The Design Business Association is the trade association for the UK design industry, which promotes professional excellence through productive partnerships between commerce and the design industry to champion effective design that improves the quality of lives.
Judged by business leaders and entered by design agencies and their clients, the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards aims to be both rigorous and authoritative. They celebrate the power of design to drive business success and provide compelling proof of why design is a sound commercial investment. Shown below are a snippet of the awards. To view all the awards, go to: www.effectivedesign.org.uk
Beverages—Gold
Buchanan’s
For: Diageo | By: forceMajeure Design
Diageo, the owners of Buchanan’s whisky, had plans to make 5 to 7% yearly price increases. But it wasn’t going to achieve such growth with its current design that was failing to resonate with the emerging market of young and aspirational, middle-class consumers.
Diageo wanted a contemporary, elevated redesign of Buchanan’s brand, bottles and secondary packaging to reflect its premium quality and justify the expensive price point.
Drawing on its strong history, the new bottle design features James Buchanan’s signature and an embossed family crest, which delivers a thoroughly modern expression for the range.
Buchanan’s has been rejuvenated. Just one year after the redesign it has seen a surge of brand value in its key Latin American markets—by 23% in Mexico and 52% in Colombia. And in the US—the brand’s largest market—value growth is up 9%. Buchanan’s overall brand value increased by 20%, and it has successfully entered new markets and driven further penetration.
Construction & Materials—Gold, Grand Prix
Graft Brand
For: Polyseam | By: The Engine Room
Polyseam had established itself as an ‘own brand’ manufacturer of adhesives, sealants and fillers for the likes of Wickes and Homebase but manufacturing in this sector was under threat. The business needed to innovate to grow.
Its response was to develop an environmentally friendly, all-in-one adhesive and sealant, based on new chemical technology, but driving its own brand was new territory. Struggling to gain traction in the market, Polyseam enlisted a design agency to clarify the product’s marketing positioning and recommend design and communication tools.
Wanting to be sure the design strategy maximized market opportunity for Polyseam, the agency delved deeper, exploring the real potential for the new product. The design insight and research carried out at the start of the project led to the recommendation of a shift in strategy to extend to a range of products, and the creation of new product brand—Graft—which transformed Polyseam’s business from manufacturer to brand house.
Since Graft’s launch in 2014, annual sales have increased by 744%. Graft has also gained export deals in eight new countries, increasing the business’ export sales turnover by $ 1 million.
Beverages—Gold
Harrogate Spring Water
For: Harrogate Water Brands | By: Thompson Brand Partners
In just two years, Harrogate Spring Water has increased its profits by 47% with a new bottle design. At the heart of Harrogate Spring Water’s problem was its lack of clear brand positioning. They were also supplying own-label water, which meant squeezing margins.
Clear strategic thinking transformed Harrogate Spring Water into “the designer water” as named by Cathay Pacific. It drew on its history as The Original British Spa Town by creating a bottle and label design centered on the Victorian Middle Eastern and Oriental decoration of the Royal Baths.
The diamond-shaped bottle, silver and black label design with patterns inspired by the Royal Baths, and a symbol on the bottle lid set it apart as a premium water brand.
Two years on, and Harrogate Spring Water has smashed its target of a 20% sales increase by achieving remarkable growth of 41.4%. It is now the bottle of choice for eight airlines, compared with just two in 2013.
Food & Drug Retailers—Gold
Booths Own Label
For: Booths | By: Smith &+ Village
Booths’ own label was failing to drive sales, but with 42% of people reported to think of own label as higher quality than brands, Booths had an opportunity to drive home its premium personality.
With a simple, but effective new design, Booths has managed to instill trust and confidence in buyers and suppliers with a strong own-label brand. In a sector that had shrunk by 0.6%, Booths’ managed to increase total sales by 11%.
The solution flies in the face of accepted norms for own label design both in terms of its strategic approach and its creative execution. Booths adopted a monolithic approach with no cobranding, and a typographic design with the same font, layout and straightforward naming structure across the range.
In just two years, Booths’ own-label sales increased by 22.1%.