When everything’s the same, it’s the brand that makes the difference.
A lean framework for creating a customer-first brand that stands out from the crowd.
“When technology is the thing you want, you don’t need design because you want the better technology. When the technology matures, you don’t buy it just based on technology, in that case design comes into the foreground” is the argument by John Maeda, the renowned design leader and venture capitalist. I agree but would go one step further and argue that the brand also comes into the foreground as a key differentiating factor.
The brand, now more than ever before, is playing a key role in driving consumer decisions especially in e-commerce and on-demand platforms. The brand is no longer the product and as the user experience, design and price become homogenised and almost standardised, consumers have no need to show allegiance to one particular company or brand.
But which food delivery app should I choose?
Living in Berlin (Europe’s silicon valley) there is an exciting and fast-paced atmosphere around the city. With start-ups launching by the day there is an influx of talented people now calling Berlin their home. With so many new mouths to feed a plethora of food delivery services (at the last count there were six apps) are available to get your lunch and/or dinner delivered to your door.
Currently, Berlin is plastered with outdoor adverts for various food delivery companies vying for our attention and euros. All having realised they need to raise brand awareness are ploughing money, not only in digital marketing but mainly into billboards and out of home marketing.
The question is, which one to choose? The onboarding, user experience, restaurant choice, delivery time, payment method and price are, on the whole, the same, leaving the brand as the only differentiating factor.
The brand is the difference.
What I mean by brand is twofold. One is the strategic side, i.e. why does the brand exist? and what’s its story? The other is what I, as a designer, call the fun part, the visual look and identity of the brand, i.e. the logo, colours, photography, etc.
Wally Olins, a branding heavyweight, sadly no longer with us, defines the brand and branding (and I might be paraphrasing here) as “Creating and sustaining trust and delivering on promises … Branding is nothing more than creating an emotional attachment between the brand and the person”
Going back to the food delivery apps. What’s the emotional attachment that makes someone choose one app over another? Does there need to be an emotion attachment? Yes if it influences the buying decision.
Many may have seen recent articles about Deliveroo’s treatment of it riders. In the UK riders threatened to strike over pay, or more recently riders planned legal action over employment rights. This press of course reflects negatively on the Deliveroo brand and in turn has influenced some people’s buying decision.
Amongst the companies themselves there is also little differentiation to the tone of voice and wording on their websites and apps.
Deliveroo
“Your favourite restaurants, delivered fast to your door.”Lieferando
“Food ordered simply. Find delivery services in your area.” (translated from German)Delivery Hero
“The Easiest Way to Your Favourite Food”Foodora
”Food delivery from Berlin’s best restaurants”Pizza.de
“Food ordered simply” (translated from German)
Descriptive? yes. Inspiring? no.
The Airbnb brand makes the difference.
Moving away from the food delivery brands, Airbnb is leading the market in its field by creating an emotional attachment and by understanding how their beliefs resonated with their audience. Airbnb offers you the chance to live and experience real life in a city through shared experiences, not in a sanitised hotel room. This spirit of exploration, experiences and openness is at the core of its brand DNA, expressed beautifully in its mission statement:
This philosophy is carried through on all of Airbnb brand touchpoints. On their website Airbnb ask you: “Where to? Start your next adventure on Airbnb.” Its Instagram page states “Airbnb opens the door to interesting homes and experiences, even if it’s just for a night” and Airbnb’s twitter wants you to #Belong Anywhere.
Why does branding matter for Airbnb? One of Airbnb competitors, in Germany at least, is Wimdu. In terms of performance marketing and SEO Wimdu wins hands down, however in terms of brand recognition they are dwarfed by Airbnb.
The Airbnb brand, yes even with its faults, is trusted and has formed this emotional connection and created even a fan base with its audience through its philosophy of shared experience, we all trust a friend for a recommendation instead of selecting the first hit in a Google search.
Wimdu, on the other hand, focuses only on being a “cheap” alternative to a hotel room, with its uninspiring twitter page stating: “Wimdu’s range of over 350,000 properties in more than 150 countries ensures that everybody can find quality, affordable accommodation for their next trip”. The brand matters.
A lean framework for creating a customer-first brand.
