Visual Brand Identity

Last PBL we presented many ideas about brand image and brand identity which are the two difficult terms to be distinguished. This time we open the new trigger with another concerned issue in marketing that is visual brand identity.

Learning objectives:

1. Developing visual brand identity

·      Translating brand identity into something visual

·      Important factors and elements in creating a visual brand identity

·      How to keep your visual brand identity consistent in relation with time and place?

2. Touchpoints & consistency

·      How to keep the brand identity consistent over different touchpoints?

·      Related case studies

 

3. How does the visual brand identity affect the relation to your audience?

·      How does the public respond to the visual brand identity?

·      Case studies

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1. Developing visual brand identity

1.1 How to translate brand identity to some visual 

Visual brand identity meaning gain audience's perception by visualising your actions to show them your personality. So what we can do to visualise brand identity to make audience remember immediately when they see company's signs?

Imagine when we visit a website, we will be influenced by colour of texts, font, size, layout where you are able to perceive impression with the company. This impression is actually very important as it contributes to the decision making process whether we use their products. 

So first thing that a company needs to do to visualise its brand identity is to determine who is the audience and how to deliver values to these targets. The targets could be separated by age, gender, culture, habit, social influence, etc. Then the company knows what to do to transfer expected messages to the audience (Jacqueline Thomas, 2015)

It is necessary to keep communication channels emotional and simple. People tend to be easier to remember the more specific thing which can be able to meet audience's dreams than the exaggerating but empty statement. This requires value proposition that only the company can provide for its customers. Another point is to keep things simple from the font, logo, website. They shouldn't be so completed which makes audience distracted and misunderstood. The company's signs must be avoided confused. It should be consistent in fonts and colours. It is very be wise to use many fonts at the same time and no particular colour (Jacqueline Thomas, 2015). Logo must have five factors: simple, aesthetic, memorable, usable, timeless (Giuseppe Liuzzo, 2014)

There is one question that how often shall we tell story? In my opinion information should be updated and recalled very frequently. Many people have asked themselves why companies have paid a big number to advertise on TV which is seen as getting smaller result than other ways. It is actually a good way to step by step gain recognition of audience about the products. Why they throw lots of money just to repeat some slogan all the time. Because this brings long-run awareness from audience and get them remember unconsciously. 

Elements of visual identity (Giuseppe Liuzzo, 2014)

Logo - FACE

Colors - PERSONALITY 

Types - VOICE

Textures, Patterns, Treatments - DRESS

All the elements should speak the same language. 

Source:

Jacqueline Thomas, 20 Actionable Tips to Build a Winning Visual Brand Identity 2015, https://designschool.canva.com/blog/20-easy-tips-build-visual-brand-identity/

Giuseppe Liuzzo, How to Design Strong Brand Identities 2014, http://www.slideshare.net/liuzzodesign1/how-to-design-strong-brand-identities

1.2 Keep visual brand identity consistent by time and place

It is not easy to keep brand identity remain the same as it is in certain countries. Even Pepsi, Honda, McDonald's had struggling in foreign culture, language, and demand. 

HOW TO REACH THE CERTAIN MARKET?

Even big companies who are well-known and successful in many places need to be careful when enter the new markets. The company should focus on 1 or 2 markets at the time. Market research never becomes more serious than this to learn about the local regulations, customers' demands, social trends, etc.

It is very important to keep core values of the company meanwhile adapting with the local values by fixing the messages. For example, McDonald's and KFC have different menus in different countries like Asian menus have rice and different in India where people don't eat pork or beef.

TRANSLATION FOCUS

Good translation is essential. Once companies decide to jump into new places, they need natives to translate the messages to reach its objectives. In real there are many examples of failing to translate messages to other languages.

e.g. KFC with slogan "finger lickin' good" became "eat your fingers off" when translating to Chinese

Pepsi had slogan "come alive with Pepsi generation" was mistranslated as "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead" in 1963 -1967

Honda was forced to change brand Honda Fitta to Honda Jazz in EU markets as they released that it was translated in Norway and Sweden as female genitalia

CULTURE DIFFERENCES

Writing in The Journal of Business Research, Mark Cleveland and Michel Laroche contend that: “More than any other factor, culture is the prime determinant of consumers’ attitudes, behaviours and lifestyles, and therefore, the needs that consumers satisfy through the acquisition and use of goods and services.”

