has taken on a much more theoretical, even scientific bent, given the rise of global studies that measure the relative reputation and image of nations on an array of societal, cultural and lifestyle factors.
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) - 10th June 2010 0 Comment(s)
Giant steps for branding agency Principals
Principals – the branding and design brains behind new AFL team –Greater Western Sydney Giants
Australia's leading independent branding agency, Principals today revealed its intense behind-the-scenes work with Team GWS, to create a total brand strategy for the launch of the Australian Football League’s (AFL) newest club – Greater Western Sydney Giants.
Greater Western Sydney Giants was announced this week, the culmination of a challenging brief handed to Principals by the club to narrow down the 20,000 name suggestions for the team, and develop a brand identity to launch the AFL’s 18th Club into an entirely new market – Greater Western Sydney – drawing on a supporter base that includes Western Sydney, ACT, South Coast and Southern NSW.
Since June this year, Principals has worked with Team GWS to create the complete brand strategy – from the vision, positioning and personality, to the team name and team colours through to the design of one of the guernseys, and marketing and promotional collateral.
Media Release - Access Public Relations - 19th November 2010 0 Comment(s)
CSIRO offers foresight for marketers
CSIRO recently published Our Future World, an analysis of the global trends that it believes will redefine how we will live in future, impacting the science and technology we will therefore demand. The study’s primary purpose was to inform strategic planning within its scientific community, yet it provides equally valuable guidance to marketers, given its focus upon the changing needs and behaviours of people. CSIRO staffers have distilled over 100 economic, social and environmental trends down to just five megatrends that represent the greatest opportunities and threats to society – and to business.
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) - 6th May 2010 0 Comment(s)
Thought leadership isn’t a monopoly any more
For business-to-business marketers, the concept of thought leadership is a very familiar one. In knowledge intensive industries like law and audit, technology and engineering, brands commonly seek to convey themselves as leaders by publishing thought-provoking papers around new management concepts and visions of the future.
Thought leadership in marketing borrows heavily from the academic publishing model; it’s all about harnessing a company’s best thinking, to offer fresh insight and advice to prospective customers.
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) - 8th April 2010 0 Comment(s)
2010 – the year of the brand app
For many marketers, memories of the past decade will be dominated by the global financial meltdown that marked the end of ‘the noughties’ in a savage fashion. But the GFC clouds a more profound and lasting game-changer, in the form of mainstream digital media.
To date, digital marketing has largely meant engaging customers via websites on their desktop computers, complemented by rudimentary ‘on the move’ channels like mobile text messaging.
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) - 25th February 2010 0 Comment(s)
Westpac proves that ‘a brand is what a brand does’
The executive team at Westpac must be wishing for Christmas to come a little early this year, as the bank remains doggedly out of favour with its customers, politicians and the community at large, for aggressively hiking its mortgage interest rates last week.
While we may become accustomed to divergent bank responses to future shifts in official rates, competitiors have clearly relished the opportunity to isolate Westpac this time around and exploit an apparent hollowness in their customer service rhetoric.
Westpac chief executive Gail Kelly states that she wants customers to be delighted by the experience of dealing with Westpac.
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) - 10th December 2009 0 Comment(s)
Are you being served, digitally?
Without doubt, the Australian marketing community have passed through an emotional crossroads and now place digital and interactive channels at the heart of their ‘message out’ brand planning.
But as yet there are few examples of big brands that harness digital channels as a ‘key way in’ to their organisations, for their customers to access personal service, to share ideas and to engage openly with other brand users.
Marketers are yet to realise the opportunity to reframe customer service as more of an open source concept in which their customers and service staff are part of a like-minded community that helps one another online.
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) - 5th November 2009 0 Comment(s)
Is Walmart the planet’s best hope?
Walmart, the world’s most powerful retailer, is funding the development of a new consumer-friendly sustainability index it plans to apply to every product it sells worldwide.
In a wake-up call to its 100,000 global suppliers, Walmart has begun to request sustainability data from each and every one of them. 15 blunt questions are asked about greenhouse gas emissions, solid wastes, water usage, raw materials sourcing, quality processes, ethical production safeguards, community investments – and plans to improve on all of the above.
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) - 1st October 2009 0 Comment(s)
Managing brand reputation in a ‘pass it on’ world
One of the funniest customer complaint letters on the web today is from a Virgin Atlantic passenger, Oliver Beale, who shares his ‘culinary journey from hell’ on a flight from Mumbai to London. His lengthy tongue-in-cheek email, addressed to Richard Branson and cc’d to the world is punctuated by close-ups of the curious meal, no doubt captured on a mobile phone. “Look at this Richard, just look at it” Beale urges, “I know it looks like a baaji but it’s in custard”.
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) 27th August 2009 1 Comment(s)