There are three key steps that should be taken when building a brand
1. Brand story
2. Customer story
3. Brand identity (the cool design stuff)
The following is a lean framework. I’m just skimming the surface in what is often a deep and large-scale process, there are of course a lot of factors that I haven’t accounted for such as price positioning, customer and competitor analysis. If you are interested in a deeper understanding of brand strategy I recommend:
“On Brand” by Wally Olins
“Building Strong Brands” by David A. Aaker
The following will get the ball rolling at least and result in a MVB (minimal viable brand) to bring to market and a guide or brand handbook to refer to.
1. Brand story
Define the tone of voice and reason for the brand’s existence. In Simon Sinek’s TED talk he introduced the “Golden Circle” concept. Simon set out the principle that companies should “start with the why”. The why is the core belief of the business. It’s why the business exists and what the business believes in: this fundamental belief is crafted and told through their story. Simon’s conclusion being: “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. If you talk about what you believe, you will attract those who believe what you believe.”
Following Simon’s lead. Ask yourself how the brand would answer the following questions:
Why does the brand do what it does?
This is the passion, the cause and the set of beliefs the brand has. What makes the brand ‘get out of bed in the morning’.
How does the brand do it?
This might be the USP of the brand, the thing that makes it slightly different from the others. This might be a special tech feature that no one has on the market, yet.
What does the brand do?
These are the products or services that the brand sells, e.g. a shoe or food delivery.
Redbull gives you wings
Using Red Bull as an example, they have crafted a following and been able to gain a fan base and an almost cult-like following of their brand.
The Red Bull why?
“Red Bull is an attitude to life: a zest to live your life to the fullest. Bold, playful, optimistic somehow mystic and even poetic.”
The Red Bull how?
“Red Bull’s missions to ‘give you wings’, to empower you to live more, play more, reach more. It is about help, support and yes, a functional beverage, too.”
The Red Bull what?
Energy drinks to keep you active and full of energy.
2. Customer story
Almost in tandem with the brand story you should look to see where your brand best sits in the market and who your target audience is.
The Competitive Matrix
This point is relatively self-explanatory and should allow you to compare your brand against your known competitors.
Draw out a matrix with opposing poles, generally the poles concentrate on
1. Price (i.e. affordability vs. prestige) and 2. Quality (i.e. mass market vs. exclusive).
However, the axis can be amended to suit what is most relevant to the brand, for example this one about sportswear with the Performance vs. Leisure axis over the Technology vs. Fashion axis.
Defining where your brand should and could sit in the market should allow the brand to carve out a niche, help target the group most suited and the tone of voice the brand should adapt. This will allow you later, when it comes to marketing, to better personalise your ads, posts and content.
Understand your audience.
You might have already gathered some raw data, know who your audience is e.g. parents of small children, business travellers in hotels, etc. You may have even defined personas, e.g. “Maria, aged 45 with two kids who enjoys running….” Personas are useful and can be a good starting point, however personas don’t delve deep enough into the behaviour and emotion of each individual.
The OCEAN model developed by Cambridge Analytica divides the audience not into segments based on background, age, wealth or status, but the personality traits of an individual, what they care about, and why they behave the way they do. People who look similar on the surface often want and respond to completely different things.
The model is divided into the follow groups:
O. Openness: Do they enjoy new experiences?
C. Conscientiousness: Do they prefer plans and order?
E. Extraversion: Do they like spending time with others?
A. Agreeableness: Do they put people’s needs before theirs?
N. Neuroticism: Do they tend to worry a lot?
Target not the individual but a behaviour type and connect emotionally with them. A real understanding of the behaviour of your audience can help define the personality and tone of voice of the brand.
Back to Airbnb, they understood the Openness, Extraversion and Agreeableness of their audience, and with their mission statement “We believe in a world where people belong anywhere.” mirrored the behaviour of their audience. Whereas Wimdu targeted the Conscientious and spoke to them rationally with their “Trust Pilot” programme and “Save up to 70%” price deals.
The brand character
Armed with the brand story, the positioning and audiences’ behaviours, this should allow you to add character to the brand, set out its tone of voice and articulate the brand not only when talking to that brand’s audience but also to potential employees.
3. Brand identity
Once the story and tone of voice of the brand has been established it’s time to model that into the visual identity of the brand — and the fun stuff for any designer.
The best logos tell a story.
