Creating Brand Identity

A Necessary Concept
 Defining the Brand

• What is the brand’s Identity?

• Brand Identity Planning Model
• Kapferer brand prism
• Common Mistakes
 Brand Identity

• Brand Identity is a set of brand

assocciations that the brand strategist
aspires to create or maintain.
• These associations imply a promise to
customers from the organization members.
• It has a depth and richness.
 Brand Identity

• The brand Identity should help establish a

relationship between the brand and the
customer by generating a value proposition
potentially involving functional,emotional,
or self-expressive benefits or by providing
credibility for endorsed brands.
 Brand Identity and
Brand Image
• Identity is on the sender’s side. Its purpose
is to specify the brand’s meaning, aim and
self image

• Image is on the receiver’s side. It’s how

groups perceive the brand. Image refers to
the way in which groups decode all of the
signals emanating from the brand’s
products, services and communications
 Six Facets of Brand Identity

1. A brand has physical qualities or a

‘physique’
 What does it do?
 What does it look like?

2. A brand has its own personality

 Spokesperson or figurehead role
 What brand would be if it were a person
3. A brand has its own culture
 Set of values feeding the brand’s inspiration
 Country of origin

4. A brand has its own relationship

 Exchanges between people and brand
 Service sectors and retailers
5. A brand is a reflection
 Produces a reflection or image of the buyer
or user
 Different from target the describes brand’s
potential buyer or user
 Customer is reflected as s/he wishes to be
seen from using the brand
 Consumers use brands to built their own
identities
6. A brand speaks to our self image
 Self image is the target’s own internal
mirror
 Attitude toward the brand fosters an inner
relationship with self
 Brand Identity Planning Model

• Strategic Brand Analysis

Strategic Brand Analysis

Customer Competetor Self

Analysis Analysis Analysis
 Brand Identity Planning Model

Strategic Brand Analysis

Customer Analysis
A brand identity needs to resonate with customers.
Create Research & Develop Segmentation schemes
 trends
 motivations
 unmet needs
 segmentation
 Brand Identity Planning Model

Strategic Brand Analysis

Competetor Analysis
A brand identity differentiate the brand from
competetors
 Brand Image/Identity
 Strenghts, Strategies
 Vulnerabilities
 Positioning
 Brand Identity Planning Model

Strategic Brand Analysis

Self Analysis
A brand identity represent what the organization can
and will do over time.
 Existing Brand Image
 Brand Heritage
 Strenghts/ Strategies
 Organizational Values.
Brand Identity Planning Model

Brand Identity System

Extended
Core

Essense
Brand Identity Planning Model

Brand Identity System

Brand Essense: Aaker describes the essence as the spirit of the brand.
According to Kapferer " it stems from a desire to summarize the identity

 What do you sell?

 What key value does the brand propose and stand for?
 It is not a tagline to be communicated to the publics, but a word or statement to
resonate with customers and be the driving force behind the value proposittion.
Brand Identity Planning Model

Brand Identity System

Core Identity: Core identity should reflect the strategy and values of
the organization/brand
 Core Identity remain constant as the brand travels to new markets or
extend to new products.
 Identity should similar to brand essence but include elements that
makes the brand unique and valuable in a market perspective

 Core Identity also the soul of brand and what are fundamentl beleives
and values that drive the brand.
Brand Identity Planning Model

Brand Identity System

Extended Identity: It includes elements, which are not in the core

identity.
 It has broader perspective providing addition detail and associations to
consumers.
 Extended identity is the personality of the brand. The personality is
defined as a set of human characteristics which are associated with the
brand
 Brand Identity System

Brand as Product Brand as Organization

Product scope Organization attributes

Product attributes • Innovation
Quality/value • Consumer concern
Uses • Trustworthiness
Users Local vs. global
Country of origin
 Brand Identity System

Brand as Person Brand as Symbol

Visual imagery and metaphors

Personality  He drowned in a sea of grief.
• Energetic  She is fishing in troubled waters.
• Rugged  Success is a bastard as it has many
fathers, and failure is an orphan, with no
Brand-customer relationships takers
• Friend
• Advisor
Brand heritage
 Value Proposition
 Aaker explained it " as a statement of the functional, emotional, and
self-expressive benefits delivered by the brand that provide value to
the customer.

 An effective value should lead to a brand-customer relationship and

drive purchase dimensions.

 Nilson states that" Real brands needs to have strong values. by having
strong values brands will have strong commercial power and stay in
the mind of customers for a long period of time.

 The role of the value proposition, in a brand identity is basically to

fulfil the needs of the consumers.
 Value Proposition

Functional benefits: based on product attributes that provides

functional benefits to consumers.
 If brand create dominant benefits, it can dominate the market
category.
 Key tangible features the brand perform

 Provides functional utility and benefit to the customer.

