The New Brand Experience

Brand design, creating brand identities, brand experiences and visually integrated campaigns are created by graphic designers, creative and branding companies, advertising agencies, interaction and motion design firms. But with the marketing world switching towards a more consumer based, open dialog with the companies, will brands consider to form groups of consumers so they would, consciously or subconsciously, form a branding experience. The brand target group becomes a fan club that not only inform other consumers to follow their brand, but advertise a unique attitude. Aspects of the above are seen today as well. Designers create a specific language style, visual context, even color palette. They deliver this mysterious brand package to the public, and let the brand grow through its fans.

Types of Branding

consumer / corporate / digital / organizations, cause related / global, cultural / branded environment.

Branding process:
- Strategy
- Concept
- Applications
- Implementation

The audience has to come face to face with a positive experience when coming face to face with the brands:
- Brand Identity
- Television presence
- Tagline
- Print ads
- Website
- Web banners
- Annual reports
- Radio
- Outdoor ads
- Viral marketing
- Unconventional advertising
- Direct marketing
- Branded environments
- Public relations
- Intranet
- Sponsorships
- Telemarketing
- Training manuals
- Promotions
- Sales force
- Publicity
- Buzz ("word of mouth")
- Signage
- E-mails
- Ephemera
- Events / happenings

(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.

Interesting Job in Social Marketing

(From Marty Collins blog)

Windows community manager. To work within the Windows Consumer MVP program.

Evangelizing customers.

"The consumer is important and louder than ever."

The desire system behind the brand.

(Information from the book "Brands and desires" by Bernd Kreutz and Hatje Cantz.)

What distinguishes a brand from just names and products is desire. "Desire is the prerequisite for and the key to every form of brand-building". (By desire we do not mean that the audience desires but cannot buy a product due to financial reasons; this is the aspirational brand.)

A brand promises something and we want it!

Apple is a religion.

Milka and the purple cow.

Ikea is the transformation of the outsider to a trend brand.

Marlboro promises freedom.

Picasso was the first artist who marketed himself, his art and his personal life in a that he created a vitality promising brand of himself. (David Beckham is a similar example.)

Camper promises an easy-going lifestyle.

Brands create desires. The consumer wants a product, he/she buys it. It becomes a commodity, consumer gets bored. The next step is to customize it.

THESIS OUTLINE

This thesis presents the hypothesis that in the near future, brands will not consist of fixed products and services, but will be constantly evolving, according to the financial and social needs of consumers. Predictability is what describes today's brands, both in terms of aesthetics and purpose (i.e. a common visual approach applied to a fixed product line). In contrast, the public's tendency and ability to hyper-customize what it consumes, demonstrates a desire to create unique and personal brands. Such a hypothesis suggests that the future of branding lies in an open dialogue between corporations and consumers, that will lead to the co-creation of constantly evolving products and services, designed by and for the public. Traditional brands might be replaced by invisible "brands in motion", with the designer carrying a mentoring and coordinating role.


1) INTRODUCTION
Experiencing today's brands.

Which brands are considered successful and the recent branding trends. (1-2 examples, Apple & Starbucks)

The relationship between brand and consumer today. (brief mentioning of interactivity , 1-2 examples)

The need to envision the future of branding. (short speculation, customizing trends, technologically inclined public.)


2) BRANDING AND DESIGN
General information about the relationship between branding, advertising and design.

From Fine Art to Illustration to Graphic Arts to New Media.


3) BRIEF HISTORY OF BRANDING
a) Antiquity - Medieval Times - Renaissance
b) Industrial Revolution (examples)
c) 1950s - 1960s (integrated branding - examples)
d) 1980s - 1990s (brand image & brand experience / iconic branding and the /
aspirational brand / "No Brand" brand / brand extensions, "the corporation is the brand", sponsorship / examples) / brands as authority

4) 00s BRANDING AND BRANDING 2010
a) Designing an experience (A new brand experience)
b) Digital branding
- online brand communities
- interactive brand platforms
- invisible design (design items and branding elements have no actual substance. (mp3...)
c) The Underground Brand (branding the outsider / from corporate to social)
d) Social marketing / Social design (new Microsoft windows 7 example /
designer for NGO's, sustainability etc.)

e) Branding communication and advertising after the Information Revolution. (when all the vital information about a brand is online, a brand's visual communication aims at familiarizing the public with the brand, attracting attention using "catchy" slogans and visuals. The brand's strong media presence is more important that the communication of information. All the necessary details are online.)


