Branding

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.

For the task of the week I’ve decided to analyse the service system of Subway on Kingston Hill campus. I will be looking at all social parties involved (User, Designer or Community), their skills, responsibilities, needs, rules, laws and the physical environment and objects needed in the process, reviewing each one in the writing process.

The ultimate way this service can be given involves the most effective way to tread and deal with customer’s inquiries while making it as efficient as possible for the business. Of course it is more than that, but for this particular analysis I will be reviewing the way Subway takes orders, deals with them and the customer as well.

Viewing this system, I some problems. The customer frequency throughout the day varies heavily according to student time tables (mostly), and time of the day. There is a high wait time during peak times, sometimes to be served a customer may wait up to 40 minutes. There is often the same number of employees working regardless of the time of day or number of customers. So, why is the system inefficient? and, how can it be improved? The conveyor belt system seems to work but inefficiently, at some moments it seems too much for one person to deal with, regardless of this, it is still how it goes sometimes.

The people involved are: Subway customers and Subway employees. The customers are the Users, they are there to purchase a service/product from the Subway franchise, driven by their physiological needs (of food) or wants (that specific meal). The Subway employees would fit in the Community group, playing the role of the service/product provider.

The skills and responsibilities needed in the process are very basic, they are: verbal communication as the order is taken, basic motor skills on the part of the employees to assemble sandwiches. Responsibilities include dealing with money, using equipment correctly, maintaining stock and providing a user friendly service.

Users and the community group have different needs, the users will be requesting a service and product, while the employees as the community, is there to generate a profit from sales.

The rules and laws are quite informally set, being as simple as being socially acceptable and ethical when dealing with money.

The objects are: Counters, Food, money/band cards, Subway cards, microwave oven, drink machine, refrigerator, hygiene equipment, uniforms, plastic bags, napkins, cups/straws, customer’s belongings including bags, jackets and books.

Having looked at and analysed the system I propose a solution. Basic data can be gathered on frequency of sales at what times of the day, after consistent and valid data is gathered and analysed, allocate the resources to those times reducing resources of those times where customer frequency is low. This might now work if there is a minimum number of employees higher than 1 needed present at any moment, as generally there are only 2-3 workers at any point. Overall the problem is not great and can be solved with reallocation of resources and in the worst case having to hire/train new staff. I do see how that might not be beneficial to this franchise as it is one of few food options in campus, out of campus the nearest restaurant option could be over 10 walking minutes away. So if this Subway franchise is ran with a cost orientation, it will most likely not improve their profit margin. I would rate their service (speed, product quality, service quality, price) 6.5/10. Being aware of these issues allow me as a user of the service to avoid high traffic times, reducing waiting time and maximizing efficiency of my time.