Dead Salmon Branding ... Colours ... All Black, Red, White and Blue ...

Interesting title to a post - n’est pas?  How on earth do you brand a Dead Salmon and when does ‘Dead Salmon’ become a branding tool?  Then add in an airline, with its safety video, The Rugby World Cup, and we have branding again ...

Salmon Pieces in market

Oh life is fun – there are so many ideas out there that we can all get creative about ...  I saw an article in The Week about Farrow & Ball, a little known brand of paint that has become a cult.  

Frankly anyone who can put ‘Dead Salmon’ on our walls deserves some kind of recognition ...  or ‘Mizzle’, a mixture of mist and drizzle, or ‘Elephant’s Breath’ ... we sort of know and expect shades of greige.

Talk about adding colour to our posts, stories, books or conversations ...  ‘Charlotte’s Locks’, a striking new orange, was named after a red-headed employee, ‘Churlish Green’, ‘Porphyry Pink’ ... ‘Vert de Terre’ all found in their paint pots.

Incredible stories are buried within the archives of the organisation – they are a small, independent company based in the middle of rural Dorset, operating from a decrepit industrial estate ...  where it has been for its sixty five years of existence.

Glitz & Glamour Colour Scheme

Farrow & Ball have stuck with traditional recipes, using high levels of pigment with less water than some of its rivals.  Testing a patch – the eye can easily detect the quality paint, the real deal ... from the texture ... the chalkiness, the deep, clotted colours effecting that richness of excellence.

In the early 1990s under the ownership of a historical interior decorator and corporate financier, Farrow & Ball developed a range of paints with The National Trust that came to form the basis of its subsequent success.

We are going back to our roots for many things and restoration in traditional materials is one of the revolutions that is taking place ... thankfully, before more is torn down or destroyed, much is being researched, pared back, to uncover the truth of building fabrication underneath the layers of centuries, to then be appropriately restored.

Despite the recessions in recent years, the company has grown; a management buyout in 2006 has allowed the organisation to keep the same ethos and principles, yet progress with the times.

Salvage Colour Scheme

Dead Salmon and those names, expensive to buy ... yet you use less dead salmons than if you employed a high street paint, to achieve the higher pigment with a gorgeous finish.  

Now that to my mind is branding ... a sophisticated palette of muted colours that capture the colours of our imagination, which we would use  – when we come to paint our house ... perhaps just our front door: for the price.

You would be likely to remember the name of the company that had a customer request he be buried with a Farrow & Ball colour chart; while another wanted empty sample pots in which to put wedding favours ... wouldn’t you?

Branding with niche paint names ... and now branding through a different route ... the All Black way ...

How difficult is it to engage passengers to watch the safety video that they’ve seen time and time again ... ?  Well certainly not by dropping a video through my RSS reader that is for sure – but the idea that “You can be creative. With ANYTHING” a post by from “Being-Smarter – Build a better ConsultantBusiness” – made me scan through and find out why a safety video is an excellent branding tool.

The post by Mark Copeman is fun ... while the video is good for a few smiles, especially at the end ... who would ever have thought the Rugby World Cup would engage the world quite so much .... I’m sure this is viral – but it amuses me – and offers much.

I quote from the article:  There’s a serious point here – using just the right amount of humour really works to teach and communicate with the audience. The reason for that is simple – the audience is totally engaged with what they’re watching. It’s also not what they’re expecting – another reason why they become engaged – they’re intrigued and want to watch the story to the end.

There’s a message there somewhere!

If you’ve not seen this before – watch it and marvel. When you’ve finished watching it – figure out how you could be more creative in your consulting business to help you get noticed, to engage your customers and to make them smile.

Who says business has to be boring?!

Air NewZealand – Crazy about Rugby – Safety Video ... 

2011 BBC Great North Run across
the Tyne Bridge (Press Association)

Once you’ve had a good giggle over the video – a note of remembrance ... we had the Great North Run (half marathon) yesterday in which 54,000 runners participated supporting over 270 charities.

My colourful post for Lenny Lee, the sunshine lad, mentioned the Red Arrows – the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, which very sadly lost Flt Lt Jon Egging, one of their members a few weeks ago.

Yesterday his widow, Dr Emma Egging, ran in the half marathon in his honour, something they would have done together, after she fired the starting gun for the main race to commence.

The Red Arrows put on three fly-pasts as a tribute to Jon’s memory, and as part of their return to public performances after the recent tragedy.  Dr Egging wore the red number 4 on her vest – as Jon’s number within the Red Arrows team.

Farrow & Ball's Colour Chart

Branding Porphyry Pink, the All Blacks in mid-air together with the colourful Red Arrows seems a linking too far for a post – but the content and entertainment value enhances the mix.

PS  I shall be lurking for the next couple of weeks – to start a few projects and organise this side of my life .. I won’t be far away – so don’t do anything I wouldn’t!!

Hilary Melton-Butcher

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