Give your brand a personality—and stick to it
When it comes to branding, bold is always better than bland. Your product and logo design, packaging, messaging, even the physical environment and how it affects the customer’s experience of the brand, must be stamped with your personality. How else do your customers see you, get to know you, like you, and “bond” with you?
Dr. Karen V. De Asis, chief brand strategist of MKS Marketing Consulting and Training Corporation, suggests that the business owner envision how the brand would be if it were a person: what would be the personality quirks, hobbies, and overall lifestyle. “Potential customers become attracted to, empathize with, and become loyal to a particular brand because they see themselves as the person represented by the brand,” she points out.
LOOK THE PART
The most immediate touchpoints are tactile and visual. “Physical branding helps visualize what the brand owner wants to communicate to customers regarding the product’s value proposition or the compelling reason why the customer should enjoy a particular service,” says De Asis.
For example, the iconic Apple logo, which utilizes a simple and clever graphic of a bitten apple, is stamped across all collaterals, ad materials, the website, and stores. It reinforces the traits Apple is known for: innovation, simplicity, efficiency, and imagination, as expressed in its slogan, “Think Different.”
Yellow Cab Pizza Co., a homegrown brand that serves New York-style pizza, evokes a “hip, cool, casual, youthful, trendy, and active” personality in-store and out: a logo designed like the yellow and black license plates of New York cabs, Vespa delivery bikes, and a checkerboard restaurant theme with retro-industrial interiors reminiscent of a New York loft with its high ceilings, exposed piping, chrome ducts, and concrete walls.
“We make sure that every customer who steps into a Yellow Cab restaurant immediately experiences our brand through the distinctive elements or icons,” says marketing manager Coochy M. Mamaclay, noting everything from the wall murals to the recyclable cardboard pizza boxes. Their end goal: a “happy, fun, and memorable experience” for the customer.
LIVE THE PHILOSOPHY
Customers also become invested in a brand that embodies their aspirations and priorities—in short, their values. Apple has successfully forged emotional ties with customers who have become brand ambassadors and evangelists—with brand loyalty so strong that, in the smartphone category, for one, 76 percent of Apple customers replace their iPhone with another iPhone, according to customer insight firm WDS.
True to form, Beyond the Box, an Apple premium reseller in the Philippines, is pushing the “Think Different” slogan to “Think Beyond the Box.” In February, they held a competition for the perfect paperbag design, dubbed Beyond the Bag, with the theme “We provide amazing gadgets, you create amazing things.” The contest is tied to their core philosophy of not merely selling the gadgets, but also stimulating creativity.“We want to create campaigns that would hit the market, that would show how creative we are, [just] as much as we want people to be creative,” says Patrick Marcelo, account director and strategist for Bad Idea, the marketing and promotions arm of Beyond the Box.
Beyond the Bag garnered 267 entries. Participants did not sign a contract; promo mechanics merely noted that by joining, they agreed to give Beyond the Box “the right to use or publish all submitted materials to promote” that particular contest. Prizes consisted of store credits, with the grand prize valued at P30,000.
“Design contests can help students and young creatives get recognition for their work, apart obviously from the monetary, in-kind benefits they’ll get,” says Dan Matutina of Plus63 Design Co., one of the judges of Beyond the Bag. He also advises aspirants to “look at the fine print” and avoid what won’t benefit them.
Overall, Beyond the Box spent P120,000 for the campaign, and gained mileage plus an additional 1,000 new followers on Instagram. Marcelo says the exercise was worth it—to create buzz, and to build their reputation as a “supporter of creatives.” “It really captures the brand identity and the right people. So it says who we are, what we are, and what makes us unique as an Apple reseller,” he says.
Originally published in the October 2014 issue of Entrepreneur Philippines.
Photo courtesy of Beyond the Box.