Are you aware of the distinctions between brand, branding and visual branding?

Here’s a basic overview.

I have used the reference to “you” here, which can be a person, company, product or just about anything your brand efforts are focused on.

What is a Brand?

Who are you? What do you stand for? How do you differentiate yourself? You create a perception in the mind of your customer. Your brand promises to deliver value consistently over a long period of time.

What is Branding?

Everything you do, every message you send, every communication you make at every touchpoint. Branding is about using your brand to allow your customer to see you as you desire them to see you. Typically, we want to be seen as the premiere source who can provide the solution to their problem. It is how they see, feel, and experience you. It’s about creating singular distinction, strategic awareness, and differentiation in the mind of your customer.

What is Visual Branding?

Visual Branding enables companies to translate much of their positioning and branding effort into something people see (and experience). It is the visual expression of a brand. Visual Branding is about visually expressing a brand personality, anytime, anyplace, anywhere. It means you directly and subliminally communicate the brand by visually representing it with simplicity, consistency and repetition. Visual branding facilitates recognition through visual unity (shape, color, typography, imagery) and strength. The intended result is to build an emotional connection between the brand and your customer.

Let’s use Apple as an example of the genius of brand, branding and visual branding.

Apple’s Brand

Apple is about imagination, design and innovation. Apple products are simple, well designed, easy-to-use. Apple’s simplicity is its efficiency, productivity and dependability.

Apple’s Branding

Apple does very humanistic things as a corporation and with their products that support the brand. They have found a way to allow people to embrace technology by adding a human aspect to it. They make people smile and relax with the technology and thus, people become engaged with the product. Apple has clearly established an emotional connection with its customers at every touchpoint which has helped build communities around their products. Apple has turned their customers into brand evangelists and brand ambassadors. THIS is the epitomy of branding.

Apple’s Visual Branding

Apple uses simple and unique visuals in product design, support material and advertising which are clearly recognizable. The visual brand is based on the same simple visual expression carried through all their products, stores and website. The Apple logo is applied consistently on everything Apple. Support material, products, website and stores all use a distinct use of black, white, grey/silver and sometimes a blue accent. They incorporate glass or clear material wherever applicable. Colorful accent palettes are only used in accessories and to display on-screen content. The visual branding reinforces the simplicity and the humanness of Apple.

This answers the “What” of brand, branding and visual branding.

Next up: The Why and The How.

I like the meaning and depth of thought and the strategy that went into this new visual brand. The constellation below is a visual inspiration for the dotted man figure icon.

The dot icon is simple, friendly and flexible. It represents a Belkin brand that is more contemporary and relevant. The wordmark works well to reinforce the icon. The common trend of using lowercase letters for the wordmark lends a friendly, fun and modern look and feel.

“The new Belkin logo, affectionately named PIP for People Inspired Products, symbolizes our commitment to take inspiration from people, and acknowledges the connection between people and the experiences they value most.” states Ernesto Quinteros, Belkin’s Chief Brand Officer in their recent press release.

The new brand was facilitated by the return of Belkin’s founder, Chet Pipkin, or “Mr. Pip”. This is absolute genious! If you want to get CEO buy-in on a new brand identity, use his/her ego on the brand to help get you there. An emotional story that “connects” with the CEO wins every time, because, we all know that the branding process incorporates alot of CEO and EGO.

See how beautifully the icon works interactively.

Aetna has a new logo – the 12th logo in the company’s 157-year history. This is part of their new brand’s “passion for helping people make confident choices and celebrate the equity and tradition of the Aetna name.”

Aetna’s logo evolution from the 1860s. Courtesy of Business Insider.

The new logo is clean, simple, memorable, unique and appropriate for the new brand. They use all lowercase letters in a modern font. The trend of using lowercase letters has become popular recently as they represent a friendlier look and feel. Shown below, the bright color palette with its vast spectrum of color represents youthful, friendly, fun and cheerful. The logo symbolically reinforces Aetna’s brand promise of a connected health care experience by visually connecting the letters “a” and “e” – a visual they retired in 2001.

The row of their colorful icons below are made by using the negative spaces of the “a” and the “e”. Very nice touch!

Applications of the logo shown below display the use of bright colors and the friendly look and feel.

Visual brand images, courtesy of Brand New.

Aetna says its new look is “Vibrant. Energetic. Flexible. It shows our passion for helping you feel confident in your health care decisions, fitting into your life, and making it easier for you to live healthier.” As they say, Aetna continues “its evolution from an insurance carrier to a health solutions company” and establishes themselves as a more consumer-focused brand.

