Visual Strategy Guide 1
BOOK 1
VISUAL STRATEGY GUIDE
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Quiksilver
Visual Strategy Guide 3
TABLE OF CONTENTS THE QUIKSILVER STORY
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AUDIENCE PROFILES
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CONCEPT GRIDS
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BRAND COMPETITION
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Quiksilver
Visual Strategy Guide 5
THE QUIKSILVER STORY
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Quiksilver
Visual Strategy Guide
WHAT IS QUIKSILVER?
Quiksilver is a brand that was founded by surfers, to make better boardshorts for surfers. It was a simple goal in the beginning, but everything the brand did was so authentic that people flocked to the brand seeimingly overnight. The high quality of the products played no small part either. The brand’s vibe was fun and adventurous and an obvious draw to young people and kids; so outside the world of surfing Quiksilver became known for its youth apparel. As the kids wearing their clothes grew up however, the brand didn’t grow up with them and continued to have to re-establish that relationship with every new generation of kids, and it didn’t last. That combined with bad investments in other brand and retail businesses caused a long period of financial losses that eventually led to the company filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Quiksilver founder Alan Green in his office in Torquay, 1976.
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“Since it’s beginnings in 1969, Quiksilver has combined function, fit, art and fashion to develop boardshorts and clothing for mountain and ocean lovers across the globe. While still sticking to the core roots of the mountain and the wave, Quiksilver has become recognized as the premium youth lifestyle and culture clothing brand within the action sports market. Quiksilver has an ever-changing array of materials, prints, and technologies. In addition to boardshorts, Quiksilver designs and produces an entire line of lifestyle apparel, wetsuits, and snow outerwear available across the globe.” — Quiksilver.com
Quiksilver
QUIKSILVER BRAND TIMELINE
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1973
1969 Alan Green begins using wetsuit technology from Rip Curl, where he works, to design the first pair of Quiksilver boardshorts.
Quiksilver is born in Torquay, Victoria (Australia). Alan Green and John Law start making boardshorts in a garage and selling them so they can make a living while still being able to surf as much as they like. Above: Tom Carrol, Team Quiksilver and World Surifng Champion, 1975.
1974 Quiksilver begins exporting boardshorts to the Lighting Bolt surf shop in Hawaii.
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1976
Barbara Green, Alan’s wife, was reading a novel when she came across the word ‘quicksilver’ describing something as: elusive, liquid, mercurial, changing readily, and thought of what Alan was trying to do with his company. The word is related to ancient alchemists trying to turn base metals into gold. The goal of the company was the turning of good quality fabric into extra ordinary products.
Green and Law license the Quiksilver brand to surf legend Jeff Hakman (below). Later that year Hakman would found Quiksilver America with Bob McKnight. This is when the brand truly took off and became the brand we are familiar with.
Visual Strategy Guide
1980 Quiksilver brings in surf team member Danny Kwok (below) as a design consultant and soon after introduces “Echo Beach” boardshorts, featuring radical prints and patterns.
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1986
1993
2015
Quiksilver’s success reaches the mainstream as Quiksilver Inc goes publuc in the States.
ROXY re-launches with it’s new “double heart” logo and signs Lisa Anderson. Anderson would become women’s ASP World Champion a year later.
After a string of bad investments, in both brands and retailers, Quiksilver spends six straight years in the red financially. In 2015 the company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The brand would re-emerge in 2016, again as a privately owned business. The parent company was renamed Boardriders Inc. and oversees the Quiksilver, ROXY, Billabong, DC Shoes, and other brands under the Boardriders Inc. umbrella.
Left: Lisa Anderson in 1994 with her ASP Wold Championship trophy.
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Quiksilver becomes a $1billion company. The acquisition of DC Shoes is completed – DC Shoes is already a leading brand in the footwear market and at the end of an awesome year, Quiksilver leads the way with the ‘Wave of Compassion’ – an aid charity to assist the victims of the Boxing Day Tsunami. The Wave of Compassion works within the local communities by sending Doctors, Nurses and medical equipment to communities in need.
