Branding and Product Design

An Integrated Perspective

Monika Hestad

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317172710
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Diseño
• Subtopic: Diseño de productos

Why do winning brands appear to be more creative and authentic than less successful ones? Despite the strong link between famous brands and the products sold under their name, there is still a gap in understanding the relationship between product design and brand-building - Monika Hestad plugs that gap. Branding and Product Design discusses key questions about the link between product and brand and about design processes and innovation. It examines these questions on both macro and micro levels and provides the reader with tools to help understand the role of products in building a brand, and how to bring the brand and the product design process together. These are based on the author's research into branding and product design, her years of teaching these topics, and her own industrial practice. Qualitative interviews delivering an 'insider' perspective on major brands bring abstract concepts to life. The book includes case studies from well-known and up-and-coming brands and will prove invaluable to design practitioners, marketers, managers and other professionals working close to designers. It will also benefit those teaching and studying, particularly if they are involved in the new higher education programmes where business schools and design schools are co-operating to reflect the intersection between design and branding.

1
Strategy: The Brand and the Product

From all the money we invest in building a brand, it is through the product we have the best chance to communicate what the brand is about. The product is what the consumer sees most of. We can leave out advertising and other activities to promote the brand, but the products have to represent the brand Jordan. The product must give a signal, it has to attract you into buying Jordan, and the product has to represent the brand. It has to be good in use and give the user a good experience because it represents the impression you have of the brand. We see the product as ‘the person’ representing the brand.

Michelle Wentworth, Category Development Manager,
Jordan Dental Products

This first chapter describes six brand-building strategies, as well as the integral role of the product in the branding process. The aim of this chapter is to give an overview of the various strategies companies are using in building their brands, and how their products are closely linked to these.

Why Brands and Not Products?

THE NEED TO BUILD BRANDS

In the early days of the Industrial Revolution the role of companies was to produce products. One company above all others took the lead in changing the game of the industry for ever. The English ceramic company Wedgwood started to build what we today recognise as a brand. Wedgwood was founded in 1759 by Josiah Wedgwood. The innovative and forward-thinking founder invented many of the products that continue to be manufactured to this day. He also earned a place in history by being the father of modern marketing. Bringing several innovations to market, Wedgwood witnessed that his products were being copied by competitors (McKendrick et al. 1982). Since his competitors did not have to fund costly research, they could sell his inventions more cheaply than Wedgwood could. This jeopardised the products’ profitability. He came up with the idea of associating his products with the aristocracy, and through this embedded the flair of their luxurious lifestyle in the products. His approach to countering copycats was therefore to court the aristocracy.

It is more than two centuries since Josiah Wedgwood used what today would be described as ‘celebrity endorsements’ of his products – a powerful brand-building strategy. The reason for building a brand rather than simply producing products remains the same as it was more than two centuries ago. Product attributes and functionality are easy to copy. However, the reasons for building brands today are not only to enable companies to protect their innovations, but because customers and retailers have established a liking for brands rather than nameless products.

Brands help consumers to make decisions. Consumers recognise brands and buy them because they promise to fulfil a need, due to recommendations or based on earlier experiences with the brand. Consumers also buy brands because the brand story connects with them emotionally, it offers them a self-expressive benefit, or they find the brands relevant in a certain cultural context. For entrepreneurs, building a brand gives an opportunity to build a legacy, to be recognised and to attract the best employees who would like to be part of the culture that is building the brand. Therefore, many companies find that manufacturing products is not enough to compete in the market – and more importantly, mere manufacturing of products is not satisfying on a social level.

WHAT IS A BRAND?

Most people working within design and branding have a good idea of what a brand is. When asking an audience of people with design, marketing and management backgrounds what a brand is, we can easily get thirty different answers. People might describe the brand as ‘an idea the customer has of their company’, ‘the dream of the founder’ or ‘an emotional feeling that the customer gets from owning a product’. These are all good explanations of what a brand is about.

