One of the least understood aspects of branding is design. The popular view that people have of design is that it must be cool, attractive and memorable. True. But there is a lot more to design than just visual appeal.
Designing is both an art and a science.
As a marketing advisory firm, firebrand labs (FBL) constantly delivers mandates that involve design. From logos to websites to corporate pitch decks to promotional literature and marketing collaterals, all our work includes constantly producing evocative designs.
Every time we create a new design, a thumb rule that we follow is to ask ourselves if the design element in the brand’s identity and communication is functional. Which is, does the design go beyond just being visually appealing? Does the design reflect the brand’s values, its ethos and, therefore, help build its identity?
Theoretically speaking, design-based identity is one way to grow and popularize a brand. For instance, consider the makeover of Air India after the Tata Group acquired the airline. Their first visible endeavor has been to change the brand’s logo and how it reflects on the outer body of each aircraft and inside it. But the brand’s identity-building effort is not just about changing a logo. A lot of study evidently has gone into developing this new logo. The history of the brand, its cultural connect to India’s people and its ambassadorship of India’s aviation sector have gone into the redesigning effort. So, in effect, Air India’s makeover involves creating a new identity. And, importantly, this is only the visible part.
What is not visible yet is the work going on behind the scenes. This involves how the airline’s employees are working on internalizing the behavioral aspects of living by this new identity – which is, how they are working on improving the standards of customer service and experience.
For serious brand identity creators, like the team at FBL, design is as deep and soul-stirring as it is intellectually intense.
Recently, a cutting-edge technology company came to us with a business challenge. They were having issues with being seen and counted as a serious employer of choice.
At a superficial level, redesigning their logo and embarking on an advertising campaign would have satisfied the client’s objectives. There would surely have been an immediate, visible impact on how they were being perceived.
But FBL recommended building a stronger and enduring brand identity. We undertook a brand-mapping exercise and conducted tone-of-voice studies. This led to the brand’s values and ethos being defined sharply. Only then was a redesign of the logo attempted.
The new logo reflected what the company stood for and showcased its vision to be an aggressive player in its space. The advertising strategy, therefore, was to creatively present the company’s values and culture. Each advertisement, both print and video, ended with an invitation to top-quality professionals to join the company so that “a new global IT institution could be built by coming together.”
The new identity and campaign were a huge hit. The company achieved its talent attraction plan in less that three months. This saved the company huge opportunity costs – in fact, it helped them with ramping up to grab new projects swiftly.
At FBL, we believe that design must not just look good. It must do a whole lot of good – to a company’s business performance and to its profitability.