Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Recommended books on Branding

Designing Brand Identity, An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team. An encyclopedic book on the entire process of creating a brand with many examples.













Identity Crisis: 50 Redesigns That Transformed Stale Identities into Successful Brands by Jeff Fisher. Great examples of “before” and “after” campaigns in a number of industries.













Zag: The Number One Strategy of High Performance Brands by Marty Neumeier. A good book and easy read showing the difference between good brands and great brands.













Branding: From Brief to Finished Solution by Mono Design (a contemporary design and art direction practice based in London).













Marks of Excellence by Per Mollerup. This book fits in two categories. Normally a book of logos, I included this book because it has a wealth of examples on how trademarks have influenced corporate branding through the years.













Brand Simple: How the Best Brands Keep it Simple by Allen Adamson. A good selection of branding case studies. Also a contributing writer on the subject of Branding for Forbes.













Logo Design Love: A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities (Voices that Matter Series) by David Airey. An A to Z book on the concept and process of logo design.

What is branding?


All too often, people mistake “branding” as the simple addition of a new logo, or new stationary. They have no idea that branding extends to the person, the team, the company and the message they deliver to their customers, both current and future.

An effective brand can and should encompass so much more.

A strong brand should be more than mere words, or a mere image. It should evoke emotions and values. A strong brand tells a complex story about who you are, what you stand for, and what differentiates you from your competitors. Much like the words “Once upon a time…” or “…and they lived happily ever after” are immediately recognizable as a key part to every fairy tale story you’ve ever heard, your brand (your logo, your tagline, your image, your color(s), etc.) should command a positive emotion that builds awareness of who you are and extends your customer loyalty.

Alina Wheeler, author of “Designing Brand Identity” says, “Brand identity is tangible and appeals to the senses. You can see it, touch it, hold it, hear it, watch it move. Brand identity fuels recognition, amplifies differentiation, and makes big ideas and meaning accessible. Brand ide
ntity takes disparate elements and unifies them into whole systems.”


Using Alina’s book as my guide, I would like to research throughout this blog all that is inclusive in what we call “branding.” How a brand is perceived affects the success of any company, regardless of whether it’s a start-up, a nonprofit, or a product. What then, is the purpose of branding?

David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance, claims that brands have three primary functions.

1.       Navigation. Brands help consumers choose from a bewildering array of choices.
2.       Reassurance. Brands communicate the intrinsic quality of the product or service and reassure customers that they have made the right choice.
3.       Engagement. Brands use distinctive imagery, language, and associations to encourage customers to identify with the brand.

Your brand should carry a consistent message that is recognizable throughout every brand “touchpoint” and is an opportunity to increase awareness and build customer loyalty. Touchpoints include external sources such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct mail, trade shows, presentations, stationary, proposals, packaging, signage, websites, to only name a few. It should also include internal sources too, such as personal networking, speeches to your employees, your voicemail, environment, etc.

In the entries to come, we will explore the process of designing your brand identity and give some examples of how others have implemented them.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to work with a very talented corporate designer in Portland, OR by the name of Jeff Fisher. Jeff is a highly accclaimed designer who has won enough awards to wallpaper a warehouse.

I was working for a company called PavelComm as their sales and marketing director and made the suggestion that we should update their corporate image. The company had started as a telecommunications cabling company and over the last 20+ years it had evolved into a very sophisticated technology infrastructure firm that offered a great variety of IT and telecommunication products and services. The owner of the company, Bonnie Pavel, was a friend of Jeff Fisher and she requested that he help us with a new logo design.

Jeff chronicles his experience with PavelComm at the following link:
http://jefffisherlogomotives.blogspot.com/2009/10/identity-re-design-pavelcomm.html

Jeff has written a book called "Identity Crisis!: 50 Redesigns That Transformed Stale Identities Into Successful Brands" and is listed as one of the "Top Products of 2010" by MyDesignShop.com. I loved the book and recommend it to anyone who is interested in a great collection of actual rebranding examples.

[IdentityCrisis-book.JPG]
Go to http://identitycrisisbook.blogspot.com/ for more information on how to order this book.

Monday, January 17, 2011

The start of a new learning experience.

This blog is intended to be a collection of corporate branding strategies, placing a soft spotlight on both successful campaigns, and those not so successful. I imagine that most of these examples will come from a multitude of sources such as business books, magazines, the internet, and hopefully from a large handful of individual contributors.

This blog will also attempt to catalog a number of links to a variety of design, advertising, promotions, public relations, and branding sites that highlight superior corporate branding practices, and to be a reserve to anyone interested in learning from a vast pool of creative resources.

Why am I doing this? Firstly, nearly all businesses suffer from an over-generalized message for fear of missing opportunities. As a result, people don’t identify the company as an expert in their field, muddying the message and making it harder for that company to win the business it should have won easily.

Secondly, I have a tremendous respect for people who can come up with creative solutions used in an effective manner to overcome a complex messaging issue. This byproduct often requires the collaborative efforts of a whole host of individuals, both creative and administrative, to make this campaign possible. This type of success deserves to be praised, analyzed, and if possible, duplicated.

I look forward to starting this journey and the lessons it will teach me when I am done, if ever.