Re: Brand Identity

Who do you know that has a strong brand identity?

I always thought CustomInk had amazing branding:

I mean, JUST LOOK AT THAT OCTOPUS. ADORABLE. It's also instantly recognizable, it fits with the ink theme, and I will order stuff from them because I'm a sucker solely for the purpose of supporting the octopus. Seriously, I don't want it to starve. I also really like Garden Studio:

Not only do they have a gorgeous website, they also have this really neat logo, with a descender that subtly references the Garden of Eden.

Do you know anyone or anything that has failed to create a strong brand identity?

On the weaker side, iFOS Corporation could stand to work on their branding. As they kicked me out of a very comfortable job for no stated reason, it seems only fitting that they have a hideous logo:

Seriously, check out that lovely gradient, plus the stroke around the letters and the unappealing chart in the O. There is nothing about this logo that appeals to me, or even really tells me what they do: what, for instance, does "managing consultants" mean? Do they provide and/or supervise your consultants? Are they in the business of management consulting? If so, the tagline should say "Management Consultants." The spelling of the acronym also suggests that they're trying to sound young, hip, and Apple-ish, which--given their staid, unsightly logo--seems a bit counterintuitive. Then again, decent branding would likely be lost on the good majority of their target market and they still seem to get contracts by being cheaper than everybody else, so they probably have nothing to worry about.

Do you think consumers even realize why they are attracted to someone or something with a strong brand identity?

For the most part, no. Joe Sparano once said that good design is obvious, while great design is transparent: thus, a really good brand will be invisible to most consumers (excepting, of course, designers, who are a damn sight harder to please). In the case of a well-established company like Amazon, most consumers will recognize and trust the logo, and will probably extend that trust to any subsidiaries using Amazon's logo without realizing why. Though I've never really thought about it before, the presence of the Amazon logo, or the Google logo, or any other major logo from a trusted brand tends to make me less skeptical of a smaller company and its credibility: I might not have trusted Novica, for instance, if it hadn't been associated with National Geographic.