Brand, Logo, and Mark

For Introduction to brands

Take a look at the list below that shows the world’s top 10 brands in 2002 (as measured by value):
{Rank Brand Value ($ billions)}

Coca-Cola ($69.6)
Microsoft ($64.1)
IBM ($51.2)
GE ($41.3)
Intel ($30.9)
Nokia ($30.0)
Disney ($29.3)
McDonalds ($26.4)
Marlboro ($24.2)
Mercedes ($21.0)

Source: Interbrand; JP Morgan Chase, 2002

WHAT IS A BRAND?

Brands are a means of differentiating a company’s products and services from those of its competitors. There is plenty of evidence to prove that customers will pay a substantial price premium for a good brand and remain loyal to that brand. It is important, therefore, to understand what brands are and why they are important. Mc Donald sums this up nicely in the following quote emphasising the importance of brands:

“…it is not factories that make profits, but relationships with customers, and it is company and brand names which secure those relationships”

Businesses that invest in and sustain leading brands prosper whereas those that fail are left to fight for the lower profits available in commodity markets.

Another Meaning Of Brands

“A name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of these, that is intended to identify the goods and services of one business or group of businesses and to differentiate them from those of competitors”. Philip Kotler (1997:13)

Interbrand – a leading branding consultancy – define a brand in this way:

“A mixture of tangible and intangible attributes symbolised in a trademark, which, if properly managed, creates influence and generates value”.

WHAT IS A BRANDMARK?

A brandmark is a logo that has transcended it’s basic function, because we develop our logos with the new brand. This means that we create supportive visual anchors and include specific imagery that could be applied in a fashion separate to just the logo.

Logos should start with a brand idea (applicable to your business) and evolve through the design process to include a full visual language that creates the basis for any future application.

WHAT IS A BRAND NAME?

Using a brand name for products or service is a natural progression from the ancient custom of putting a brand on a person’s personal property or belongings. Putting a mark on anything – pottery, clothing, forged tools – was a way to make these products distinguishable as being owned by a person or a family. The practice of using brand names today still has the same basic function. The brand name is used to mark the product and distinguish it from another product, usually a competitor. In its simplest definition, a brand name shows ownership.

With a number of companies usually manufacturing and marketing the same types of products, a brand name will distinguish the product made by one company from those made by another company. Consumers use brand names to tell these products apart. But brand names are just one of these distinguishing factors. A brand has now moved from just the name but on to a more complete identity. This is carried over in the packaging, which is also unique from one another. Companies are constantly hard at work to market their brand name to consumers in the hope that it will elevate the name to a “household name,” which means it is first thing that consumers think of when choosing a product.

There is also an unscrupulous practice of imitating the brand name and packaging of a popular product so that consumers will be fooled into buying the fake product. This is considered a criminal offense and is called counterfeiting.

Brand Elements

Brands typically are made up of various elements, such as:

Name: The word or words used to identify a company, product, service, or concept.
Logo: The visual trademark that identifies the brand.
Tagline or Catchphrase: “The Quicker Picker Upper” is associated with Bounty paper towels.
Graphics: The dynamic ribbon is a trademarked part of Coca-Cola’s brand.
Shapes: The distinctive shapes of the Coca-Cola bottle and of the Volkswagen Beetle are trademarked elements of those brands.
Colors: Owens-Corning is the only brand of fiberglass insulation that can be pink.
Sounds: A unique tune or set of notes can denote a brand. NBC’s chimes are a famous example.
Scents: The rose-jasmine-musk scent of Chanel No. 5 is trademarked.
Tastes: Kentucky Fried Chicken has trademarked its special recipe of eleven herbs and spices for fried chicken.
Movements: Lamborghini has trademarked the upward motion of its car doors.
Customer relationship management

Functions of Branding

There are some functions of branding

It helps in product identification and gives ‘distinctiveness’ to the product.
Indirectly it denotes the quality or standards of a product.
It eliminated imitation products.
It ensures legal rights on the products.
It helps in advertising and packaging activities.
It helps to create and sustain brand loyalty to particular products.
It helps in price differentiations of products.

Thus brand names serve to create identity-to distinguish one proudct from another. Identity is essential to competition, because without a means for identification there is no way of making a choice. Brand names definitely facilitate in making a choice.

