The Designer's Guide to Brand Strategy

e Designer’s Guide to Brand Strategy by M. Damien Newman

SEQUENCE OF PARTS

2

1.

Introduction

.

What is Brand Strategy?

8

.

What is a Brand?

9

4.

What is Strategy?

1

5.

e Process of Design.

4

.

So How Do You Do It?

0

.

Who’s Who.

59

8.

Suggested Reading List.

8

9.

Afterword & anks.

2

10.

Credits.

3

11. Colophon.

INTRODUCTION

Prior to this Guide, I had prepared a short handbook on Brand Strategy for a specic target audience and

3

he people involved in actually designing brands. is is not to say that designers can’t read eight hundred

or a specic problem. Called, ‘e Good Fun Guide to

aged books on Managing Brand Equity, but that

Brand Strategy’ it served its intended purpose by being

here are some very simple elements of developing the

badly written and well illustrated. However, in spite of his, many others who also read it, suggested that it was a good document and one worth extending. ough

attributes of business behaviour and that all designers should understand their vital role in improving business behaviour.

erhaps being better written. My hope is that I’ve been able to simplify the topics My interest is in business behaviour and the attributes

involved enough and display them in a practical way that

of that behaviour in how a company company,, product or service ser vice

akes it easier for most designers to recognize where in

acts and is perceived. I’ve often worked for clients in

heir own work they can improve their contribution to

developing the nal designs that ultimately shape the

he client’s business. I’d also hope to give an introduction

erception the customer or target individual has of the

o the tools or subjects that could help designers

client rm. I’ve also seen all too often the disconnect

improve their own business and abilities to deliver

between the parties involved that help shape the client’s

design solutions.

identity and the problems in how the client manages its design. In writing this Guide, I’ve tried to outline the basic elements to the process of design and development of brand strategy in a way that would would best support

INTRODUCTION

4

More and more it is becoming clear that organizations

ight satisfy a need or want. us a product might

can no longer just make and sell products. Today they

be a physical good, a service, a retail store, a person,

have to make products, build brands and sell them

organization, place or idea. Kotler denes the ve levels

as one. It is because of this that designers have been

of a product as the following:

introduced into the process to help design the brands he organization sells. As the way an organization

1.

conducts business changes and the fragmentation of

that consumers satisfy by consuming the

edia channels continues, designing and building brands becomes harder. No longer can designers build a

ore Benet: e fundamental need or want

product or service. 2.

eneric Product: A no-frills version of the

brand with some clever advertising that simply states the

product containing only those attributes or

eatures and benets of a product. Instead they have to

characteristics absolutely necessary for it to

consider the many dimensions a brand is experienced in

function.

and how to keep it all consistent. In light of this, building

3.

brands for an organization has become a primary

characteristics that buyers normally expect

unction of business itself, which is as important as developing business strategy.

Expected Product: e set of attributes or

and agree to when they purchase a product. 4.

Augmented Product: Inclusion of additional

product features, benets, attributes or related services that serve to dierentiate it from

Product vs brand?

ccording to Phillip Kotler, Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, a

competing products. 5.

Potential Product: All of the augmentations

roduct is anything that can be oered to a market

and transformations that a product might

or attention, acquisition, use or consumption that

ultimately undergo in the future.

INTRODUCTION

Most activity in competition happens at the 4th level

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Product Level:

of augmentation, because most organizations can adequately build products at the Expected le vel.

roduct Core Benet: Performance styling in shoes

hat t. Kevin Keller, Professor of Marketing at Dar tmouth College, continues on this topic by saying,

eneric Product: comfortable, durable and stylish

shoes for sports and tness. xpected Product: High quality manufacturing, high

“A brand is a product, then, but one that adds other imensions to dierentiate it in some way from other products designed to satisfy the same need.” ”

comfort level - no blistering - protective casing. Support, expected level of durability durability,, weight factor and life-span. In some cases, shoe laces and, inner tongue and shoeinstep. Strength of ‘new smell’.

ese dierences can range from intangible emotional

ugmented Product: Styling, air-pockets. Design

ones to rational and tangible ones specic to the features

of lugs - the odd foot-print on the under sole of shoe.

and functions of a product.

Outside material is reective, protective and weather roof and can be personalized. Inner sock to replace

In this next example I’ve tried to contrast a well-known brand and its product: Nike. product: Nike.

acing and traditional ‘toungue’ of running shoe – etc. otential Product: Trac Tracking king and GPS device in shoe.

INTRODUCTION

Brand Identity:

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Self-expressive benets: generated by using a shoe with

a strong personality that is associated with a visible top ore Identity: Sports and Fitness.

athlete.

User prole: Top athletes, and all into health and

tness. rand Personality: Exciting, provocative, spirited, cool,

innovative, and aggressive; into health and tness and he pursuit of excellence. Subbrands: Air Jordan, Max, Shox etc. ogo: “Swoosh “Swoosh”” symbol. (designed for 35 bucks, chosen

rom the least oensive of twelve concepts presented in

ese days a designer is present in the building of a brand around a product; they’re expected to understand he dierent levels of a product and how each impacts brand-building exercises. ey have to be able to ranslate the dierent levels of a product into what hey’re capable of designing. Traditionall Traditionally, y, the designer’s activity has been around developing a brand identity

1971)

and branding materials ba sed on it. Today, a designer

Slogan/Tagline: “Just do it”

is involved in the development of strategies and they

rganizational associations: Connected to and

et to delve into the mysteries of a value proposition,

sponsors of top athletes and their sports; innovative.

he intangible benets of a product and the emotional

Heritage: Developed track shoes in Oregon.

esponses someone might have to a brand. It’s a broader

Value Va lue Proposition: unctional Benets: High-technology shoe that will

improve performance and provide comfort. motional benets: e exhilaration of athletic

erformance excellent; feeling engaged, active and healthy.

scope of design than what it used to be.

INTRODUCTION

7

Creating a successful brand involves the careful blending

is is a rst ‘edition’ ‘edition’ of the Guide and with it I wish wi sh to

of activities, which includes business and brand strategy

create a dialogue with those that read it, collect feedback

with the design process and all the relevant participants.

and in the future I’ll revise it to become a complete

It is this eective collaboration that is understood to

uide for designers on the subject. So I encourage you to

be brand strategy, which has given birth to some of the

et in touch.

ost visible and trusted brands today. s Kevin Lane Keller says about brand strategy in the is guide aims to be a broad overview and light

rologue of his book, Strategic Brand Management:

introduction to the immense topic of brand strategy. e uide also clears up the distinction between branding, arketing and business strategy whilst giving you a

“Its just as much an art a s a science. ere is always a reativity and originality component involved-”. involved-”.

clear step by step guide in how to create your own brand s ra egy.

My hope is that designers will read this guide and arm hemselves with the principles of brand strategy to

It is by no means the denitive text on the topic, but

design business more eectively.

hopefully is the rst thing you’ll read that will help you o look further or ask questions on the topic. mdn – First Edition. San Francisco, March 2003

WHAT WHA T I S BRAND B RAND STRA STRATEGY? TEGY?

Brand strategy is about the behavior of business and

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ere are two simple rules to brand strategy.

improving on that. 1. Brand strategy is aspirational. It exists purely to

Brand strategy is neither branding nor brand alone. It

support the long-term strategy of any organization.

is not marketing, nor is it strategic development but

What it wishes to be, based on its vision and long term

he development of a clear set of actions and plans,

oals.

overned by a single stated direction. ese plans (and actions) allow a business to improve its competitiveness, its position and reputation in the marketplace.

. Elements of brand strategy are there to communicate

a vision and consistent story to the client or consumer. ese elements include personality, positioning and so

Brand Strategy is based on the core principles a

on.

company is in business. For the business to b e continuously successful, successful, it must act upon a well thought

Branding isn’t:

out strategy.

To clarify, clarif y, and something I will probably continue o repeat this throughout the guide, Branding is a arketing term that largely came about in the last decade to mean the marking of products. It is not brand strategy. Sorry.

gure . The ʻfundamentalʼ activity of business.

WHAT IS A BRAND?

at is a di cult question questi on and one that I have h ave yet to nd a perfect answer to. I say this because there are many interpretations of the word and ultimately most are wrong. is said, understand that a brand is essentially the sum of all parts of the business experienced by someone and heir perception of that experience. In essence, there are wo fundamentals to know: 1. A brand is the total experience gained from the

behaviour and relationship someone has with an organization, product or service. . A brand has two living parts, the part that the

organization or product/service creates and the part which is kept in the mind of the person experiencing it.

9

WHAT IS A BRAND? - continued.

10

Here are some other interpretations, from people that

For me, brand is a name which implies a measure

are in the business of building brands, either for their

of quality, and over time, the name and the quality

own rms or others:

become synonymous. I’d look on a brand as a guarantee of quality, or a guarantee of a way of meeting my

A brand is the expression of the heart of an

expectations in respect of a service or product. Brands

organization, not a logo and the colour blue”.

should be attracting people to them because they oer

hris Ford

excellence.” Sandra Dawson , Prof. Management Studies, Director

Brands have become part of the fabric of our society.

of the Judge Institute of Management Studies, Fellow of

Brands create context context about who we are and how

Jesus College and rst woman Master of Sidney Sussex

we live. And brands aren’t just articulated by their

College, Cambridge.

advertising any more; they’re articulated by everything hey do. Every aspect of a brand that touches people denes that brand.” ee Clow Chair Chairman man and Chief Chi ef Creative Creati ve Ocer of

TBWA Worldwide.

