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/