BRANDING + MESSAGES.

Hannah
Sep 5, 2020
6 min read

Many brands have hidden images in their logos which represent their company values, some are more obvious than others.

HIDDEN IMAGES IN LOGOS:

For example, the 'R' in the 'tour' represents

a cyclist which directly tells someone who

doesn't know the brand what they are about.

This is something which isn't easily noticeable

but is special to the logo yet relevant to the

race.

Toblerone is a Swiss chocolate bar which features the Swiss Alps as a nod to this, they are thought to be the Matterhorn of the Alps. It has been said that the iconic shape of the chocolate shape was inspired by the same mountain. The bear in logo is usually mistaken for snow of the mountains however it is symbolic of where the bar was created. The location was the Swiss capital Bern and known for its bears, even called 'The City Of Bears'.

BRAND PERSONALITIES:

There are five main brand personalities which of which Brands will adhere to and change their advertising in order to aim towards their target audience. For example, with a high end product their advertising and websites will be simplistic to get straight 'to the the point' of their product without excess.

If a consumer feels a personal connection towards specific brand compared to their other competitors, they are more likely to have that brand be the first place they think to go to when they want a restock. The results of a two year study of 100,000 retail customers say that 'emotionally connected customers has a 306% higher lifetime value', this means their loyalty guarantees the company regular income throughout the years.

BRAND PERSONALITY CASESTUDIES:

Nike:

Nike's personality is greatly sleek and very modern in terms of today's design world. They try to use simplicity to appeal to their young adult audience age range of 18 - 25 to engage and recognise a basic logo. This is also something which can be easily branded to be on clothing which is extra secondary publicity by the consumer as they wear it out and about. The target consumer would be the aspirer as they wish to be seen with the brand Nike over just wearing unbranded sports clothes. This creates a loyal customer support system for the company and will gain them a new publicity through word of mouth if the loyal customer discussed them while discussing their fitness journey with others.

LUSH:

Lush are very big on sustainability and handmaking all their products, this is even in their slogan which is apart of the logo as they are always paired together. The font is simple and all in bold upper case showing that they want to be identified as clean cut and professional, despite this they aim to be trendy, high quality and fair with their products which they show via use of vegan handmade products. The target audience is 18 - 24 who they want to grab the loyalty of to continue purchasing the products up into their future, so 25 - 34 +. The audience is also C2 (skilled working class) as they are most likely to be 'woke' and encourage a healthy environment therefore be interested in sustainable living.

BRAND PARTNERSHIPS AND ENDORSEMENTS:

Brands will collaborate with a popular and recognisable member of society who will promote to the products or brand, for legal reasons those people in brand partnerships must label that they are a partner or that it is an advertisement, usually with the use of #ad.

Brand partnerships:

To the left is an example of someone with a following which would range around some of the YSL target market, the ages of 25 - 34 or those 18 - 25 C2 who wish to be trendy and have branded products, the aspirer.

@jvck.j has a brand partnership with YSL and will promote their products in his instagram stories and posts to gain them publicity, in this case he is not on billboards or advertising but supports the brand with his aspirer audience and will get paid for each time he mentions the Yves Saint Laurent.

Brand endorsements:

George Clooney is a popular actor whose films generally have an age range of 35 -44 as they feel an attraction towards him, this C1(lower middle class) and B (middle class) audience grasp is the exact target audience that the coffee brand has. The age range also is common with the use of coffee to help them as they discover a new found adulthood so if they picked Nespresso they could become loyal cutomers. They wish to connect with those loyal coffee drinkers and have them be succeeders. They already have feeling of success and coffee is deemed a high quality brand that they would be interested in to make them seem more put together by using the luxury product.

Clooney represents the brand as a spokesperson and is directly associated with the company, both he and the company gains from the endorsement. Nespresso gain the recognisability to be connected with such a high profile and well known celeb as people watch his films they will see him and optimally think of the brand. Clooney gains a similar gain as he will get more of an audience for his films as well as a paid agreement for being apart of the adverts.

CASESTUDIES: BRANDING EVOLUTION:

Amazon:

The company began back in 1994 by Jeff Bezos and was called 'Cadabra', although with with thoughts that the name when spoken sounded similar to 'cadaver' he changed the name to 'Amazon'. It was originally an online bookshop that sold solely to America however in the first two months of business they sold to to all fifty states and over forty five countries worldwide as well as generating $20,000 a week in revenue.

1995 - 1997:

The original logo for Amazon was an image of the actual Amazon River against a blue almost water like background to represent with the tagline 'Earths biggest bookstore'. The logo replicates the letter 'A' with the river running through,

'It seems to personify everything about desktop computing and the advent of the internet circa that time,' said Ryan Edward Russell, an associate professor of graphic design at Penn State University. 'It looked like somebody just got a hold of Microsoft Word and just sort of went crazy with clip art,' Russell said. 'That original logo was very difficult to read. It was really, really busy. It didn’t really adapt well to print.'

The new purple logo is much more readable against the white background compared to the blue prior, this makes it look more professional and sleek.

1997 - 1998:

The company dropped the 'A' logo they had held for years to use their website and a simple slogan. They must have done this to keep simplicity and to try and become more well known by word of mouth with the tagline. The text is in the serif font which was in popular use in the '90s so fit with the times.

1998:

Claudine Jaenichen, an associate professor at Chapman University who specialises in information design says: 'To me, this one is a hard fail because it tries so hard to do multiple things,' she noted. Maybe that O represents a bond, or a cycle, or a sun rising — she isn’t really sure. 'It’s like, ‘OK, midlife crisis. I’m gonna get a Corvette.’ This feels like that to me,' she said. Jaenichen added that it also breaks up the company name (it looks like Amaz. On.) and said that the choice to have every letter capitalized may have made the company seem less approachable.

1998 - 2000:

2012 - PRESENT DAY:

The current logo holds the most well known premise that the brand stands behind today, the fact they can sell 'anything from A to Z' - hence the arrow. The arrow very much resembles a smiley face which is encouraging for the consumer to identify the brand with happiness and seem more welcoming. This persona makes them seem more like a 'friendly face' compared to a 'brand' who care for money only.

The Amazon CEO being concerned over costs, didn't want to pay for new branding elements or packaging, Turner Duckworth then suggested to use the new logo with the 'smile' only on shipping products (like the cardboard boxes) - this is what made the concept of making them 'smile boxes' and is the birth of the marketing vehicle of 'delivering smiles to doors'.

Turner Duckworth designed the transition between the 2000 and 2012 logos and worked with Amazon CEO Bezos to in the design process - just as he has been involved in each logo design.