Brand Corporate Identity/Task 1

April 05, 2023

Brand Corporate Identity/Task 1

05/04/2023 ~ 19/04/2023 (Week 01 ~ Week 03)

Henry Lim Chin Xin

0349490

Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

Brand Corporate Identity/Task 1-Breaking Brand

Lectures:

Lecture 01-Introduction

Brand Corporate Identity is an integral part of graphic design discipline as it focuses on the visual integrity of a brand. As such the module introduces students to the basics of identity design and the effective use of symbols in the area of visual communication.

"A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object or relationship."

This module aims to introduce you to the basics of identity design. You will learn about the creation of an image and subsequently the development of a brand. The learning process entails a case study: the breaking down of an established brand, and the mastery of the processes involved in brand creation.

Lecture 02-Brand

Introduction

"There are a lot of confusion when it comes to describing a 'brand'. While many brand and marketing experts and senior designers have a basic understanding of what a brand means, most designers may find themselves confused. Let us attempt to clarify the meanings underpinning some of these terms."

There may be differing opinions toward some of these explanations and thus nothing said here should be taken as gospel truth. There is room for error, better explanations and or different takes.

What is a brand?

What does the word 'brand/branding' actually mean? The term derives from the Old Norse word brandr or 'to burn,' and refers to the practice of branding livestock, which dates back more than 4,000 years to the Indus Valley.

Branding has evolved over the centuries-from farmers claiming their property, to artisans claiming credit for their work, to factories claiming their products, to companies claiming their products were better than others.

But what does branding look like in the past and what does it look like presently?

Fig 1.1 Cattle Branding

Fig 1.2 Branding of a naked female slave in Africa

Fig 1.3 Slave Branding used in Atlantic slave trade

What we brand, how we brand it, and why we brand it has changed. But branding in the twenty-first century is still about taking ownership, and not just for property and products. It is about owning what your company values and represents, owning up to your shortcomings, and earning customer trust and loyalty through your words, your actions, and your stories.

So, what is a brand?

A brand is a person's gut feeling about a product, service or company while companies can't control this process, they can influences it by communicating the qualities that make this product different than that product.

When enough people arrive at the same gut feeling, a company can be said to have a brand. In other word, a brand is not what you say it is. It is what they say it is. It is a mental construct shared by society about a product, service, organization or even a person.

What is brand identity?

When marketing people talk about brand identity, they are referring to the "gut instinct", the image or messaging associated with the product, service, organization or person.

The gut feeling is one aspect of the brand's identity, the other is its 'visual identity' which helps to manage the message or image or gut feeling. "Brand identity is the collection of all elements that a company creates to portray the right image to its consumer. Brand identity is different from 'brand image' and 'branding,' even though these terms are sometimes treated as interchangeable"

What is branding?

Branding is the process of giving a meaning to specific organization, company, products or services by (actively) creating and shaping a brand in consumers' minds. It is a strategy designed by organizations to help people to quickly identify and experience their brand, and give them a reason to choose their products over the competition's.

Fig 1.4 "Be Stupid" campaign by Diesel

Fig 1.5 "UNHATE" campaign by Benetton

With both Diesel and Benetton campaigns there is a clear differentiation in the brands' product values, communication and visual communication strategy. The one strategy they share is the shock value of their visual communication.

Branding (in these two cases) is the process of hijacking and shaping an image in the consumer minds and in doing so creating an indelible and distinct mark and association.

Branding can be achieved through:

-Brand Definition: purpose, values, promise

-Brand Positioning Statement: what your brand does, who you target, and the benefits of your brand, a concise statement

-Brand Identity: name, tone of voice, visual identity design (which includes the logo design, color palette, typographies...)

-Advertising and Communications: TV, radio, magazines, outdoor ads, website, mobile apps...

-Product Design

-Sponsoring and Partnerships

-In-store Experience

-Workspace Experience and Management Style

-Customer Service

-Pricing Strategy

What are the benefits of branding?

Branding helps you stand out in a saturated market

Branding gives you credibility

With a clear brand, you can charge what you're worth

Branding leads to customer loyalty

Branding leads to returning customers & referrals

Branding = Consistency

Branding helps to attract your ideal clients

Branding your business will save you money and time

Branding will give you confidence in your business

Established branding makes it easier to introduce new products/services

Branding gives you a clear strategy for moving forward

What is a designers' role in branding?

Designers play a pivotal role in the creation of a brand but they are part of a larger network of individuals collaborating to give voice and form to the brand. What is clear is that there can be no brand without the skill-sets a designer brings to the table. The visual identity that designer creates constitutes the face of the brand.

Your role is to give form to the content, strategy and messaging. For the designer this means research )history of client and product, and understanding the target market and more) and the development of a trademark.

To ensure consistency in message, a 'design program' is necessary to ensure a visual identity is developed that is coherent and cohesive in its application across products and services of the organization or person.

The design program is a crucial endeavour in every large and medium enterprise for branding to be effective. The role of the designer is to develop, envision, create a visual identity that is distinct, memorable, consistent, value-based, profit based, gives confidence, increases market-share, endears itself to the audience and wins the trust and loyalty of its audience. All this through good research and understanding and the development of an effective visual identity program.

Conclusion

"In previous centuries" many companies found themselves trapped in a virtuous circle of R&D investment, initial market success, competitive pressure, and price cutting, until commoditization eventually forced them out of the market.