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“When we started designing the first Quiksilver boardshorts we just wanted to make them better than the others. I suppose that was our first mission statement, except we didn’t know what a mission statement was.” —Alan Green
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Alan Green’s garage where the first Quiksilver boardshorts were made.
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Quiksilver
Visual Strategy Guide
THE CORE OF THE BRAND The core of the Quiksilver brand lies in the desire to build life around passion and adventure. Green started his company because he wanted to make a better boardshort for surfers; the best performance boardshort, but without sacrificing style, so the surfers wearing them have the best possible experience doing what they love. 13
“True to the original vision means mixing style and innovation. It means creating generation defining designs...fusing performance and art.” —Quiksilver.com
From Left to Right: The “Echo Beach Crew,” pro surfers Craig Brazda, Preston Murray, Tom Carroll, Danny Kwok.
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REBRANDING OBJECTIVE The new Quiksilver will be more of an expansion, a broadening, of what the brand already was. If the brand is going to “encourage and enable modern day adventurers and thrill-seekers,” there are going to be a lot of ways to do that. Surfwear and equipment certainly has it’s place in that, but do a lot of other things. Besides surfing the new Quiksilver will look into developing new product lines for fields like scuba diving, wakeboarding, water-skiing, wakesurfing, snowboarding, skiing, rock climbing, mountain biking, hiking, camping, off-roading, and more, just for potential consumer goods. The new Quiksilver will do more than sell products for the activities/sports/adventures I listed. I see a media division — Quiksilver Studios? — that could compete with Red Bull Media, as well as a similar division focused on the brands sustainability programs. Beyond that I imagine there being all kinds of events and competitions that could be “brought to you by Quiksilver.” These events could range from something more accessable like Tough Mudder, to something for more serious athletes like the Iron Man Race, or even something more off the wall like a charity buggie race through the Australian outback. I could also see smaller scale services like hostels, camper-van rentals, things like that. With all of these options I will likely need to narrow it down a little bit, make sure I don’t spread th ebrand too thin. For those things I don’t make Quiksilver directly involved with I will look into partnerships for things I still think the brand should touch or look at.
Red Bull built, and used, the longest swing ever. It hung from the bottom of a hot air balloon.
Visual Strategy Guide
POTENTIAL FOR EXPANSION On a basic product level, despite saying “mountain and wave,” Quiksilver has leaned heavily into the wave and much less into the mountain. In this rebrand there should be more balance, as well as expansion beyond just mountain and wave. What about air?
For the bigger picture, I think Red Bull is the best example of what a roadmap for Quiksilver could possibly look like. Red Bull started out making energy drinks and now live broadcasts people base-jumping off space satellites. It’s aboutan adventurous lifestyle that can take you anywhere. To me, and a lot of people I talked to, Quiksilver has that same potential.
“For me it was quite simple: I wanted to build my life around [surfing]. So we started making boardshorts.” —John Law
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What those proucts will actually be is yet to be determined but the reason for them and their purpose will be the same as it was when Green made those first boardshorts in his garage: to enhance an adventurous lifestyle and experience.
Quiksilver
KEYWORD: ADVENTURE
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Quiksilver’s brand is nothing if not adventurous. The “mountain and wave” concept was there from day one because founder Alan Green’s lifelong passion has been the experiences and adventures he has had in his life due to being and avid surfer and skier.
KEYWORD: PERFORMANCE Quiksilver boardshorts were the best of the best because they were designed to be that. From day one they took the best technology available, even taking tech from other industries and products, and applying that technology to innovate with their own product design.
KEYWORD: STYLE The fusion of performance and asthetics has always been at the root of Quiksilver’s design philosophy. There most adventurous and bold styles have always been their most popular and successful.
KEYWORD: SUSTAINABILITY The singular reason why founder John Law got involved in Quiksilver was to “build [his] life around sufing,” to “sustain the lifestyle.” The lifestyle is dependant to nature, so sustaining that environment is important.
(Right) Kelia Moniz, member of ROXY Surf Team
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Visual Strategy Guide
NEW MISSION STATEMENT
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The new Quiksilver is committed to enabling our community of modern day adventurers by inspiring and enhancing the experiences they are passionate about.
