PBL task 4 - Brand Identity and Image

The trigger of this task was the fact that Itella was changing its name to Posti as of January 1, 2015. Again, we found it hard to think of what the actual problem was. In the end, we decided the problem was:

"Brand identity vs. Image"

The learning objectives we came up with were:

1. What is the difference between brand identity and image?

• what are the elements of brand identity?
• what are the elements of image?
• why are they important?
• include sources & definitions

Brand identity: the overall looks of a brand's communications.

Brand image: the general impression of a product held by real or potential customers.

The main different from these definitions is that the identity is what the company portray themselves to look like while the image is the customers own opinion.

2. What actions do a company need to take in order to achieve Brand Identity?

• how would you go about doing this effectively?
• are there any problems that could arise?
• how would you overcome them?

The elements of brand identity include

Logo or word mark: a logo is a graphic symbol. A word mark/logotype is just the words of your company/product name set in a specific, fixed way.

Different logo “lockups”: Logo should be consistent but there should be variations based on placement and usage. They should all have the same essential qualities.

Key colours: A corporate colour palette is usually defined by the colours in a logo.

Additional colour palette options: what other colours compliment them? For example, bright and bold.

Corporate typefaces: only a handful of fonts should be used with printed materials. They should be available on all devices used to create the documents.

Standard typographic treatments: your typographic identity should include ways of handling key types of text.

Consistent style for images: All imagery should have a consistent look and feel. Photos don’t have to be used. Line art, illustrations, charts and graphs can also be used. There should be a consistent style in all materials, be it printed or online.

A full library of graphic elements: these are the small details they build a branding system. These are the areas that a professional graphic designer can pull together a cohesive look. (source)

The elements of brand image include

First impressions: a customer will always judge a website/leaflet/brochure etc by the way it looks. If it looks nice, the customer will want to know more about it. If it ends up looking tacky or boring, they may decide to take no extra notice.

Emotions: a brand shouldn’t just aim to look very good. They should also look like they can deliver what they promise, therefore it should be based on what the customer wants to see. The business should also think more about the emotion that the client is buying into. Eg) construction business. Customer isn’t just buying buildings, they are buying reliability, solidity and strength. Once this has been looked into, the company would be able to think more about fonts and what would look best with the message they are trying to convey.

Bigger & better: if a company makes themselves look bigger, a customer would become more attracted to it. If the company looks like it has been in business for years, have gained extensive knowledge in the field and have a solid workforce in place, a customer would be more inclined to look into them. A way to do this could be to use certain types on a website or add strategic partners to it.

Brand values: creating a predefined set of values is important as it informs both clients and staff of the way things are done. They should be able to convey to clients how you operate and what they can expect from a working relationship.

Strapline: your business should try to odder a single, short line caption for the brand. It is not only one of the quickest ways to inform customers about what you do but they will also remember the brand. In order to create a strapline, you would have to think creatively and not necessarily on the actual service being offered.

Message: this is the first of many sales hurdles that needs to be overcome in order to get a client to buy into a business/service. Your main sales message should be as short and concise as possible and should try to avoid and technical terms or specific industry terminology that ordinary people won’t understand. The emotions and brand values you are selling should also be worked into the message.

Benefits: always aim to highlight the benefits that the product/service can offer to clients and put them on the forefront of any marketing materials. This is what they’re most interested in. What do you do, who have you previously worked for, what was the impact? This will help to set you on top of your competition.

Continuity: all customers should have the same brand experience no matter when they deal with your company, especially in a B2B environment. This will ensure a consistent and reliable business experience so customers will always know what to expect. This also creates a trust between you and your clients, therefore marking them feel comfortable to recommend you to others without putting themselves in a bad light be referring others to an unreliable supplier. This also stands for the way your staff dress/answer the phone, the manner in which your business sends out invoices ad where you have your business. They should always be consistent.

Growing with the business: your business will (hopefully) grow to a size where your brand image no longer accurately reflects how much your business has grown. This is the point where it is worth you looking to rebrand. For example, update your logo/website/stationary/marketing tools to make them more contemporary and fit in line with your current developments.

Don’t stray: stick to what you have and don’t do something different after a while eg) using different fonts on websites.
(source)

3. What benefits can you gain from identity change?

In this particular trigger, the company is able to benefit from the identity change by combining two different companies together. 

4. What is your own opinion of brand identity and image?

Holland and Barrett

• strapline: the good life
• same font on website
• receipts have logo and strapline at top
• own brand products look similar to logo
• to customer: seems like a high end brand
• partnered with GNC
• 'green' theme throughout
• used to be Health & Heather - have rebranded to keep up with the times
• NBTY bought H&B in 1997
• http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/

PBL Task 3 - Visual Brand Identity

Our trigger was this link. We were also shown the previous years trigger. This informed us that the main idea for the trigger was to investigate visual brand identity. We also identified the problem to be Visual Brand Identity itself.

