Aspects of branding, what makes good branding, what is a logo,whatmakes a good logo?

Aspects of branding, what makes god branding, what is a logo, what makes a good logo?

Reading through the books (The Fundamentals of Branding & Logo) will help me form a base on what makes successful branding and logo design and all the fundamentals that make these things up. Combine these main points with more secondary research will provide an informed influence to my finalized outcomes. 

What is a logo? 

Logos are signs, symbols, marks, typographic elements. All a form of representing a form of identity in a recognizable way. All companies and organizations use logos to represent there products or services in an individual identity. 

To create these representations of companies I need to consider typography, image, or the combination of the both. 

Creating a memorable logo that is socially accepted and recognized worldwide or within that target market sector is a designers ultimate goal. 

The word "logo" derives from original type only logos.

Logos are only a small part of a whole identity package, a branding identity what typically includes a name, a slogan, a range of collateral products (a range of other medias that follow the brand identity) all which follow a tone of voice suited to expressing and communicating the companies product/services. 

Where do logos come from?
To create a basic sum up of logos origins I would say they are the result of over 150 years of creatives expressing memories, feelings and associations in advertising and corporate.

With whiskey been a very old and traditional craft it would be good to link this idea of heritage and development combined like the way logos have developed. 

Who makes logos?
Typically logos are created by graphic designers within marketing departments, with the involvement if these marketing departments a logo project can be stretched out over months with all creative spark been lost to developments and refinements to suit corporate cliche needs. This is were logo designs from small creative agencies come in and more unique and aesthetically pleasing logos can be created. 

What do logos mean?
Its often seen that logos need to communicate a clear message and actually have meaning, this is sometimes the case but I think that there main objective is to be informative and visually pleasing, designers often try communicate the companies message through symbolic elements like typography and image but this can often become confusing.

My interpretation of the ideal logo is to create something memorable and iconic, the mark itself is a tool in wich can subconsciously ingrain into peoples minds through support of the rest of the branding strategy. Take nike for example, there swoosh is instantly recognizable, as an aesthetic it doesnt really communicate "sports" but when linked with all the promotion campaigns and branding support it all comes together and narrows down to the logo been that instantly recognizable point of all these past campaigns. A very important point to consider. 

Logo application & positioning
Logos have to be versatile in there aesthetic, meaning it can be applied across a range of environments and brand applications and to feel like they belong on each media.

Posters, Literature, websites, advertisements, banners, bags, products, packaging, labels, receipts, uniforms and buildings are common large scale positioning of logos.  

The main aim here is to create a mark or a system that can adapt and communicate an intended message wherever its applied. This is where my thought of a versatile customizable logo system i presented in the crit makes even more sense as it can be applied in various aesthetics onto the correct correspondence. 

Fundamentals of branding 
To help me provide an informed Branding strategy proposal for Study Task 4 (750 words, supporting research)

To give me an introductory insight into the aspects of branding I had a look through the Fundamentals of branding book, it will help me develop a brand proposal for taking the logo I create a little further. Although where not actually making a full brand outcome looking into these basic aspects will give us a good base to work from when we do undertake a full brand project. 

What is a Brand? 
The book is very text heavy, very informative but lots of information to take in so I will narrow down to bullet points key points that are going to benefit me at this stage. Its a book I'm going to buy though to keep as a resource for future more in depth projects with longer timescales.

• Represents the companies personality aswell as its services & products.
• A connection between audience/target market and company
• Not always a physical thing or product lines, can be attached and communicated through a person i.e. celebrity for example Gary Liniker and Walkers a personal one that stands out to me. 
• The term "Branding" is a definition of many things that make up the whole brand image, things like: Marketing of the product, name change, slogans, logos etc. 
• Defines the company within its target market
• Represents a realistic reflection of the business to both internal employees who help run the business as well as the target market
• A good brand is flexible and adaptable to survive social and global changes for example Samsun was initially perceived in Europe as a lower end brand due to product prices, but in Moscow was perceived as a higher end brand. So marketing and branding should able to reflect both this if needed. 
• It needs to be able to react to social trends, for example the new social media age can it be communicated to its target audience through this media?

An example of a brand that reacts well to social change is Google, due to the uprise of social media and use of internet technology the company reacted to develop new services to offer to continue to stay at the top of there market sector offering cloud storage, web browsing services and google earth all helped expand to different target markets and strengthen there existing customer base. The versatile logo system that constant adapts to political, seasonal and things like sport events is the aspect I like the most about the brand. Its always relevant and uptodate. The term "google it" also shows a certain brand image that developed through word of mouth outlining there success of a world renowned search engine. 

Brand History

Brands that have lots of history behind them often like to play on there roots and heritage, something very relevant to my project as all whiskey brands I have looked at seem to present this concept. 