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AUDIENCE PROFILES
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Visual Strategy Guide
INTRODUCTION The next step in this rebrand process is to define the target audience moving forward. I developed eight unique profiles. Six of those fall within the target audience, and two fall outside that targeted group. Each profile includes both demographic information and personal traits that make them relevant to the brand.
A skateboarder in Baltimore.
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Two general traits that could be considered common throughout the audience profiles would be: active lifestyles, and a curiosity about life and world we live in.
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TOMMY SHAW - “SOUL SURFER”
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Male | 20 | Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
1 Surfs because of the feeling it gives him, that kind of high that only comes when he’s out on the water. If he could do nothing but surf he probably would. 2 Has constucted his life — working multiple, flexible, jobs rather than have a rigid work schedule — to spend as much time as possible doing what he loves, like surfing. 3 Cares about the health of the ocean because of how it has shaped him and his life. 4 He doesn’t have a long-term plan and makes sure he doesn’t have anything tying him to one place because he likes to be spontaneous. 5 He can’t imagine a better life than traveling the world to surf all the best waves. 6 He spends way more of his income on rent than he should just so he can live walking distance to the beach. 7 He spent nearly all his money on a scuba diving trip with friends because the experience is more valuable to him than the money.
Visual Strategy Guide
JACKIE HENDRIKS - “PRODIGY) Female | 17 | HS Student | Jackson, Wyoming
2 She is very particular in what kind of equipment/gear she uses because she is ultra-competitive with lofty goals. 3 She wants to help protect the environment because she has grown up on mountains and in the snow. 4 She is fully focused on the exciting parts of her life because she is too young to have many concerns beyond school, friends/family, snowboarding, and sustainability. 5 A risk taker from an early age, she is a bit of an adrenaline junkie. It’s in her nature. 6 She will always live near mountains because her fondest memories are a combination of family and snow. 7 When there is no snow she skateboards everywhere. Often taking the long-way home from school or a work out just to spend more time on her board.
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1 An elite snowboarder for her age; she will have a great chance at a pro career both in competitions and being featured in back country film projects.
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HENRY WONG - “ACTIVE DAD”
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Male | 39 | Marketing Manager | Seattle, Washington
1 He makes sure to shop sustainably. They can afford it and it’s important to his wife. 2 Cycling and mountain biking have become his sports of choice because they are the most convenient for his life and require similar gear. 3 He takes good care of his things and makes sure he understands how his bikes work, and that he has the tools he needs, so he can maintain them himself. 4 Gets up extra early in the morning to ride his bike to work. Why drive or ride a bus when he could take his time and start his day with something he loves. He loves the dewy morning air on that ride in. 5 He came to Seattle over a higher paying job in a bigger city because he liked the area. He liked how green it was and feeling of being close to nature. 6 Despite his busy life with work and family, he is always looking for things to do on weekends, ideally with his family, that can keep him active. 7 He has two kids, 10 and 7, and, with his wife, makes sure they spend as much time being active and outside as they do stationary in front of a screen because he knows it’s good for them and he hopes it sparks similar intrests for them as he has himself.
Visual Strategy Guide
ANNA WALSH - “NOMAD” Female | 29
2 Loves nothing more than the experience of immersing herself into a new place with new people and culture because of the experiences doing just that has given her. 3 She will often find ways to volunteer when she is in a new place because she likes helping people. 4 Because she is environmentally conscious, but doesn’t have disposable income, she lives without much in the way of creature comforts. 5 Is typically traveling solo because, although she likes interacting with people, she doesnt have family and always felt boxed in when in a relationship. 6 Everything she owns, she takes with her everywhere. If it doesn’t fit in her backpack, she doesn’t need it. 7 She speaks six languages almost fluently. She likes being able to talk to people in their native language, as she feels it brings them closer and is a sign of respect she can show to their culture.
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1 It is unclear what she does to make money because she is always on the move, never in one place too long, often staying in hostels or the cheapest alternative.