Source:

Christian Arno, Adapting Brands for Different Cultures 2013, http://www.chiefoutsiders.com/blog/bid/94476/Adapting-Brands-for-Different-Cultures

Come Alive!, Snopes webpage 2011, http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/ancestor.asp

2. Touchpoints & consistency

Figure. Brand Touchpoint Matrix

The horizontal axis plots touchpoints from those often experienced during shorter periods of time (and that doesn’t require too much involvement from the customer) to longer term interactions and relations.

The vertical axis tell us if the touchpoint has more mass media properties (reaches lots of people) or if it’s more suited for personal interactions (easier to create a personal experience) (Jonas Persson)

Case study: Starbucks

1. Starbucks's cup

2. Word of Mouth

3. Store exterior and location 

4. Customer service 

5. Assortment 

6. Sitting area

7. tasty

8. Merchandising 

9. Social Responsibility

Source:

Jonas Persson, brandtouchpoint webpage, http://brandtouchpointmatrix.com

3. How does the public respond to the visual brand identity?

Consistency is a big element to get audience remember the brand. Some elements help company's signs easily be recognised by audiences: 

Symbolism

Colour Theory

Text Content

Ultimately

"Consumers often can identify the brand sponsor of an ad with a quick glance, even before the logo is glimpsed and without reading any of the text.  A beach scene in a beer ad elicits Corona; a mother and a child in a soup calls out Campbell's.  This suggests that nonverbal elements play a prominent role in branding." (Phillips, B, McQuarrie, E, and Griffin, W.G, 2014)

Case:

This is an example of SKYY vodka that audience don't need to notice a lot to know it's Skyy products with hyper colour and glossy visual

Source:

Phillips, B, McQuarrie, E, and Griffin, W.G.  Journal of Psychology and Marketing 2014. "How Visual Brand Identity Shapes Consumer Response", p225

Figure. Honours Year Blog: How Visual Brand Identity Shapes Consumer Response, 2014, http://leithhonoursyear.blogspot.fi/2014/12/how-visual-brand-identity-shapes.html

Cass Fanara, Visual Communication: Creating an Effective Brand Identity, 2015, https://digitalmarketingroom.wordpress.com/2013/03/24/visual-communication-creating-an-effective-brand-identity/

Brand identity and image

Last session was about Integrated Marketing Communication. I got a lot of discussion regarding to the topic. Personally I think it was such a big theme which we should have had it separately in another course. I see how importance IMC can bring a firm and how difficult it is to implement truly in daily and long-run operations. Thus, I'd like to learn more comprehensively what actual value IMC possibly brings to a company.

New trigger we have this time is brand identity and image. Here is our objectives of the topic:
1. How to build strong brand identity?

• Different between brand identity and brand image
• How to manage the brand identity?
• The most important elements of branding

2. Reason for rebranding and case study
3. How to follow your brand image and how to keep it consistent?
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1. Building strong brand identity

1.1 Difference between brand identity and brand image
 

	Brand identity	Brand image
Who?	Generated by the company	Perceived by consumer
Symbolise	Firm's reality	Perception of consumers
Meaning	Firm's desire	Others' point of view
Function	Active	Passive
Expectation	Where you want to be	What you really get
Result	Firm's promise	Real experience
Status	Internal	External

The strong brand is built on trust. The figure above shows the distance between brand identity and brand image where the more overlapped the two circles have, the more goal has reached.  To bridge the gap between the brand identity and brand image, it is necessary to align promises with practical performance a company can bring to its clients.