I think a brand is an embodiment of the comprehensive romise made by the organization to the outside world. It’ss a proposition of the value provided to consumers It’ by the organization, and i t’s all the underlying organizational activities that support that proposition.

... A great brand is something that people want to be a

ll these constitute the brand.”

art of and share in, a way of expressing themselves.”

San Jin Park . Vice President of Global Marketing

atrick Gournay , CEO Body Shop

operations, Samsung Electronics.


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Here are some additional points to know about what a brand is. 1. Brand systems must strive for simplicity, and strive to

aintain internal and external consistency. . Brands evolve over time, with cumulative experiences

of that brand, through direct contact or associations. ey can be born overnight, but - to extend the

igure 2. A brand weakened by noise and inconsistency.

etaphor - the brand’s legs need to grow to have any eal strength to be able to stand on its own feet. 3. Weakness in a brand can o ccur with inconsistencies

which cause misrepresentation and misunderstanding with the customer or target audience.

igure 3. A brand with a strong position through clear marketing, experience and management.


ake a look at the inside of brand. What makes the brand

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An Example.

f a product, service or organization?

igure 4. The Layers of a Brand.

ach element, layered on top of the other, contributes

gure . The differences in looks.

o building a strong brand that is easily identiable, emorable and can be differentiated from all other similar products, services or companies.

isa and Amex both offer c redit to their customers. To ifferentiate themselves, they look, behave and offer lightly different services in order to attract and retain us om omer ers. s.


What is a Va Value lue Proposition?

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Examples of Tangible and Intangible.

Once you’ve gured this out, you probably can wi ng he rest as it i t will sound like you know what you’re alking about. No, seriously - the value proposition sets he foundation for building all of the brand identity elements, and as such it is the reference point for ost decisions in creating an identity for a product or organization. e Tangible and the Intangible of a Brand.

e value proposition is a statement of the tangible

igure 6. An Audi Allroad Quattro-thing.

eatures and intangible benets to the buyer, customer

or client. David A. Aaker states that in addition to unctional benets the value proposition can include

Features: Quattro All-Wheel, oroad driving. BOSE

eight stereo speaker system. Big-ass plastic looking

emotional and self-expressive benets.

bumpers. Raised wheel base.

“at we are what we have is p erhaps the most basic and

Intangible: Cool factor. Association with all those who

powerful fact of consumer behaviour”.

can aord understated status symbols. Looks like I go to

Russell W. Belk

Lake Tahoe for the weekends, if I live in San Francisco.


ree ings About Attractive and Useful.

14

ypical Brand Book Example.

1. e brand has to appeal to an individual on an

Volvo Vo lvo has an emotional benet of safety. is is

emotional level, creating a relationship with a customer,

something that the organization realizes they can

client or person. Any other le vel simply isn’t strong

everage through their design and production of cars,

enough.

and so they try to have that emotional benet connect with any of their potential or current customers needs.

. It is the emotional interaction with a brand that

Strictly speaking, their identity alone doesn’t address

enables an individual to feel something about the

his, but their entire image combined with their track

experience and if positive, they’ll continue to seek it out.

ecord and behaviour, does.

3. e system must clearly communicate tangible

elf-Expressive Benets Example.

eatures and intangible benets that might attract an

is wouldn’t be a brand paper worth reading if Nike

individual’s attention attention and draw them into an interaction.

weren’t mentioned, so here you have it: Nike fullls a self-expressive benet of contributing to

Emotional Benets Explained.

he consumer’s concept of their own image. By wearing

is relates to the ability of the brand to make an

Nike they’re part of the, “Just Do It”, pro-athletes,

emotional connection with the purchaser or person

superior athletic style and skill that is the Nike brand.

who interacts with the brand. e ideal is to create a

Nike realize that the brand i s much more than just their

ersonal and emotionally positive experience that the

roduct, and that the self-expressive benets come

individual will keep with them and associate with the

hrough the wearing of their products and how the

roduct, service or company, either within a momentary experience, or one that lasts over a period of time.

customer perceives themselves to now be some sort of athlete’ by doing so. Well, that’s why I wear ‘em.


ree ings to Remember.

In creating a value proposition, these three issues are

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But it isn’t written out as a tagline, and as such, it doesn’t eed to sound like one. For instance, Nike’s “Just “Just Do It”

important to remember:

is not a value proposition.

1. e Features and B enets Trap.

3. Consider the Sum of All Parts.

e focus on Features and Benets can also be a trap.

Fortunately, Fortunate ly, your job is to consider the bigger bi gger picture

Too much focus on these can cause you to think like

here and consider things like trust, loyalty and emotional

someone from the marketing department, in only terms

bonding. Sure, a fast car may help cause an attraction

of selling the product or service based on its features or benets. To do so limits the emotional bond you are rying to create and instead is trying to satisfy rational and logical reasons for choosing a product over another. 2. A Value Proposition for a Business or Brand?

business or product needs to satisfy the customer’s

o that model of car, but do the rest of the interactions in buying that car, driving that car, xing that car and aying for that car all add up to the position the brand has taken inside the purchaser’s head. s a designer, you are sculpting a brand and all the experiences of that brand. So consider the sum of all the

eed for that product or service, thus motivating a

arts and indicate how the experience could be given

urchase. erefore it is the brand of that product or

hrough all touch points consistently and clearly.

service that needs to have the value proposition. value proposition is not articulated to the customer. Instead it is translated i nto an identity, into the way a roduct is sold, and the way it is made or even delivered.


What is Positioning Positioning? ?

term coined in the late sixties by Jack Trout and l Ries, specically relating to a brand’s position in a

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“Being all things to all people is a recipe for mediocrity nd below average performance.” ” Professor Michael Porter

consumer’ss mind. consumer’ ome simple points to re member. 1. Amongst all the noise of branded organizations,

roducts and services out there, a brand-builder needs o consider how to position their brand to its target audience. . Positioning is measured by looking at the target

audience, the dierentiation the brand has between competitors and the types of messaging that would best esonate with the brand’s target audience.

igure 7. Different Positioning in cereal boxes.


What is a Brand Identity?

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brand identity is expressed in a thumbprint of a symbol

here are two parts to this section, the denition of what

r icon, representing all that the organization, product or

n identity is, and the types of identity structures, identities

ervice is. As such, the identity is rarely experienced out

nd architecture.

f context from the brandʼs expressed values, attributes or ssociations, as it relies on the experiences of the brand as

n identity is made up of three fundamental elements.

1. Visual System. his is the mark, logotype, typographic system. Colour palette and ima gery.

2. Personality. alues, Attributes and Associations - as explained further n.

3. Functionality and Behaviour Behaviour.. he integration into business and brand strategy, as well as ny interaction.

whole to build brand equity.


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What is Brand Personality?

brand has a personality much like a person does, in that the brand uses this to create or strengthen a osition in the customer’s mind and an emotional link. Designing brand personality is a vital part to building a Brand Identity. Brand Personality is made up of these three elements. 1. Values . Attributes 3. Associations

igure 8. The differences between ersonalities associated with brands.


here are three categories of Brand Identity structures.

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Branded Identity

Where the illustrations use the word ʻBRANDʼ image the

Where the company operates throughout a series of

brand of the example given above it.

brands that may be unrelated to each other or to the corporation. ( ink of Procter or Gamble or Diageo)

onolithic Identity

Where the organization uses one name and visual style hroughout. (ink of IBM)

ome Di cult culties ies.. Endorsed Identity

Where and organization has a group of activities or companies that it endorses with the g roup name and identity. (ink of VW Polo)

e di culty in using usin g a monolithic monolith ic approach approa ch can be hat the brand personality or qualities may not stretch enough to cover all the company’s brand exercises. dditionally, using an endorsed i dentity structure demands that the organization in question exudes he values and personality that can drive the identity channels through the structure. So, there may be no ules, but there are certainly better paths to take than others.


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Dierent Types of Logos

I wanted to include some of the examples below, created by Diphthong in Singapore, which illustrate some of the

igure 12.

odern Identity.

ypes of logos. For explanations of these types - please see their web site: www.diphthong.com. (I just don’t have enough room here - sorr y)

igure 9. Graphic Index Identity.

igure 13. Line Form Identity.

igure 14. Post-Modern Identity.

igure 10. Complex Modern Identity.

igure 15. Simplified Illustration Identity.

igure 11. Optical Effect Identity.

igure 16. Signature or Seal Identity.

WHAT IS STRATEGY?

21

Well, We ll, you need to know about Strategy as a topic in

Competitive Advantage.

order to feel condent about developing one of your

Generally speaking, there will be one type of strategy

own.

your client will be concerned with in regards to brand and design and their business: being competitive

Prof. Michael Porter describes strategy as,

advantage.

... the creation of a unique and valuable position,

ere are two fundamental approaches for gaining

involving a dierent set of activities than employed by

competitive advantage - as far as business strategy is

our competitors.

oncerned -- one being : Price Leadership and the other, oncerned Dierentiation.

