TheSis

(Reference: "Designing Brand Experiences" by Robin Landa)

- As industrial growth continued, branding was a necessity for effective advertising and marketing. Products and services today are entities with their own names, visual identities and aesthetic systems. Anything that is branded today, from cars to financial services, from food to people and personalities, are accompanied with a sensory experience. A potential consumer sees the shapes, colors and specific typography of their trademark or logo, visits their corporate spaces, touches their packaging and feels their identities, values, personas and styles. Designers are the bridge between the producers or manufacturers and the public, the potential buyers. They cooperate with advertisers and marketeers so that the brands can be heard.

- With the rise of mass media, the role of branding and communication design became more complex. A unified visual identification system, not only communicated a specific brand, but united the character of the company behind the brand in a professional manner, creating a corporate identity. New magazines and plenty of newspapers, radio and television, called for a new design approach to branding: A cohesive and consistent visual system image is essential for every respectful brand. With print, now being just a part of a broader communication platform, the vision of the first American advertising agency, N.W. Ayer & Son, became a reality: up to this day designers and communicators are striving to create successful "integrated branding experiences".

- "Products are made in the factory; brands are created in the mind." - Walter Landor

- What are the "ingredients" of a traditional brand:

----The characteristics of a brand (product, name, physical features, emotional assets, cultural associations.)

----The brand identity (design issues, visual and verbal assets, integrated design materials, memorable public face)

---- The audience's ongoing perception of the brand (the consumers, global, national or local that receive the experience). The audience decides which brand to consume. Brands create brand promises. Nowadays, the audience has more power than before, through communication skills, internet, consumer communities. So, brands are focusing more and more on the public's opinion.