Back in the early 1970s Deutsche Bank set out to redesign their logo and invited a group of artists and designer to take part in a competition. The winner was the graphic artist Anton Stankowski with his now iconic Deutsche Bank logo. The Stankowski logo was chosen in part because of the story behind the design, to paraphrase Stankowski himself: “The Deutsche Bank square is neat visual shorthand for the type of values you might want from a bank, security (the square) and growth in a stable environment (the oblique line)”. The design has remained unchanged to this day.
More recently Airbnb’s logo redesign adopts this same storytelling idea, with the logo encompassing the three main values of the Airbnb brand, People, Places and Love
The logo should be so simple you could draw it in the sand.
I adhere to the KISS idea (Kept It Simple Stupid). This is especially the case in the myriad of online and offline channels where the logo is used and seen. Deliveroo redesigned their original logo back in 2013 in order to simplify their kangaroo symbol not only for their app but for their marketing campaigns.
The typography should speak for the brand
I’m not going to delve into too much detail, as I could write a whole story about typography alone. One point to make is, like the logo, the choice of typography should not only reflect the character of the brand but also suit the situation where the typography is applied.
One of my personal favourite examples is the London 2012 Olympic font “2012 Headline” created especially for the brand. The font not only mirrored the dynamic geometry and energy of the 2012 logo but also reflected the 2012 brand expression that “…feels dissonant and edgy, buzzing with energy that’s always trying to break out. It’s making the most of the strength of London and the Olympic movement”.
Own a colour and stick to it.
This is something Deutsche Telekom literally did in early 2000s when it took out a court ruling in which they succeeded in owning the colour magenta (RAL 4010) and disallowed any of its competitors from using the colour. This, somewhat, heavy-handed approach has however led to the colour magenta being exclusively associated with Deutsche Telekom. Their colour is now as instantly recognisable as their logo.
How to choose the best colour is always open to debate, current styles and trends. There are many colour studies which claim e.g. red symbolises wealth and blue security, etc. Referencing a colour wheel is also good to define which colours go best with one another. Selecting the brand’s colour palette, however, should differ from that brand’s competitors.
Moving back to the food delivery battle in Berlin, each brand defined and owned a colour in a bid to distinguish itself from its competitors. Deliveroo, like most brands, have a primary colour, in this case teal, which dominates all brand communication and a secondary colour palette which supports the primary colour. These can be used in marketing or other brand touchpoints, which Deliveroo do successfully with their POS material, social media and even their uniforms.
Ask the audience.
As colour, in the end, is a subjective and mostly emotional choice, it’s best to get feedback from the audience. I found using Instagram a great way of gauging colour choice, either by directly asking the community with a multiple choice questionnaire or posting colour options and see what get the most likes. Granted it’s not the most scientific way, but it is fun.
Photography is your most valuable and powerful brand tool.
“Image searches are going to make up at least half of all Google searches by 2020,” according to Philippe von Borries co-founder of Refinery29, the online women’s magazine. Creating a strong and unique photography look is paramount.
The photography style should again be a reflection set by the brand story and not pander to current trends. Apple’s story of thinking differently along with Jonathan Ives’ (Chief Design Officer of Apple) clean and minimalist view to Apple’s products have long been reflected in the Apple photography style.
The Apple look has always been to focus on the product set against a pure white background. The photography style is an extension of Apple’s core beliefs; tools which are simple, beautifully designed and user friendly. A quick Google image search for “Apple adverts” will show how Apple’s look and this core belief in their brand story have been consistently used over the years and is reflected in their photography style.
This opposed to Samsung who try only to sell the latest technology, e.g. phones that work underwater, has led to a smorgasbord of stock-like photography styles over the years.
Final thoughts
Congratulations for making it this far and thanks. Following the above steps should result in a brand book to refer to and reference when developing campaigns and content.
Creating a brand that is true, customer-focused and which differentiates itself from its competitors is a long process. By showing empathy for the brand’s audience it will allow the brand to grow organically through a steady fan base. A brand that seeks to add value and understand its consumers’ behaviour will be rewarded with loyal brand advocates.
Gareth Fox is a multi-discipled designer & brand strategist at IM MAI Berlin. Follow him on twitter G23Fox or Instagram foxinberlin
