The right image is good business

By DITA DE BONI marketing writer

At first glance, the words "corporate boardroom" and "personality" have little in common.

Yet a brand's personality is often devised in that very setting. In fact, while the people who successfully sell a product are often outshone in the personality stakes by a plank of wood, their product's personality can give them the marketing edge over a host of rivals.

A good designer is integral to this process, says Mike Tisdall, managing director of Auckland-based Insight Communications. Insight - not to be confused with Insight Consultants - has what might be seen as the doubly hard task of transmitting personality through corporate documents.

"Just like any other marketing tool, in corporate documents you have to have a clarity of purpose, you have to find a niche, create and develop your point of difference, capture your consumer's imagination and get everything looking fairly consistent," Mr Tisdall says.

Nevertheless, some companies need convincing of the many ways personality can be transmitted, even through documents normally awash with figures, graphs and incomprehensible footnotes.

Some of the most earnest brands in the world have needed a kick in the pants to "funkify" themselves to capture a whole new breed of consumers, Insight has found.

But "it's not textbook stuff, it's a pure talent, a pure ability, to be able to get a feel for what the client is about and their real point of difference. It's the ability to turn that personality into a concentrate," says Mr Tisdall.

He and Insight have been in the business for 25 years and cover most of New Zealand's largest corporate clients, including Lion Nathan, Carter Holt Harvey, the recently disbanded Fletcher Challenge, Deutsche Bank and the University of Auckland, helping generate revenue of more than $5 million.

Founded in 1976, Insight made its mark by designing brochures and mail order catalogues for a host of companies including the Travelodge hotel chain and American Express.

Its first annual report was for doomed 80s conglomerate Chase Corporation, and such documents soon became Insight's stock-in-trade.

But when the crash of 1987 came, the company found it had too many eggs in one basket. It experienced a dip in fortunes with the sharemarket woes and has since aimed to expand into building brand personalities and strategy.

But annual reports and other corporate paraphernalia still account for about 60 per cent of revenue.

"The market has changed now, though," says Mr Tisdall. "We've taken a very careful and measured approach with corporate documents. Business in New Zealand is in defensive mode with Fletcher Challenge gone, Lion Nathan moving to Sydney and other corporates moving offshore."

For some companies, such as Carter Holt Harvey, a staff-focused approach is conveyed by letting the company's people address shareholders themselves through the annual report.

For others, such as Kiwi Income Property Trust, a solid, conservative feel in colour, tone and content is predominant, countering perceptions that property is a risk.

The Auckland design market is fiercely competitive. Dashwood Design, Designworks and on the digital side Dave Clark Design (now part of Brave New World) are all competing for a slice of the smaller corporate pie. Insight has recently bought into a Sydney design company with the aim of following some clients and picking up others.

The company gained a fillip this year by winning an international Gold Quill award in New York for Lion Nathan's annual report 2000, a full-blown, colour extravaganza which Mr Tisdall believes fulfils the crucial function for an annual report. "People pick it up and say, 'Wow, what a buzzy company!'

"For a company like Lion Nathan that's on a huge growth path, it is important that the annual report transmits the fact that 'this company is a great place to work,' especially as Lion Nathan has a habit of hiring the best people it can find from all over the world."

Of course, you'd expect a bit of flattery from a key contractor. And Mr Tisdall looks flummoxed when it is pointed out that someone looking through the annual report might think Lion Nathan is a great place for drinking copiously, watching sport and admiring chicks.

But he says the personalities of Lion Nathan and Lion Breweries are separate. Lion Nathan is an aggressive, expanding liquor conglomerate, and the multiple personalities may occasionally overlap.

Not all companies have the substantial marketing budget of Lion Nathan, but a designer's input is worth the investment for serious brand building, says Mr Tisdall.

And before a company takes itself off to a designer to develop its personality, it must go armed with the knowledge that underpins all great marketing campaigns: know its market ("inside out"), its niche and its point of difference - "and let a good designer do the rest."