M.Nii - Classic Aloha Style
Marcia Coles
Full Sail University
March 2, 2014
The story of M.Nii begins in the 1950’s when a local tailor right off the beach in Makaha, Hawaii designed and built the “bulletproof” “Makaha Drowners” to withstand surfing the powerful waves. In 2012 the M.Nii brand was revived. The exact patterns and methods of construction are now being used in a line of clothing that includes the trunks, as well as a full line of classic laid back casual clothing. This research paper discusses how a focused rebranding of the revived M.Nii surf apparel brand will build brand awareness, elevate its image and exposure, and position M.Nii to be more competitive in commanding its share of the $126 billion surf apparel market sector. The brand’s target audience is clearly defined. Relevant current social and fashion trends are evaluated. The elements of typography, color scheme, image and graphic design choices made to sharpen the brand’s visual image are discussed. A cohesively integrated fresh new brand identity with optimum promotional exposure spread across multiple media platforms is presented and explained.
Once a sport reserved for Hawaiian royalty, or alii in Hawaiian, surfing or hee nalu, is often called the “sport of kings.” King Kamehameha I was known for his surfing ability. In the early 1900’s Duke Kahanamoku spread aloha by teaching visitors how to surf. In the 1950’s, when surfers began to ride the powerful winter waves of Makaha on Oahu’s west shore, a lifestyle was born. In a local tailor shop in Makaha in 1951, M.Nii developed the famous “Makaha Drowners,” which have a legendary existence in surfing. Inspired by the dawn of the surfing lifestyle, a revival of the original M.Nii brand was launched in 2012, offering the same simplicity of design and quality of construction that was found in clothing harking from that era. This paper discusses how a focused rebranding of the revived surf apparel brand M.Nii will build brand awareness and position M.Nii to be more competitive in the surf apparel market sector. The theme behind the M.Nii rebranding campaign is to build on the brand’s established subcultural credibility. While maintaining the vintage feel, the brand’s image will be tuned and sharpened to make it more relevant to today’s target audience. The company needs a strong web and social media presence. Creation of a robust website, tablet, and mobile app with beautiful imagery will promote online shopping. M.Nii will also be aligned with the Surfrider Foundation, a grassroots nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of oceans, waves and beaches through a powerful activist network. Association with the Surfrider Foundation will strengthen the M.Nii brand by building on subcultural credibility.
Makaha, Oahu is the birthplace of big wave surfing. According to writer James Harris, “Makaha’s status as a legendary big wave surf spot is mostly due to a group of Californians who created the Hot Curl board to handle the waves, and a surfing contest to name a champion of the newly modified ‘sport of kings’” (Harris 2013). When the waves got the better of their board shorts, the surfers went to a little tailor shop to have them stitched up. Minoru Nii, the tailor who went by M.Nii, began making twill shorts that were as durable and bombproof as the cutoff sailor pants many surfers wore, but fitted for surfing. These are what became known as M.Nii’s Makaha Drowners. Makaha Drowners were not only popular for their long-lasting construction; they also became a status symbol of hardcore surfing. Wearing a pair back on the beaches of California meant you had tackled Hawaii’s monstrous waves and met with M.Nii. Because the Drowners were never sold commercially, the shorts are rare and belong to a particular crowd and time.
In 2012 surf industry veterans Randy Hild and John Moore brought the M.Nii brand back to life. Hild and Moore have recreated the M.Nii’s Makaha Drowners down to obsessive detail. Speaking with fashion editor Karen Day, “We mimicked the original as close as possible,” explains Hild (Day 2012). They follow the same style of tight stitching and identical button flap back pockets, he explained to Harris. “This season’s collection pays tribute to the Windansea Surf Club—a group of Southern California surfers who would travel to Makaha to charge the massive waves—with a surf club jacket that heralds this coming-of-age era of surfing. There’s also a Hang Ten-inspired striped tee as a salute to founder Duke Boyd, who was a huge fan of M.Nii, and modeled the Hang Ten trunks after the Makaha Drowners” (Harris 2013). It’s clothing that anyone can have in his or her wardrobe and the quality is really good.The clothes are casual, easy, and you don’t have to be a surfer to wear them.
Competition in the surf apparel market is fierce with popular brands such as Quicksilver, OP, Vans, Oakley, Volcom, Hurley, Billabong, Rip Curl, and RVCA to name a few. “The world surf apparel industry is expected to exceed $126 billion by 2015, according to Global Industry Analysts. The market is driven by a trend toward healthier, more active lifestyles, with older demographics and women becoming more active” (Reports Linker 2014). And the trend is international. John Felenthal of the New York Times states, “Surf culture in Japan has gained enough popularity as of 2013 that even non-surfers are adopting surf-inspired clothing style and aesthetics” (Felenthal 2013).
