THE THREE ELEMENTS
Many assume that a company’s brand is simply its logo and colors. Most of my clients are surprised to learn that it is a much more intricate and thoughtful process than that. I tend to start with asking a client to describe the company as if it were a human being because a brand is a company, personified and what better way to start understanding WHO the company is than to define its qualities and values?
There are, though, three major facets of a company’s brand:
The logo (the mark that makes a company recognizable), the presentation (the marketing plan and optics), and the personality (message).
BRAND
The Personality
The perceived characteristics of the company as a whole.
LOGO
The Face
A brandmark identifies a business in its simplest form.
IDENTITY
The Presentation
The visual aspects that form part of the overall brand.
IDEATION
SO WHERE DOES IT START?
The Brand Expert should start by becoming familiar with the products and solutions on a fundamental level in order to start with a blank canvas. Then, by looking at competitors in the market, the brand expert can examine strengths and weaknesses to identify where there are voids that needed to be filled.
Next? Brainstorming. This is far more than basic word association and shouting out ideas, directions or personal opinions; it’s a step-by-step, tried and tested, thorough technique used by Marketers and Brand Experts worldwide but only understood and utilized by few because it is a highly specialized sub field.
Starting with Latin root words then word combinations and finally brand-new words, the Brand Expert will carefully check definitions against multiple languages and even check slang words that could be negatively associated. Sometimes you find one that works in English, but wont work in Spanish or French. Often, through the process, you find a word that fits the core messages and has no conflict linguistically, but come to discover that another company has already scooped up the domain or has already trademarked the word. It is an arduous process.
Sony
Sonus is the Latin word for sound, but the name also comes from the founders considering themselves ‘sonny boys’, a Japanese word that suggest smart young men.
Fage
The word φάγε (translated from Greek to English as FAGE) both the singular imperative verb meaning ‘Eat!’ And is spelled using the first initial of the founders.
A play on the word “googol,” a mathematical term for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros – reflects the mission to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.
THE LOGO
THE FACE OF A COMPANY
Used for identification, a logo represents and identifies a company or product immediately (and simply) through the use of a mark. It does not sell the product directly but rather derives its meaning from the quality of the product it symbolizes. The logo is the FACE of the company.
The 5 elements that make an iconic logo: Describable, Memorable, Effective without color, Scalable, and Relevant. See more about the logo development process here.
MESSAGE
DEFINING A PERSONALITY
This part of the process involves carefully defining the mission, vision, essence, and purpose of the company as well as establishing the Brand’s characteristics and promise.
Misson
What the company wants to do and how they want to do it.
Vision
What the company wants to become.
Essence
A three to five word summary of the brand’s space and how it fits in.
Purpose
The driving force behind the Brand.
Character
If the brand were a person, this is how you would describe them.
Promise
What the company ideally provides to the customer.
INDENTITY
A Company’s Identity might be defined, more or less, as the combination of all of the elements that make up the company’s aesthetic – a visual presentation of the company as a whole. Identity design is based on the visual elements created by a Brand Expert to build cohesive and appealing sales tools, marketing collateral and tradedress. A specific set of guidelines are developed, inspected and examined to ensure that a Company’s Brand Identity remains intact throughout all avenues and each element adds value to the overall visual feel. To learn more about copperplate identity, read my blog about it here.
Marrying these elements, the Brand Expert will create a Brand Manual and Style Guide which should be studied and followed closely as it illustrates how the Identity is applied throughout all mediums by using exact color palettes, specific fonts, pre-approved layouts, etc. By establishing and following these guidelines early on, the company can begin the process of building brand recognition, customer loyalty and achieve success by offering a cohesive message and visual aesthetic no matter where the customer encounters them.
Logo
The symbol of the brand.
Collateral
Marketing collateral includes flyers, brochures, books, websites, etc.
Signage
Both Interior & exterior design.
Letterhead
Letterhead, business cards, envelopes, etc.
Packaging
Includes the actual products sold and their tradedress.
Other
Any additional visuals that represents the business.
BRANDING
Many people have little or no understanding of what a corporate brand actually is. Essentially, a company’s Brand is the way the AUDIENCE interprets the company. This opinion can be shaped by the way the company presents its personality and corporate image combined with the message and how it interacts with the audience, however branding is a massive topic, a complicated task and a multi-faceted concept with a little bit of unpredictability added in. As such, it is not something that should be taken lightly. Through proper planning, research, ideation and development, the end consumer’s perceptions, reactions and emotions can be reasonably predicted.
The fundamental purpose of the company’s Brand is to add value, importance and create loyalty to the company. Every product or service a company sells, every message it sends, every advertisement it places, absolutely every part of a company’s message should represent the parent business as a whole to achieve this. It is the research, development, ideation processes, and objective communication of a company’s core message that defines a brand as much as the end result of these practices. You see, the consistency of the message (whether verbal or visual) and a company’s actions is what defines the company, announces what drives it, promotes where its values lie, and why.