In essence, its a bunch of rules or principles by which you choose to run your business in order to stay on top. Or, perhaps to get there.

rice Leadership means simply pricing your product

competitively to increase your position within the industry. Burger King and MacDonalds are always doing

Since business is about selling a product to a customer customer,,

his with their so called ‘price wars’.

he development of a strategy and acting upon it ensures an organization’s ability to continuously sell or ser vice

ierentiation is the type of business strategy you’re

better and dierently than its nearest competitors.

ost interested in as it gives room to brand and design. I explain it in more detail next.

WHAT IS STRATEGY? - continued.

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Choosing a Dierentiation Strategy.

Choosing a dierentiation position for an organization is eculiar to each industry, it can be based on the product itself, the way it is sold, the marketing approach and other ways. Usually,, this strategy leads to premium pricing, in that Usually choosing a dierentiation position is so costly in having o adopt such unique and viable activities. at’s the eason why Apple computers are so expensive. igure 17. Being ʻNetscapedʼ.

Being “Netscaped”.

e dierentiation position is a tough stance to

Netscape lost marketshare to Microsoft’s Internet

ake in industry. Superiority in innovation is often

Explorer as Microsoft could substitute the costs of

ndermined by a cost position or too much focus,

he free distribution of the browser software where

whilst dierentiation is a good way to dene a position

Netscape couldn’t. Without increasing revenues,

in industry, without evolving the strategy or testing the

Netscape could no longer hold onto their dierentiation

uture viability against potential competitors, you can all foul of the fate of Netscape.

osition of innovation.

WHAT IS STRATEGY? - continued.

Enhancingg a Dierentiation Position. Enhancin

is happens in two simple ways for an organization:

23

One of the problems.

huge failure of business is to adopt a mix of strategies or positions and not separate the business units that

1. Become unique in the way the organization performs

its current value activities (i.e. making products).

eed to have opposing strategies. e lines between the businesses become blurred and the value in the strategy is lessened by its lack of relevance.

. Recongure the organization’s organization’s value chain in a way to

enhance its uniqueness.

igure 18. Dell.com

Dell stormed the PC industry by developing its enhanceent strategy of conguring and delivering PCs directly o the customer, whilst keeping far lower inventory than other PC manufacturers.

igure 19. One Company - Many Business units and customers.

THE PROCESS OF DESIGN

“Design is inherently a messy pr ocess. It’s ironic that the nd result is about creating order.”

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Clement Mok said, at the AIGA Wisconsin Unplugged event, “Design should be used as a verb.”

Tom Mecklen In the professional services industry, there are two ways of designing. 1. Start concepting immediately. In fact, do concepts

or the pitch and spray-mount them on boards and drag in twenty or more boards for any single project. e client makes changes, you do them, go back and repeat he process until no more changes can be made, either because there’s nothing left of your concept, or one of you gives up. e result is, at best, depressing and erhaps a distant second, useful. . You begin by considering what the problem is.

Starting with conducting research and collaboration with the client. en you articulate a single direction with which to proceed in. Start some concepts and hen ultimately design something that both dened the roblem, and more importantly, solves it.

For this Guide, I’d like to concentrate on the second enerally adopted way to design.

THE PROCESS OF DES IGN - continued.

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“Design without research isn’t design : it’s guessing.”

e ultimate aim of research is to develop an

Chris Ford

articulation of the direction in which to proceed. is ay include a denition of the problem at hand, as well

Research Informs.

By giving space to research development before designing, the design can be that much more informed,

as it’s solution. Including, the assessment of elements hat need to be considered for developing visual concepts for the design.

allowing the nal product to be proven and held accountable. Without Without it, it i t merely represents the whim

ypes of Research.

of both the designer and the person who chose the

In some cases, just browsing online is adequate. In

concept to go through to development.

others, a six month programme interviewing consumers, executives and collecting industry analyst’s reports is

Larger design rms, like IDEO, IDEO, have groups of

eeded.

individuals that carry out research for their design rojects. As a large design rm they are able to adopt

Specialist rms can help to create workshops, focus

a process that allow these researchers and analysts to

roups, collect secondary research or conduct the

impact the development of concepts.

rimary research for you.

e researchers’ impact might be guidelines in which to

In all cases, the research is there to inform you and

consider concepting or development, or p erhaps rst-

einforce a hypothesis as well as enable you to spend less

hand knowledge of the way current consumers interact

ime further on guessing or relying on your instincts to

with a similar product or give a framework for further investigation.

solve any problems.


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Denition in Design.

Attractive and Useful.

In order to complete the research phase of your design

Ensure that the deliverable created is more informative

rocess, you must draw a conclusion or denition o your activities. Creating denition isn’t easy if embarked upon at the end of the research work, so it is ecommended to begin the research with a hypothesis

han pretty, and not the other way around. e denition work can be a ‘work in progress’ where you can deliver he nal version at the end of the whole project, adding o it style-guides or any additional information collected.

in mind. dditionally, try not to undermine your work by resenting details or content that is too alien for your e What and How of Denition.

e denition of your research is probably best considered the “What” of the “ What is the problem?” art of the work carried out. It is vital to include the How” part par t of “How we’re (you’re) going to x it”. it”. Too Too often the work only reinforces what the client already knows, and says little about how and what will be done o x and improve on the situation. Consider developing a strategy from the denition and working with the client on that before the phase is fully complete.

client to understand: it will be ignored for having no ractical benet to your client’s company. company.


Concept.

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. It Makes You Unique.

e second part of the process of design sees the

What makes designers and design studios unique is the

creation of visual concepts. ese tend to be either in

ability to come up with credible, creative, and original

sketch form or digitally.

concepts from the same information, and to the same roblem as someone else could. It is the ability to have

Clients often like to be taken through the process of

a profound idea and execute on it to produce a concept

your concepts, as that is what makes a designer’s skill

hat is practical, relev ant and a solution to the client’s

nique and attractive, in the ability to visually realize a concept for them.

demands. e research and production or building of he design can all be imitated and done with similar quality of output - but the concepting phase i s where

wo ings to Consider.

you, as a designer, get to leverage your talent and abiliies to make your position unique.

1. Present One Concept.

is is rarely adopted, partly because of the demands of he client, but also because a lack of condence in the designs being presented. Produce millions of concepts, but consider the one direction that the denition of your research indicates the design should go in. Produce variations on a concept and show the one that is ‘right’. igure 20. Being unique.


28

Design is at the End.

e last phase of a project is developing your concepts into the functioning and living design you embarked pon. Whether it is a poster or consumer electronic device, the nal concepts will probably go through a version of prototyping to a nal version for release. e result of this should be a translation of research and analysis, from the continuous collaboration with

gure

. TemplinBrink Designʼs Process illustrations.

he client and designer des igner as a s well as the ecienc ciencyy of the rocess to produce a product or design that both works and succeeds. Here are some illustrations of design processes from other rms:

igure 22. VSA Partnerʼs Process illustrations.


ome nal thoughts on Design.

29

ethods, styles or thinking on the subject. Even if you dedicate yourself to a particular style, like Josef Müller-

1. Don’t add to the problem - be responsible.

In short, solve the problem at hand and deliver the

Brockmann or Tadao Ando, it still requires you to push he boundaries of your study and abilities, as they did.

design solution - don’t add to the problem by making something pretty that doesn’t work.

e constant desire to improve or better your last piece of work will lead you to see new opportunities inside

Look how to make your design purposeful and viable.

every project and every job that comes your way.

Norman Foster, Foster, the architect, is known for once telling a client that they in fact did not need a new building but hat they could solve their problem by rearranging their

3. Take Risks.

However you can, in your day to day work, look for

current space. You You are allowed to do this. Not rearrange

a chance to challenge what is already being assumed.

your client’s clie nt’s oce, but look outside out side the brief br ief to solve

Chris Bangle of BMW responded to BMW’s lagging

he problem. Being responsible simply requires you to consider that what you’re doing will solve a problem and ot create new ones.

sales and position in the market by starting up a BMW design studio in Pasadena, L.A. e studio has o generate at least 50% of its revenue from sources outside to BMW in order to create a better design

. Restless Self-Improvement.

roup for BMW. is was a huge risk for BMW and

One of the dicultie cultiess we face as designers design ers is starting starti ng

Bangle, but paid o in delivering the X5 BMW SUV and

each project fresh, if this is the last or best opportunity

helped BMW become the industry’s second best selling

of our careers. It is constantly necessary for designers o explore outside the industry as well as inside, for new

remium brand in the States.

SO HOW DO YOU DO IT?

Lets take the theory of all this and apply it to a hypothetical scenario..

30

end of a customer’s visit. Sometimes it can be as high as hirty points of service. So in this case, I’m showing you welve points of service for this example - they are listed

In developing a brand strategy there are generally going o be two types of scenarios: 1. ere is an existing brand with equity, a certain

amount of heritage and perhaps existing strategy. With With his, you take what exists, study it and develop it from here. . e other scenario is that you have nothing yet and

have to develop it all from scratch. In this practical example of developing brand strategy here are some twelve or so ‘steps to development’. It is seful to have a list of all the tasks to any development before starting a project so that you can both measure where you are in the process and how successful you’re being. In the restaurant trade, there is often a term called “points of service” where waiting sta have a umber of items that they have to go through before the

overleaf.

