Starting of the semester, we looked into what branding really is and what we interpreted with the word branding. To help us with our meaning, we looked into how brands have developed over the years and how branding plays a massive part the success someone’s company can have.
What is branding?
In class, we all came together and established what we thought was the definition of ‘branding’ which was interesting to see my peers interpretations as well. For myself, Branding is a form of advertising why the specific corporation is the best of the best. This would be done through Images, colour palettes and typography. When looking into an article wrote by Radu Dandu, Dandu explains how ambiguous the word branding really is as it tends to confuse many with what it truly means. Dandu creates his own definition as the following, “ Branding is the perpetual process of identifying, creating, and managing the cumulative assets and actions that shape the perception of a brand in stakeholders’ minds.” Though I understand his meaning and it does fit with a good description of branding, I find it overly complicated as there is more information that is needed and leads you more confused again.
Researching a definition I liked would be a quote from Tom Goodwin, who is a media consultant and writer. “Brands are essentially patterns of familiarity, meaning, fondness, and reassurance that exist in the minds of people.” I like this quote due to is simple and and emotional connection is has when reading. It links with myself as good brands do create an existing place within our mind and I find it interesting how that then leads to a fondness to that brand.
To link this back to a connection a brand has with a consumer, Alina Wheeler makes another interesting to me about how, “Branding is about making an emotional connection.” This was a quote we discussed in class and one I do agree with. Brands can hold a very nostalgic connection for many and that is how we can decipher a high-quality brand from a good brand. Example of these can be things surrounding myself such as Tesco’s, McDonald is and many more.
With a collection of brands, we can see a clear target audience for who this brand is aimed for and by establishing a target audience we can then start to build a brand evolving around their needs. This starts us off with our first task of the day to create a user persona.
Following this guide that was made to help simplify each step of creating a brand allows you have check points within your gradually process. Looking into ‘Conducting research’ this should be were you are looking into others for inspiration, looking more into significant meanings and getting a general grasp of what you could adventure into for your brand. After doing the research that is needed within your brand, this will make the following steps a lot more easier to create the more you have prepared.
When it comes to the ‘Clarifying strategy’, this is were you begin to pin point the main pieces of information that is in your research that you can later develop on. You are clarifying and creating the starting pieces of your brand. It starts to gives a clear view on the direction your brand is going.
‘Designing identity’ comes to your designing process and the decisions your brand is going to look like and have an impact visually. This it your Logo, Word mark, colour scheme and app and web layouts.
‘Creating touchpoints an Managing assets’ are the two last steps that regard the finalization of your brand. The touchpoints should have you looking over what impact will your design have on your brand, does it represent your values and target audience? The last stage is creating a launch plan for your brand and how it will be introduced to the public. This launch plan should have an ethical approach to respect guidelines to gain a trust with consumers.
The Task
Creating a brand for a modern bank.
For this task we need to select a persona between the ages of 16-25 years old and establish an overall view of their lives and their own situation with money and what bank they go through.
A User persona as a collection of data that is specific details of a particular person. Through this, we establish their background, hobbies, employment, and frustrations along with motivations as well. It gives you a clear sense of what kind of customer your brand would be dealing with.
For my persona I decided to base her of my friend Amanda. I think that my friend does help show what the average customer of that age range could be and going through as these age ranges tend to be students and in part time employment. Interviewed her on how her hobbies and how she tends to spend money, her feeling on her own bank and struggles she has because of money. With this information I was able to create a user persona board on a potential consumer of this brand I am creating.
This is the draft of my description for my User persona
Amanda is a 20-year-Old student studying journalism and English. She grew up in a foster care system that has made her use of change and an insecurity of the future but due to this, she was eligible for financial income to help her stable her student life along with employment. Growing up Amanda knew the value of money and from an early age she understood the need to save, however with social anxiety she tends to avoid social interactions, so an online bank is very ideal for her mental health. Along with this, Amanda is an employee in Spar that is within a half an hour’s distance from her home. This expense is a concern along with her travel expenses to university by train as it would be too expensive by car.
Amanda’s use of money can vary as she now indulges in items she could never have before; however, she tries to be aware of the money outcomes that are essential to her lifestyle. In her free time, Amanda has an addiction to English Literature as poems, dramas and novels is a big part of Amanda’s personality, she also started a side hobby by creating jewellery out of different crystals however she is not too worried about it as it is a hobby to keep herself occupied.
This was my final outcome on my User Persona.
Tone of Voice
What is Tone of voice?
This is what the chosen words/ language of that brand convey to the user; it can also be referred to the brands personality. These words can be vital to your brand as has the potential to help shape your brand while attract the target audience you intend with this brand. This can help establish if a brand has a serious tone or humorous tone; casual or formal and exciting or matter of fact.
Our next task is to create our own five values along with a name of the brand to go with it.
When looking into what my five values could be, I did some research into the values of the banks that most people use. Words such as Respect, teamwork and commitment were among the many I saw and I found it interesting how repetitive these values were for most banks. I then investigated values that 16- 25-year old’s look for and words such as truthiness, loyalty and honesty were among these. Looking at these together, the values were 50/50 of a match as some did overlap while others did not. This was factor I heavily considered.
My Five Values
- Fun – I wanted to break bank tradition along with the serious tones as I want to create something that is fun and relates more to my specific age range. It stops the consumer feeling overwhelmed to begin with due to the fun Atmosphere.
- Uncomplicated– I want to include a factor of a trouble free bank and encourage people to feel comfortable when entering data or making decisions about their money.
- Honesty– This is an essential value for a brand as it is needed to create a security for the consumer to feel at ease.
- Patience– Patience is key to help a customer feel more clam in a situation that could be frustrating. We work in their time.
- Integrity– This helps show the consumer are moral values as a bank and creating a sense of respect to and from the customer.
Bank Name
What was interesting in my research was that a key value that many 16-25 year olds have is Patience. It was then I thought that this could be something that helps with the decision of my banks name. It relates to my target audience and helps build a emotional connection that I we discussed in class.
Looking at outcomes for the name of my bank, I also wanted it to be short and minimal word as it would be easy to remember for a consumer.
I started my research into looking at Figures in Roman and Greek history that represent patience however, there was not anything that I could shorten it down too or anything that is easy to pronounce, so with this I investigated certain animals that also could represent. Animals such as Elephants, owls, and tortoises Where among the options I could choose but again I felt that none of the names I could have chosen did not fit well as a bank name. While looking more into symbols I finally came off with the name Ally. Ally originated from the word Allium which is a type of flower that represents patience when given and I thought the name was short and remember while it also fits a bank-like name.
