Design World

Wall Street Journal

BUSINESS

Updated September 17, 2012, 12:16 p.m. ET

By Mike Esterl

 

Heineken NV (HEIA.AE +0.29%) is giving its green bottle a face-lift in the U.S., hoping it will help its flagship Dutch lager and one-time leading beer import stand tall again after years of market-share losses.

 

A slimmer green Heineken bottle with a longer neck is arriving this week in New York City bars and restaurants, ahead of a national rollout by the Amsterdam brewer in January. Heineken, the first foreign beer to reach U.S. shores after Prohibition ended in 1933, had long stuck with a squat green bottle.

 

The world's third-largest brewer by volume also increased the advertising budget of its namesake lager by roughly half in the U.S. last year, and is banking on a marketing lift this fall from James Bond, more known for ordering vodka martinis.

 

(...)

 

The new Heineken bottle is 1.25 inches taller than the old bottle, with a longer, narrower neck the brewer believes makes it look more modern. A thumb groove is designed to improve the grip and encourages drinkers to hold the bottle lower down, keeping the beer colder. A strong shoulder aims to convey an air of "masculinity and pride,'' according to Heineken.

 

"As we are trying to bring a new generation into the brand, we feel this is a tangible way of revitalizing it,'' said Dolf van den Brink, the 39-year-old president of Heineken USA. The beer itself won't change, he added. "Since 1873 we've never touched the recipe.''

 

--- Comment Designink.nl ---

 

In The Netherlands, Heineken bottles used to be brown, the green version was for export only. In 2010 the company changed its packaging design from 15 to 5 versions.

 

Last year, September 2011, Heineken announced a new corporate visual identity.

 

Yesterday, Heineken announced that also in The Netherlands, the green K2-model (longneck) will replace the old brown model.

Thne new bottle is 3% lighter in weight and was designed in Amsterdam by DOBD, VBAT and the Heineken Branding Team.

 

Source [Dutch];

http://www.parool.nl/parool/nl/224/BINNENLAND/article/detail/3321381/2012/09/24/Heineken-breekt-met-traditie-bruin-flesje-wordt-groen.dhtml

 

 

History/Inspiration - Grolsch

In 2008 SABMillers iconic brand, Grolsch, introduced a new green version of its famous swing-top beer bottle. The bottle was designed by Flex Innovation Lab. The new 2012 design also incorporated a functional 'hand-grip' with embossed logo. The design process was recently aired as part of National Geographic programme "Made in NL'

 

 

http://www.design.nl/item/new_bottle_design_for_grolsch

 

http://natgeotv.com/nl/made-in-nl-dance/over

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9T2NJHL7mU

 

 

http://www.flex.nl/?case=136

 

 

 

Via Niels Biersteker

[Image: top 36 brands]

 

Branding Magazine

 

October 2, 2012

By Dorian Cioban

 

Interbrand, one of the world’s leading brand consultancy just revealed their list of Best 100 Global Brands for 2012. Compared to the results of previous year, the companies that made the biggest leap are Apple (+129%), Amazon (+46%), Samsung (+40%) and Oracle (+28%). The report took into consideration various major events that happened during the course of this year and how they reflected on certain brands.

(...)

 

http://www.interbrand.com/en/best-global-brands/2012/Best-Global-Brands-2012-Brand-View.aspx

 

Via Niels Biersteker

Adweek

October 02 2012

 

Oreo concluded its "Daily Twist" campaign live in Times Square on Tuesday, as Draftfcb and 360i creatives working in a glass box whipped up the last of 100 daily ads, with the final topic—the anniversary of the first high five—being suggested and upvoted by consumers through social media.

 

(...)

 

http://brands.nabisco.com/Oreo/dailytwist/

http://pinterest.com/oreo/daily-twist

 

Via Niels Biersteker

If the DMV is the physical manifestation of an inefficient and needlessly bureaucratic government, the websites of most government agencies do a fine job of bringing that frustration into the digital world. The overwhelming majority of them are disorganized, unsightly, and bursting at the seams with sections, sub-sections, buttons and links (often times in underlined blue text, betraying how hopelessly dated the pages really are). But the new website for the Milwaukee Police Department is different. It has a striking design, with vivid background images that stretch across the screen. A parallax scrolling effect makes photographs of officers and squad cars slide dynamically into place. And in perhaps the most radical departure from a typically labyrinthine police department site, Milwaukee Police News has only five different sections, and you don’t have to click any buttons or links to get to them.

 

The project began about a year ago, when Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn visited the local office of design agency Cramer-Krasselt to talk about building a new site for the force.

 

(...)

 

http://www.milwaukeepolicenews.com

Via Niels Biersteker

Google spent nothing--Sergey Brin just opened up the free graphics app Gimp. Same with Coca-Cola--though John Pemberton’s bookkeeper drew the logo’s Spencerian script by hand. Nike famously gave just $35 to a design student. Which used to be an impressively thrifty figure, until Twitter picked up their ubiquitous bird for a mere $15 on iStockPhoto.

 

These, obviously, represent the low-end of what some of the world’s biggest companies have spent on their branding. The figures are from a list recently assembled by Stocklogos and Business Insider, which Trendland turned into a series of infographics. And if you think a company that spends nothing on their logo is a bit nauseating, wait until you see the opposite end of the spectrum.

Pepsi spent $1 million on their Obama-esque rebranding a few years back, and the BBC spent almost double that on a logo that basically just untoggled the italics button. But that’s nothing compared to the $221 million BP paid to make their oil company look like a new-age organic grocer--though maybe it was one of the few cases where we can all agree it was worth every penny. (It’s not clear from the stats here whether that $221 million was just for design services, or for the rebranding campaign, in which case $221 million is probably low.)

 

Alongside the more extreme spends, the $100,000 a close-to-bankrupt Steve Jobs paid Paul Rand for his profitless startup NeXT seems pretty close to market value.

 

See more here;

http://trendland.com/the-price-of-branding-infographic/

Via Niels Biersteker

BRANDNEW

DATE: Sep.26.2012

 

Established in 1994, Mobiltel, more commonly known as M-Tel (now just Mtel), is the largest telecommunications mobile company in Bulgaria. It now offers internet, cable, and home phone services to complement its mobile dominance and landscape ubiquity with 180 stores across the country. Earlier this month Mtel introduced a new identity designed by London-based Saffron.

 

(...)

Via Niels Biersteker

October 1 saw what is probably this year's largest shake-up in the grocery brand market as Kraft Foods was split in two. The North American grocery business was spun off into Kraft Foods Inc., while the worldwide snacking company changed its name to Mondelez International.

 

A pleasant surprise after the break-up is that neither company will keep the "spark" logo adopted by Kraft Foods in 2009. Instead, Kraft Foods Inc., has chosen to embrace its heritage by adopting a modified version of its classic shield as corporate logo. The most noticeable difference is that the name isn't set in all caps. The resulting typographical treatment doesn't sit too comfortably inside the red frame.

 

Other aspects of Kraft Foods visual communication are also touting its heritage, with a friendly slab serif stencil typeface being used in ads and on the website. Some brand in Kraft's North American portfolio are Jell-O, Planters, Miracle Whip, Oscar Mayer, Maxwell House, Philadelphia and Velveeta.

 

 

You can read more about the Mondelez corporate identity here;

http://brandingsource.blogspot.com/2012/05/new-logo-mondelex-international.html

Via Niels Biersteker