SO HOW DO YOU DO IT? - continued.

31

Points of Service. 1. Explain the process of design. Ensure that the client

nderstands the whole process you’re about to embark on. . Begin research for design, business and brand. 3. Deliver research in assessment form for review. . Revise and amend research to develop nal analysis

and Denition. . Present Denition, in the form of various

7. Present strategy to client. . Begin Concept phase of branding and design. . Execute and review naming, identities and branding. 10. Develop Strategic marketing deliverables 11. Review complete system. 12. Deliver Design phase of all assets – and perhaps a

style guide’. 13. Submit nal invoice - got - got out for cocktails/beers.

assessments on brand, business & design. . Begin working on developing strategy from

denition.

igure 23. The suggestion that you might want to have a clipboard for your points of service...


32

So you have been asked to help out and design, develop

Let’s begin.

and show them how to build their brand. is will include an outline of a strategy, showing this person,

1. Explain the process of design.

how to behave in a way to attract a partner – an ideal Imagine, if you will, some non-descript person who

artner, if you will.

doesn’t have much personality, no real identity or any eal purpose to speak of. For the sake of this example,

is person – who we’ll name ‘X’ for the sake of this

his person would look like this:

example, (And probably refer to them as ‘he’ or ‘him’ in the future as it suits our example.) explains that he thinks he needs a brand. He is nding it tough to eet someone and retain any sort of lasting or repeat elationship. It is painful for him and is costing him a lot. Emotionally. You nod condently and pull out a fresh pad of paper, igure 24. This person has no personality.

nd this person, who has no name, aspires to be something else. ey have a slight idea, but need some help in actually becoming what they aspire to be.

and look like you are listening. Try to ask intelligent questions here.


33

Firstly - since he’s signed up, you need to explain to him

it. He’s quite excited, signs a blank cheque and all the

your process for doing things. Outlining the steps from

contracts. You You run to the bank b ank and deposit the cheque.

where he is now to where he wants to be. You are careful

If you were my friend Chris, Chri s, you’d now run home and sit

o explain it in a way he can understand the merit of the

on your bum and play computer games. But since you’re

rocess and his part in it.

X looks at you blankly and waits for an explanation. You explain that without knowledge gathering, you would be developing something that would be just as elevant for anyone else and not just him. As you see him nodding in agreement, you continue to say that you wish to conduct this research, as it will enable you o outline a strategy for him from which he can acquire his target partner. e strategy will be a set of principles and guidelines from which he will direct his behaviour and help him make all emotional and rational decisions. X begins to understand the value of your process, including where he gets to be part of it and help develop

ot, you’ll do something like the following.


34

2. Begin Research.

It is important to remember that research needs to be structured. You You need to design a research program prog ram that will give results that will direct you in further phases of development. A great danger of the organization of esearch is that it is dictated by the information you nd and never ends up with a nal hypothesis or analysis. Firms like McKinsey swear by ‘structured research’ where they have hundreds of three-letter-abbreviations or dierent types of methods and devices for structuring your initial data gathering. As silly as they ight sound, the MECE MEC E or QDT [Mutually Exclusive, Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive or Quick & Dirty Test] can shed some light on how to develop your own tools. e rst thing to do is develop a task list of the main areas of research, being Brand, Business and Design and list below them all the types of activities and area s of information needed to build enough knowledge. e esearch is not necessarily completed in a linear fashion, with areas that will overlap between the main areas.

igure 25. A suggestion of how to look like youʼre conducting research.


our list of activities and areas of research:

35

Target Customer: Someti Sometimes mes di cult to dene de ne – as

clients never like to narrow their segmentation – try Business.

workshops with questionnaires and rooms lled with

Situational Assessment: secondary research, Wall St.

white-boards.

Journal – Hoovers, Edgars etc. Brand ompetitive Landscape: same as above – additionally

ask for the client’s considerations. est Practices: draw up a list of the characteristics and

ypes of activities that make the leading companies

Personality: workshop this – with questionnaires

reviously lled out. Values, features & Benets: workshop this (explained

urther on).

within the industry segment. Value Valu e proposition: prop osition: workshop this. Interviews: customers & employees Positioning: Products, Services & Organization: Mission statement: get from client. Help to ar ticulate.

revious research from client & workshop.

Long-term goals: as above.

Target Customer/Audience: from workshops.

Vision: as above.

Situational assessment – equity, heritage: secondary

esearch, interviews with customers and client.


Design a list of potential elements for design.

36

a brand and the knowledge of how to use it. Since there is also a required result to be gained from the success of

Identity system.

his project, then you can also direct your research into

Branding elements.

nding the best ways to achieve that result. In the event

Web We b site – interactive design.

you didn’t have one set for you – then you would nee d

Signage.

o include research to be able to dene clear success

Wardrobe.

actors. Structure your research so that you don’t nd

Marketing materials. dvertising.

yourself trying to ‘boil the ocean’ in never knowing when enough has been completed.

So with that list of elements and activities you are know

Workshopss and Collaborative Brainstorming. Workshop

in a position to understand how much work there is

is is an invaluable way to gather information and

involved and therefore better equipped to justify the

involve your team and client in creative disturbance.

expense of the whole thing to mister X.

However you must plan and prepare for them, as well as conduct them with condence, otherwise, they’re just

Problem Solving.

un meetings to go to where anyone can speak or doodle.

Essentially, what you’re you’re embarking on is solving X’ X’ss brand problem. So much of your research should be about nding the information needed to help identify X’ss brand and the delivery of a brand strategy. X’ strategy. Start rom a point that you feel condent about, which is that his is a brand problem, specically, the lack of having

igure 26. Someone wearing a brainstorming machine.


IDEO has ve principles for brainstorming: • Stay focused on the topic.

37

Here is some of the research you conducted and resented in analysis form:

• Encourage wild ideas. • Defer judgement.

e Situational Assessment

• Build on the ideas of others. • One conversation at a time. With workshops, success lies in both making sure you have the right activities to do in order to get your information, and that you have all the materials and ools necessary to run and collect information from hose activities. trick is to bring someone extra to just transcribe the

igure

.

n exa examp mp e o

sp ay ng a s tu tuat at ona asses assessme sment nt..

workshops or brainstorming sessions, as you can never do both adequately adequately..

What you understand from this is that there were a lot of people similar to X, although they were somewhat of a dierent colour, but similar size and shape. e one igure 27. r ng one of these along for your own stenographer.

situation seemed to show that there were strong clusters of these similar types of people in specic areas, leaving one quite empty of activity.


Back to Mister X, from the research you had identied he segment that X occupied. Looking up on Hoovers, in their industries and sectors list – you nd that X is squarely in the ‘male amateur services’ sector, along with

38

Best Practices.

From identifying the key players within this segment you were able to list out some of their key attributes that ake them important elements of this analysis.

other people like Chris, Peter and Rupert. e List: 1. Strong and clear personalities. . Blond Hair. 3. Large network of associates. . Creative. . Always wear similar clothing.

To qualify this list, it will be necessary to show scenarios or examples of their success in the industr y segment, for instance, the benets of ‘Peter’ having a large network of associates. igure 29. www.hoovers.com


X identity.

39

e Target Audience or Customer.

Having gained some insight into the position X has

Here, you will actually consider X’s target customer as a

within his industry segment you need to compare and

partner’ partne r’. Techni echnically cally speaking, the Audience refers to

overlap this with additional research. In a way it could

he group or target for advertising and messaging. It sort

be considered external and internal research, with this being the internal research.

of implies a passive role, as opposed to a customer, who akes a purchasing decision or transaction. In this case, ister X will want to attract and retain his audience,

Customer/Company interviews.

being an audience of one. And it would be wise to make

Being that you’re dealing with an indivi dual here you will

sure he doesn’t refer to them as his ‘customer’, at least

eed to interview inter view previous ‘customers’ of X’s and himself

ot to them.

o nd out key attributes, features or characteristics hat you can use in forming a brand and strategy for him. In this case, it is likely you’ll need to get a li st of exirlfriends and talk to his parents.

By asking X who he desires as a ‘customer’, then esearching what that customer typically wants or eeds, and mapping them together will enable you to dene a target customer. is is one of the vital elements

e Value Proposition.

From what you now understand, this can drive a lot of your development later on so try to collect as much information as possible to help build a solid and clear value proposition. Doing this rst by looking to discover who the target customer might be.

of brand positioning, as well as the determinate for developing a benchmark for future development.


e Target Audience or Customer -continued.

In this case, X has describ ed that he wants a youthful,

40

bonus can be from doing this repetitively is that a lot of your research and analysis can be kept on le and

easonably tall brunette, with a silly sense of humour,

easily repurposed for relevant jobs. For instance in the

hat is dangerously close to being childish and is athletic,

event you specialize in developing online commerce

anal about tidiness, can illustrate and use an Apple

sites, a lot of your awareness about shopping trends

Mac™. Aged anywhere from 30 to 31 years old.

online can easily be kept and re-used. So keep all your esearch.

