What You Need To Know About Brand
A Q&A with Oskar Elfner on whether to "rebrand" or not to "rebrand", what Satisfy get right, where Spotify and Strava miss the mark and more.
Oskar and I have known each other for about 5 years now and throughout that time we have had a consistent dialogue on brand, culture, the arts and business! He is currently Head of Brand Strategy in ABBY.WORLD’s new brand studio (more on that later).
Oskar shares he’s been working in communication his whole life, both on the agency front as well as client side. While he has a long held passion for branding and design, he’s a dedicated runner, movie buff and father of two kids and one french bulldog!
Let’s Start!
Who are the thinkers, creatives, leaders etc that inspire and shape your thinking about brand and design. And why?
Inspiration really comes down to investment of time, now more than ever. Investing 5 seconds in Tiktok and you’ll not get more than 5 seconds of inspiration in return.
That’s why I would have to say cinema as the main source for inspiration this year. With the last couple of marvel movies absolutely tanking at the box office, I am hoping we are seeing the beginning of the end for the algorithmically insecure never-ending-franchise series we’ve been fed the last decade. And there to replace it are movies like Oppenheimer. I mean - wow, what an experience. Talk about craftsmanship in its essence. And it did really well financially, proving that a niché story can be equally, if not more, appealing to large audiences.
But you’ll have to invest 3 hours of time into it, which is hard when you are used to constantly checking your phone. But for me it has really paid off overcoming that and allowing myself to go to the movies and spend a considerable amount of time. Oppenheimer, Killers of the flower moon - even Napoleon. It’s a shame we’ll have to wait until March 2024 for Dune 2. Really looking forward to returning to Denis Villeneuve's state of the art visionary world. Anyway, movies are back!
Other than movies and cinema, I would say that chinese based design studios are continuing to be a source of admiration. Take UDL for example. They are so much more fluent in colors and unexpected ideas, patterns and layouts than what we’ve seen the last few years in Europe/US.
Lastly, I just finished reading Design Unbound: Designing for Emergence in a White Water World. Revolutionary reading, not just for designers but anyone interested in ways of working, change, design thinking and more.
Keeping in mind both product and storytelling experiences in 2023…
What brands stood out?
Satisfy.
They manage to stand out and feel authentic in the, at the moment, very overcrowded running category.
What brands let you down?
Spotify. Is Wrapped the only thing they can give back to their listeners? And if so, how can they not do it better? I’ve been a subscriber since day 1 (is it 12 years???) and it honestly feels like they have no clue what I’m listening to. Just thinking of the time I’ve spent with this brand 24/7 for over a decade and what I get in return is so off. No, I don’t listen to Dua Lipa, why is Dua Lipa recommended to me every week? Stop pushing that on me.
Same goes for Strava. The only qualified app to run with and it feels like they are too comfortable knowing that. With all the data they have, how can the only new feature be a DM function? I wanna know more about mine, and others, running behaviors. I don’t need to send direct messages to people on Strava.
They are both my favorite and most used apps so maybe I just have too high expectations but I feel there is more to be done here.
What’s something to keep an eye on in 2024?? What forces/changes are shaping things?
Branding keeps on being a long game. With the economic downturn we are in, we will continue to see most companies focus on product focused marketing: fast money and quarterly numbers. This recession also seems trickier than the previous ones. Harder to predict and unevenly distributed. Some industries are halted and others are booming. Lots of uncertainty and definitely harder to predict how this plays out. What is certain though is that those companies that dare to stand against this type of insecurity and that invests in relationship building bounds with their audiences will be the long term winners. As it always has been… Storytelling will continue to be the number one attribute for a brand. That takes time, effort and will to build. Only the smartest brands will get that. Rest will fall into the short term trap.
I just received this quote in a newsletter and think it captures it all:
You can buy people’s skills but not their hearts.
You can buy people’s time but not their loyalty.
The most valuable things must be earned.
What’s an overrated skill in brand strategy?
Brand platforms without connection to the company… What are we doing here?
It feels like some people and companies think that the work is done when the brand pyramid is in place and the boxes are filled out. And it never is.
How often have you not looked at a slide with vision/mission/purpose/claim etc etc and felt nothing?
