A brand discourse midway between dilution and hubbub
Every day, our brain perceives the equivalent of 34 GB of data. Screens everywhere, incessant notifications, multitasking, infinite scrolling, snack content and intrusive advertisements…
There’s little chance of escaping this overload of information, even though our ability to pay attention and concentrate has significantly decreased, precisely because of these new uses.
Brands play an active role in this overdose.
We would thus be exposed to more than 15,000 commercial stimuli per day, in particular because of all the logotyped items that swarm through our daily lives. Not to mention the shelves overloaded with products, packaging spewing forth messages and websites ablaze with advertising banners.
This situation is all the more deplorable as the danger of standardisation constantly threatens brands.
Already present on the shelves, where own brands and sometimes competitors have fun copying, this threat now concerns the online presence. On the social networks side of things, the strength of algorithms combined with the quest for authenticity have made brands bend, which play to the fullest with the codes of the platform on which they communicate. As for e-commerce, the search for economic performance and the sharing of UX best practices have also got the better of branding. The interfaces, which are almost standardised, have become interchangeable. In ten years, the Web has lost graphic diversity. Logos also suffer from the current trend: for the sake of readability and impact, they have abandoned their symbolic elements to focus exclusively on the brand name, written more or less with the same typography.
Information overload and less attention for individuals on the one hand, standardisation of brands on the other… Engaging consumers has never seemed to be such an insoluble equation. However, we believe it’s possible to (re)create a link with your audience in such a complex environment, to tell them a brand story that’s desirable and engaging. How? Through brand assets, capable of generating consumer loyalty.
From code to brand asset
To do this, you first need to focus on the definition of an asset, which diverges from the simple brand code, and show how crucial it is to have one. Like its counterpart in the financial sphere, the asset isn’t “inert”, but creates wealth, its value feeds brand equity. For a code to be considered an asset, it must meet the following three conditions:
- be unique and proprietary;
- be meaningful, i.e. communicate all or part of the brand promise;
- be activatable, i.e. generate new expressions and interactions.
As such, a code isn’t born from a brand asset, it becomes one!
By demonstrating sufficient application and consistency over time. This is the case, for example, with Evian, which began by identifying a high-potential generic code in its visual identity, then symbolised it, specified it to ultimately activate and appropriate it. Today, this code is so powerful and anchored that the brand can interact and play with it, in communication as in packaging, without even having to show it for us to understand.
A triple function in the expression of a brand
In a world dominated by images, brand assets allow us to encode the brand in our daily lives, create an immediate, unique and meaningful interaction with its audience. It’s also a way to gain in efficiency and richness of expression. Depending on the point of contact, target or context, brand assets are used to refine and specify the message.
Take Heineken’s red star, a distant heritage of brewers, today a key element of the brand’s visual identity.
It can alternately serve as powerful in-store signage, where its place on the packaging is ever more predominant, tell of the functional benefit of this beer by illustrating its refreshing character on an advertisement, or even symbolise the emotional benefit of the brand – openness to the world – by taking on the national colours of each country for limited editions. Different goals and messages supported by the same brand asset, strong and rich enough to support these variations.
The brand is all the more remarkable in that it has other brand assets, a whole set which it can draw on and create unique combinations according to its communication needs.
Finally, brand assets help create and enrich the relationship with its audience, initiate a dialogue, with a unique and engaging story (or even stories). Take the case of Pringles, which claimed, reworked and reaffirmed three of its assets through its new packaging:
- the logo, modernised in a more refined version, closer to the figure of emoticons;
- the crisps themselves, now displayed on the pack;
- and verticality, unsurprisingly, also emblematic of the brand, that verticality which inspired the graphic representation of each recipe, which is broken down into layers of crisps and ingredients.
These 3 elements are activated and displayed on the communication media, including the logo! And so, the brand unfolds and enriches its storytelling, encouraging the involvement of its audience.
Using assets for understanding and loyalty
Beyond its graphic, symbolic character, a brand asset is of such strategic importance in the brand discourse. It must carry all or part of the latter and illustrate the key points of the conviction journey, in particular the promise, the RTBs and the attached benefits. Especially in a world overloaded with information and images. Otherwise, there will be no consumer understanding or loyalty to our brand!
To manage brand assets, Logic Design has developed a unique tool, the Path-to-Belief®. Its strength is to put the brand platform / brand laddering into perspective with the storytelling, and so reconcile all dimensions: the brand desired, the brand expressed and the brand perceived by the consumer. And this, thanks to a collaborative, consumer-centric approach, since it involves our customers on the one hand, and the brand’s consumers and prospects on the other.
A tool for auditing, alignment and strategic direction, the Path-to-Belief® helps us create a unique, proprietary world, driven by unique, meaningful, activatable brand assets, placing a brand on the path to becoming an icon.
Do you want to develop your company’s brand assets?
