Brand Identity

Good:

Max Brenner

Max Brenner has a great, solid brand identity.  The restaurant/store combines all of the senses to make a consistent experience for the visitors.  For example, from the minute you walk in, and even a block away, you can smell the rich smell of chocolate, the key product of the restaurant.  Upon entering the store the visitor then sees the store, filled with a variety of exotic and luxury chocolates, as well as huge pipes around the ceiling titled “100% chocolate”, and huge vats with melted chocolate being mixed.  There are also various slogans painted on the walls, such as “Willy Wonka really does exist!”  Next to the large vats of melted chocolate there are also boxes filled with cocoa beans that visitors can touch (if they so choose).  Needless to say, the food is all impeccably rich and decadent, living up to the monumentally chic brand identity that has been created within the restaurant.  There is also an eclectic mix of music played over loud speakers, completing the experience touching on all five senses.

The logo also compasses the identity of this chic, decadent, but wonderfully simplistic brand.  The thin lines, made to look like drizzled chocolate, twist organically to create a simplified image of the creator and namesake of Max Brenner.  The typeface is also a thin sans serif, adding to the modern feel of the brand.

Bad:

Morton Williams

Unlike Max Brenner, Morton Williams has little to no brand identity.  Though it’s logo does well to illustrate the brand’s dedication to “fresh” food in a traditional way with its serif font and the imagery of a farm and fresh produce, the success stops there. The inside of the grocery store looks like almost every other grocery in New York City.  There are no special smells emanating from the store, simply that of a typical grocery store: a slight tang of dirt, plastic bags, and moisture from the vegetable section.  There is no dominant color matching the brand displayed throughout the store (unlike in Walgreens and CVS where red dominated), and the only sound that reaches the visitor is that of other visitors shopping.  The “fresh” aspect touted in the logo does not appear anywhere in the store; the produce doesn’t seem particularly fresh, and the rest of the store isn’t particularly clean to aid in the visualization of “freshness”. There appears to be no brand identity whatsoever for Morton Williams and thus I am sure many people would not object to switching to a different grocery store if one became available.