To compete in this market, M.Nii needs to build brand awareness and establish their differentiation. A focused rebranding of the revived surf apparel brand will build on M.Nii’s established legendary subcultural credibility, while fine tuning and sharpening their image, making it more relevant to today’s target audience. The vintage logo that the brand is now using has some recognition value, so it should not be completely abandoned, but as Hild notes, “The dormant label is so obscure, if you’re under the age of 70 and surfing, you kind of don’t know about it” (Day, 2013). While maintaining the vintage appeal, the brand logo will be reworked to give it a little edginess and a clean, retro hip feel.
The main differences between M.Nii and the competitors are their style, attention to detail, and quality of construction. M.Nii is still building their Makaha Drowners with the same button-fly fold over tab and notched-corner pocket shape with double-button patch and flap construction that the originals from the fifties and sixties were built with. The flat-cut waistband and contoured side seam allows the shorter length to sit lower on the hips. These features define the soul of the M.Nii brand. The shorts are constructed with 16 to 18 stitches-per-inch, making the garments impossible to rip. Most manufacturers don’t even want to do the stitches-per-inch requirements, because it’s time consuming and costly. M.Nii brings the same mentality into the rest of the collection. The same hands-on approach and attention to detail as the tailor shop did sixty years ago. Another difference is that 100% of M.Nii’s product is built in Los Angeles. They don’t send anything to factories overseas.
A current trend in men’s clothing is a more tailored swim short than the boardshorts that have been popular in recent years. Speaking with fashion editor John Ortvid, Bloomingdale’s men’s fashion director Josh Peskowitz explained, “Paying more for nicely fitting trunks is just a part of the larger trend of men spending more time and money on their wardrobes. If they’re investing in the right jeans, the right tie, the right suit and the right sneakers, of course that’s going to extend to swimwear” (Ortvid 2013). M.Nii shorts are tailored to fit the body, a detail that should be promoted, to ride the trend. As design guru Marty Neumeier says, “When focus and differentiation are powered by a trend, the result is a charismatic brand that customers wouldn’t trade for love nor money. It’s the difference between paddling a surfboard and riding a wave” (Neumeier 2013). A clothing-manufacturing trend is to be socially and environmentally responsible. M.Nii can ride the wave with this trend by demonstrating that they are committed to using sustainable materials, recycling, and aligning with the Surfrider Foundation.
The Surfrider Foundation is a grassroots nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of oceans, waves and beaches through a powerful activist network. The core activities and campaigns that the Surfrider Foundation champion fall into the categories of Clean Water, Beach Access, Beach Preservation and Protecting Special Places. Association with the Surfrider Foundation will strengthen the M.Nii brand by building subcultural credibility, bringing it into the tribe. “Customers today don’t like to be sold—they like to buy, and they tend to buy in tribes. Better advice for companies is to focus their communications not on a USP—Unique Selling Proposition—but on a UBT—a Unique Buying Tribe—that has a natural affinity for the company’s products or services. In a tribe, news spreads quickly, which gives brands extra traction” (Neumeier 2013). M.Nii manufactures 100% of their product in Los Angeles. Promoting local commerce is good for the local, State and National economy. Supporting the Surfrider Foundation by donating a portion of their proceeds and sponsoring local Beach Cleanups, and events like the Helen Woodward Animal Center’s Annual Surf Dog Surf-A-Thon, held at Dog Beach in Del Mar would give M.Nii traction.
A brief profile of M.Nii’s target audience is 20-40 year old people of middle to upper income who live the surfer lifestyle. They are easygoing, open minded, creative, productive, generous professionals who work in a field or trade that they love. They love the arts, have eclectic taste in music, and are creative and well educated. They are family oriented, socially and environmentally conscious. They value peace, integrity, kindness, spirituality, history and equality. They love to travel to exotic places where there is water. They are active, healthy, athletic and fit. And they have a lot of fun.
While at the core of M.Nii is a legendary historical base, the company needs a strong vision for the future. “A company’s core purpose gives it a heading, a direction toward the future. While a company’s purpose can be abstract, a company’s vision should be concrete. It’s an illustration of the future—a picture shared by the entire company. ‘A soul never thinks without an image’,” said Aristotle, and a company never acts without a vision” (Neumeier 2013).
The theory behind this campaign is to take the legendary historical significance of the original M.Nii brand that has already been established, give it a fresh new life and make it relevant to today’s target audience. At the soul of the brand are contrasting characteristics that will be addressed in the graphic design choices. There’s the duality in its image of being a line of clothing that has bulletproof construction, made to hold up surfing in thunderous waves; and it’s very laid back, casual and comfortable for relaxing in after the surf session. The campaign will also weave the classic nostalgic elements of the brand’s historic beginnings with the cool, clean, current vibe in the culture of today’s target audience.