Source:

• Brand Identity vs Brand Management, MSG Management Study Guide, http://www.managementstudyguide.com/identity-vs-image.htm
• What's The Different Between Brand Image And Brand Identity, Small City Branding Around The World 2012, http://citybranding.typepad.com/city-branding/2012/03/whats-the-difference-between-brand-image-and-brand-identity.html
• Figure 1, Organisations need to rethink organisational structures, Markusrach 2013 http://markusrach.com/tag/branding/

1.2 How to manage the brand identity?
David A. Aaker, a marketing professor at the University of California, author of Building Strong Brands, mentions that there is a need of specific strategy to manage brand identity. He states four perspective to build a strong brand which are a product, an organisation, a person, and a symbol.
The brand-as-product provides functional benefits and probably emotional benefits for customers. Sometimes it is beneficial by creating extra features, extra services or offering something better to customer.
The brand-as-organization is more focusing on organisation, not product nor service "such organisational attributes as innovation, a drive for quality and concern for the environment are created by the people, culture, values and programs of the company".
The brand-as-person means that a brand can be perceives as having a unique personality. This is a more interesting perspective than product attributes. It helps create stronger brands by becoming a vehicle for customers to express their own personalities, form as basic relationship between customers and the brand, and help communicate product attributes.
The brand-as-symbol provides structure to identity and make it easier to gain recognition and recall. It reflects the potential power by three types of symbols: visual imagery, metaphors, and the brand heritage.

Brand management can be also conducted as following process:

• Identify the most important customers
• Understanding customers as what is motivated them and why they choose one brand over many others
• Select a brand position that could bring advantages and translate it to consistent brand identity with intuitive brand architecture, strong name and icon, tagline and reinforces brand promises.
• Develop brand message include elevator speech
• Educate employees about brand knowledge 
• Develop an integrated launch and ongoing market plan
• Reinforce brand promise and measure the ongoing equity of the brand to make adjustment if needed (Derrick Daye, 2012)

Sources: 

• David A. Aaker, Building Strong Brands 1996
• Derrick Daye, Brand Management: Process and Responsibilities 2012, http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2012/01/brand-management-process-and-responsibilities.html#.Vf_enrRBX6Y

1.3 The most important elements of branding
There are different sources and analyses of brand elements which are all relevant to built a reliable and recognised brand.

The book Living the brand written by Nicholas Ind emphasised brands are about people. There are six key principles are mentioned which is indispensable to have.
1. Align with business objectives
2. Generate high levels of participation
3. Demonstrate leadership commitment over time
4. Develop a brand definition that is engaging
5. Promote a supportive culture and the tools to enable self discovery
6. Measure things that matter

There are other key elements to be considered:
Brand Position: describes what your organisation does, what your unique value is and how a customer benefits from
Brand Promise: things that the organisation promises to deliver to customers. We can consider what customers, employees, and partners should expect from every interaction
Brand Personality: illustrates what the organisation wants its brand to be known for
Brand Story: illustrates the organisation's history, along with how the history adds value and credibility to the brand. It also usually includes a summary of your products or services.
Brand Associations: company's name, logo, colors, taglines, fonts, imagery, etc. The brand associations must reflect brand promise, brand traits, and support the brand positioning statement (Successful Branding)
Consistent in any activities: consistent actions, consistent messages, consistent results, consistent target market (Tito Philips, JNR.)

Source:

• Nicholas Ind, Living the brand 2001
• Successful Branding, Go-to-market Strategies, http://www.gtms-inc.com/Successful-Branding-5-Key-Elements-and-1-Mantra_ep_141.html
• Tito Philips, JNR., 4 Elements of Effective Branding, naijapreneur website http://www.naijapreneur.com/4-elements-of-branding/

2. Reason for rebranding
This list could be reasons for changing the current brand:

• Mergers, acquisitions and demergers
• Repositioning
• Internationalisation
• Changing markets
• Bad reputation
• Conflict with stakeholders
• New CEO
• Outdated image
• Change brand portfolio
• Further development or corporate identity

Top four reasons of rebranding could be:

 Figure. four reasons of rebranding

Case study:
YAHOO: 30 days of Yahoo rebranding in 2013 has failed to renew the brand image. It was caused concern from audience for some times but there was no memory of it after a while. One of the reasons was probably that they made a big announcement within a certain time but it was disappointed when the new logo unveiled because it was not as good as people had expected.

