The federal government's new plain packaging legislation will ultimately lead to more innovative, multi-sensory branding by tobacco companies, according to brand experts.
Dr Alex Gordon, chief executive of UK-based semiotics and cultural insights agency Sign Salad, told AdNews the "hostile environment" created by government legislation would put tobacco brands at the vanguard of new branding techniques.
"It's a fundamental new area, classic 21st-century marketing. The tobacco industry is in the vanguard because legislation has demanded it, but actually all brands are going to be forced to look at it," he said.
"Sonics, semiotics – the sound of a brand, smell of a brand, the touch, texture – all forms of it are absolutely fundamental to this process.
"The tobacco companies are not the only ones doing this, automotive brands have been doing it for a long time. If you're making an electric sports car that has no roaring engine, how do you communicate the difference between your car and a hatchback?"
Nir Wegrzyn, chief executive of UK-based branding and design agency BrandOpus, said brands should be allowed to "express themselves" and that no amount of government legislation would stop people smoking. Wegrzyn likened the plain packaging legislation to the onslaught of supermarket private label products against traditional brands.
"The brands will respond and inevitably the brands with stronger identities will survive. The battle for the brand is always the same – how do I survive in hostile conditions? That could be government legislation, it could be the supermarket environment – I think most brands in Australia haven't quite woken up to the speed of that attack [from private labels],” he said.
"But it's the same problem. The fundamental job of the brand identity is to create something that can sustain change, give the brand time to react and time to align, rather than just sit there and complain. Because we don't want to be victims – we want to get on with life."
Wegrzyn and Gordon spoke to AdNews ahead of a series of lectures to be held in Melbourne on 20 and 22 November to mark the launch of BrandOpus' Melbourne office. The lectures, 'The science of branding: What really governs consumer decisions?' and 'Design & Meaning: Designing brands and searching for meaning', will also feature Harvard University's Dr Itiel Dror, a leading scientist in the field of consumer behaviour.
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