(bright music)
- So one of the issues that's important to determine
before you redesign anything is to determine
if you have brand equity or if you don't.
Now, often we sit and deal
with our own brand every single day,
so we tend to believe everyone knows it.
Well, of course everyone knows my brand.
That's the way it is.
I have a great story about that working in some instances
and another one when it didn't.
Now, take for example a project
that Charles and Ray Eames were doing.
Budweiser beer came to them and said,
"We need a redesign of our bottles."
So they gave 'em a six pack of the bottles,
and Charles and Ray Eames took it away back to their studio
and said, "We'll come back in a couple of weeks.
"We'll show you the new solution."
Now, they came back in a couple of weeks.
They pulled the same six pack out of their bag
and put it on the table and said, "This is your solution."
And they said, "You didn't do anything."
And they said, "We don't need to.
"This has brand equity.
"We talked to people, we talked to your customers.
"Everyone knows it.
"Everyone loves it.
"Everyone recognizes it.
"You'll damage the brand if you change it."
So that was an instance
where brand equity really still existed.
Now, I have another instance
where I have a restaurant client,
and at one point he said, "I need a new logo."
And I said, okay, great, let's do it.
But he said, "Everyone loves the logo as it is right now,
"so we can't change it too much."
Now, I talked to all of the customers that I could find.
I talked to the people that worked inside the restaurant.
And I asked the, what's the logo?
No one could identify it.
It didn't have any brand equity.
So it was perfectly acceptable at that point
to come back and say, here are some brand new ideas
that actually talk to the reasons
why people love this restaurant.
And so hopefully these both demonstrate the idea
that it's important for you as a business owner.
Go out and talk to people on the outside.
We all live with the same thing every day,
and it's easy to get confused that we know the answer,
but in the end what really matters is the audience.
So hear from them.
What do they think about it?
You might be surprised one way or another,
but at least it'll be informed,
and that's the best way to design something.