Of course all those things can serve a meaning, but usually what a brand needs is a solid, essential story. Get your company story right, make it so good that people would like to tell it at a dinner party, make it contagious, aspiring, easy to remember. Sprinkle clarity on top of it and make it tangible and measurable. Done. That’s your brand platform.
What’s underrated?
Getting everyone onboard. Making everyone internally feel inspired and driven by the strategy. If you don’t pay attention to this and downplay how important it is you will definitely fail. The strategy becomes a beautiful keynote at best.
What are some things to be mindful of or may feel are counterintuitive for those:
Building a brand from scratch/origin?
I think some new brands are too conceptual. They’ve spent too much time thinking about their target audience’s needs and wants. The result is brands that look over polished and it becomes boring and expected. I’m attracted to brands that don’t necessarily want me as their customer. You need to attract me by not being so perfect and needy for my attention.
Embarking on a “re-brand” or “brand transformation”?
It’s a suicide mission haha… But it has to be done for some brands for them to stay relevant. You will get pushback internally, face resistance from leadership and your customers will dislike your new logo etc. In the short: it’s a complete shit show for the people driving the transformation. But, it has to be done, sometimes.
Usually brands needing to reshape things have lost touch with their origin story. A slow decline and erosion of values, vision and general direction that has led the company to losing their soul.
You need to treat that with an injection of energy to get hope up, even if it pisses people off.
The alternative is to be the orchestra at the sinking Titanic, and honestly - no one wants to play that part. As always: As long as it hurts more to change than it does to not change, people will stay the same. That’s the force you are up against in a “re-brand” project.
How to succeed with it? Get people to feel involved in the transformation but make critical decisions in a small tight group. Catch the right wave of new leadership coming into a company. Move fast, don’t buckle in confidence. Get it out asap.
What in your experience is the relationship between brand excellence and business performance. What are the signals to keep an eye on that you are doing things right?
When your brand is at the top of priorities it can serve as a catalyst for performance. When it is seen as something that sits under marketing, things never really get done properly. It needs to be a management team and CEO priority.
How would you approach leaders or stakeholders that may seem disinterested by brand and its relationship to art, design, culture etc?
Storytelling is key here. How can you get these people to feel associated with the brand purpose? I’m not a 100% advocate for total alignment between self- and work purpose but I believe you at least need to get people reflecting on what’s important for them personally and how that relates to their job. Brands fail the moment it is seen as something too abstract or too elitist. Get the leaders to tell the story - not just talk about the numbers or the vision - the real story behind the brand!
Walk us through the process of building out a brand studio, adjacent an established pr/advertising agency like you have/are doing with ABBY.WORLD Right now?
At ABBY.WORLD, we are a small team of highly devoted individuals who share the same ideas and vision for how brands should be built. I firmly believe that this unity is key to creating consistency and quality. I've never believed in agencies simply executing whatever a client asks for without a sense of their own beliefs. And after all, where's the fun in that? It feels soulless and without ambition.
Establishing a studio with a strong ethos, an iterative work process, and the confidence to say 'No' to projects that don't align with our values is crucial for us. We also see ourselves as a quick, high-impact strategist. We are not seeking maintenance missions; that's not who we are. It may sound silly, but we aspire to be a SWAT team: we go in, identify the core essence of your brand, place it in the right cultural context, and then we are DONE. A quick, sharp brand tentacle in action.
Lastly (and this will be my closing question to everyone no matter what line of work they are in), but what piece of art has shaped you most?!
Hard question! So difficult to pinpoint one thing. Hmm…. Nirvana’s Nevermind comes up. I still remember when I got the cd and listened to it for the first time. Smells like teen spirit wasn’t my favorite but In Bloom, Drain you and Lithium are such incredibly rough and beautiful songs. And the record ending with Something in the Way…. Phew!
So yes, Nevermind definitely shaped me!
Thank you Oskar for joining and sharing your thoughts and perspectives on a subject and context I am continuously curious for. For readers, look for more Q&A’s in the new year.
As promised, more about ABBY.WORLD below. Also, you can connect with Oskar on LinkedIn too.
About ABBY.WORLD
ABBY.WORLD works across the whole branding vertical, from portfolio strategy, brand platforms, storytelling and messaging to craft level such as visual concepts, graphical design and motion. They specialize in helping companies find their right cultural and strategic relevance through fast-paced and high density projects.