Design in branding

It takes more than good design to deliver a great brand. Branding has a whole spectrum of stuff like staff training (internal brand alignment), store experiences (brand experience), choice of communication medium (where tribes are listening), crafting the messages (brand story) etc. Tribes buy into the entire brand story, not just the cover of the book. It is important to realize that design can evolve but the essence of the brand should remain engaging and relevant.

It is so easy for us to get mesmerized by great designs and the rest of branding gets lost in the glitz. Why? It is far easier to sell what we can see and touch. Humans (and clients) are after all visual driven.

Here are two interesting products I came across which has elements of design for branding.

Fixa sells tools for the kitchen. Its brand name talks about getting things done while its packaging shows you the result. Fixa communicates that it 'fixes' food into their end state (ready ingredients). All that in its brand and packaging without hard selling. To the Nordic folks who created this, clever!

Ecolean is a Swedish company that designs and manufactures eco-packaging. Designed to be light and thin, when flattened, the packaging weighs less than 14g each. It is also metaphorically shaped like a pitcher, complete with handle and spout. Ecolean allowed their clients to brand themselves with eco friendliness. What a story to tell the others. Chinese FMCG brands are lapping these up rather quickly.

Bottle designs are a great way to be creative about branding. We can all recognize Absolut Vodka tribes with their empty bottles around them as badges of fun and wild parties. Here is a concept of Samurai Vodka bottle design.

I reckon you will agree this SAMURAI Vodka packaging looks pretty neat. Will it fly like Absolut with a successful brand? Maybe. Only if it has worked hard like Absolut to focus on its branding. Absolut has invested a huge amount of time and effort (lots of $$$ too) in brand communications and parties to resonate with the young and hip tribes.

In my opinion, brand consultants are not to be just focusing on design to wow clients. That is akin to decorating a nice bubble; beauty with no substance. Dubai? They must seek to be clever architects that fuse creative design, market research and marketing to deliver branding as a holistic process. Tribes are attracted to complete brand experiences, not simply aesthetics.

Please leave your comments, if any.