Figure 1. Yahoo logos rebranding by years

NIKE: First found in 1964 under name Blue Ribbon Sports. It was planned after that to be changed to Dimension 6 but then it was become Nike instead in 1971, name as a Greek goddess of victory. This change was a result of demerger.

Figure 2. Nike logo

Source:
Wendy Bolhuis, The Top Ten Reasons for Rebranding 2014, http://www.vim-group.com/en/top-ten-reasons-rebranding/
Figure 1. Brand Vietnam, http://www.brandsvietnam.com/6783-Logo-cac-hang-cong-nghe-lon-da-thay-doi-nhu-the-nao
Figure 2. Nike website, http://news.nike.com/news/nike-media-resources

3. Keep the brand consistent
1 Scrutinise the brand
Check over time if the brand is perceived highlight issues that company has expected
Conduct marketing review by getting feedback from clients, understanding their expectations to easily meet them. Also learn new ideas from employees and get their opinions of the company
Adapt with changes and make proper decision

2 Appearance
All consistency in fonts, logos, colo palettes, image, service names and descriptions
Create trust and recognition of brand to show reliability whenever people see the company on emails, adverts, newspapers, brochures, etc.

3 Messaging
Convey the messages that the company expects customers to know.
Brand needs to achieve trust, engagement, recognition
Communicate better with customers by diverse channels and learn their demands in products
Create good impression to customers which help in to increase competitive advantage.

Source:

• Daryl Willcox, HOW TO: Keep your brand consistent, B2B Marketing website, http://www.b2bmarketing.net/knowledgebank/branding/best-practice/how-keep-your-brand-consistent

Integrated Marketing Communication IMC

Last PBL session I played as an observer watching my group mates discussed what they had found about storytelling and its role in corporate communication. We opened a new task for next PBL session with topic Integrated Marketing Communication. The main problem of integrated marketing communication is that how to keep messages about the brand consistent channels?  In order to answer the question, we came up with three learning objectives to be solved next time as follow:
1. Coordinating IMC

• Define what is IMC
• Participants of IMC and their roles
• Successful coordination of their activities in IMC

2. Tools and channels for IMC

• Available tools and how to choose the right ones
• How to implement them successfully (case studies)

3. How the channels and coordination affect the message?
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1. Coordinating IMC
1.1 Definition of IMC
IMC covers a big picture of marketing communications. In a book Integrated Marketing Communications written by William Chitty, Nigel Barker, Michael Valos and Terence A. Shimp says "IMC is to examine the different elements of marketing communication mex, followed by an examination of the features and benefits of IMC". So the important thing to be done in IMC is to mix all types of marketing communications such as PR, advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, etc. This helps achieve organisation's objectives and increase brand's equity (Integrated Marketing Communications, edition 3, p3)

In another word, IMC basically means to mingle all promotional tools to ensure all forms of marketing and communications linked together. There are some levels of integration such as Horizontal, Vertical, Internal, External and Data integration (MMCLearning) helps strengthen integrated communications.

Sources:
William C., Nigel B. Michael V., Terence A., Integrated Marketing Communications, edition 3, p3
MMCLearning, Integrated Marketing Communications, http://multimediamarketing.com/mkc/marketingcommunications/ 
Good speech from Nick Scarpino, A Guide for Prioritizing Marketing Communications, https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=347&v=UhQ2T5V2SQE

1.2 Participants, their roles and successful coordination
IMC is a big process requiring many participants taking part in. Participants of IMC can be grouped by four main categories:
Advertiser or client: some one who pays for advertisement and promotions to market their products or services
Advertising agency: another company offering different services to facilitate the development of marketing and promotion process for clients
Media organisations: using promotor's point of view to provide information for viewers and audience with the purpose of creating an environment for the marketing communication programs that the firm is utilising.
Specialist marketing communication comprises direct-response agencies, sales promotion agencies, interactive agencies, public relation firms (IMC, Krishna Kant, 2011)

Another participant which is mentioned generally as media agencies provide many services including account management and services, creative planning devision, media planning and buying division, post production division, finance and client billing, marketing research and behaviour research (SlideShare, 2012)

Nowadays that everything is interconnected to each other that marketing is doing the same thing. IMC is a strategic model where all marketing tools are combined to generate good values to the customers. The final goals are to create long-term customer relationship, long-term profits once the organization has increased brand recognition.