Figure 31. 30. The Target Customer.

You’re wondering if he already has a name and address or her. Unfortunately Unfortunately he doesn’t doe sn’t and your job is i s to nd out what he needs to do to become a brand worth knowing.

suggestion for storage.


41

So you’ve managed to funnel all the raw data into three

mart.

What you’ve been able to do, I am assuming, is interview

ain characteristics of the type of relationship the

as many people as you can nd that t the description X

arget customer is looking for. Surprisingly, it looks a

ave you on the type of customer he’d like to target, and draw up a list of their ‘unmet needs’ and wants etc.

ot like the type of research you’d nd on looking at online consumer shopping – that’s clearly because it is, however, in this case it is also relevant for X’s desirable

Displaying your research in a three circle Venn-diagram,

artner.

we see three clear factors involved in what the target customer wants.

e idea is that X will need to make them feel condence; in control and that the relationship is convenient. All of which will make the target customer eel like they made a smart decision. Inside the circles are all the details and elements that could be mapped specically to each fundamental element.

Figure 32. Chrisʼ favourite type of diagram.


erapy.

42

e Workshop.

ese workshops you’ve been running might feel a lot

If you could be a car, what type of car would you be?

ike group therapy sessions. Which is good. It means

If you could be an actor, what type of actor would you

you’re on the right track. So much of brand strategy

be? Do you have severe bouts of depression? Okay

is based upon making an emotional and personal

- don’t ask the last one, we don’t need to determine

connection with a customer, which is why we cannot simply have this dictated solely by business strategy.

ister X’s exact psychological prole. But this exercise begins to help us understand how X would like to be erceived. I can’t include all the information here - and

e new therapy sessions you have to embark on are oing to be based on personality, features and benets. Sort of like how many brand books describe those Volvo

so will proceed to the results. Do make sure that in all workshops you have the necessary decision makers resent.

case studies or Johnny Walker ones – you have to be able o do the same here. So you begin by the personality test. I generally chose to ask the questions face to face. I nd that chief executives will treat form lling or questionnaires with the same dedication they do as discussing sta 401k retirement lans. So prepare to run a workshop where you have someone transcribe all the dialogue.

igure 33. A suggestion of how to awkwardly sit during therapy.


You end up with a good enough list from X, having spent the best part of a day cross-examining him. You challenged him on everything he delivered, ensuring hat he meant it all and could very clearly articulate core values and distinct features.

43

One thing to remember here is that the client, unless hey’ve been through this before, will want to cram everything they can into this exercise. Sort of like how hey stuck in that thing about Mallory and Irvine. So you will constantly need to trim this back whilst keeping the essence of what they’re saying intact.

is is the list you have at the end of the day: Country of Origin: England Emotional Benets: Sensitive, and regressive. elf-expressive benets: Condence, acts like he’s Don

Johnson. Brand/Customer relationship: Companion/Friend. Features: Has all ngers and necessary limbs. alues: Believes in monogamy, Helvetica is a lifestyle,

Black and White movies and that Mallory & Irvine did summit. Attributes: Worldly, Consultative and thought-leader.

(Everyone will want that last one, so throw it in.) gure

. A suggestion of how to stand on the top of Everest.


44

e Value proposition that you can determine out of this

So this is good progress. With a rm understanding

could run something like this:

of the current external market and a knowledge of the arget customers’ needs and general moods, as well as

With exceptional good looks, charm and distinct sense of

arrowing down the type of person X is and could be,

umour, X provides a sense of companionship, condence

you are getting closer to being able to deliver denition.

nd the feeling of being smart through being attentive, elicately patronizing and washing regularly. It’ss not set in stone – but you get to bre ak it down It’ explaining it to the client: Audience : Female. Dierentiation: Exceptional looks, distinct humour and

cleanliness. Functional Features: provision of the sense of

companionship. Emotional Benet: Feeling of condence and of being

smart. alue Gained: companionship.


Positioning

How does X retain a clear and strong position in his audience’ss mind? When the time comes, are they going audience’ o be able to recall the X brand and position it favorably against other similar named brands in their minds?

45

is next area of research would normally be a little ore consistent than what we’re going to do here. For his example of developing brand strategy, where I chose X to be concerned with nding a par tner and not ore business, it makes my next example of research a ittle dierent than you’d you’d experience if doing this for a

To determine the positioning that X needs, you take

company.. e principles are the same, I just have to b e company

his target customer and the dierentiation X will adopt

vague because of my example.

within his competition and the type of messaging that is ecessary to resonate with that audience or customer. customer.

Business.

Remember that you are going to learn what X’s lifeline’s lifeline’s In this case - you’re going to leave nalizing the ositioning until you begin to work on the branding elements.

are and how he makes his money. Also remembering hat creating a brand is also about creating the way in which someone like X needs to behave, to ensure continuous and successful business. So you ask him questions about how he makes his living and how he ight support a long-term relationship with his ideal arget customer. He’s a a graphic designer.

Figure 35. A row of people looking just like X.


46

Oh well’ - you think, perhaps we can look at some

What business is the brand in?

of the hidden capabilities he has, that might increase

In the way that Starbucks is in the business of Coee,

his chances of becoming successful and not stuck

and selling it, its brand is in fact in the business of “the

reelancing the rest of his life.

ird Place” (as in there are three places a consumer ight spend their time primarily, as se en by Starbucks’

You learn that as X is a graphic g raphic designer you have a

esearch, esear ch, Home, O ce and “the coee coe e shop”) from

ot scope to build a brand that both express that to his

home. Understanding this helps you construct levels of

clients but also to his potential target customer. Now

services that reinforce the brands position in that place

you understand why he thinks Helvetica is a way of life

of business. It also act s as the dierentiator, without yet

and that it might be important to keep as a value.

adding in the actual features and benets of the service or product. In this example, X is actually in the business

You ensure that X has the means and ability to provide

of design and his brand is (separated from that) the

what he claims he can to his target customer, and

business of companionship.

hat there will not be any conict in how he wishes to conduct business now and in the future, and with how he wishes to be perceived. A lot of this can be through earning about his vision for his business, goals and his view of the future.

igure 36. Doesnʼt this look like Starbucksʼ logo?


Assessments for Denition

So far, we’re only between the third and fth points of service, as listed previously. You You still need to take all his research and begin forming your assessments and analysis for presentation.

47

ister X, has a limited attention span and will not ead seventy pages of analysis on himself just because you gave it to him. However, if you made a pretty resentation of the ndings and attached a slim booklet o it, it might come across much better and actually stick. An old favorite at marketing rms is to attach

For interactive work – I’ve often laid out my a ssessments in the following categories:

he Madonna track ‘Ray of Li ght’ to the presentation - it makes sense, but you do need to be specic to your audience.

•

Business and Brand Objectives

•

Brand Assessment

•

Creative Assessment – visual and style.

•

Information De Design:

•

Information Architecture

•

Usability

•

Content Strategy

•

Functionality Assessment

•

Technology Assessment nd at design rms like Studio Archetype we would

deliver this in the form of a Denition Document. What is important to consider is that your client, in this case

igure 37. What your Definition Document could look like.


e What and How.

48

attractive, like if you were at Sapient or McKinsey, you’d you’d

You must also be clear that whilst this presentation of

slap a title on it, in 72pt: ‘Developing a Rapid Response

assessments may feel like “What” he already knows, it

Culture’ or ‘Creation of Involvement Opportunities’. Yes

will be accompanied by the “How” he needs to behave,

- I’m being rude here.

implement and perhaps manage himself. In this ca se, X ust consider this presentation to be a working session,

Based upon X’s value proposition:

where you get feedback on your research and rene it o be able to develop clear guidelines and principles

With exceptional good looks, charm and distinct sense of

or business behavior. You explain to him that the next

umour, X provides a sense of companionship, condence

session will be to deliver a strategy for his success. X is,

nd the feeling of being smart through being attentive,

aturally,, very pleased aturally plea sed with your work and thus, so are

elicately patronizing and washing regularly.

you. you outline some of the key princi ples that could e Strategy.

Remembering that strategy is essentially a set of uidelines by which you conduct your business, activities or life, in order to be competitive, successful or stay alive, you decide upon a Dierentiation Enhancement Strategy. Simply put, you’re going o articulate guidelines for being clearly dierent, whilst enhancing the value and benets available. You ight want to wrap that up in something that sounds

overn a successful strategy for success:


ere is a belief that there should not be more than hree or four governing principles for any given strategy. Too many and you begin begi n to get conict between b etween them,

49

However - you y ou have to remember, rememb er, it is extremely di cult or brands to successfully face multiple audiences with he exact same positioning.

with the lines of dierentiation blurring. In this case, you’ve taken from all that you’ve learnt about X, and in an exhaustive working session with your colleagues , you’ve narrowed it down to the above three things. dditionally, you need to consider that these rules are only the rules for the current state of business, the osition X is currently in and in regards to where he wishes to be. As things change, so might the rules, or ew ones developed for specic activities. In some cases, you might nd that the brand has to be able to talk to several dierent audiences – like perhaps X needs to have a position for his parents as well as his otential partner. For For this exercise you would need to do he same type of work, but extend it where necessary for he dierent positioning.

igure 38. A cube. The faces of the cube cannot be clearly seen unless orientated directly towards you. This cube has different faces to illustrate a single object showing different sides.


