Experts from the leading entrepreneurial and creative brand agency 1HQ will be available to answer your hard brand questions in a free webinar. Click here to join the event on Thursday 12 May, 12pm-1pm BST.
Einstein is famously quoted as having said that if he had only one hour to save the world, he would spend fifty five minutes defining the problem, and only five minutes finding the solution.
Like Einstein, 1HQ tackle branding problems by asking “the one hard question” your company is facing and find a solution from analysing the right information first, be it of your target customer, stakeholder or by semiotically observing the wider culture and your category. As a result, 1HQ have been the brains behind some of Britain’s best loved products such as pyramid tea bags, snack-a-jacks, Rowntree Randoms and Nestle Celebrations to name a few.
Throughout history, when we look at successful brands, from Coca Cola, to BMW, to Nokia, they all have something in common. In markets fraught with competition and over-saturated with alternative products, there must be a reason why these specific brands have succeeded where rival brands have failed.
There are undoubtedly a number of possible things that successful brands have in common, whether they are the cheapest, the first or the most innovative, they have all had to answer a clear need, opportunity or unsolved problem in their marketplace. One undeniable reason for their success, is that in each case these successful brands have effectively explored their “one hard question”, discovered the answer to that hard question, and used that answer to play a major role in creating their success.
The Insight
In today’s high pressured environment, clients’ budgets, resources and time are all under pressure. As a result, marketing professionals tend to dive into the obvious problems, rather than spending time defining what the real, underlying problem is. Therefore, brands need partners who can help them to ask, and ultimately answer, the one hard question underlying their brand.
Above all, successful brands need to determine their unique selling point — the distinctive factor about their brand that makes it so special. They need to ask themselves what it is that differentiates that product from the competition. Of all the hard questions underlying brands, this is the most essential.
1HQ were asked to work on a campaign for Heinz tomato ketchup, for example, to help it to solve perceptions of tomato ketchup as a less than healthy sauce. The “one hard question” they asked themselves was “how do you stop Heinz tomato sauce from being viewed as a lubricant for fast food?” Once they had come up with the important, defining question, the answer wasn’t far behind. 1HQ decided to reconnect the brand with its natural ingredients and developed a concept of the ketchup being “grown, not made” with an image of tomatoes on a vine. The campaign was a huge success and led to a massive boost in sales. The image of tomatoes on a vine can now be seen gracing the bottles of Heinz ketchup on kitchen tables up and down the country.
The Webinar
Now, Popsop.com is giving you the opportunity to ask your one hard question to Amelia Boothman, Client Director for the Strategy and Innovation Team, and Melissa Jackson, Senior Consultant, at 1HQ at an interactive webinar on Thursday 12 May 2011, at 12pm. You can join the webinar here and ask our quest speakers YOUR one hard question.
The Details
Date: Thursday 12 May
Time: 12pm-1pm BST
Cost: Free
Featuring: Amelia Boothman and Melissa Jackson from brand agency 1HQ
Webinar page: https://popsop.com/webinar (no need to sign up to participate)
About the Speakers
Melissa Jackson
“In this webinar, we hope to help people think a bit more widely and a bit more deeply about a problem which they might not have considered before. We want to help people with their branding problems which are fundamental, but not easy”.
Melissa Jackson is a Senior Consultant at 1HQ and has 10 years strategic, innovation and creative experience leading projects both client and agency side. Melissa has recently delivered a new vision and set of design guidelines for M&S Food on the Move, as well as being a key part of the 1HQ team that has helped Twining create a new category strategy and innovation portfolio.
Amelia Boothman
“At 1HQ we specialize in finding new ways to look at old problems. We use the specialist mix of insight, semiotic, product, pack and design skills to understand and solve their problems.”
Amelia Boothman is Client Director for the Strategy and Innovation Team at 1HQ. Amelia is a former associate partner of The Value Engineers and joined 1HQ last year to be part of a team that will lead the agency’s insight, strategy and innovation, offering a more entrepreneurial approach to problem solving.