Pitching it just right
Canvas Magazine –NZ Herald
8 August 2004
She's a whiz at spotting a product's point of difference –so what's hers, ELEANOR BLACK ask the queen of branding, Annie Dow.
When Annie Dow goes to the supermarket, it's like visiting old friends. She can barely get down an aisle without seeing a cleverly pitched brand (Anchor milk, Mac's beer, Robert Harris coffee, Killinchy icecream to name a few) she helped develop.
Her company, Dow Design, founded in 1993 with husband Greg, specialises in creating brands –the names, colours, logos and packaging we associate with products. As one of the few design consultancies working exclusively in brand creation, Dow Design helps to identify and capitalise on a products point of difference, be it chicken bites or frozen meals or business products such as Liontamer Protected Investments. That selling point is then encapsulated in a clever logo. For Liontamer it was a top-hatted figure brandishing a whip. The sub-text was clear: here is a company that will help you tame the beastly stock market.
A graphic designer by training, Dow 42, dashes into a meeting room at her trendy central Auckland office building (a converted Elim church) in striped business shirt, black dress trousers and killer heels, looking more corporate than creative. Her attitude is similarly businesslike. "Clients don't come to us for pretty picture", she says, quickly dismissing the notion that graphic design is about art. "They come to us to help them do business. It's about bottom-line profits. It's about results".
Indeed. When Dow Design rebranded the Fresh n Fruity Smoothie drinks as Yoghurt to Go, sales soared 30%. "Clients know in their gut when it's right. There's a buzz, the whole room is full of energy"
Born in England, Dow came to New Zealand with her family at age three. Her father, Jim Leggett, established The Display Group, a company making display units for grocery products, and from the time Dow was 13 she helped him. After studying at Auckland University of Technology (then AIT), she moved to Britain for four years, working in packaging design. On returning to New Zealand in 1992, she met Greg Dow, whose advertising and account management background had fuelled his ardour for branding.
One of the first brands they created together was Wattie's Bit on the Side, a condiment range they have since "refreshed"by subtly adjusting the label. A decade on, the word "Wattie's"is smaller, to acknowledge that "Bit on the Side"is a recognized brand in it's own right.
Dow say most brands need tweaking every three to six years, to remind consumers why a product is relevant and desirable, and to attract new customers. It's about finding the brand's core identity –the nugget or jewel, say Dow –and discarding any elements that are dated or confusing. It takes about four months, while creating a brand from scratch is a six to 15-month process. At any one time Dow Design will be rejigging 10 existing brands and creating three of four.
Despite not being artistically motivated, Dow appreciates fine art. She and her husband collect contemporary New Zealand art, including works by Gretchen Albrecht and Dick Frizzell. Then there's her other passion: shoes, specifically Jimmy Choo shoes. Lots of them. "It's terrible", she says of her shoe hoard, slightly embarrassed. "It's a joke, everyone just laughs."
