JKR

Joined up branding is some kind of Holy Grail – all the ‘brand touchpoints’ and components slotting nicely and efficiently together makes for a cleaner supply chain and a more coherent impression for the consumers. The only trouble is, it can actually be rather boring.

I bought three pairs of sneakers at Converse last week – a standard adult and standard kids pair and a limited edition. All were different, yet similar. The Crayola box had a packet of crayons thrown in. And the adult sneakers had a pretty strange elongated ‘clown shoe’ format. The overall impression was of a brand which did not see its customers or brand expression as ‘one size fits all’ and was all the more engaging for it.

I also like the two air holes on the standard box which pick up on the shoe’s famous design. They didn’t need to bother doing this – but isn’t it nice that they did? Here is a brand making even the basic functional stuff look like it’s produced by people who love the product.

Final note – on the wall was a great line: ‘Shoes buy art, Sneakers create it’. Nice work.