For our IXD103, project 01, our goal is to create a brand identity for a new bank.

For this project, we are going to assume that the bank’s current target audience is young people around 15 to 25 years old, and that the designed brand should include a Monogram, Wordmark, Visual Mark and Brand Guidelines.

To start off, in our first class this semester we briefly looked at what branding is.

To me, branding is a message that a company sends to its consumers. It gives their product meaning by creating an emotional response through words, images and foundational purposes. Thus, branding is important because it shapes how people view the company/product. In today’s world, where there are multiple brands of almost any product on the market, branding becomes more and more important as there is an increasing need to stand out.

As to how branding can evoke certain emotions and perceptions, “THE BRANDING JOUNERAL” has a very good example of this. Taking water as a product, all water looks the same, they are a transparent liquid with the general chemical formula H20;

and if they all looked similar with little branding, non of the products would stand out from another. Consumers may then just choose the cheapest option;

However, when we look at the bottles that have undergone the branding process, (considering the logo, the shape of the bottle that the water comes in, the label of the bottle, the colour of the bottle etc), certain brands starts to stand out for us. Even if we can’t straight away decide which one is the best, we can certainly see the different “personalities” coming through;

• Evian reminds me of purity
• perrier has a signature beer bottle green, reminds me of something I did order on a fun night out. ( making the not so exciting water a little more exciting ?)
• fuji makes me think of waterfall, Hawaii and tropical
• VOSS is minimalistic. modern and expensive looking. their bottle is also a fancy type of plastic that resembles the look and the feel of glass, adding to that fancy image.
• Solan de Cabras also gives expensive vibes which dark blue glass bottles, it resembles expensive rum or gin bottles.
• Contrex with its simple design and the bigger bottle makes me think of something that is in the family value range.

Doing this research actually made me realize just how susceptible I am to branding. I remember standing in Tesco for a long time trying to decide which brand of water to buy for a Scottish camping trip. Instinctively I know that all water on the self is pretty much the same, but in the end, I made a purchase based on a compromise between price and appearance(branding).

Another place where I see heavy and powerful branding is in the clothing industry. Since brands convey a message, people often buy brands that match their personal message. Some brands have become so associated with wealth and status, that people would want to wear the “branding” to show their social standing;

( if we take the logo off these items, would they still be as appealing to us ?)

Lastly, “Good branding” + “Good product” means customer loyalty. As humans, we are quite repetitive in our behaviour. If we find a good brand that offers good products then we are less inclined to search for better alternatives. The brand almost becomes personal to us, almost have if a relationship between us and the brand has been formed. The bank Santander uses this strategy, they gave students really good offers on debit cards to lure students into getting a bank account with them. They know that once students have an account with them, it’s very likely that the student will stay with the bank through into working adulthood. Once that particular promotion becomes associated with that particular bank, it becomes part of the branding. This is less visual branding rather it’s more brand promotion, but nonetheless, it triggers an emotional response for the students looking for a good deal.

Another personal example that I can think of in terms of customer loyalty is chocolate biscuits. I know the brand that I like and I always gravitate towards that particular brand while in the shops, even when I feel adventurous I still purchase my usual brand as a backup in case the new chocolate biscuits don’t suit my taste;

The visual branding of the package draws me in as a first-time buyer to try their chocolate. Later it allows me to easily recognise, identify and find this particular chocolate bar for easy purchase amongst an ocean of other chocolate biscuits that we would find in supermarkets.

I also found a book in the Antrim library on branding;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is a very general book and doesn’t go into a lot of detail for specific things, but using it I was able to summarise what could be the early process of branding ;