5) TODAY'S CONSUMER / "I CUSTOMIZE THEREFORE I AM"
a) Social networking sites and branding
- branding of oneself (mySpace, YouTube, blogs)
- corporations on Facebook
b) Customization platforms (design competition platforms / white label platforms)
c) Information revolution (consumers do not need advertising to collect information about the products they use. Interacting within online brand communities and consumer blogs, the public can gather all the information needed. Todays consumer is trained and able to find the information he needs and even have control and contribute on the online content (i.e. Wikipedia).

6) THE FUTURE BRAND
a) Aesthetically - even more abstract / focusing on everyday experiences
b) Conceptually - a flexible entity, a group of people, thoughts and experiences, rather than a fixed product line with loyal followers.

c) "A quieter brand" that will stop screaming, and start listening


7) CONCLUSION: THE ROLE OF THE DESIGNER WITHIN THE FUTURE BRAND

(Design and branding are two interconnected disciplines. How have traditional design methods changed with the evolution of branding, and what will be the role of design in future branding?)

- The designer in a coordinating, analytical, research role. The actual designing, will be determined later based on the needs of communities and consumers. Finding real problems through research, interactions with communities in need, and sharing of information, is replacing the creation of "problems" and new consumables.

- Will brand design become so invisible that designers will only create customizable "white label design" platforms, so that the public can do the rest?

- Will the public's customization opportunities broaden the dialogue with brands and will consumers be able to be in charge of a companies product line?

- On the other hand, with the use of new technologies, that bring corporations and consumers closer, brand may face the danger of becoming commodities with no mystery and appeal? In a Western society where social and financial needs evolve and change rapidly, will brands have to avoid consisting of fixed products and services? Will brands become mysterious entities, challenging the public to guess their next move will be?

- Will designers be responsible of creating experiences and leave it to consumers to determine visual details, language and style of brands? Will designers design elaborate visual "baits" so that the public can visit the brand's online resources?

- As brands will be even more interested in overall customer experience, integrated campaigns will expand to different media and forms of expression. The designer might have to take on different roles (designer as artist, film maker, engineer, producer, author).

Further historic research...

(From the book "Designing Brand Experiences" by Robin Landa)

The idea of Branding did not start with the industrial age in Europe. Since the time people created goods to trade or sell, or owned cattle and property, there have been trademarks, signs and symbols, to denote origin or ownership. Cattle were branded with paint, tar or even hot iron. Even people were brands for various reasons. Slaves were branded to designate ownership, slaves to signify disgrace. To explain the kind of goods they traded, merchants in ancient Greece and Egypt used symbols and pictures on the surfaces of their containers or the facades of their stores. Writing was also used, mainly for advertising puproses, as evidence have shown on walls of the ancient city of Pompeii. Dating back 3000 years ago, imagery was used in trade fairs in ancient China by hawkers to inform the public about their wares.

After the Medieval times and with the decline of feudalism, trade, arts and crafts were revived. Merchants started to use imagery and symbols to advertise their goods, make their businesses identifiable and attract customers. Chinese and Korean printing technology flourished, a fact that resulted to early signs of advertising and brand identity.

With the invention of the printing press in 1448, distribution of information accelerated and by within the next 100 yrars the advertising and announcing possibilities became standardized.

"By the 1700s governments saw the need to institute patterns, trademarks and copyrights as incentives to encourage development and progress science, technology and the arts."

The Industrial Revolution in the mid 1700s, and in the United States by the beginning of the 1800s, boosted mass production, and the advertising possibilities reinforced branding. Not only were goods more and versatile, but they started to become affordable as well. The formation of the middle class, an important consuming power, persuades the advertisers to become involved in mass advertising of goods and services. The market "spurred the growth of visual identity systems." Visually bold and contextually melodramatic slogans, titles and headlines fortified the ever growing branding attempts.

Packaging strengthened the branding approaches of the time and offered new challenges to design. Before 1880s people used to buy portions of goods from large containers. An individual package that would carry the name and origin of the product was more practical, and a platform for even more branding and design opportunities. A commodity in a small box gave it more value and a brand name and visual identifier, projected multiple times in stores and markets. Medicines and tobacco were pioneers in unique and lavishly decorated packaging. Branding provided value to products, before they were bought or consumed! As manufacturing of goods intensified, so did the brands. Advertising and design efforts intensified, introducing several new brands, "each vying for a larger share of consumer market."