Whilst the fundamentals may all be the same, a dierent

50

So you take those three things and list them with some

ace is often necessary for each dierent audience.

detail for a presentation. Your Your presentation may need

dditionally, changing behavior and the image can

specic details, illustrations or expected results from

be di cult to manage mana ge for each audience. audi ence. Its not to say it cannot be done, often a brand can oer services

he rules chosen – be as creative as you can in telling the story here.

or products to two dierent type s of customers. For instance, airlines often have upper and coach class

peaking Plain English.

services and they might deliver separate messages to

Speak in plain English language. Don’t hide behind

he two customer audiences but keep the same brand

jargon, complicated words or look like you don’t know

undamentals.

what you’re speaking about. is appearance of b eing open and honest will add to the general brand attraction. dditionally, it has been said than an English accent akes an impression that you’re smarter than you really are. Tell this to X anyway.


Wear a uniform.

51

igure 40. These are the books X should read.

Consistency in presentation. e appearance of a consistent style and design will strengthen your ositioning. It also seems to be dependable and makes it convenient in choosing what to wear. Being a designer it is suggested that you wear the colour black .

Read a lot.

is will appear that you are knowledgeable, smart and herefore any partnership must reect positively on this. It will make the target customer feel smart for choosing he X brand and the books lying around will convey an image of thoughtfulness and deep intellect. It is suggested to use both design and antique rare books as rops as they give the impression of wealth, the interest in classics as well as look pretty. is rule helps to build he position of being in control, and thus translates o the customer feeling they have a part of that when interacting with the brand. gure

.

uniform - though not black.


Your presentation must show that the combination of hose rules, when acted upon in dierent scenarios, will deliver successful results every time.

52

Naming.

rmed with your list of things needing to be designed you rst need to get mister X named. is is a ysterious side of the design business, where perfectly

Good luck.

easonable people make insane amounts of money to ame products, services and brands. Even though you

Use-Case Scenarios.

When moving into the concept phase, you might want o develop use-case scenarios to determine the dierent ypes of interactions a typical target customer might have with X. Using these in the presentation of the

ight think you can come up with a perfectly reasonable ame, be warned, Monday, QuinetiQ, Tuesday Tuesday and ccenture are already taken, so you call up a naming agency. Perhaps Master McNeil in the San Francisco Bay rea. For me, this process is always an eye-opener.

strategy will help illustrate your strategy, and will be seful further down the line. So now you’re at the eighth point of service and you can begin the concept phase of branding and design.

igure 41. A name tag.


You thought that having gone through the exhaustive esearch phase yourself and having it approved by the client would be enough for the naming agency, but

53

It might not be as a s short as that – but that is what you’ll ake away with you. You’ll You’ll also make it clear to X that it isn’t really important what he calls himself, but i n

hey’ll want to conduct their own version and ask a lot of

his stage of the process it is relevant to consider what

he same questions themselves. Only this time doing it

ot to call himself. You try to explain to him that the

wice as fast as you did and pay attention to about half of

eason why Levis or Kodak seem to work as great names

what you did. It becomes your belief that this is simply o all them to charge so much for the administrative job hey essentially have ahead of them.

is because we’ve been living with them for more than fty years of brand messaging, advertising and product lacement in our lives - so just saying the name conjures p an entire brand image, not just by the name itself.

However,, they should give you a presentation during all However of this of the dierent types of names. It won’t look as retty as yours and will have lots of words. uggestive: Platinum Card. Arbitrary: Motorola Descriptive: LaserJet

lso, it is important to warn X that you can either choose a name by what’ what’ss available online or rst and oremost by what suits him.


fter about six weeks your naming company will get back to you. ere’s only going to be about se ven of

54

So you take the name - scribble out an eighty-six housand dollar cheque and take your scrap of paper.

hem in the rm, so they’re in fact all busy drinking cocktails, driving up to Burning Man and playing Halo ive on the X-box whilst you think they’re crunching databases of available names and holding eight-hour internal brainstorming sessions. is is what they resent to you:

Branding

You’ve decided that since the use of the brand is going o be pretty targeted with no real need for extensions or

Rudolph

subbrands that you can aord to simply have a logotype

insley

developed and concentrate on the elements most

PowerOne

eeded for his hi s acquisition of the target customer.

Lucent PhotoShoppe Damien

Knowing exactly how X, I mean, Damien is going to se the brand and live with it is vital here. Will he need

Sara

it stitched onto his clothes and running shoes; will it

Palm V

work in a monotype signature in his email footers? Since you’re not letting him wear running shoes any

nd you immediately get a sense of being ripped o. But one name stands out, perhaps because they coloured it in red.

ore, unless for running, you certainly are not going to stitch his name on to leather shoes. But understanding he functionality here is important to knowing how to design the identity system.


Present One Concept.

55

You design the following as a concept:

Do hundreds. You might need to. But present only one. It will reside on you having the condence to do so, but with the story you’ve developed so far, you should have little problem in convincing Damien that there is only one direction to take. It’s a trap to show anything ore than two possible directions, Damien is going to ely on you for your expertise and to show too many will cause Damien to fall back on what he thinks looks he best, not necessarily what his target customer ight think looks the best . Additionally, your job gets incrementally increme ntally more di cult as you will have to explain explai n hat all of the concepts e qually have the same amount of elevance and purpose for this endeavor. Since writing his Guide, I’ve been trying to nd the rm online that

igure 42. Thatʼs not me. Iʼm fatter than that.

boasted how it showed its client 119 dierent concepts a week before Christmas. We Well, ll, if that isn’t a way to put a client in hospital, I don’t know what is. Imagine all the

In your presentation to Damien, you explain that this

brands a client has been bombarded with a week before

identity system has the ability to leverage messaging

Christmas.

hat speaks to the needs of the target audience, such as Freedom, Commitment, Condence and unlimited credit at all Gap Inc. owned stores.


Luckily, it’s not your job to make this happen. It now oes into a strategic marketing phase where the question

56

is might be relevant for a Direct mailing campaign or even a mix of radio, broadcast and print. ey’re

of PR vs. Advertising to build the brand is posed and

invariably tested in US towns like Fresno and rigidly

dierent devices of marketing communications might

kept to plans with measurable results.

be used. I list the eight commonly used elements of a strategic marketing plan so that you can see how similar he work conducted is to the research you completed on Damien.

PR versus Advertising.

e argument of PR vs. Advertising is probably best eenacted by an Advertising account manager and

-

Corporate Objectives

comparable PR associate where you try to dene the

-

Marketing Audit

better activity to build a brand. It is commonly held

-

SWOT analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses,

hat PR can make a brand and Advertising reinforces

Opportunities. reats.

it. For instance, an event or actual experience of the

-

Assumptions

brand is what literally denes it in the customers’ or

-

Marketing objectives and strategies.

audiences’ minds. Advertising can introduce a brand

-

Estimated expected results

but it probably cannot convince the customer to make a

-

Alternative plans and mixes

urchasing decision. Pepsi dropping star endorsements

-

Programmes

-

Measurement and review.

because of the star’s actions or recent activities does ore to create a position p osition in the consumer’s mind than he advertising which just reminds you of the news item you just watched on Madonna getting dropped or Ludicrus being replaced by the Osbornes.


If that argument gets too heated, interject that none of

57

essaging.

hem exist without the brand to work with in the rst

is is the communication of the messages that you

lace and leave before they realize that you didn’t really

express through the brand in the form of marketing

oer anything useful there. Or suggest that they read

communications, advertising or branding, to the target

some of Al Ries’ writings for further information on the

audience. What is interesting here is that se venty to

opic.

inety percent of visual communication is non-verbal, in hat visual imagery has been shown to be more powerful in aecting perceptions and memory, especially when working with visual metaphors. Gerald Zaltman, from Harvard pushes a concept of “verbocentric” thinking hat aims to narrow the linguistic gap between the arketer and the marketed. And unfortunately it all reads about as friendly as that last sentence too. However, he has more to say on the matter of consumer behaviour in his research in psychology and linguistics.


o StyleGuide or not to Guide Style?

58

In the corporate world, preparing a styleguide can be

So, we’re nishing up with your client Damien. You

considered a job barely a step up from setting type on

completed eld studies, workshops and brainstorming

coupons, but it needn’t be. Consider it to be your last

sessions to produce mile-high stacks of paperwork in the

opportunity to make the client recognize the value

esearch of what he is, wants to be and how to get there. You constructed an incredibly simple plan of action and

ained in managing and building the brand consistently and carefully ca refully..

worked with him to adopt it. en you delivered a clean, simple and clear identity system that he could wear and use in his pursuit for success and happiness. So are you simply going to say goodbye and le ave it to him to anage it without instruction? Perhaps not - after all, you’re not a designer for nothing. In fact, all along, you’ve been dropping completed assets and approved statements into a single do cument, and ow at the end of your process, you’re to deliver the nal version of the Denition Doc ument which contains a anual of style for him. It’s the reference book for his behavior and instructions on how to be with a target customer.

at’s it for the step by step process.