Sources:
Krishna Kant, Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) 2011, http://teamkuhner.com/2011/09/20/integrated-marketing-communication-imc/
SlideShare 2012, http://www.slideshare.net/singh.the.hacker/integrated-marketing-communication-15206992

2. Tools and channels 
There are many tools used for IMC:

Figure. element of the promotion

Advertising is using mass communication with the clients via magazines, newspaper, radio, billboards, etc. By the increase of internet, opt-in and mail-outs emailing are also two ways to communicate with thousands of receivers. The costs are normally paid for specific sponsors. Some advertising needs very high budget e.g. TV advertising
Direct marketing uses various media channels to reach customers directly to encourage customers to purchase products or services. It can be direct mail, telemarketing, internet marketing, etc. The message giving should be quick, depends on customer's reaction, good expression.
Sales promotions are designed to reach communication objectives. It includes different types of marketing activities to increase brand awareness or new products and create impact on buyers' attitudes. Sales promotions are more often used for short-run effects.

• Trade-oriented sales promotions offer allowances to wholesalers
• Customer-oriented sales promotions offer free samples, discounts, coupons, etc. to enhance sales 

Sponsorship marketing is particularly used for promoting brand. This channel is connected with some specific events where as many audience as possible and the costs are increasing based on the scale of events as well.
Marketing public relations (MPR) is fairly similar to advertising in some elements but a company does not pay for the media fees. For example, press releases about the company, its products, what they have done and what is new could be published to the local newspaper to increase public awareness.
Personal selling is person-to-person or face-to-face selling. It is pretty popular that one day we receive some phone call to hear about product introduction, discounts or benefits of products. Personal selling is implemented to persuade potential customers to buy specific products which can bring high benefits to the company.
Point-of-purchase communications are in-store presence with posters, flyers, logo showing the company's signs in shops or stores to influence their choice when buying.

Sources:
William C., Nigel B. Michael V., Terence A., Integrated Marketing Communications, edition 3, p4-5
MMCLearning, Integrated Marketing Communications.
Krishna Kant, Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) 2011, http://teamkuhner.com/2011/09/20/integrated-marketing-communication-imc/
Figure, SlideShare 2012, http://www.slideshare.net/singh.the.hacker/integrated-marketing-communication-15206992

3. How channels affect the message!
There are two types of communication channels:
Personal communication channels aim for face-to-face marketing, direct marketing, telephone, internet chat, service support
Non-personal communication channels including print media (newspaper, direct mail), broadcast media (TV, radio), electronic media (videotapes, CD-ROM, webpage) , display media (posters, banners, signs, billboard) (Krishna Kant, 2011)

Non-personal communication channels almost always have to pay, sometimes very expensive for promotion and marketing fees. This suits more for medium and big companies who can afford that much costs meanwhile personal communication channels cost less but the company needs to manage the process effectively to reduce operating fees as much as possible.

Source:
Krishna Kant, Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) 2011, http://teamkuhner.com/2011/09/20/integrated-marketing-communication-imc/

Trigger 1: Corporate Communication and Storytelling

On the opening trigger 1.9 we had an open discussion about corporate communication and storytelling used in video commercial. The topic is interesting to me as storytelling is a powerful way to communicate with publicity. We first watched a video "Reunion" which is an emotional commercial of Google in India. Then we brainstormed the topic by two categories: corporate and messages it delivers to the audience. After many different opinions on the issue, we concluded with three main learning objectives:

• What is corporate communication and why is storytelling used there?
• What makes for successful storytelling in corporate communications?
• Case studies and real world examples

1. What is corporate communication and why is storytelling used?
1.1 Corporate communication
In my opinion, corporate communication meaning to interact with different targets in relation with a business. It means to provide adequate information to customers to get them buy our products and services. Corporate communication besides is to deliver necessary operating issues for stakeholders and employees. This shows transparency, respect and good structure within the organisation.