 Some examples:
 Volvo is safe and durable because of its weight and design
 A 7-Eleven store means convenience
 Value Proposition

Emotional benefits: Intangible and relates the ability of a brand to

evoke feelings from consumers during the communication process
between the two.
When a brand provides the user with a positive feeling
then the brand is providing an emotional benefit.

Some examples:
Energetic & vibrant when drinking Coke
Confident and glowing when using Dove
 Value Proposition

Self-expressive benefits: We are what we have

" A self-expressive benefit exist when the brand provides

a vehicle by which the person can proclaim a particular

self image"
Some examples:
Successful and powerful when I drive a Mercedes Benz
Caring & nurturing when serving Fernleaf milk
Sporty and young in outlook when driving an Alfa
 Brand Identity System

Credibility: Credibilty is essential in creating brand Identity.

 If brand elements and Value proposition are not correctly
choosen and efficiently communicated the brand identity will
not be percieved as credible by the consumers
 Credibility is also important in brand extension

Customer Relationship:The last feature of brand identity system

is brand customer relationship
 important to build positive relationship with customers
 both Brands and consumer communicates with eachother.
 It requires constant attention
 The Brand Implementation
System
• Third Stage
• A brand identity is implemented through the
development of Brand building programs
• There are four components of implementation
process
 Brand Identity Elaboration
 Brand Position
 Brand Building Programs
 Tracking
 The Brand Implementation
System
 Brand Identity Elaboration: is a set of tools designed to
add richness, texture, and clarity to brand identity
(leadership, friendship,trust and relationship)
 The Brand Implementation
System
Brand Positioning:
 The part of the brand identity and value proposition
that is to be actively communicated to the target
audience and that demonstrate an advantage over
competing brands

Brand Building Programs:

 IMC
 Variety of media including promoions, publicity,
packaging, direct marketing, the web, the sponsorship
 Creating brilliant communication strategies and
executions that break out through clutters
 The Brand Implementation
System

Tracking: Brand equity ten set includes,

 Loyality Measures (price premuim & customer
satisfaction
 Perceived quality & leadership measures (perceived
quality and leadership popularity)
 Association measures(perceived value, brand
personality and rganizational association)
 Awareness measures
 Beahvior measure(market share/ market price /
distribution coverage)
 BRAND IDENTITY PRISM

• Physique according to him is the basis of the brand.

 E.G. the physique of Philips is “technology and reliability” while for the
brand Tata it is “trust”

• Personality is same as Aaker, it answers the question “what happens

to this brand when it becomes a person?”

• Culture symbolizes the organization, its country-of-origin and the

values it stands for.
 E.G. traditional brands like dabur
 BRAND IDENTITY PRISM
• Relationship is the handshake between consumer and the organisation.
 E.G. the relationship with “safola” is safety.

• Reflection is the consumer’s perception for what the brands stands for.
 E.G. coke’s image more attract youth.

• Self-image is what the consumer think of himself.

 E.G. benz Car owner think that since he has bought the car he is treating
himself to one of the best car in the world.
KAPFERER represents brand identity diagrammatically as
a six-sided prism as shown below:
Constructed
E Source/Sender I
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Constructed
Receiver
Brand Experience are of Two types

Brand Experience

External Internal
The External Brand Experience include

• Name
• Logo
• Advertising
• Brand Identity
• Environments
• Products & Service
The Internal Brand Experience include

• Business Process
• Customer Relations
• Brand Values
• Training
• Quality
• Staff Motivation
• Recruitment Policies
• Technology etc..
Now let us look at the Brand Identity Prism based on Kapferer model and the
6 key dimensions in it
-Name -Logo -Business Process -Customer
-Advertising -Brand Identity Relations -Brand Values -Training
-Environments -Products & -Quality -Staff Motivation
Service -Recruitment Policies -Technology etc..
etc.

Constructed Source
E I
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a a
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Constructed Receiver
• Physical
 Product features, symbols & attributes

• Personality
 Character & attitude

• Relationship
 Beliefs & association

• Culture
 Set of Values

• Reflection
 Customer’s view of the brand

• Self-Image
 Internal mirror of customer as user of brand
• let us now understand the prism with help
of example of Nike............
 Common Mistakes

• On developing brand
identity avoid 8
common mistakes.....
 Common Mistakes
1. Avoid a limited brand perspective

2. Link to a compelling functional benefit whenever possible

3. Ignore constructs that are not helpful

4. Generate deep consumer insight

5. Understand competitors

6. Allow multiple brand identities

7. Make the brand identity drive the execution

8. Elaborate the brand identity