What is the importance of branding? A brand image can be shaped and manipulated by a business owner, marketer, advertiser and so on. It is incredibly important to the owner(s) to be aware and somewhat in control of the brand image. An image can be created through a variety of ways, including advertising, business ethics, how it interacts with its costumer, objects and images like logo and images associated with the business, setting/decoration of a physical location, layout and etc, very importantly it is however how the customer perceives the company, product, service or a combination.
Almost every action you take has an effect on the way the audience can perceive the organisation. Successful business and organisations spend a lot of time and resources thinking and acting upon the factors that affect brand image. Branding is incredibly important, as an owner you may have a clear idea of what the product is capable of, what the service involves, who they want to target, how the interaction is and etc but customers at first don’t. Branding can answer these questions to the customer and consumers who may have never have heard of the company. This can be used to prevent a bad experience from a customer that had expectations different from reality or attract customers with very specific needs and wants from a service or product.
There are three elements to branding: Brand, identity and DNA. Brand represents everything that creates an experience for the customer. Identity is consisted of the visual aspects of the brand like logo, colours, layout and advert designs. Lastly DNA is the unique message the company wants to portray in all its use of media.
Last lecture we looked at the how Virgin America branded themselves and why they brand themselves in that way. Looking at the three elements mentioned above we studied their safety video advertisement. As a class we concluded Virgin to have a glamorous, serious tone aiming to please the customer, and create a happy experience. Their identity is somewhat complex, on this specific advert they use neutral colours but maintain simplicity and clarity, red is their colour, it is used in their logo and in very specific details in the advert like part of the attendant’s uniform and lipstick creating an iconic image. The message they portray is that the customer is their priority and that even though they don’t take themselves as serious the customers are very important to them, different than other airlines.
How the design and style of company text and logo affect perception is also fascinating. Font, typeface and graphics can portray something individually to each viewer. Straighter and neater fonts may present a company as reliable or serious, while rounder font may give an air of not so serious yet caring, bold text may represent strength and italic may represent and portray a forward looking image. Similar characteristics may be represented through the design of logos and other graphics. Styles of design also may trigger different reactions and perceptions, these can be manipulated by the creators and made to generate specific perceptions by the audience, it is all in the creation process.
Viewing and analysing branding points out its importance in any organisation. Millions are spent by organisations in order to create the messages and images desired. Knowing what to do when branding and how it can be done can be very beneficial to a business.
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