CAPTURING THE ESSENCE OF THE BRAND IN PRODUCTS

This paper discusses brand building in relation to product design. The questions raised in this paper are: are the designers striving to communicate the essence of the brand, or is it other value proposition that is more important?  If the focus is the brand message, is the communication on an abstract or a concrete level?

The study will build on in-depth interviews with product designers working in design consultancy. Product portfolios will be included in the discussions. The brands which these products represented will be analyzed after the interview. The key concepts the interviews will be based on are to be systematic and to be intuitive.

Systematic: The concept of being systematic is related to brands in the meaning of following a fixed plan of how to experience consistency through a period. According to brand research the brand identity need to be communicated through the products in a consistent manner. Previous research has focused on extracting curves which are experienced in the product during a period. The essence of the brand is communicated through the product, by systematic repeating these curves in new products. The discussion is not about what the communication is, but how often these curves are repeated in the product portfolio. 

Intuitive: The concept of being intuitive is often related to the creative process of a designer. This process may be seen as an opposition to the engineers systematic testing. In other design process planning, purposes and functions are the main focus. When it comes to making desirable products, intuition is often described as the key factor in order to capture the essence in a complex context.

Experience of consistency is important because it helps the consumer to recognize the brand. At the other hand consistency in this systematic manner, represented by specific curves, may feel limited for the designer’s creative process, and conservate the product. The key is to find a balance between these two ways of working.

Systematic and intuitive may be seen as parallels to the seminar topic of order and disorder. In the process of building strong brands, designers intuitive way of working may be seen as disorder, and the systematic of fixed curves, as order. In relation to brand building, it seems like designers as the ones bringing order, has been inconclusive. Or is the context so complex, that the order in this sense seems to be disorder?