Brand Identification
BRAND IDENTIFICATION
INTRODUCTION
Brand identity is a unique set of associations that the brand strategist aspires to create or maintain. These associations represent what the brand stands for and imply a promise to the customers from the organization members.
These associations can include
· signature tune (for example: Britania “ ting-ting-ta-ding),
· trade mark colour(for example: blue colour with pepsi),
· logo(for example: nike),
· tagline(for example: Apple’s tagline is “think different:”.
Every person has its own identity in the society. Brands like individuals have their own identity. A brand identity is all the visual elements of a business viz. name, symbols, designs, fonts, colours that together identify and distinguish a brand in customer’s mind. A brand is unique due to its identity. Brand identity is the total proposal promise that an organization makes to customers.
It is the noticeable elements of a brand (for instance: trademark, logo, name, symbol) that identify and differentiates a brand in target audience mind. It is crucial means to grow your company’s brand. It is a means of identifying and distinguishing an organization from another. An organization having unique brand identity have improved brand awareness, motivated team of employees who feel proud working in a well-branded organization, active buyers, and corporate style.
It establishes an immediate connection between the organization and consumers. Brand identity should be sustainable. It is crucial so that the consumers instantly correlate with your product/service.
DIMENSIONS OF BRAND IDENTITY
Brand identity has two dimensions:
· An inner core identity
· Extended identity
Core identity- The core identity represents the timeless essence of a brand .It is central to both the meaning and success of the brand. It indicates the reasons why the brand as been brought into existence. It contains the associations that are most likely to remain constant as the brand travels to new markets and products. The elements of the core identity remain more resistant to change than the elements of the extended identity. Thus the core identity is timeless while the brand position or the communication strategies might change. It is generally the first word that people behind the brand may utter when asked what the brand stands for.
Extended identity- The extended brand identity includes elements that provide texture and completeness. The core identity usually does not possess enough detail to perform all of the functions of a brand identity.
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SOURCES OF BRAND IDENTITY
1. Symbols
Symbols help customers to memorize organization’s product and services. They help to correlate positive attributes. Symbols become the key components of brand equity and help to differentiate the brand characteristics. Symbols are easily memorable than the brand names as they are visual images. Brand symbols are strong means to attract attention.
For example: Pillsbury has Poppin's fresh doughboy, Duracell has its bunny rabbit, Mc Donald has Ronald.
All these symbols help us remember brands associated with them.
2. Logos
A logo is a unique graphic or symbol that represents a company, product, service or other entity. It is due to logo that customers form an image for the product/service in mind.
Features of good logo are:
a. Simple
b. Distinct
c. Versatile
d. Appropriate
e. Targeted
f. Memorable
g. Timeless
The elements of logo are:
· Business or product name- These are also called the logotype or word mark. It is a signature font or a special treatment of brand name which will aid public recognition of the business.
For example: Disney, Google.
· Icon- it is the graphic image or symbol that often accompanies the name. Once a brand is well established, an icon can sometimes stand alone without a business name.
For example: Nike, Adidas, Messenger.
· The tagline
An informative and catchy tagline can attract more customers. It can be a couple of words or full sentence, as long as it’s descriptive.
3. Trademarks
Trademark is a unique symbol, design, or any form of identification that helps people recognize a brand. A renowned brand has a popular trademark and that helps customers purchase quality products.
§ TM- Denotes unregistered trademark, that is, a mark used to promote branded goods
§ SM- Denotes unregistered service mark
§ ®- Denotes registered trademark
Trademark registration is essential in some countries to give exclusive rights to it.
Without adequate trademark protection, brand name can become legally declared generic. Generic names are never protectable.
For example, you can’t trademark ACCOUNTING for accounting services. This means you can’t stop other people from using the word accounting to describe their accounting services
Some guidelines for trademark protection are as follows:
a. Go for formal trademark registration
b. Use correct spellings.
DEVELOPING/ BUILDING BRAND IDENTITY
Following steps should be followed while developing or building a brand identity-
Step 1: Consider the audience
Prime item is always audience. Describe this ideal customer in detail. Research the target audience, their likes and dislikes, their lifestyle and customer needs. Then create the brand with this ideal customer in mind. Brand personality will appeal to the audience.
Step 2: Define the brand personality
The core concept of brand identity is to protect the personality of the brand to the audience. Perhaps a tagline should be included in the logo. More than likely certain colors will be better at portraying the image than the others.
Step 3: design the brand logo
The next important piece of brand identity is the logo, a simple representation of the brand through the use of an icon sized image or mark. When the logo is seen by the current or previous client, it should convey an emotional response to your brand identity. A simple but unique logo will translate more quickly in the mind of the clients than will a complex, detailed design.
Whether a hired designer will be creating the logo, make sure that the logo will be recognizable at any size of media you place it upon, from billboards to business cards. Make your design look good whether in colour or printed in black and white.
Think Nike and McDonalds: most of the big brands have a very simple logos that are easy to remember and associate with the company.