WHO’S WHO

59

I’ve quoted and referenced work from dierent people hroughout this guide. It might be interesting to lear n ore about some of them. So I put together this short who’s who’ of this Guide. I apolog ize for trying to cram in some incredibly lively and accomplished careers into he small paragraphs that I have done. e suggested reading list, further on, will list some of heir published titles. No one paid one paid to to get into this Who’s Who. Just so you know.

WHO’S WHO - continued.

Noted People.

60

hris Bangle

merican born Head of Design for the BMW group, avid Aaker

Bangle has been largely responsible for turning the

Professor Emeritus at the Haas School of Business,

success of the rm around through its design of new

University of California, Berkeley, Vice Chairman of

cars. BMW bought the rm Designworks/USA in 1995,

Prophet - a strategic brand consultancy. Has written

which is in L.A. USA. Bangle has used the outside design

early a dozen books, of which ‘Building Strong Brands’

studio, which has to generate 50% of its revenue from

is possibly the most widely known. Often considered the

outside sources, to revitalize the product line, with items

expert on brand strategy.

such as the Henrik Fisker designed Z Roadster Roadster.. (Fisker has been quoted as saying: “If design i sn’t protable,

adao Ando

hen it’s art.” Fast Company, March 2000)

Born in Osaka, Japan, Ando taught himself about architecture from reading and traveling. At the age

ussell W. Belk

of 29 he set up his practice and twenty ve years later

N. Eldon Tanner Professor of Business, University of

he was the recipient of the Priztker prize. His work is

Utah. Belk has published many books - almost as many

easily identiable by the simple geometric shapes he

as Aaker I think, and specializes in consumer behaviour

ses as well as a s the consistent use of materials/elements - cement, wood and light. Great pieces are his Church of the Light, in Japan, and his meditation room for UNESCO, in Paris, France.

and marketing. I am afraid I don’t know much about him ersonally.


osef Müller Müller-Brockmann -Brockmann

61

ord Norman Foster

Pioneer of Swiss Graphic Design. De sign. Müller-Brockmann’s Müller-Brockmann’s

Here it becomes painful to limit a forty year career in

book, Grid Systems in Graphic Design is every wannabe

such a short space. One of the UK’s most prestigious

raphic designer’s reference bible until they grow out of using Helvetica. His work still holds today as solid eference pieces in communication and design. I am a

architects, Foster became the 21st Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate. He was knighted by the Queen of England in 1990 and given life peerage in 1999. He

sucker for his Beethoven Be ethoven concert poster, Zurich Tonhalle Tonhalle

originally started a practice in 1963 with another, now

- 1955. And I eventually found Grid Systems in William-

equally prestigious architect, Richard Rogers. Some four

Stout bookstore in San Francisco, and Magma Books in

years later he established Foster and Partners where

London.

Foster built the £650m skyscraper for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters, having previously

hris Ford

designed and built nothing taller than four stories. e

UK based designer, specializing in interactive design

brief apparently called for “the best bank building in the

and information architecture. Founding partner of one

world”. e practice, is currently working on the largest

of the UK’s largest online recruiters, PlanetRecruit.com

construction project in the world, Hong Kong’s new

- Chris now lives and works in Brighton, UK. When

airport. Foster has a habit of ying his own airplanes and

he’s not working on projects for some of the largest UK companies, he’s swearing at me through one-liner emails.

eportedly has his license to y 747s.


Steve Jobs

pple Computer Inc’s CEO, which he founded in 1976, as well as being the CEO of Pixar, the animation studios.

62

Mallory & Irvine

e question of, “Did they summit Everest?” remains, o this day unanswered. In June 1924, George Mallory

Since most of the audience reading this Guide use and

and ‘Sandy’ Irvine were never to return from making a

buy Apple products, I guess I don’t have to say any more

bid to summit from the Se cond Step on Mount Everest.

here.

Mallory had previously previ ously tried two attempts without oxygen assistance, on the third he brought 22 year old

on Johnson

Irvine, with oxygen tanks. A few years back, Mallory’s

ctor.. Made some fty odd ctor o dd movies, most notable

body was found but with no further clues as to the

erformances have been in the critically acclaimed

success of the summit attempt or not. Recently, it was

vehicles, such as - Harley Davidson and the Marlboro

announced that there is now an internet cafe at one of

Man and Miami Vice. e TV series Nash Bridges was

he base camps on Mount Everest.

cancelled in the last year or so. I once walked through he lming of an episode, in downtown San Francisco, Francisco, completely unaware of what was happening, because I was distracted by all the food that was out on display for he actors to eat.

om Mecklen

s hard as I try, I still cannot nd any information on his gentleman - perhaps someone can illuminate me on o this person’s history so far?


lement Mok

63

Michael Porter

Currently President of the AIGA National Board,

Michael E. Porter is the Bishop William Lawrence

Clement Mok is a designer, author, and entrepreneur.

University Professor, Professor, based at Harvard Business School.

Mok worked at Apple as Creative Director, overseeing

Porter is a leading authority on competitive strategy

he launch of the Apple Macintosh and eventually went on to form his own design rm which became Studio rchetype. Studio Archetype’s portfolio included utting UPS online, the IBM sponsored Nagano Olympic sites, and the most visited site, at that time, on he net, the IBM I BM Chess site. Along the way, Mok also

and the competitiveness and economic de velopment of ations, states, and regions. Porter has more academic qualications than Aaker, Aaker, Chris and Don Johnson ut together and his books, especially ‘Competitive dvantage’, lead the reading lists of most MBA courses. Oddly enough, I think Porter rst studied mechanical

started up e Royalty Free Stock images company company,,

engineering, at university - perhaps he was considering

CMCD and technology company, NetObjects. Mok

being an architect?

ecently ser ved as the Chief Creative Cre ative O cer of Sapient, Sapient , when they bought Studio Archetype in 1999. I don’t get he impression that he ever sleeps.

l Ries

Coined the term Positioning with Tro Trout, ut, and has ublished many books and papers around the topic. Ries’ most notable achievements would be writing a book that sounds like he’s actually shouting it at you, entitled, e 22 Immutable Laws of Branding. Rie s runs a consultancy rm, with his daughter Laura, in Atlanta.


ack Trout

64

Noted Firms/Organizations and X-Box Game.

e marketing strategist who co-authored the Positioning papers and books with Ries. Trout also

ccenture

authored the oddly familiarly titled book, e 22

Formerly known as Andersen Consulting, this large-

Immutable Laws of Marketing, as well a s many others.

scale consulting services rm changed its name shortly

nd as far as I am aware, he doesn’t have anything anything to

before the massive corporate scandals brought down

do with the Jack Trout International Fly Fishing tagline,

its former parent company Arthur Andersen. A bitter

ink like a sh, look like a bug...”.

egal battle formed around the use of the parent name, and in the end, the now named Accenture was unable to

erald Zaltman

everage the equity it had built in Andersen Consulting

Harvard Professor of business, Zaltman specializes in

and had to rebuild its brand from scratch.

buyer behaviour and how managers use information i n

> www.accenture.com

earning about markets. Zaltman developed the ZMET esearch tool, which specically looks at the mental odels underlying customer behaviour. Zaltman is often eferred to as, “Gerry” Zaltman.

urning Man

celebration/festival that started on San Francisco’s Baker Beach in 1986. Eventually Eventually it was moved, so that he growing growi ng masses masse s could burn a huge e gy of a wicker an, and prance around semi-naked for days in the rivacy of a huge desert - somewhere outside of the city. I’ve never been.


esign Internation International/USA al/USA

65

DEO

e product design and architecture rm, owned by

Specialists in human factors, psychology, business,

BMW but still portions much of its services to outside

design, engineering and manufacturing. e design

clients and industry. industr y.

consultancy that gave us the rst laptop, the mouse,

> www.designinternationalu w ww.designinternationalusa.com sa.com

Palm V and many other innovations. Formed by the erging of Moggridge associates a ssociates in London, ID Two

iphthong

n outstanding Interactive Design rm based in

in San Francisco, and Matrix in Palo Alto. Moggridge amed the new company IDEO. On a side note - it was

Singapore. e rm’s current web site hosts the

Moggridge who designed the GriD Systems laptop and

information about dierent types of identities listed on

at the time coined the term, ‘Interaction Design’.

age: 16. eir work has been proled by Macromedia

> www.ideo.com

sia, Digitalread and Surfstation online. > www.dipht w ww.diphthong.com hong.com

Master McNeil

naming rm headquartered out of the East Bay here Halo

Truth and Reconciliation’. Bungie’s amazing multiplayer ame for Microsoft’s X Box. I have to admit that I played

in San Francisco. Most notable names have been PayPal, riba and FirePower. > www.naming.com

he whole game, from beginning to end. > www.bu ww w.bungie.net/halo ngie.net/halo

McKinsey

nother one of the top management consultant rms on he planet. Who haven’ haven’tt had to change their name. > www.mckinsey.com


Monday

e briey named management consultancy

66

Sapient

leading business and technology consultancy

rm that was desperate to shed its ties to

with o ces around the globe g lobe and an d some 1,500 sta.