Read Aetna’s press release.

Cigna went through a similar process of rebranding last year. Read about Cigna’s new logo here.

Our good friend (and former client, now retired) Anne Ritchey, gave us a very appropriate holiday gift – The Logo Board Game. Thanks Anne, for thinking of us in a big way!

The game is like a trivial pursuit. There are cards that ask questions in relation to brands we are often familiar with.

Although it is a board game, we had much fun with answering questions. Some relate to visuals and logos, some to taglines and branding. But mostly, it got us thinking and helped us build on our brand vocabulary.

We share some of the fun here with questions for you:

1 Which brand uses a red spoon as its logo?

2 Which brand’s slogan is “Love the skin you’re in”?

3 What is the chorus to the well-known Sara Lee jingle?

4 According to their ads, “nothing beats a great pair of” these.

5 Which Japanese car company’s logo is made up of three red diamonds?

6 Which famous cake mix maker had previously been a food critic?

7 What did the initials AT&T originally stand for?

8 What brand of sunglasses did President Barack Obama wear on the cover of Ebony?

9 Which web company’s name comes from the math term for the number 1 followed by 100 zeroes?

10 What do burgers at Wendy’s and White Castle have in common?

______

Answers:

1 Betty Crocker

2 Olay

3 “Nobody doesn’t like Sara Lee”

4 L’eggs

5 Mitsubishi

6 Duncan Hines

7 American Telephone & Telegraph

8 Ray-Ban

9 Google (from Googol)

10 They are both square.

______

Happy new year!

There are many different spiritual beliefs that have become part of the holiday season. Of the many seasonal icons that exist, the imaginary one that remains the strongest, most fun and most playful is the belief in Santa Claus. Let’s just pretend for a minute.

We have posted this in years past, so please excuse us for pulling it out of our sack again!

All in fun, we share with you… The Santa Brand.

Knowledge is power. Conveying that knowledge with infographics (or “data viz” for data visualization) is a new way of seeing. An infographic neatly combines statistics and design to communicate multiple layers of information. Great for your presentations when a graphic can speak volumes. Highly effective when it’s important to illustrate information clearly and quickly. Ideal for communicating with your online audience. A visually pleasing and compelling infographic is likely to be shared on potentially buzz-generating social networks – expanding your reach.

Studies have proven that people retain about 10% of information conveyed orally. Since the majority of people are visual learners, it stands to reason that when information is also visually presented, retention rate increases to 50%. Infographics can help validate your argument.

For infographic success you need:

• a topic that directly relates to your product and/or service

• to provide an answer to a specific question or problem

• information people will want to share

• well-researched, precise, accurate and well-organized information

• easy to read visually powerful design

• to make sure that the reader’s eye easily flows down the page

• charts, vectors, artwork and use of typography that are engaging to read

• to incorporate company branding, including your branded color palette

• to make your infographic easy to share with social media connections

Be careful not to overwhelm the viewer. Simplicity is important. Take small steps to a more digestible flow of content and success can be yours.

How do colors influence marketing?

It is important for us to consider that consumers place visual appearance and color above other factors when shopping. Buying habits are complex but here are some quick percentage points made in a kissmetrics study on the color of psychology.  See the infographic here.

• 85% of shoppers place color as a primary reason for why they buy a particular product.

• Color increases brand recognition by 80%.

• 52% of consumers are more likely to enter a store when there is a sale sign in the window.

• 60% of consumers feel at ease and are more likely to buy a product that has the word “guaranteed” associated with it.

• 42% of shoppers base their opinion of a website on overall design alone.

• 52% of shoppers did not return to a website because of overall aesthetics.

Infographics – visuals conveying complex concepts

Infographics can help guide us toward better marketing. They neatly combine statistics and design to communicate multiple layers of information.

I have listed here, a few interesting color infographics to help you think about the use of color.

• The most powerful colors of the world  - infographic

• Colors of the web. Popular web brand colors – infographic

• Colors in culture – infographic
Color is one of the most powerful methods of design. But it is culturally specific.

• Color preferences by gender – infographic
In the kissmetrics color experiments, men prefer bright colors women prefer soft colors. Men and women both preferred blue.

• The psychology of color – infographic
Visual perceptions driven by color can motivate buying behavior.

Life is easier, more fun and all around better because of his vision and drive.

Can you believe it? Steve Jobs has 313 patents under his name covering everything from packaging to user interfaces.

