Re: Brand Identity

Well Jen, I know you were resisting Target, but it really is the only brand I'm loyal to even when I know I can get a cheaper price elsewhere. The experience means a lot. I feel like I get consistency with Target. I always feel at ease (except in the parking lot) while shopping. They are relatively clean and organized, although that could have more to do with the Target I frequent. It's the reason people call it Targét.  They make you almost feel like you are in a department store. As a customer I could not tell you specifically what they do with branding that draws my attention without doing any research. So, to answer your question, with good branding, I don't think customers recognize when they are being "sold to." While consumers recognize companies make money, they don't want to feel like that's the only purpose. Brands must have a purpose.

For instance Apple always starts building new products with a why instead of a what: 

“Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo.  We believe in thinking differently.  The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user-freindly.  And we happen to make great computers.  Wanna buy one?”


Apple's purpose is to change the way we think about technology and hopefully they'll make some money in the process.

Building a brand takes time. The branding for a big company like Apple may not work for a small/ new business. I've been working on a logo for a client recently and I came to realize that it is very necessary for his logo to have an image. I prefer logos without an image. They feel much cleaner and simple. I'm drawn to simple designs. However, because my client is a new company and their name was an acronym, it needed an image to ensure potential customers could easily recognize the purpose of their brand. I imagined that down the line, he could always redesign it with just the acronyms once people identified with his brand. When you look at redesigns of major companies, you'll notice that the type becomes more obvious and clean, while the image becomes less relevant. Look at how far Apple has come:

I found a site a few days ago underconsideration.com that submits reviews for logo redesigns. Its once of those sites you could stuck on for hours. Just today, they reviewed Ben and Jerry's redesign which they found still suggest the unapologetic mixture of flavors in each package, but a bit more visible. http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_packaging_for_ben_jerrys_by_pearlfisher.php