The learning objectives we came up with were:

• What are the elements of Visual Branding?

According to this source, there are 5 key aspects of visual branding.

1. Choose the right brand name. - a poor brand name can eliminate the opportunity for successful visual brand identity.

2. Create a consistent visual style. - the overall brand identity should always be uniform.

3. Develop a compelling logo. - the most essential and valuable visual element of your brand.

4. Pay attention to colour. - helps to distinguish between competing brands.

5. Select appropriate typography. - typeface and font choice can affect whether the right message is being communicated.

• What is the importance of Visual Branding in an organisation?
• How do you integrate a company's value and identity into Visual Branding?

Visual Branding is very important within an organisation as it tends to help shape what the brand is known for."While a logo is a good place to start, you should consider building your 'visual position' to be something larger. Building a system for your brand allows you to meet the demands of different media, while still presenting a cohesive identity." - source
In order to integrate a company's value into visual branding, you should make sure that the key aspects of a company are taken into consideration. The key elements of visual branding show that there are more aspects to a company's logo as consumers would look for different things.
An example of a popular brand with consistent image is Starbucks. They have a green logo with a woman on the front which they show in all there adverts and they also have that exact logo on all their cups and mugs that they use. This shows that the brand make sure they are consistent throughout all their marketing and they therefore have a specific identity.

• How do you use Visual Branding effectively?
• What aspects do you have to consider when creating Visual Branding Identity?

Cassandra Fanara states in this blog that there are two main ways to use visual branding in an effective manner: online & offline.

Offline branding in practice:

A company can start off with branded print stationery such as business cards and compliment slips. They can then move on to anything else that is relevant within their company, like Starbucks branding their cups and Nike would add their ticks to all their clothes. However in recent times, advertising is becoming expressed more frequently online due to the increase in popularity of modern technology. This means that the company should assess what means of promotion will help to maximise brand awareness with the best value for money.

Online branding in practice:

There are many ways to go about this. A company can start off by creating their own original blog/website as blogging about your brand is a good way to create audience engagement. Social media plays a big roll in creating awareness. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ are just a few of the means that can be used in order to promote yourselves to others. Youtube has also come to play a big part in visual branding. For example, 3 made a video which they uploaded to Youtube. By doing this, they would be able to monitor the views that they'd received along with the number of people that like/dislike it. The comments on the video would give a suggestion as to what they could do to improve it.

PBL Task 2 - Integrated marketing communication (IMC)

In this task, we had to ready the trigger which was titled "DAWN DISHES IT OUT: CHANGING CONSUMERS' PERCEPTIONS ON VALUE." There was a written overview about the company and the objectives it wanted to achieve. They then went on to state the tactics they used to meet the objectives and the results that followed.

The team had to try and figure out what IMC was but couldn't come up with a solution so we came up with the problem: how to implement IMC.

We then had to come up with some learning objectives in order to overcome this problem. The objectives we came up with were:

1. What is Integrated Market Communication?

"..the application of consistent brand messaging across both traditional and non-traditional marketing channels and using different promotional methods to reinforce each other." - source

- What is the purpose?

The purpose of IMC is to make sure that there is a constant and clear cut message about a brand through all marketing channels. By doing this, a companies image remains reasonably consistent and there are no mixed messages being sent out to the consumers. It is also possible to convey the same message through different methods and the multiple channels may then reinforce it too.

2. How does a company use IMC?

- What are the tools they use?
- What challenges do they face?

A company starts with tactical coordination and marketing communications. Initially, they focus on the tactical coordination of diverse marketing such as advertising, promotion, direct response, public relations and special events. This focuses on delivering results via marketing communication.

They then move on to redefining the scope of marketing communication. The company would start to examine communication from the customers point of view as this begins to give consideration to all sources of brand and company contact a customer has with the product/service.

The third level would be applying information technology. An organisations application of empirical data using IT to provide a basis identity and value, as well as monitoring the impact of integrated internal and external communication programs to key customer segments over time.

The final stage would be financial and strategic integration. They would emphasise shifts to use the skills and data generated in previous stages to drive corporate strategic planning using a customers information and insights. The company would then re-evaluate their financial information infrastructure. - source

Another source states that marketing plans can take many forms but tend to include five main elements:

1. A detailed situation analysis that consists of an internal marketing audit and review
and an external analysis of the market competition and environmental factors.

2. Specific marketing objectives that provide direction, a time frame for marketing
activities, and a mechanism for measuring performance.

3. A marketing strategy and program that include selection of target market(s) and
decisions and plans for the four elements of the marketing mix.

4. A program for implementing the marketing strategy, including determining specific
tasks to be performed and responsibilities.

5. A process for monitoring and evaluating performance and providing feedback so
that proper control can be maintained and any necessary changes can be made in
the overall marketing strategy or tactics.

A challenge that may be faced is trying to find a target market that has unfulfilled needs. There are so many products in the world that it is near impossible to find a product or service that has not already been started up.