Branding creates the opposite effect-a virtuous circle. By combining logic and magic, a company can ignite a chain reaction that leads from differentiation to collaboration to innovation to validation and finally cultivation. Built into cultivation is the mandate to question all assumptions, leapfrog the status quo, and begin the cycle again. With each turn, the company and its brand spiral higher...and closer to the holy grail of marketing: a sustainable competitive advantage."

Lecture 03-

Lecture 04-

Lecture 05-

Instructions:

Fig 2.1 Module Information Booklet PDF

Research:

We are required to research on a brand in a group and I'm grouping with Christine and Farah.

Below is what we going to be research on and we divided in to parts.

Christine

Farah

Henry

A) BRAND PROFILE

1. Description

1.1 Summary Description
1.2 Target Market/Audience
1.3 The Offer?
1.4 Specific Benefits

2. Brand Value

2.1 Retailer's Perspective
2.2 Customer's Perspective

3. Brand Positioning

3.1 Why This Brand & Not Competition?
3.2 Target Market
3.3 Competition

4. Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

B) EXPANDED BRAND PROFILE

1. Description

1.1 Founder
1.2 Location
1.3 etc.

2. Benefits

3. Target Market/Audience

3.1 Geographic Segmentation
3.2 Demographic Segmentation
3.3 Psychographic Segmentation
3.4 Behavioral Segmentation

4. Competitive Differentiation

5. Pricing

6. Distribution

7. Brand's Positioning Statement

8. Brand's Voice

9. Brand's Communication Strategy

Process:

We started to make our research and these are what I have been researched on

Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Freemium Model is the USP of Spotify. The key feature of Spotify is free for users with ads playing between the music. It has been found that this freemium model approach has worked amazingly for Spotify because users can take advantage of free music without paying for a subscription. Spotify also made the most of this feature to promote ads in between to compel the users consciously or subconsciously to subscribe for premium to listen to music without ad breaks.

Founders Daniel Ek

As Spotify’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Mr. Ek is responsible for guiding the vision and strategy of the Company and leading the management team. He has been a member of Spotify’s board of directors since July 21, 2008. Prior to founding Spotify in 2006, Mr. Ek founded Advertigo, an online advertising company acquired by Tradedoubler, held various senior roles at the Nordic auction company Tradera, which was acquired by eBay, and served as Chief Technology Officer at Stardoll, a fashion and entertainment community for pre-teens. In 2021, he co-founded Prima Materia, a European investment company.

Martin Lorentzon Martin Lorentzon has been a member of Spotify’s board of directors since July 21, 2008. Mr. Lorentzon previously served as Chairman of our board of directors from 2008 to 2016. In addition to his role on Spotify’s board of directors, Mr. Lorentzon served as a member of the board of directors of Telia Company AB (“Telia Company”), Sweden’s main telecom operator, from 2013 to 2018. In 1999, Mr. Lorentzon founded Tradedoubler, an internet marketing company based in Stockholm, Sweden, and initially served as a member of its board of directors. Additionally, Mr. Lorentzon has held senior roles at Telia Company and Cell Ventures. He holds a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from the Chalmers University of Technology.

Location

Spotify is headquartered in Regeringsgatan 19, SE-111 53 Stockholm, Sweden. They also have offices around the world.

15 offices in Europe 12 offices in North America

2 offices in Latin America

10 offices in Asia Pacific

1 office in Middle East & Africa

Target Market/Audience

Geographic Segmentation

The Spotify customer segmentation is largest in Europe, with 66 million users in Europe vs 48 million in the US, 33 million in Latin America and 18 million in the rest of the world.

Demographic Segmentation

Although the brand is popular among all age groups, it is stronger with young audiences. 29% of Spotify users are members of 25 years old to 34 years old, and 26% are under 24 years of age. 27% of Spotify users aged between 35 to 54 years old and 19% are above 55 years of age.

Psychographic Segmentation

Spotify’s popularity among Millennials correlates with the generation’s attitude to media consumption in general: 60% say that audio is the most immersive form of media. Spotify’s vast audio library of 70 million song titles and nearly 3 million podcasts appeals deeply to younger listeners aged 14-35. This segment tends to veer away from mainstream music and look for more indie and alternative styles.

Behavioral Segmentation

Spotify users typically enjoy the personalized experience offered by the platform. More than a third of the time spent on Spotify is listening to playlists, of which 36% are created and shared by other users.

Pricing

Spotify is free for everyone however there will be ad-breaks. For users that don't want to listen to ads during music streaming, Spotify has a few subscription plans to choose from.

Spotify Premium Mini-RM0.75/day -One account on mobile only

Spotify Premium-RM14.90/Month -One Account

Spotify Premium Duo-RM19.80/Month - Two accounts

Spotify Premium Family-RM23.80/Month - Up to 6 accounts

Spotify Premium Student-RM7.50/month - One account (need to be verified with student email)

PowerPoint

After the researches of the brand, we are required to make a PowerPoint/Google Slides individually.

The reason I'm using PowerPoint is that it is more playable for animations and transitions. On the other hand, Google Slides is just too ordinary and no such fancy stuffs.

In the PPT, I added some 3D models, one 3D model in few slides, and change the position per slide and using the Morph transition make the 3D model move. I also play with Spotify's logo with the Morph transition as well.