Brand Identity - 3

An easy to remember and immediately recognizable visual identity helps building awareness and recognition of a brand. That visual identity triggers perceptions and unlocks associations of the brand. Human brain recognizes and remembers shapes first. While words have to be decoded into meaning, visual images can be remembered and recognized directly. Reading is not necessary to be able to identify shapes, but identifying shapes is necessary to be able to read. After recognizing shapes human brain remembers colours. Colour can trigger an emotion and evoke a brand association. Carefully chosen and distinctive colours can also help expressing differentiation, while building brand awareness. Third and last, content comes, that means the brain takes more time to process the language (Wheeler, 2003).

Unlike advertising, which launches a new campaign each year, brand identity needs to be long lasting. Brand building and sustaining process represent a major investment for the companies.

Wheeler (2003, p 13) stated three compelling reasons to invest in brand identity:

 Brand identity makes it easy for the customer to buy: Brand identity plays an important role in differentiation. And a smart system conveys respect for the customer and makes it easy to understand features and benefits of both recent and future products and services.

 Brand identity makes it easy for the sales force to sell: Strategic brand identity works across diverse audiences and cultures to build an awareness and understanding of a company and its strengths.

 Brand identity makes it easy to build brand equity: A strong brand identity will help build brand equity through increased awareness, recognition and customer loyalty, which in turn helps make an organization more successful.

Regardless of the size of the company or the nature of a business, there are certain ideals that characterize the best brand identities. According to Wheeler (2003, p 16) brand identity ideals can be investigated in nine different topics:

1. Vision
A compelling vision by an effective, articulate and passionate leader is the aspiration and foundation of most successful brands in general. Successful brand identity projects are top-down initiatives which means top management has endorsed the project. The support of top management is critical because it sends a strong message to everyone involved that the project is a priority that will affect the future success of the company.

2. Meaning
Top brands stand for something- a big idea, a strategic position, a defined set of values or a voice that stands apart. Meaning is an idea that is conveyed through a symbol, a word or an action and it inspires the creative process. Meaning is the DNA of brand identity, where form is imbued with rationale and assigned deeper meaning.

3. Authenticity
The brand identity must be an authentic expression of a company- its unique vision, goals, values, voice and personality. The design and messages emerge from who it is and anticipate what it will become. The design must be appropriate to the target market and business sector of the company. Authentic identities emerge from a process which is both investigative and intuitive.

4. Differentiation
The uniqueness and differentiation of brands determine their success. All companies want customers’ attention, loyalty and money so all brands compete with each other within their business category. When a designer creates a brand mark, his/her responsibility is to create a unique symbol that is differentiated, has the power to communicate within a second and most of the time smaller than a dime.

5. Sustainability
Sustainability is the inherent ability of an identity to have longevity in an environment that is in flux, characterized by future permutations that no one can predict. Sustainability also refers to an identity’s ability to transition through changing media, and models of communication.

6. Coherence
Coherence is the quality that implies that all the pieces hold together in a way that feels seamless to the customer.

7. Flexibility
An identity system must continuously demonstrate an inherent flexibility. With the help of flexibility communications inside and outside stay fresh and relevant. No one can say with absolute certainty what new products and services a company may offer in five or ten years. However the brand identity designer needs to anticipate and create a flexible infrastructure to accommodate the future.

8. Commitment
A good identity itself does not guarantee success. It is not enough to create an effective brand name or develop a sustainable and intelligent brand mark. Most successful companies have a commitment to quality and to seizing every opportunity to grow their brand. An effective brand identity is tied inextricably to management’s desire to nurture it.

9. Value
The indisputable goal of most organizations is creating value. The best companies consistently demonstrate their value though the superior quality of their products and services and their unswerving dedication to meeting their customers’ needs. The best brand identities are the most public and widely communicated symbols of that value.