One element in the design is typography. As writer Peter Barber points out “Typography is about the way we form language into pictures. It is where the literary and visual arts rub together and make sparks. And those sparks are visible to anyone who wants to see them” (Barber, 2012). Font choices, as well as how the text blocks are arranged will accommodate this duality of the brand’s characteristics and make sparks. The composition of the promotional pieces will have plenty of open space balanced with beautiful imagery, and water. The text blocks will be of a clear modern font such as Avenir Next that is easy to read and complements the beautiful imagery. The font used in the new logo is Serge Black OT, designed by Cyrus Highsmith. It gives a nod to the vintage logo, but has a sophisticated feel. As Nicole Dotin of Typographica notes “Strains of the 1950’s echo through Serge, but (and crucially) those aren’t the only notes you’ll see. Cyrus draws on his multitude of interests and combines the spirit of a previous era with his own angular sensibilities to create a type design with no obvious counterpart. Inevitably, Serge will be used in design pieces to recall the ’50s but I can’t wait to see it set in a contemporary context where its newness and unique qualities prevail.” (2013).
Quoted in Psychology & Marketing Marc Chagall said, “Color is all. When color is right, form is right. Color is everything, color is vibration like music: everything is vibration” (2013). The full color palette in this theme is mostly blue with the split complementary colors of green and red-orange. In Color Matters J.L Morgan states “Blue ranks so high as a favorite color that you can’t go wrong if you use blue. However, blue can be over-used and may wind up a design cliché if used alone. Combining blue with another color creates a more creative effect.” The intensity of the colors is slightly muted to give a soft effect evoking vintage Hawaiian travel posters. The images include photos of surfers riding big curling waves, as well as beautiful images of folks relaxing and playing in exotic beach locations. The design reflects the dualities in the theme of the campaign: The old and the new, charged and relaxed. The subjects in the photos will be active, hip looking people having fun, but the treatment of the images will give the pieces a cool, laid back, vintage feel.
The brand will have a cohesively integrated identity with exposure spread across multiple media platforms. “All brand innovation, whether for a website, a package, a product, an event, or an ad campaign, should be aimed at creating a positive experience for the user” (Neumeier 2013). A strong web and social media presence is part of the vision. Creation of attractive, engaging, robust website, tablet and mobile apps with beautiful imagery that are fun and interactive will build brand recognition and promote online shopping. Print ads will be an integral part of the campaign. Journalist David Williams reminds us “Let’s not forget that 21.6 million adults still read a printed newspaper each day. This is something we should not lose sight of as we journey through new technological advancements. Readers of magazines and newspapers have a unique relationship that is hard to replicate with other media. The digital journey we are now firmly on means that the additional opportunities for advertisers can be outstanding” (Williams 2014). The rebranding campaign will also include outdoor advertising formats for billboards, public transportation media boards, and posters that will tie in with the other promotional pieces, bringing them all together into a cohesive brand image.
The international surf apparel industry is expected to exceed $126 billion by 2015. The market is driven by trends toward healthier, more active lifestyles, with older demographics, women, and non-surfers adopting surf-inspired clothing style and aesthetics. A focused rebranding will build brand awareness, establish differentiation and position M.Nii to be more competitive in the industry. It will build on M.Nii’s established legendary subcultural credibility, while fine-tuning and sharpening its image to give it a fresh new life. Making it more relevant to today’s target audience.
The graphic design choices presented in this proposal address the contrasting characteristics that are heart and soul of the brand. Weaving the classic nostalgic elements of the brand’s legendary historic beginnings with the cool, clean, current vibe in the culture of today’s target audience. As well as the clothing line’s bulletproof construction, which is able to hold up while surfing in thunderous waves, and it’s very laid back casual and comfort for relaxing in after the surf session.
Creation of a cohesively integrated identity with exposure spread across multiple media platforms will build brand awareness. A fun, engaging, robust interactive website, tablet and mobile app that is a positive experience for the user will build strong web and social media presence and promote online shopping. Print ads and outdoor advertising formats are an integral part of the campaign and will bring it all together into a cohesive brand image. M.Nii is giving new life to an exciting and important part of our shared cultural history. This proposal is designed to help share the message, tell the story, and spread aloha.
References
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Felsenthal, J. (2013). Making Waves in Japan. New York Times Magazine, 38. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.oclc.fullsail.edu:81/ehost/
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PR, N. (2013, August 30). New Surf Dog Hall-of-Famer Announced at 8th Annual Helen Woodward Animal Center Surf Dog Surf-a-Thon, Sponsored by Blue Buffalo! PR Newswire US. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.oclc.fullsail.edu
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