There are three factors that are important to what defines a brand (see Figure 1.1). First, there needs to be a desire to perform a certain meaning, a philosophy or a vision. To simplify what this is, in this book we will call it the brand story. This can be a story that the company decides to communicate, or as we will see later, it can also be people on the street who shape what the brand story is all about. Second, there needs to be something that represents the story. This can be the products themselves, but it can also be the name of the products, a logo or promotion activities to consumers. In the case of Wedgwood, the products were given names with aristocratic associations, and in this way the name encapsulated the ‘flair of the aristocrats’. The name becomes the mediator that makes people think about the brand story. Third, there also needs to be someone who interprets the mediator to represent the brand story – the interpreter. To qualify as ‘a brand’, the same story needs to be recognised by a group of people.

Figure 1.1 The brand story, the mediator and the interpreter

The true story of the brand is not necessarily the meaning the company intended, but rather what people feel when they think about the brand. A brand is not a fixed entity. The relationship between the brand story, the mediator and the people interpreting and telling new stories about the brand is a dynamic one. This relationship evolves based on each and every activity of a company and everyone involved in the different touch-points of a brand. If there is a difference between what the company would like to communicate and how people interpret the story, there is a brand gap. For the company, it will be important to identify these brand gaps, as over time they may create a fragmented identity which people do not associate as a brand. Product design can play a significant role in strengthening the brand, as well as repositioning the brand.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PEOPLE, THE PRODUCT AND THE BRAND

There has been a shift in how product designers are working. Branding and product design have typically been seen as two separate activities, while today designers will have to incorporate brand awareness into the development process (Mycroft 2011). Designers are also involved in planning the customer experience of the brand beyond the product itself. When it comes to services, designers are creating what can be seen as touch-points between the organisation and the consumer, and strive to establish an optimal customer experience. In these touch-points the designer designs the whole experience the branded service provides. In mobile phones, for example, the holistic integration of the interface and the tangible object is crucial. The product design process is therefore seen as one of many activities that are undertaken to build the brand. The relationship between people and the brand can include a product as the mediator of the brand story, but this is not always the case.

According to Kevin Roberts, CEO of the advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi, the relationship between people and brands is defined by the intensity with which people love and respect brands (Roberts 2004). A few of the strongest brands, such as Nike or Apple, have managed to win a unique position in the market because they have earned both the love and the respect of their customers. While the choice of strategy that will be right for a particular company is outside of the scope of this book, it is worth mentioning that the brands Saatchi & Saatchi has identified as ‘Lovemarks’ all have a strong product or service story that is actively part of building the brand. These brands have all earned love and respect from their consumers.

Others, such as Hello Kitty, are recognised internationally as strong brands that many young people have an emotional connection with. This brand has a strong position in the market and is deeply loved. Some parents may well be puzzled when they find that their three-year-old daughter has developed a preference for this particular brand without their knowledge. However, it is almost impossible to avoid.

When the company Sanrio first launched a product with the Hello Kitty figure there was no defined strategy to establish this as a brand (Walker 2009), nor was there a cartoon or an animation that could communicate the story of Hello Kitty. Consumers responded emotionally to the figure, which created an opportunity for Sanrio to exploit. Product design plays a less important role in building this brand as these are generic products, but the products serve as billboards for the Hello Kitty figure. The figure is a powerful communicator of this brand that young people connect with. In the Hello Kitty brand, the figure is the brand mediator. It is reprinted on a number of products that without the figure would be generic products with little distinct profile.

DEFINING THE BRAND STRATEGY

A strategy is about shaping the future (McKeown 2012). It represent the overarching aim that the organisation has defined for where it would like to be and why this is the right place for it to be. Creating a strategy involves both analytical capabilities and imagination as the strategist will need to foresee potential future opportunities as well as threats. The company will most likely have strategies for its organisation, for communication and for the product. The strategist Michael Porter (1996) recognises that the company’s marketing position occasionally serves as the company strategy. He uses IKEA as an example of targeting young people who would like to have access to style at a low cost. Porter’s article was written in 1996, and almost two decades later it is evident that this marketing concept has proved to be a competitive strategy in the global economy. Seeing the brand strategy as an integrated part of the company strategy is also what this book builds on.