Step 4: Choose colors wisely
Color is an item that must be considered for both overall brand identity and logo. Red and orange are bold, bash colors but they are attention grabbers. Blue and green can make a bold splash as well or be soft and calming and spa-like. Black and brown or grey tend to lend an ultra-modern, professional touch when used with contrasting white.
Step 5: Decide on typography
Fonts have a personality on their own, so choosing the right ones to go with the brand can be a challenge. To maintain consistency throughout the brand identity, choose or create two or three fonts to use consistently with the brand. One may need a customized font for the logo and website title, a purchased font for the headings and an easy-to-read font for the body text.
Step 6: Add texture
Visual texture is another valuable commodity in brand identity. Color and font become part of texture or stand out from the texture. Texture gives a solid feeling to any design. A subtle, light colored texture with a dark colored font, darker colored texture with a light font can be read easily. Texture can be a good option to tie together and bring continuity to the varied formats.
Step 7: Plan the presentation
With all the individual factors that make up the brand identity in mind, you will need to consider the manner in which you will present the brand to the audience. Much of the following marketing media will be essential:
§ Logo
§ Business card and stationery
§ Website
§ A brochure
§ Social media accounts
§ Each item that you choose to have in the brand materials should feature a common and consistent brand design appearance so that clients can quickly pick you out in a stack of business cards or a search engine results.
For example, if your website does not resemble your business card design at all, your prospects may leave your site either due to confusion or the belief that you are not a legitimate company because the look is so inconsistent.
Step 8: Create your voice
Voice is the style of the writer, and a strong voice means that the reader will recognize that writer. In the website copy, marketing materials, blog and social media updates. A brand should have a consistent tone that is recognizable to the customers.
If your website has a hint of humor woven in, feel free to use the same humor in your social media posts.
KEYS TO BUILDING A STRONG OR STAND OUT BRAND IDENTITY
Brand identity is the combined effect of visual elements in the marketing materials. A basic brand identity kit consists of a logo, business card, letterhead and brand envelope. The basic set of materials can be extended to include a website, brochure, folder, flyer or any other professionally designed pieces.
A successful brand identity is built around the following key characteristics:
· Unique in “look and feel” and the message about the business. Make sure that the business’s graphics stand out from and cannot be confused with those of the competitor, and the ways you talk and write about the business should be unique.
· Repetition: It helps potential clients and current clients to remember and relate to who you are and what you do in your business.
· Consistent: consistent use of logo, tagline and materials is must for building strong brands.
· Memorable: These elements help your business to stand out. Business will be able to create brand memorability through consistency, repetition, uniqueness of graphics and materials.
· Meaningful: meaningful graphics make company’s message come to life through symbolic graphics, colors and type choices in all of the marketing materials. Meaningful text will express what the business is really all about and help to give some depth to the developing brand.
· Clear: clear graphics and text communicate message in an understandable way. Make sure that the graphics are crisp, clean, simple and meaningful.
· Honesty: if clients do engage with you and then you don’t live up to the brand promises you made in your materials, then they will feel alienated from your company or worse.
· Professionalism: professionalism in all things, from the quality to graphics, to the way the text is written (proofreading is essential), to personal presentation.
If any organization include all of the above elements in brand identity, it will have a business look and feel that will really help the marketing messages to be taken seriously: one that will enhance the overall brand.
BRAND POSITIONING
HISTORY OF BRAND POSITIONING
Positioning is defined as the way by which the marketers attempt to create a distinct impression in the customer’s mind.
Positioning is a concept in marketing which was first introduced by Jack Trout (“Industrial Marketing” Magazine- June/1969) and then popularized by Al Ries and Jack Trout in their bestseller book “Positioning- The Battle for Your Mind.” According to them, the typical customer was overwhelmed with unwanted advertising and had a natural tendency to discard all information that does not immediately find a comfortable slot in the consumers mind. Now it is based on the concept that communication can only take place at the right time and under the right circumstances.
Kotler aptly defines positioning as ‘the art of designing the company’s offer so that it occupies a distinct and valued place in the mind of the target customers.’
Positioning has three primary components:
Ø The component of company business
Ø The component of target market
Ø The component of point of difference and key benefits
MEANING OF BRAND POSITIONING
“Phillip Kotler” defined brand positioning as the “act of designing the company’s offer and image so that it occupies a distinct and valued place in the target consumer’s mind (Perception).
Here in the definition there are two important catches which are necessary to notice.
First one is the brand positioning has a distinct; it has to be different from others. If there is only bottle of mineral water that you see as the safest and hence you buy it, then that space should be occupied by one brand only and it affects customer’s purchasing decision.
Second one is consumer’s mind. Positioning necessarily has to occur in the consumer’s mind.
WHY DO WE NEED POSITIONING?
The basic approach of brand positioning is not to create something new or different. But to manipulate what is already there in the mind, to re-tie the connection that already exists to reduce the positioning gap. Today’s market place is bombarded with too many products, categories and ideas. The number is too large to be assimilated in one mind. There are too many advertisements and too much market noise. We have already become an over communicated society. The solution is to position the brand in such a way that it occupies a distinct space in consumer’s mind. A distinct hidden desire, a distinct solution to some problem, a distinct answer to some doubt etc. so that at the point of purchase the consumer has to assimilate just one name, as the brands have been positioned in his mind.