Quiksilver
NINA HARRISON - “CREATOR”
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Female | 25 | Video Editor | Los Angeles, California
1 Her social media is full of amazing clips and photos, and her bigger work projects are even cooler, because content creation is what she does. 2 She is becoming more adventurous because of her work with outdoor and action sport brands. Those projects have been some of her most fun. 3 She’s always looking for the next cool thing to shoot because she is never content with her work. 4 Loves doing drone photography because she is extremely afraid of heights. 5 The photo and video work led her to the outdoors and action sport type stuff, not the other way around. But the more she learns about it the more she likes it. 6 She is a very active and physically fit person. She has been an athlete most of her life, but team sports. 7 She always over-prepares with climate appropriate attire and gear when working. She sees it as being professional, but it is an ideal habit for adventurers.
Visual Strategy Guide
PETER O’BRIEN - “GREEN GUY” Male | 28 | LEED Engineer | San Jose, California
2 He spends a lot of his free time, usually weekends, camping, hiking, skiing in the winter, etc. He strongly prefers outdoor activites to indoor. 3 He is willing to spend what disposable income he does have to make environmentally conscious purchases. It is worth it him, without doubt. 4 He has few serious ties so he has a lot of freedom to do with his time as he pleases 5 A registered voter who has voted for the Green Party. 6 Rides his bike to work for environmental reasons primarily, health reasons secondarily. 7 Considered joining Green Peace after college to dive head first into environmental work.
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1 He works in the field he does because environmental science is his passion. He made his passion his profession.
Quiksilver
BEN JEFFRIES - “GAMER”
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Male | 26 | CPA | Hartford, Connecticut
1 He doesn’t have time to invest into new activities and experiences because he is too busy woth work and his current hobbies, like gaming. 2 He loves tech, especially video games, and doesn’t have a lot of interest in the outdoors. He finds things like hiking boring and not fun. 3 He makes good money but traveling has never been something he was drawn to. 4 He recycles and tries to eat healthy-ish, but the environment isn’t often on his mind. 5 He would much rather spend a weekend bingeing on a game or tv show than camping and hiking. 6 Why would he sleep outside in a tent when he has a nice warm, comfortable, bed right here at home? People built houses so they didn’t have to sleep outside. 7 His friends are just like him and aren’t going to be the ones to convince him to try new/different things. They are all creatures of habit.
Visual Strategy Guide
CARL JOHNSON - “RETIRING SOON” Male | 58 | Attorney | New York, New York
2 He believes adventure is a young person’s game. 3 He likes sports, but more traditional team sports like baseball and basketball, not so much for the surfing or snowboarding or mountain biking. 4 He is much more risk-averse than he used to be. As a younger man with fewer resposibilities he was much more reckless and care-free. 5 At this point in his life he’s about comfort. 6 Wants to just spend ihis retirement with friends and family or a good book. He wants an easy, stress-free retirement, not an overly active or busy one. 7 Although more of a city person than an outdoors person, he sees the value in staying active to stay healthy. He just prefers his time being active to be on a stationary bike in a gym or taking the dog for a walk.
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1 He was in decent shape most of his life but he’s getting older and he isn’t as physically capable as he used to be.
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BRAND GRIDS
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Visual Strategy Guide
WHAT IS A BRAND GRID?
From a practical standpoint the grids are made up of specific content. Each square uses something different to represent the brand within the grid. From left to right, top to bottom, the content included is: an object, architecture, a texture, a person, a color, an animal, an activity, a chair, and food or drink.
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These three brand grids are intended to give a sense of the stages of Quiksilver’s existence as a brand. The first is the brand’s beginnings; what the brand was when it was still just small team in Torquay. The second grid is how the brand lost itself; what was the brand when it hit its rock bottom. Lastly, the thrid grid is what the brand will become through this rebranding project; what the brand will be from this point forward.
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BEGINNINGS
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LOSS OF IDENTITY
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FUTURE
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COMPETITION
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INTRODUCTION
The Shitbox Rally; a race across the Australian outback to raise money for charity through team sponsorships and prize money.
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This section identifies three kinds of competiton for the Quiksilver brand. The first is direct competition as they currently exist, or formerly existed. The second is adjacent competition, those brands who may sell related products or products for possibly rival industries (surfing vs. snowboarding). The last is aspirational competitors, those other brands that could become competition on a grander scale after the rebranding process.