I remember the first Mac I purchased – a Mac IICX in 1989. It was nested in packaging that walked you through the experience of becoming a Mac owner, starting with a box that read, “Open me first”. An incredible user experience from opening the box to starting up and running the MAC OS for the first time. With its rainbow colored Apple logo, it embraced me and has held my heart (and livelihood) ever since. Today, when you purchase a Mac, there are barely any instructions at all. The assumption is that you’ll be able to tear open the box and immediately start playing, which is absolutely the case.

Once features and speed in computers was commoditized so it was no longer important how fast a computer was, the issue of usability and integration came to the forefront as a differentiator. And people finally understood what it’s like to work on a Mac.

As a testament to Apple product intuitiveness and positive user experience, visit the the Apple store and watch 3-year-olds (and 60-year olds) play on iPads. Good human interface and intuitiveness, that’s what we are talking about.

It is absolutely incredible how the iPad and iPhone interact with the Mac desktop. A testament to Jobs visionary talent of being able to look at a product from the eyes of a user.

Apple designers say that their designs have to be presented with a mock-up of how that design might evolve in the second or third generation.

David Pogue so poignantly writes: “Even when Microsoft or Google or Hewlett-Packard tried to mimic Apple’s every move, run its designs through the corporate copying machine, they never succeeded. And that’s because they never had such a single, razor-focused, deeply opinionated, micromanaging, uncompromising, charismatic, persuasive, mind-blowingly visionary leader.”

Thank you, Steve Jobs, for all the wonderful life-enriching experiences you and Apple have opened for all of us – a testament to your legend.

Steve Jobs quotes can be found everywhere right now. But in this moment, this one resonates the most with me.

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” – Steve Jobs, Stanford University commencement address, 1995.

Cigna’s visual brand has been updated – it’s human, it’s happy, it’s green. The new logo depicts how Cigna’s health stewardship allows individuals to blossom and grow.

The letters of “Cigna”, no longer in all caps, are in a more casual Myriad Pro semi-bold font consistent with the current trend towards creating a more people-friendly look. The blue, green and yellow colors also support this. Blue for trust and support, green for growth and yellow for happy.

Cigna CEO David Cordani says “Connecting people to better health is the value we deliver as a global health services company.” (Hartford Courant)

The original “Tree of Life” logo in existence since 1993 was based on an 18th century New England quilt. The new logo puts the “Tree of Life” in the hands of the consumer. The move to a more “human” visual, focused on the healthcare consumer, is a good choice based on the evolution of today’s healthcare. Cigna’s new “Go You” campaign, “You were born an original. Make sure you stay that way,” also speaks to the industry reinventing itself as consumers prepare for the health-overhaul laws that will require most Americans to carry health insurance by 2014. Read more and view the video @BrandChannel.

Heineken is not only a great consumer brand but a corporate overseer of more than 250 beer and cider brands. In this age of brand awareness Heineken has opted for brand differentiation. As a brewer, HEINEKEN is a brand. As a brand, Heineken is a world reknowned beer. They have chosen to differentiate the corporate visual identity from the product visual identity.

The re-designed HEINEKEN corporate name appears in all caps with a red star, which they call a spark, purportedly representing the spirit and energy of the company’s more than 70,000 employees worldwide. For me, the spark bares somewhat of a resemblance to the Texaco star.

The visual identity and design of the iconic Heineken beer brand remains unchanged. The Heineken beer typeface used in upper/lower case is more friendly as a consumer brand, like beer, should be. The all caps corporate version is a bit rigid but strong and iconic.

I understand the brand awareness reasoning for this change but it will certainly cause visual brand confusion with two visual variations on the Heineken/HEINEKEN word. At first glance, consumers may jump to various inaccurate conclusions. If HEINEKEN integrates the corporate icon onto the product, it must be done with great finesse and respect for the consumer brand.

Coca-Cola company uses one visual brand for its signature product and its corporate icon and I believe it works. I think the same could apply for Heineken. Stay with one consistent visual brand identity for their signature product and their corporate entity. It makes everything that much more powerful.

In Coca-Cola’s corporate visual identity usage, they add “The” before and “Company” after the iconic brand name. This works. It makes the connection on all levels. It is a strong brand because of many reasons but one of lesser importance, there is no question and no confusion as to who the company is and who the brand is. Coca-Cola has many product brands but there is no doubt, its signature brand is its strongest. And the same can be said for Heineken.