Monday 4 October 2010

Semester 1, Assignment 1: Wiki Article

Colette Brown
Jewellery and Metal Design

What is Branding?


A brand is a name, logo, symbol, slogan or colour combination that is used to identify a product, service or business. A brand is often used to project its companies’ values and objectives, and to communicate what the brand stands for, when reaching out to its audience; “Through the use of bright color [sic] and clever design elements, the Conseco Worksite logo communicates our mission and our energetic approach …” (Chordas, L, 2007).

The inspiration for brand names can come from a variety of sources and the most commonly used types are:

Creator/Family Name: the name is usually the surname of the person responsible for creating the concept, product or service e.g. Disney
Geographic: based on where the product was created and/or where it is manufactured e.g. Fuji Film
Descriptive: the name describes the product or services function
Abbreviations: the name is made up using initials e.g. IBM
Fabricated/Invented: completely made up words e.g. Wii

A Brief History of Branding


Branding was developed in the 19th century during the industrial revolution, when it became increasingly important for manufacturers to “create identifiable names and symbols to make their products stand out from their competitors” (Vaid, H, 2003). A brand is built, primarily through exposure through advertising. In the 1950s, branding and advertising took off on a much larger scale due to the invention and the availability of the television, and other methods such as radio, newspaper, magazines and other print advertising and the Internet have all been widely exploited. A brand can then begin to establish a reputation, and if successful, can create instant association with their product or service e.g. a McDonalds restaurant conveys to the consumer that they will be able to purchase cheap, fast food from them. The goal of the majority of companies is to become globally recognisible, therefore enabling them to amass sizable profit, whilst maintaining a consistent product or service, and constantly improving their advertising to keep them ahead of the competition of rival organisations.

Brand names which have been hugely successful through advertising and through continually providing a good service or product, have infiltrated their way into daily usage. Nowadays, it is common to refer to a vacuum cleaner as a ‘Hoover’, regardless of the company which produced them, as the brand becomes synonymous with the product. Customers often refer to adhesive tape as ‘Scotch tape’ or ‘Sellotape’, regardless of the company that has manufactured the tape, due to the aforementioned companies domination of the market.

When the brand is recognisable to the point that the name of the company is no longer required in order for the product to be distinguishable, but merely the logo or symbol to be present, it is the highest level of achievement for a business. Many companies have had such successful advertising campaigns, through billboards, television and radio advertisements, that the viewer knows exactly which product is being portrayed before the brand even appears on the screen. One such television advert was ‘Surfer’, used to promote ‘Guinness’, the popular Irish alcoholic beverage, and it first made it’s debut in 1999, and went on to become hugely famous. ‘Surfer’ depicted four men riding a colossal wave, whilst the foam generated by the force of the sea, transformed into several huge white horses, and the music track ‘Phat Planet’ by British band, Leftfield, played in the background, becoming increasingly louder as the advert progressed. ‘Surfer’ won a Gold Lion in Cannes in 1999 and was voted number 1 in the ’100 Greatest TV Adverts of all time, a poll run jointly by The Sunday Times and Channel 4 two years later in 2001. The slogan the advert was trying to project was “Good things come to those who…”, but in the success the advert had in becoming so hugely famous, and indeed in other similar campaigns, the original message has been lost, and it is the advert itself which sticks in the consumers mind, and through association, leads back to the brand.



The logo for The Coca Cola Company, one of world's most widely recognised brands.
(Image from: http://www.anh-usa.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/coca-cola_logo_script.jpg)


Relevance of Branding to Design Practise


Usually a company begins with a concept; the invention of a product or service that will in some way enrich peoples lives. This can be the invention of a product that is faster or more convenient in completing a task than a previous product, or it can be a completely new product that the market has unfulfilled need for. Once the concept has been established, the design process can begin; the long arduous task of experimenting and probing until the product is ready to go out onto the market. For huge multinational companies such as Nike, there is a team of inventors and designers working round the clock to create the latest and most competitive product on the market, and enabling them to stay one step ahead of their rivals. For these massive companies, having a ready supply of experts is necessary as they are working within a very specific area and need to have all the facts and information there when creating their vision. The design process plays a huge role in the lead up to the finished product, but at the end when the product or service has been finished and is ready to go out into the world, there needs to be a powerful advertising campaign behind it, to raise consumers interest and persuade them to purchase.

For an already successful brand, this is simply a method of staying one step ahead of the game and thinking up new and more innovative ways of promoting their product. However, for a small and not quite as successful a company, group or individual designer, this can be an extremely difficult process of breaking into the market. Branding helps further and promote a product or service and establishing a brand is vital in gaining interest and therefore profit. Depending on the nature of the service or product and its target audience, the design of the packaging and advertising must be tailored to its individual needs. For instance, Camel cigarettes, introduced by American company R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, are sold in packets which have a dromedary camel on the front and on the back of the packet, is a scene featuring mosques and bazaars, which is in keeping with the idea of an exotic faraway land as suggested by the name.

Raymond Loewy was a designer working in the 20th century and is responsible for some of the worlds most hugely recognisable logos and designs, such as the slender Coca Cola bottle and the oil company, Shell logo. By designing these iconic pieces that are still used today, he increased sales and one such example is when the American Tobacco Company (ATC) commissioned Lowey to redesigned the packet for Lucky Strike cigarettes. Loewy changed the packet from green to white which increased product visibility and cut costs, as it eliminated the need for green dye. By improving the packaging in a small but significant way, Loewy aided in increasing the companies profit. Although the brand was already successful and established, a designer can improve on its current packaging by making it stand out more and have more of an impact of the consumer, therefore increasing sales and ultimately profit.

Bibliography


Chiaravalle, B, Findlay Schenck, B, (2010), Popular Types of Brand Names, Wiley Publishing
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/popular-types-of-brand-names.html

Chordas, L, (2007), Cosenco Worksite, http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Conseco+Worksite.-a0171581725

Mono, (2002), Branding: From Brief to Finished Solution, Switzerland, RotoVision SA

http://www.raymondloewy.com/

Reeves, R, (2006), Paradoxes of Perception, Management Today, Haymarket Publishing Services Ltd

Thibodeau, M, Martin, J, (2000), Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Branding and Design in Cigarette Packaging, New York, Abbeville Press

Unknown, (2002), Surfer, the Guiness TV Advert, http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A767207.

Vaid, H, (2003), Branding, Cambridge, The Illex Press Ltd

1 comment:

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