According to Corporate Communication book by Argentti there are four categories of corporate communication including messages, corporation, constituencies and constituency responses. Each category influences on communication performance such as which channels to be used? What resources available? who are corporation's constituencies?

Corporate communication reflects two types of communications which are internal and external. Internal communication is more likely to deal with personnel and stakeholders whilst external communication is used to react the moves of clients, partners, providers, governments etc. At the beginning people came up with corporate communication to provide a strategic tool for public relations. Nowadays, it covers wilder range from marketing to advertising, PR, promotion, etc.

Marketing communication belongs to external communication. It utilises marketing resources to transfer important issues to the targeted audience. External communication comprises also PR with the purpose of linking business ideas to the audience's recognition.

Argenti, P. 2009. Corporate Communication. McGraw-Hill. New York.
Vinayak, Nagaonkar 2014. Corporate communications LinkedIn shareslide. http://www.slideshare.net/vinayaka57?utm_campaign=profiletracking&utm_medium=sssite&utm_source=ssslideview

1.2 Why storytelling?
On the book The Dream Society by Rolf Jensen mentions that the world's most successful organisations like Disney, Nike, Rolex have recognised by created touching stories that went viral. Jensen stated that nowadays people buy a watch not just for checking time. They take that function to be granted so they have no concern how accurate it is. It more about lifestyle and sorry behind to discover. Storytelling had become an adventure that makes buyers curious and excited of the products.

Now that social media and technology play key roles in social trend that need better marketing strategy and having a promo video comes viral would be a dream all marketers have wanted. This takes the context to be an era of storytellers and the stories behind products will provide competitive advantage for the company.

2. What makes successful storytelling?
The important thing to get public attention is to give away emotional feelings. The effective way to tell a good story is to bring real social problems and relationships into the video. It is easier for us to recall stories than facts, so the stories should create an experience like a journey that really happen to us. The public then still keeps the sympathy feeling after a while of watching and will remember it.

Each story needs to connect to the fundamental factors of the product to express business idea rationally. Jensen gives key emotional needs in The Dream Society which are adventure, togetherness, to care and be cared for, to define ourselves, to feel safe and secure, to display our confictions. Understand those needs are profiting by meeting them.

There are many reasons make a video become viral. One of the most successful videos gaining lots of concerns from the public currently is Puppyhood video. The pie graph below depicts the sharing dynamics of the crowd for Puppyhood.

Jensen, Rolf 2001. The Dream Society. McGraw-Hill. New York.
Zhi, Yuan 2015. How to improve your sales emphatically through storytelling. http://seopressor.com/blog/how-to-improve-your-sales-emphatically-through-storytelling/
Brand Vietnam 2015. The secret of viral videos. http://www.brandsvietnam.com/7551-Bi-mat-cua-nhung-video-lan-truyen

3. Case studies by existed video commercial 

My Dad is a Liar - MetLife Inc.

This is a very emotional commercial from MetLife Inc. which is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. MetLife's headquarter is based in New York City. The commercial delivered meaningful story of family love: parents always love their kids and all children deserve to be sacrificed for.  

CIBC Run for the Cure - In Her Shoes

This is the video about breast cancer fighting from a mom and how family is there to support her and love her. It is emotional and sad that made people think it real. The commercial was made by Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure.

Hello,

I'm Thuy Nguyen, a 22 year-old girl living in Finland for studying. I have become a business student since 2012. I am an introvert person that many times you will find me very shy. But I'm trying my best to get along with everyone. Living far away from home during the college time gets me more independent. I have a good chance to learn about diverse cultures, languages and business styles.

I created this blog to serve Creative Corporate and Marketing Communication course's purpose at Haaga-Helia. I expect to develop my communication skills, learn deeper marketing specialisation, and make friends. So feel free to see me at songthuynguyen.blogspot.com

Best regards,

Thuy