PricewaterhouseCoopers. Formerly PwC Consulting, the

Responsible for buying up Studio Archetype, and other

company rebranded the rst day of the week, Monday

rms, to remove their purple logo and shape themselves

or itself and launched the identity some thirty days

o dominate their industry.

before it was announced that it had sold itself to IBM. It ow exists as IBM Global Services. e UK rm Wol Olins handled the rebranding.

Stone Yamashita Partners

e thirty strong, brand/marketing/seismic change agents based in San Francisco. eir work with HP

uinetiQ

showcases their ability to mobilize large corporations

I just had to include this in here, as this has to be an

around a single focus. ey like to use words, videos and

example of someone taking the piss out of the process

strong colors in their deliverables - apparently apparently..

of branding. is silly name in fact is a UK government

> www.st ww w.stoneyamashita.com oneyamashita.com

initiative to fuel commercial activity wi thin government defense research. > www.quinetiq.c www.quinetiq.com om

Studio Archetype

t it’s peak, the Studio was regarded to be the leading interactive design rm in its industry. e studio used

Starbucks

I’m not sure, but I think they’re a Seattle Coee company.

Mok’s DADI DADI (Dene, Architect, Design, Implement) ethodology in delivering brand and design solutions o rms like, UPS, IBM, SUN, Adobe, Apple, Eudora, Caterpillar, and Revo.


emplin Brink Design

small San Francisco based design studio, started by

67

SA Partners

is hardcore strategic marketing, brand and design

Joel Templin Templin and Gaby Brink. eir work is a mixture

rm based in Chicago can boast that it produced March

of brand and marketing collateral and is diverse and

First’s identity and web site. VSA’s success at designing

detailed as you’ you’d d expect from such accomplished

annual reports must give Cahan Associates something

creatives. I especially like their Brand Book idea, as a

o be worried about. Cahan’s Ass. (I had to write that)

deliverable as part of their collaborative process, and

win virtually every award for designing annual reports,

it was their branding system for the winery Kelham-

and are based here in the Bay Area.

Maclean which brought my attention to them. e wine

> www.vsapartners.com

is pretty special too.

> www.cahanassociates.com

> www.templ www.templinbrinkdesign.com inbrinkdesign.com ike uesday

lledgedly this is another named and branded consultancy in Asia, which was also named and branded by Wol Ollins. I kid you not.

global marketing rm which sells shoes and clothing.

SUGGESTED R EAD EADING ING

ere is more to read on the topics covered in this guide han I could possibly know about, which would include

68

e 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, Al Ries and Laura Ries

everything written in a language outside of English. Positioning is unorganized list is simply some of the titles I used

Marketing Warfare

or information or details for this guide and others I

Al Ries and Jack Trout

ound interesting. Its not the denitive list, but more of an introductory one, to the subject.

e New Positioning ack Trout

arketing, Brand and Brand Strategy.

Strategic Brand Management e Handbook of Brand Management

Kevin Lane Keller

David Arnold. Marketing Strategy New Rules for the New Economy

Steven P. Schnaars

Kevin Kelly Brands, e New Wealth Creators Brand Leadership

e Future of Brands

Building Strong Brands

Interbrand

David A. Aaker Simplicity Marketing Steven M. Cristol and Peter Sealey

SUGGE STED READING - continued. continued.

69

Marketing Aesthetics

e New Guide to Identity

Schmitt and Simonson

Wolff Olins

TechnoBrands

No Logo

Chuck Pettis

Naomi Klein

Band Asset Management Scott M. Davis

trategy, Innovation and Management Titles.

Building Brand Identity

Competitive Advantage.

Lynn B. Upshaw

On Competition. Strategy: Seeking and Securing Competitive Advantage.

e Brand Mindset

Competitive Strategy.

Duane E. Knapp

Interbrand Choice, Strategy and Bilateral Market Power. Power. ll ve by Michael Michael E. Porter

Warp-speed Branding Agnieszka M. Winkler

e Essential Drucker Drucker,, Peter F. Drucker

On Brand Management Harvard Business Review

e Inmates are Running the Asylum, Alan Cooper


70

e Strategy-Focused Organization Kaplan and Norton

e Timeless Way of Building Christopher Alexander

e McKinsey Mind Rasiel and Friga

Information Design Edited by Jacobson by Jacobson

e Cluetrain Manifesto Levine, Locke, Searls, Wein Weinberger berger

e Design of Everyday ings Donald A. Norman

e Invisible Computer Donald A. Norman

Joseph Müller-Brock Müller-Brockmann mann Lars Müller

e Art of Innovation om Kelley

Grid Systems in Graphic Design oseph Müller-Brockma Müller-Brockmann nn

Design Titles.

Designing Business Clement Mok

e Visual Display of Quantitative Information Envisioning Information

What is a Designer

Visual Explanations

Norman Potter

Edward Tufte


e Education of a Graphic Designer Steven Heller Marks of Excellence Per Mollerup Design Writing Research Lupton, Miller I am Almost Always Hungry Cahan Associates Soak Wash Rinse Spin olleson Design Designing Books Hochuli, Kinross

71

AFTERWORD & THANKS.

72

Wow - I’m impressed you made it this far. Or did

I’d like to ank:

you simply ick through to the end to see if you’re

I have to thank Sara, who has lived with this document

entioned here?

or longer than she cares to recall. She read it numerous imes and listened to me rant on about this topic

s stated in the beginning, this is a draft and something hat I wish to continue to evolve, with the hope to bring

constantly.. And she also gave me some forty odd constantly illustrations for this Guide too.

out a complete version of a Guide to BS for designers. So I encourage feedback and suggestions of areas to have ore depth in, or elements you would like to read more about.

My father, father, William Newman, was the orig inal person to suggest I wrote this as a book. I gured that since he’s written three himself, he’d be in a p osition to reliably suggest so.

is current version has to be considered as a draft simply because I’ve been unable to gather as much

Daniel Sturdy always pushed me to write, which makes

information as I’d have liked on the topic or receive

ittle sense to me, as it must be as uncomfortable to read

ermission to use all the content that I’ve collected.

y writing as it is for me to wr ite it. But thank you.

I plan to continue to work on this, and pursue my own

Chris Ford, who is gratuitously mentioned throughout

case studies to be able to publish in parts and in full

is a friend and colleague with whom I’ve the typical

sequence over the coming months.

English relationship where we do nothing but swear at each other. He edited this too.

If you’d you’d like to learn more, or get in touch, please see the web site at : www.mdnstudio.com/t36 www.mdnstudio.com/t36

nd my sister, Chantal who simply writes better than i .

CREDITS

73

. 7 A Brand is the expression...”: Chris Ford, in

. 21 “Design without research...”: Chris Ford, in

ommunication with mdn.

ommunication with mdn.

. 7 All Remaining quotes: he Future of Brands, by

ig 21 p. 24 Artwork reprinted courtesy of TemplinBrink

Interbrand. ig 5. p. 8 Artwork reprinted courtesy of American

Express and Visa. ig 6. p. 9 Artwork reprinted courtesy of Audi. . 9 “at we are what we have...”: Gerald Zaltman,

Possessions and the Extended Self. Journal of Consumer Research 1988. p.139 . 12 “Being all things...”: Michael things...”: Michael Porter, Competitive

Advantage 1985. p.12 ig 9-16. p. 16 Artwork reprinted with permission by

Diphthong, Singapore. . 17 Description of strategy. Michael Porter, ‘What

Design. ig 22 p. 24 Artwork reprinted courtesy of VSA Partners. . 25 Norman Foster - gathered - gathered from On Foster... Foster

On. 2000 . 25 Chris Bangle - Information - Information gathered largely from

online sources including Fast Company and BMW. . 30 McKinsey - Information - Information gathered largely from e

McKinsey McKins ey Mind, Rasiel and Friga. . 33 IDEO principles - Don’t - Don’t remember - try e Art of

Innovation, Tom Kelly. ig 29. p. 34 Artwork reprinted courtesy of Hoovers. . 39 Mallory & Irvine - Drawn - Drawn from conversations with

is Strategy’, Harvard Business Review November -

y father, from having met Mallory’s Great Grandsons

December 1996

nd read numerous books.

ig 18. p. 19 Artwork reprinted courtesy of Dell. . 20 “Design is inherently...”: Tom Mecklen, saw in the

signature of an email. . 20 “Design should be used as a verb”: Clement Mok,

used with permission.

. 43 Studio Archetype & p. 44 Sapient & p.48 Master-

McNeil - Drawn - Drawn from having worked for and with t hese rms.

COLOPHON

is was not published in the explicit terms of

74

Equipment Used:

ublishing, but perhaps so by the mere fact I’ve put it

pple Powerbook G4

ogether and distributed it for free.

pple Powerbook Pismo G4 HP LaserJet 1200 series

Layout and Design:

dobe InDesign 2.01

Mitsubishi Diamondtron Diamon Plus pple iPod

dobe Illustrator 10

Hand crafted beaker from Chris Keenan

dobe Photoshop 7

Bialetti Espresso Coee maker... really.

ype used:

dobe Pro Warnock + Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk Illustrations:

Sara Burgess Editing:

Sara Burgess, Chris Ford. Digital Document Format:

dobe Acrobat

Written in:

e United kingdom & United States

The Designer's Guide to Brand Strategy

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