Revamp for HMSO stationery

Her Majesty’s Stationery Office is branding its office supplies and stationery goods under the name Banner.

Brand naming and design for the project is by Lloyd Northover Citigate.

The consultancy, appointed after a credentials pitch in 1993, has seen the project through from developing strategic aims, name generation, and logo design to implementation. Some 650 products so far have been given the Banner branding.

As a government agency, HMSO is restricted to selling its goods to public sector bodies, ranging from the Ministry of Defence to National Health Service hospitals.

But, since 1982, HMSO has come under mounting competition from private sector brands – such as WH Smith’s Newell and Sorrell-designed Niceday – selling into HMSO’s traditional public sector client base.

An HMSO spokesman says: “When taking on private sector opposition, we have to be as good as they are at marketing.”

Lloyd Northover Citigate’s Jim Northover says the Banner branding draws on HMSO’s long history of supplying stationery to the government and looks “more serious” than rivals such as Niceday, as massive orders from the public sector are key to its business.

The HMSO spokesman adds that the 650 tally of products branded so far should be tripled by the end of the year.

Lloyd Northover Citigate is working closely with HMSO’s in-house designers on applying the banner look to products and packaging.

The consultancy has also designed an internal communications programme, including a video film, to explain the change.