For example: If a consumer sees close up as freshness but colgate as a gum strengthener and health brand, he might make a purchasing decision on what he likes, a health brand or a brand that freshens.
BRAND POSITIONING IN CONSUMER’S MIND
The technique is based on Gutman’s means-ends theory which focuses on the linkages between the attributes that exist in products (the ‘means’), the consequences for the consumer provided by the attribute and the personal values (the ‘end’) that the consequences reinforce. To put it simply, it means that the consumers seek certain attributes in products and these attributes lead to certain consequences (benefits) for them.
If one were to talk of hair oil, the question on attributes that consumer seek in the hair oils could result in a variety of answers- fragrance, non-stickiness, the presence of herbal ingredients, colour, packaging, price and so on.
After having enumerated the attributes the next stage involves taking each attribute one by one and understanding why it is important to the consumer. Thus if one were to consider ‘nonstickiness’ and the consumer was asked why non- stickiness was important to her in a hair oil, the response could be ‘so that my hair does not look and feel oily.’ Then again she would be asked why that was important to her.
The response could be ‘so that I can keep the oil in my hair for 3-4 days.’ Again, why is it important? ‘So that my hair grows well.’ And why is it important? ‘So that I look good’ and so on. The process continues till the responses begin to get repeated or till the consumer is not able to think further.
A specially trained researcher has to do this type of probing, without being judgmental. Though in focus group, this technique is used, benefit laddering extents it to a larger groups.
ESTABLISHING THE BRAND POSITIONING STRATEGY
The identification and selection of a positioning strategy can be difficult and complex. However, it becomes more manageable if it is supported by marketing research and decomposed into a six-step process.
1. Identifying the competitors-A first step is to identify the competition. This step is not as simple as it seems to be. For example. ‘Pepsi’ might define its competitors as follows:
· Other cola drinks
· Non-diet soft drinks
· All soft drinks
· Non-alcoholic beverages,
· All beverages except water
One thing, which should be taken care, is that there is basically two types of competitors.
· Primary competitors i.e., competitors belonging to the same product class
· Secondary competitors, those belonging to other product categories.
In the above example, other cola drinks are primary competitors and other drinks and beverages are secondary competitors.
Knowledge of various ways to identify above groupings will be of conceptual as well as practical value. One approach is to determine from buyers of a product which other products they considered.
For example: A sample of cola drinkers might be asked what other beverages they might have consumed instead or, the respondent could be asked what brand would have been purchased had that particular cola brand been out of stock.
Another approach is the development of associations of products with use situations. These two approaches suggest a conceptual basis for identifying competitors even when marketing research is not employed.
2. Determining how the competitors are perceived and evaluated- The second step is related to determining the product positioning which is basically done so as to see, when the competitors products are purchased by the customers. It is to see comparative view. An appropriate set of product attributes should be chosen. The term ‘attributes’ includes not only product characteristics and consumer benefits but also product association such as product use or product users.
The task is to identify potentially relevant attributes, to remove redundancies from the list, and the to select those which are most useful and relevant in describing brand images.
For example, relevant attribute list for toothpaste was considered to include prevention of decay, taste, whitening capability, color and attractiveness of the product and its packaging and its price.
3. Determining the competitor’s position- Our next focus should be to determine how different brands (including our own brand) are positioned with respect to the relevant attributes selected under the previous step. Multidimensional scaling can be used based upon either attribute data or non-attribute data.
4. Analyzing the customer-the next is to analyze the customers habits and behavior in particular market segment for this purpose segmentation is critical. There are various approaches to segmentation. It focuses upon the benefits and attribute that a segment believes to be important. It is often important to consider the customers preference of attributes in the use context. In one study, focus groups and judgment were used to identify nine relevant used context for coffee.
· To start the day
· Between meals
· Between meals with others
· With lunch
· With supper
· Dinner with guests
· In the evening
· To keep awake in the evening
· On weekends
5. Making the positioning decisions- The following guidelines can be offered to reach a positioning decision-
a) An economic analyzes should guide the decision- The success of any objective basically depends on two factors-
· The potential market size
· The penetration probability
Unless both these factors are favorable, success will be unlikely.
b) Positioning usually implies a segmentation commitment- positioning usually means to concentrate only on certain segments. The effect of generating a distinct, meaningful position is to focus on the target segments and not to be constrained by reaction of other segments.
c) If the advertising is working, stick with it- an advertiser will often get tired of a positioning strategy and the advertising used to implement it and will consider making a change. The value of consistency through time cannot be over estimated.
d) Don’t try to be something you are not- it is tempting but naïve and usually fatal, to decide on a positioning strategy that exploits a market need or opportunity but assumes that your product is something it is not.
e) Consider symbols- a symbol or set of symbols have strong associations that should be considered when making positioning decisions.
6. Monitoring the position- an image objective, like an advertising objective should be measurable. It is necessary to monitor the position over time, for that you have variety of techniques that can be employed it can be on the basis of some test and interviews which will help to monitor any kind of change in the image.
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