BRAND IDENTITY

The concept of brand identity includes three main tasks:

1.      The brand identity system

2.      The brand identity implementation system, and

3.      The strategic brand analysis

Brand identity has acquired a pivotal position in building a strong brand. It gives direction, purpose and meaning for the brand. For a brand, the brand identity is the way the company wishes to project itself to the customers and consists of a set of associations that the brand strategist desires to create or maintain. These associations represent for what the brand standard for and imply a promise to customers from the organization members. Adidas has a very strong brand identity. The brand strongly perceives itself to a sporty, daring, smart and enduring brand.”Impossible is nothing’ conveys the real meaning of the brand.  Its logo is highly popular. 

“While you are out shopping and you see a shirt or a pair of shoes with three stripes on it, can you imagine which brand name will surface to your mind? Almost everyone would love to associate the three stripes brand identity with Adidas as it is creative yet simple enough to establish a memorable brand. The Adidas brand slogan of “Impossible is Nothing” makes an emotional appeal to their target audience as it relates to never giving up and to surpass one’s limits. This Emotional Selling Proposition (ESP) enables Adidas to make their brand memorable. Every product of Adidas has the famous three stripes prominently displayed so that wherever or whenever the target audience sees the brand identity they will know that it is an Adidas product”.

It is important for a company to build brand identity as it will enhance its Return On Investment (ROI) for the business. Memorable brands like Adidas work to build their brand identity as it leads to greater opportunities for their brand. By strengthening their brand identity, Adidas has been able to undertake risks into areas of sports apparel and sports equipment. Adidas co-branded their brand identity with other famous brands. Thus, Adidas enhanced their target audience when it entered a venture with Stella McCartney to design sports apparel for women called “Adidas by Stella McCartney” The brand holds a product portfolio which calls for excellent engineering, comfort and being futuristic.

Another company Dove aspires to create and identify purity and calls itself a pure soap. The sign of Dove is a white bird, a symbol of peace and purity. Logos, signs, slogans, mission statement, mascots, product range and usages are different ways through which a brand puts forward its identity.

Pepsi’s brand identity has transformed over the years, but fundamentally it has remained as a youthful brand empowering people to enjoy their youth. The indicators of Brand Identity have been modified several times, its logo, trademark, etc have changed over time but the distinct identity of Pepsi has remained the same. A consistency in brand positioning for Pepsi as a Youth oriented brand is also seen.

Brand identity as a concept or as an idea is formed too narrowly. In order to obtain maximum brand strength and formulate an optimal brand strategy, it is essential to enlarge the scope of the brand identity (Aaker, 1996). Therefore, a brand equity can be visualized from four perspectives:

• Brand as product
• Brand as organization
• Brand as person, and
• Brand as symbol

It suggests that a company could think its firm as a product, an organization, a person or symbol to shape its brand equity. Each of the four perspectives consists of a number of elements that may be used to increase the brand identity.

While developing a brand identity, the brand as product perspective is the most important one since the product related associations are directly connected to brand selection decisions and user experience. The brand as product perspective includes product scope, brand associations, product attributes; country of origin; as well as quality and uses, users.

The product scope refers to the product or products a brand is associated with as Pepsi for cold drink, Lakme for beauty products, Motorola for mobile phones, Kwality wall’s for ice creams, Pepsodent for toothpaste and Bandaid for antiseptic bandages. A dominant product scope develops a high brand recall when a product class is named, Honda for bikes, IBM for computers, Tide for detergents. Product related attributes refers to what the customer gets out of using a brand’s product. Increasing additional benefits, features and services support the identity of a product. Samsung offers a health portfolio with bio-fresh technology in refrigerators, LG with golden eye technology. Country of origin adds to the identity of a brand as a product. Volkswagen’s German cars are seen as highly engineered luxury automobiles. Similarly, BMW, Porsche, Audi, and Opel get advantage out of this. Brands also fous on quality as their core identity reflected in their products or services. Gillette, Loreal claim to provide the best.

The brand-as –organization perspective concentrates on the attributes of the organization rather than the product or service including organizational associations such as innovations and care for customers, local versus global. This may be an important identity decision as both choices can provide advantages to the firm. A local strategy facilitates a link to customers and a better understanding of customer needs whereas a global strategy reflects longevity and a commitment to the future of the brand (Aaker, 1996). In India, Tata markets all its products with Tata name that has built a symbol of trust and innovation. Tata makes a variety of products from salt to trucks. The trust in Tata brand and products is so deep rooted in the mind of the Indian consumer that each new product is seen in the same line and establishes in the mind of the consumer the brand identity of quality and assurance as other Tata products.