In the present-day markets branding is inevitable and plays an important role in demand creation. A large number of products even today live in the markets mainly due to an effective use of brand name. For example, Usha fans. The brand name is so common that one does not even recognize the manufacturer, vis., Jay Engineering. Similar instance is found in the case of ‘Dettol’. It is simply an antiseptic lotion. But the manufacturers were successful in creating an impression in the minds of most of the people that Dettol means antiseptic lotion and vice versa.

WHAT IS A LOGO?

A logo is a supportive graphic element that forms part of a brand.

Modern Logo Design

A logo (from the Greek logotypos) is a graphical element that, together with its logotype (a uniquely set and arranged typeface) form a trademark or commercial brand. Ideally, a logo’s design is optimized for immediate recognition. Modern logo design is only one aspect of a company’s brand, and its shapes, colors, fonts, and images are strongest if they are differentiated from the other businesses sharing its marketspace. Logos are also uses to identify organizations and other non-commercial entities.

Ideograms (icons, signs, emblems) may be more effective than a written name (logotype), especially for logos being translated into many alphabets; for instance, a name in the Arabic language would be of little help in most European markets. An ideogram would keep the general proprietary nature of the product in both markets. In non-profit areas, the Red Cross (which goes by Red Crescent in Muslim countries) is an example of an extremely well known emblem, which does not need an accompanying name. Branding aims to facilitate cross-language marketing. The Coca-cola logo can be identified in any language because of the standards of color and the iconic ribbon wave.

Some countries have logos, e.g. Spain, Italy, Turkey and The Islands of The Bahamas, that identify them in marketing their country. Such logos often are used by countries whose tourism sector makes up a large portion of their economy.

Color is important to brand recognition, but it should not be an integral component to the logo design, which could conflict with its functionality. Some colors are formed or associated with certain emotions that the designer wants to convey. For instance, loud colors, such as red, that are meant to attract the attention of drivers on highways are appropriate for companies that require such attention. In the United States red, white, and blue are often used in logos for companies that want to project patriotic feelings. Green is often associated with health foods, and light blue or silver is often used to reflect diet foods. For other brands, more subdued tones and lower saturation can communicate dependability, quality, relaxation, etc.

More Modern Logo Design

Logo design is an important area of graphic design, and one of the most difficult to perfect. The logo is the image embodying an organization. Because logos are meant to represent companies’ brands or corporate identities and foster their immediate customer recognition, it is counterproductive to frequently redesign logos.

Due to the design, the color, the shape, and eventually additional elements of the logotype, each one can easily be differentiated from other logotypes. For example, a box of Kellogg’s cereals will be easily recognized in a supermarket’s shelf from a certain distance, due to its unique typography and distinctive red coloring. The same will be true when one is at the airport looking for the booth of Hertz Rent-A-Car. The logotype will be recognized from afar because of its shape and its yellow color.

Some well-known logos include Apple Inc.’s apple with a bite missing, which started out as a rainbow of color, and has been reduced to a single color without any loss of recognition. Coca Cola’s script is known worldwide, but is best associated with the color red; its main competitor, Pepsi has taken the color blue, although they have abandoned their script logo. IBM, also known as “Big Blue” has simplified their logo over the years, and their name. What started as International Business Machines is now just IBM and the color blue has been a signature in their unifying campaign as they have moved to become an IT services company.

Other logos that are recognized globally: the Nike “Swoosh” and the Adidas “Three stripes” are two well-known brands that are defined by their corporate logo. When Phil Knight started Nike, he was hoping to find a mark as recognizable as the Adidas stripes, which also provided reinforcement to the shoe. He hired a young student (Carolyn Davidson) to design his logo, paying her $35 for what has become one of the best known marks in the world (she was later compensated again by the company).

Another interesting case is the refinement of the FedEx logo, where the brand consultants convinced the company to shorten their corporate name and logo from “Federal Express” to the popular abbreviation “Fed Ex”. Besides creating a shorter brand name, they reduced the amount of color used on vehicles (planes, trucks) and saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in paint costs. Also, the right-pointing arrow in the new logo is a subliminal hint of motion.

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