Explicitación de los contenidos de la competencia discursiva desde una perspectiva didáctica

TextBlack 1st Proof ^Title: The Fundament of Branding : AVA

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2nd Proof ^Title: The Fundament of Branding : AVA

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Communicating the

The strongest brand concepts always develop visuals and words simultaneously, with designers, writers and other team members working together. Some branding agencies have a tendency to focus more on the visual design and brand ‘look and feel’ – with words inserted into allocated spaces.

This is not ideal and is now an outdated way of working.

The best way to approach concept creation is to keep things flexible, allowing anyone to contribute to the creative process and so to come up with a great idea. In doing so, it is worth considering how people will be interacting with and experiencing the brand – this is the ‘human factors’ or 'human behaviours’ approach which is often used in web and product design. You can also test this out on an audience. Ideas may then be translated into a mix of words and images, storyboards or scenarios – the form it takes is flexible. A ‘tone of voice’ and

‘look and feel’ will underpin the visual and verbal interpretation of the brand and are fundamental to the overall brand experience.

The tone of voice will set the degree of sophistication and accessibility, as well as the tonal flavour of the brand (for example, whether it is light-hearted or serious). It is also used as a guideline for writing copy for ongoing brand executions. The ‘look and feel’ will include colours, imagery and the visual expression of the brand, such as font, layout and textures. Both the tone of voice and look and feel are likely to be updated if the brand changes (for example, if the brand undergoes a revamp or ‘refresh’). It is also documented in brand guidelines to ensure some degree of consistency (discussed at the end of this chapter in ‘Maintaining the brand’). Any creative development should always be checked against the creative brief.

Executing the creative

The creative team will need to consider the channels for communicating the brand.

Each channel has its own constraints – for example, colours that work in print do not necessarily translate onto the web.

Also, the style of language needs to be adapted for different mediums – people read in a different way online from how they do in print. Each channel offers opportunities to use different styles of communication and messaging.

For print executions, the creative team has to consider the context for the brand’s use to understand how it needs to be reproduced at different sizes and colours.

For video or online, screen resolutions, animation and audio components need to be factored in. Each medium also requires different skills from the creative team – stretching from technical abilities to specialist writing (such as scriptwriting) and design. These skills may be provided by freelancers.

TextBlack 2nd Proof Title: The Fundament of Branding : AVA

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Harvey Nichols is one of the leading high-end fashion department stores in the world. It first opened in 1813.

It has always emphasised its creativity as an attribute – from its decadent window displays, to the shop layout, to the brands inside. US burlesque artiste, Dita Von Teese, endorses the Harvey Nichols brand (right).

TextBlack 1st Proof ^Title: The Fundament of Branding : AVA

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2nd Proof ^Title: The Fundament of Branding : AVA

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Communicating the brand

Developing the

‘creative’

Brand values

In 1991, Harvey Nichols used the strength of its brand to open a food hall (top) with its ‘own label’

food products (above and right), packaged in a similar modern style to New York’s Dean & DeLuca deli.

TextBlack 2nd Proof Title: The Fundament of Branding : AVA

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How to communicate

Brand communications is about sustaining the brand in the market. The first six months of ‘roll-out’ is critical to the brand’s success.

People need to know what has changed and why it has been done. And any changes to the brand need to be communicated to all the brand’s stakeholders, which includes external audiences – such as customers, investors and the press. One of the first areas of focus for any brand communications team should be the employees.

This means that any brand communications must be ongoing, rather than a ‘quick hit’ that happens with the launch. A new brand positioning needs to constantly be reinforced in people’s minds, and messages must also be adapted to the different audiences. There is a huge range of tactics available to achieve this with both online and offline media. Essentially, the key is for companies to engage in conversation with their audiences, rather than dictate to them.

Engaging the employee audiences Employees are the best communicators of any brand. Receive their buy-in and they can offer a loyalty that is as powerful as any supportive customer. Employees are an expression of the values of the brand – they are part of the brand’s personality.

Therefore, any brand launch, refresh or repositioning should involve employees at the outset. While this can make the brand process more complicated (by asking for more people’s participation), it is an investment for the long term.

Any brand revamp or ‘refresh’ – whether developing a brand or repositioning one – needs to be communicated well. However, this is an area that is so often considered as an add-on in many brand executions, rather than a fundamental part of the brand strategy. This is because so much focus is often directed into launching the brand or brand refresh, with less emphasis placed on how that brand will be communicated among employees or to other stakeholders.