Brand experience & Brand progression

An outline of a brand experience is that it engages with people through the audiences senses, playing on emotion is one good way of doing this. 

Another more ethical brand experience is the way in which they emphasize there values. Responding to environmental and social change will help highlight the brand as a brand that "cares" or stays current to there target market. 

To keep ahead of there rivals and current to there target market brand progression is import and reaction to social change and trends is important in an aesthetic and contextual outcome. 

An example of good brand progression comes from Action for Children. They decided for a name change in 2008 when the old name National Childrens Home failed to stand out as a good charity service. The old name had links with its origins as an orphanage, and this could be seen as offensive or no longer social relevant to child services today.

Marketing

While not totally relevant to the project I am undertaking I had a brief look into how marketing helps push a brand. Its probably the most important aspect of a brand but is more complex than the visual production side of things.

Its important to place the brand in the correct contexts and this is where marketing comes in and this diagram provides a basic guide on the marketing process showing important areas of development and brand strategy. 

Basic brand development process

This is the business end of a brand strategy, how its all executed and put out there to me the most important element. 

• Step by step process 
• Depends alot on budget of the company how deep each process goes
• Understand the target market fully & the market sector to create a good brand
• Market research to understand audience and market sector
• Helps inform strategy decisions and understand the market sector were the product is placed
• Helps inform the company on insights into audience, what there tastes are, reaction to current products.
• All helps inform the product, service, name and logo for the client 

Formulating a brand strategy is the most import and aspect been the starting point of a direction for the brand. 

• Detail areas like understanding the brand audience
• The market sector 
• Rivals and competitors what makes them so good
• External research from professional market researchers 

Creative execution: naming and logo

• Strategy feeds into brand development stage
• Creating the logo and feel for the brand
• Brand language or tone of voice
• Logo & Name

Creative implementation: advertising and digital presence 

• More aimed for advertising agency sector of the brand team as well as influence from designers for aesthetics
• In my eyes a very powerful method of executing the brand to the target audience 
• Many different socialist areas of creative implementation requiring dedicated teams
• Some smaller agencies carry out from concept to development to implementation
• Some specialize in online execution
• Digital presence of the brand is now as important as traditional print based execution and promotion process's 

Communicating the brand

• How to communicate the brand to the audience 
• Develop a plan how the brand will be communicates, what type of materials be it digital or print will be used. How will they be promoted and excited, take into account all the above to influence this stage. 
• Should cover internal employee communications as well as target customer communications 

Audi has successfully differentiated itself as a high end brand by highlighting its exceptional engineering process in there cars through its strap line "Vorsprung durch Technik" translating to "leading by technique" and through its history with racing communicates brand history and positive progression. All important aspects of a strong brand with no reliance on any aesthetics showing branding is alot of conceptual and marketing techniques. I want to create more aesthetic brand strategies though for my outcome as the company I am creating a brand proposal for doesn't have a history or a clever link that can be translated into a strap line. I will just focus on the element of heritage.

How to extend the brand

Another in-depth area within brand strategies is how the brand can be carried out across different areas, something quite relevant to my brand proposal as I will be creating a range of products for the brand to carry across.

This diagram explains how

• The brand can be carried out to different products
• It can help protect the brand from competition
• Use existing brand to enter new markets like telco entering mobile phones with there same promotion and slogans they use for shopping
• Collaboration with other companies to merge target markets together

Brand values

Brand values are a set of attributes that customers experience as the ethics and the promises the companies make. It gives the brand personality and emotional connections with relevant target audiences, create an element of trust and loyalty.

A simple diagram of basic contributing factors helps outline this in a more precise format for my current research purposes. 

Brand positioning

Brand positioning is an important factor to consider when the brand is to be positioned into a certain market area. To determine a brands ideal positioning there are a few important factors to consider:

• What does the brand mean to the customer
• How to reach the audience?
• How will it be promoted and to who?
• Fun or aspirational brand strategy?
• Consider age group
• Location (eg internet or outdoors)
• How it can be accessed

Breaking down a brand 

Supermarkets are a classic example of brand positioning and how they target there market, to me there are 3 classes of supermarket, budget (Aldi), middle class (Sainsburys) and high end (Waiterose) and there marketing and branding presents this.

But one way a lower end brand can up there game a little bit is presenting a more ethical consideration to there branding promotions. 

Tesco's strong thoughts into making a more positive effect on the environment will hopefully bring a different target market into there current sector of products and services.

A consideration to take forward is how I can propose a link to more underlying issues like environmental friendly aspects within my brand proposal, maybe consider the use of organic materials, or recycled products to create a more appealing and attractive overall brand strategy.