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David Bier recently created the below infographics for an article he wrote for Fast Company. These diagrams illustrate why consumers are passionate about some brands and loathsome of others. Bier’s insight concludes that a great brand experience that adds value involves three main qualities, “Help, Expectation & Observation”. These meet to make up additional positive qualities including “Anticipation, Initiative & Insight”.

In comparison, a terrible brand experience is lacking in these positive elements and instead has “No Defined Expectation, Lack of Help & Lack of Observation” which in turn breeds “Lack of Anticipation, No Initiative & Zero Insight”.

Find out more on how to ‘crack the code’ for a brand people love here

Typefight evolved when Drew Roper, Ryan Paule and Bryan Butler needed distraction from their day jobs. They assigned a random letter to two designers asking them each to create their own creative spin on the same letter and let the week long battle begin. A total of 76 battles have been hosted by typefight thus far, boasting a variation of outcomes from hand drawn lettering to intricate technical lines and geometric patterns. Voting is open to public on the typefight website as two designers each week go head to head for the ultimate heavyweight letter title.

Check out the gallery at www.thetypefight.com

Nestlé has won it’s legal battle over Cadburys’ attempts to trademark the purple colour, Pantone 2865c.

Last year Cadbury won a legal case which gained them exclusive rights to use the colour for their chocolate bar and drink packaging. This was to deter other chocolate brands from using the colour for their products, but Nestlé has now won its appeal against that ruling.

Cadbury however says it still has rights to protect its colour from being used by other companies trying to pass their products off as Cadbury.

A Cadbury spokesman says, “We are disappointed by this latest decision, but it’s important to point out that it does not affect our long-held right to protect our distinctive colour purple from others seeking to pass off their products as Cadbury chocolate.”

Read more about this story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24401249

According to Interbrands 2013 ‘Best Global Brands’ report, Coca-Cola has been replaced as most valuable brand for the first time by Apple! Last year Apple was sitting behind Coca-Cola in second position, but a 28% growth this year leaves Apple smiling, valued at a massive $98,316 billion. Following behind Apple, Google has had an increase of 34% now sitting at a value of $93,291 billion. Coca-Cola only up by 2% this year now sits in third position, valued at $79,213 billion.

Above image source: http://www.interbrand.com/en/best-global-brands/2013/bgb-interactive-charts.aspx

The Best Global Brand report ranks companies brand value in both “customer and financial terms, measuring the contribution of the brand to business results.” Interbrand measures this by assessing the following three main criteria: 1) The brands financial performance of the branded product and services, 2) The role brands have on influencing customer choice and 3) The strength of the brand relative to competition.

Although it is evident that Apple has had great success this year, its growth rate has actually slowed compared to last years 129% increase. According to Interbrand, Apple’s success is down to “revolutionizing the way we work, play, and communicate—and for mastering the ability to surprise and delight—Apple has set a high bar for aesthetics, simplicity, and ease of use that all other tech brands are now expected to match, and that Apple itself is expected to continually exceed.” This success comes despite strong competition over the last year, “Samsung is now the world’s most profitable smartphone manufacturer, Google has expanded Android and its maps still seem to be the ‘preferred’ route, and Windows Phone 8 certainly raised more than a few eyebrows.”

The top risers in the report are Facebook (43%), Google (34%), Prada (30%), Apple (28%) and Amazon (27%).

Nokia saw the biggest decline in brand value dropping by a huge 65%. Interbrand comments that “while Nokia’s hardware designs earn positive reviews, its software tends to fall short of expectations, which is problematic at a time when competitors are stepping up their game in this area.” Nokia’s devices and services business was bought by Microsoft at the start of the month.

Check out the Best Global Brands full report here: www.interbrand.com

You can see last years results here: http://www.interbrand.com/en/best-global-brands/previous-years/2012/Best-Global-Brands-2012-Brand-View.aspx