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DIRECT COMPETITION
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These are brands whose product lines are direct competitors and alternatives to the existing product offerings from Quiksilver.
Visual Strategy Guide
O’Neill is a surfwear brand. It’s main products are wetsuits, rash guards, and other surf apparel.
Rip Curl is a surfwear brand. It’s main products are wetsuits, boardshorts, rash guards, and other surf apparel.
Hang 10 is an old surfwear brand and one of Quiksilver’s main rivals when the brands were in their prime. The primarily sold boardshorts and surfboards.
Vissla is a surfwear brand that sells wetsuits, surfboards, boardshorts, and other assorted apparel and accessories.
Vissla is a surfwear brand that sells wetsuits, surfboards, boardshorts, and other assorted apparel and accessories.
Body Glove makes and sells wetsuits, as well as boardshorts, wakeboarding and waterskiing gear, and apparel.
Channel Islands is one of the most popular surfboard brands in the world. They are surfboard specialist brand.
XCel is one of the most ppular wetsuit brands available. They also make rash guards and other surfing apparel.
Lightning Bolt has been one of the leading surfboard manufacturers for decades.
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Since Quiksilver’s decline and Hurley was purchased by Nike, Hurley has become arguably the biggest brand name in modern surfing.
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ADJACENT COMPETITION
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These are brands whose product lines may be related in someway to the products sold by Quiksilver, but often are not direct alternatives. Many of these brands make complimentary products to Quiksilver.
Visual Strategy Guide
Converse sells athletic shoes as well as lifestyle products (also mostly shoes) targeted at a similar audience to that of surf and skate brands.
Nixon is an apparel and accessories brand withing the surf/skate/board spheres.
Dakine makes outdoors gear and apparel like jackets, hiking backpacks, etc.
Burton is a maker of all things snowboarding and winter sports.
Thrasher is both a skate brand and a magazine/media brand covering the surf and skate fields.
Atomic is one of the premier skiing brands, making various apparel and equipment.
Stussy has been a casual lifestyle apparel brand worn by surfers and skaters for decades.
Volcom is a skate brand that makes various apparel, equipment, and gear for skateboarding, bmx, surfing, and other action sports.
Oakley is an eyewear brand that specializes in eyewear designed for the action sports industry.
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Vans is a maker of skating shoes and other skate apparel.
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FUTURE COMPETITION
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These are brands identified as ideal competition for a rebranded Quiksilver.
Visual Strategy Guide
Nike is the premier sports and active wear brand in the world.
The North Face is one of the most well known and well likes outerwear brands. They also sell a vriety of gear for outdoor adventuring.
Patagonia is a premium outerwear brand. They specialize in making durable apparel for various adventuring.
PADI is the Professional Associaiton of Diving Instructors.
GoPro makes a somewhat unique product with it’s camera that allows average consumers to film their adventures in top quality.
The top sorts media brand in the world. If Quiksilver expands into media, ESPN is the gold standard for the field.
Thule is a global brand selling a variety of durable goods often used by outdoor adventurers and thrill seekers.
Subaru has branded itself as the vehicle of adventurers. They may be more of a partnership opportunity for a Quiksilver rebranding than competition.
The quintessential national park, this may be more of a partnership opportunity that competition.
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Red Bull has gone from a seller of energy drinks to one of the premier action sports media companies, without much in the way of competition themselves.
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Quiksilver
Visual Strategy Guide
NEXT... Book 2, the Visual Development Guide, will show the process of developing the new Quiksilver logo. As the brand is reimagined and rediesigned, it needs a new visual identity, found in book 2.
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Quiksilver 52
COLOPHON Designer:
Kevin Fitzsimons
Binder/Printer:
Blurb.com
Instructor:
Hunter Wimmer
Class:
GR.604 Nature of Identity
Semester:
Spring 2019
Typefaces Used:
Freight Sans Pro
Freight Text Pro
Photo Sources:
Adobe Stock
Quiksilver Red Bull Roxy Shitbox Rally
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