National Brand Day recognises the dedication and hard work of brand builders. This year the OCOCO team are marking the occasion by highlighting some of our favourite brands and the lessons we can all learn from them.
Natalie's Pick - Gymshark
Brand Lesson - Build Connection and Community
Few brands experience the meteoric growth that Gymshark has achieved since manufacturing its first garments in 2013, and at the heart of this success is audience connection. Knowing your customer, and working to build rapport, has been crucial in nurturing their customer community, and positioning Gymshark at the forefront of their sector.
This sentiment is exemplified in their 2024 campaign ‘We Do Gym’, with a focus on keeping the brand as the go-to clothing retailer for those who take their fitness – and their training attire – seriously. With serious “IFYKYK” vibes, this masterpiece was pulled off by their in-house team, speaking directly to the customer base they know and value.
Engaging with their 18 million-strong social media following, across multiple brand accounts (including dedicated Gymshark Women and Gymshark Train spaces) has kept the brand central and relevant. The conversation is rooted in quality content, inspiration / motivation, and a little bit of sales promotion – at the time of writing, their massive Black Friday offers are being hyped across all channels.
It's a formula that focuses on keeping things real. The Gymshark Athlete programme encourages upcoming influencers to genuinely engage with the brand, for the potential opportunity to become official reps.
The secret to building a successful brand in a crowded athleisure market? Be a shark.
Nicholle's Pick - Greggs
Brand Lesson - Be Creative with Collaborations
When it comes to staying on-brand, Greggs is not just king of sausage rolls, but also collaborations. Some brand collaborations, whilst successful, are often a little predictable. Enter Greggs, the Newcastle-born high-street bakery, famed for its delicious pastries and wacky stunts, set to prove that its approach to marketing is anything but lazy.
From creating the world’s first sausage-roll-dispensing-ATM in collaboration with Monzo, to a clothing line and Instagramable in-store cafes with Primark, Greggs repeatedly collaborates with brands from a surprising range of sectors to create a product or experience that is so random, it’s brilliant. Every stunt is driven by eccentricity, designed to have maximum impact on social media whilst never diverging from its values. For example, Greggs recently joined forces with fellow Newcastle business Fenwick to celebrate its north-east heritage, creating a fine-dining style bistro that elevates their iconic pastries with gourmet sauces and the retailer’s curated Champagne list. Surprising us with every collab, Greggs extends its reach beyond the food industry, appealing to new audiences online and directly on the high street.
Jake's Pick - Apple
Brand Lesson - Think Different
A company that prides itself on appealing to the most creative individuals, in the most creative ways. Regularly competing to be the most profitable company in the world, there are many factors that contribute to Apple’s success, the one I’d like to highlight from a design perspective is their remarkably consistent, highly effective brand aesthetic.
Apple was founded in 1976, the 70s brought many interesting design trends, most of which mercifully remained in the 70s. Apple had other ideas. In 1977 they introduced their new logo, one that has changed very little since, by 1980 they had designed what would become one of the most recognisable print advertisements ever, and continued to revolutionise personal computing with the Macintosh computer in 1984.
Their brand has become an adjective in the design world, clients will occasionally ask for something to look more ‘Apple’. While that might seem vague, every designer will immediately know what the client means. Sleek, minimalist and modern - you could use these words to describe almost every Apple product along with the accompanying branding and marketing. Everything you see from Apple today is immediately recognisable from a brand aesthetic perspective, and that is thanks to design decisions that were made almost 50 years ago. Consistent would be an understatement, and whilst tech brands are constantly looking for revolution in terms of specs and features, Apple have proven that aesthetically, you only really need to be revolutionary once.
Laura's Pick - Nike
Brand Lesson - Stay On-Brand
World-renowned for iconic advertising, Nike sets the standard for staying on brand by prioritising brand values in campaigns and collaborations. Competitiveness and winning runs through the veins of the company, with the name Nike coming from the Greek goddess of victory. In the 2024 ad ‘Winning Isn’t for Everyone’, highly successful athletes such as LeBron James, Kylian Mbappé and Sophia Smith feature, as the voiceover wrestles with whether competitiveness makes you a bad person. The answer is no, by the way.
Nike is also well known for its dedication to diversity. As of 2023, 44% of Nike’s Vice Presidents and Senior Leadership Team members were women. Nike has consistently promoted the rise of women’s sports in their advertising campaigns featuring high profile female athletes alongside their lesser known counterparts. The 2020 advert ‘Dream Crazier’ highlighted many of the stereotypes and barriers that female athletes face alongside the women who have broken them down.
Having also expressed a commitment to reducing the company’s carbon footprint, 98% of waste was diverted from landfill. In 2020 Nike created a shoe made out of recycled materials and gave their audience an insight into the production process.
Nike are increasingly aware of the issues that matter to their customer base and are continuously shaping their brand values around this. The brand is never afraid to highlight these issues in their advertising campaigns and maintains a strong connection with their audience as a result of this.
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