A brand strategy is a plan or a policy for what the company would like stakeholders to recognise the brand as. A brand strategy goes beyond a communication strategy, since all activity in the organisation is part of building the brand. The brand strategy needs to consider what the brand story should be, and why this is the right story. It will always need to be dynamic and open to change according to the circumstances.

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Key Questions When Defining the Brand Strategy

• Who are you? – The brand story

• Who/what would you like to become?

• What is your desired value proposition? – Experience of the brand/benefits offered

• What capabilities and traits do you have that make this goal achievable?

• What is the context? – Trends/SWOT analysis

• Who is this for? – Audience/customers

• Who else are out there? – Competitors

• For whom will this have consequences? – External and internal stakeholder analysis

• Which concepts, symbols or references should represent the brand?

• What is the role of design in building the brand?

• How will you measure the success?

Key Questions When Carrying Out the Brand Strategy

• How will you achieve this? – Product, promotion, channels and so on

• What resources will be needed?

• What are the important milestones?

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Depending on the context in which the brand exists, the product will have a different role in building or performing the brand. In the Hello Kitty brand the product did not play any role at all, while in the Nike brand the product plays a far more important role in performing the brand story. However, a strategy should not include detailed plans for how to implement the strategy in the organisation or products. The focus at this stage should be on identifying the key elements that are important to consider when developing the strategy. The implementation of the strategy in the design of the product will take place on a tactical level. How well the implementation is carried out will determine whether consumers recognise the product as a factor in building the brand. The brand strategy will need to be implemented in all touch-points to create a coherent brand (Figure 1.2). Therefore, the product will be only one of many key elements that contribute to communicating what the brand is about.

Figure 1.2 The product as one of many touch-points

Based on Wheeler (2006).

How the brand strategy is implemented in the organisation, in the product and in marketing will be important determinants for how consumers will recognise the brand. This is all part of a dynamic process (see Figure 1.3). The brand is a result of the activity in the organisation, the product, the promotion and how consumers recognise and interact with the brand. This interaction is dynamic. The end of one interaction is the starting point of the next.

There are various strategies for how to build a brand, and the product’s role in building the story of the brand will differ accordingly. The following six brand stories will examine the role of the product in performing the brand story.

Figure 1.3 Brand as a result of a dynamic interplay

Six Brand Stories and the Role of the Product

FUNCTIONAL BENEFIT: GAINING PEOPLE’S TRUST AND RESPECT

In the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) categories there has been a focus on occupying a niche, and establishing either functional or emotional ownership of a message within this niche. Many FMCG products have managed to gain strong positions in the marketplace because they ‘own’ a functional benefit. A brand may have functional ownership if people believe what the brand promises through a specific functional benefit. This is the case with many of the brands belonging to the British-Dutch conglomerate Unilever, for example. Its brands have for years taught its customers that they are the best in the category. The fear of ruining one’s clothes by selecting another washing powder is in many cases greater than the extra cost the customer might have to pay for what is viewed as the premier brand.

By constantly renewing the story in advertisements that state how excellent the company’s brand is in providing this functional benefit, Unilever maintains its market position. As long as the brand also manages to deliver on this promise, and constantly innovates to stay ahead of the competition, it will keep this leading market position. Functional ownership is often linked with product performance. The product will be important in capturing the brand promise. Therefore, the company will have to keep innovating its products so that they always perform better than, or at least on par with, its competitors.

EMOTIONAL BENEFIT: GAINING PEOPLE’S LOVE

An approach that focuses solely on ownership of functional performance is seen as outdated in the brand community, as brands are perceived as being emotional entities (Gobé 2001). The emotional dimension will be important for people to recognise a brand. Most brands entail both functional and emotional benefits for the consumers (Figure 1.4). The balance between functional and emotional benefits differs according to the context.

Figure 1.4 The balance between functional and emotional benefits

The oral hygiene brand Oral-B promises a professional deep-clean feeling. This is a brand that is largely based on functional performance. However, underlying this message there is an emotional need. The consumer needs to feel confident or safe. FMCG brands that are perceived as performing better might have this ownership simply because they are the ones we grew up with. This nostalgia adds an emotional layer to our experience with the produ...