Business professionals and designers
There are roughly three kinds of professionals closely involved with brands:
- marketing & communication professionals
- business professionals (p&l-responsible)
- design professionals
Until now, marcom and business professionals are the people taken most seriously when it comes to brands. They are the heavyweights in this trinity, the ones developing brand strategy, managing the brand and the brand architecture, and achieving business targets.
Yet in everything they do, every plan they make, every rebranding, product launch, packaging improvement, retail refreshment, direct mail campaign, website relaunch; they are sure to end up with designers sitting at the other end of the table.
Profession and profile
Design is a difficult matter to marcom and business professionals. That has to do with both character and education. In their professional education, most if not all focus lies in the development of analytical, strategic and commercial skills. They chose this profession because of their talent for analytical and strategic thinking and because they are attracted to commerce. It means they rely heavily on the left part of their brains: the rational part. They process information, manage projects, develop ideas, judge risks and opportunities, from a mind set that is mostly rational. It’s what makes them so valuable to their company.
Business and marketing professionals (BMP’s) are strong in strategic-analytical thinking and in managing processes. Their mindset and their professional career spur them on to develop these qualities even further. That’s why design is a difficult thing for them to grapple with. Important tools in the daily work life of BMP’s are software programs such as Windows, Word and – not to forget – PowerPoint. The dress code is closer Wall Street than to world of art.
In walks the designer. Of course there is an increasing number of people in design agencies wearing suits. Especially in a country like the UK, where the business side of design is well developed. But still, the creative designer that does the job is a totally different person. Far away from Wall Street, probably driving a second hand car, sloppy-casual dress code, and maybe even a five o’clock shadow on their chin. An Apple addict, who works with paper, marker and Adobe. Their right brain– the intuitive/emotional part – is most active. And their education trained their aesthetics talent and judgment to perfection. The term business case doesn’t mean much to them.
The one with the dominating right brain needs the left-brain BMP get a project, employ his talents, show the world a portfolio and earn money. The BMP with the dominant left brain has his whole plan together, knows what he wants to achieve, what the strategy is, but needs the creative designer to get there and earn money.
Although invisible marketing would be a great concept for the environment: it doesn’t work yet. Until that moment, the visual side of marketing & branding is dominant (see also outline 6: The comprehensive idea of Visual Branding).
Of course I am talking stereotypes (and of course you are the exception), but typecasting helps to make the situation clear. And honestly, I see it confirmed in projects involving creatives and BMP’s all around the world.
Integration
A simple solution to close the gap between designers and BMP’s is putting account managers in between. Quite practical, but I like to look beyond that. I see it as part of the challenge of this century to create a synthesis between design creativity and business.
As strategy director at Studio Dumbar I, for instance, avoid the typical account manager and try to create direct contact between the designer and the BMP as much as possible. And as a strategist, I am closely involved in creative development and creative reviews. I believe that is the direction to take. Because the more you are able connect design creatives and BMP’s, the higher the level of energy: the more powerful the results.
Design creatives and BMP’s represent complementary talents and skills. The better they are able to work together, the more successful a project will be. Look at success stories in marketing like the Heineken Beertender or Philips Senseo. These started with the creativity of marketers; just as big design cases (like Apple) have a lot more to it than just aesthetics.
There are modest signs of integration. Professional educational programs in marcom and business are opening their minds and started to integrate design into their curriculum. And design academies have understood the message that aesthetics only, is not enough for students to succeed in their careers. So they are integrating communication and brand strategy into their programs.
Visual Branding must be seen as a contribution to this integration of design and business. Just the wording itself is already helpful in this respect: ‘Visual’ representing design and ‘Branding’ representing marketing & business.
Visual Branding integrates the complementary expertise/professions of design and business in one term; it takes the mindset beyond the tunnel vision of specialists and shifts the focus to the overall objective that they share.
Dear Tom,
Thanks again!
Apple keeps coming back each chapter, probably because you have one in front of you
But what about movies? Movies are both Visually great as well as they are in Branding. Pixar Studios is a great Brand and very very Visual. And also so very creative! And they can very much reach peoples hearts. And Branding should, you mentioned earlier on. I do believe they also have quite some accountmanagers over there to get a great product on the go…
It just reminds me to one of these great memorable quotes of one of my favorite movies: The Incredibles (Pixar Studios, 2004).
---
Mr. Incredible: I was wrong to treat you that way. I’m sorry…
Syndrome: See? Now you respect me, because I’m a threat. That’s the way it works. Turns out there are lots of people, whole countries, that want respect, and will pay through the nose to get it. How do you think I got rich? I invented weapons, and now I have a weapon that only I can defeat, and when I unleash it…
[Mr. Incredible throws a log at Syndrome, who dodges it and traps Mr. Incredible with his zero-point energy ray]
Syndrome: Oh, ho ho! You sly dog! You got me monologuing! I can’t believe it…
---
But hey Tom, I don’t want you to think I am cynnical! This is all about finetuning, lights, shadows, colours, great tools etcetera.
The role of the one person ‘Edna’ cannot be underestimated here. Her greatly designed super suits also showed her great skills of designing a logo. (red.= the incredible ‘i’-logo)
Ha ha,
the Apple guy should wear it!
Cheers!
Well… in am afraid that I can’t add much to this outline.
Unfortunately, many companies (brand owners) are money driven and ruled by short-term results to increase shareholders value. It’s the reality in which we live in. It has no use to complain about it, so we simply have to deal with it.
I strongly want to recommend everybody (no matter if you are a business professional or a creative designer) to read Marty Neumeier’s first book: The Brand Gap. It is all about building a bridge between business and design or, the speak with his words: ‘Adding the left brain to the right brain’.
Subjoined you will find a link to a preview of his book on Slideshare, but please believe me, he has saved the best for his book. So buy it and read it!
http://www.slideshare.net/coolstuff/the-brand-gap
Besides this, I want to say to Tom that I have met a lot of account managers and account directors in my former career in the advertising industry. Undoubtedly… the best ones were right brain people. Of course they had the knowledge and know-how to serve their clients (business professionals), but what made them really special were their skills to deal with creatives. In fact, they had the power to inspire both clients and creatives.
And I do hope, that when I retire, former colleagues will remember me as such a person. Not as a business professional, not as a strategy director, not as a creative account director, but a some one who really made an effort on building a bridge between business and design. In that case, I will be satisfied ; )).
Cheers,
Marcel
My god who is this Chrisjan van Tiggelen? He doesn’t seem to make sense… Sure he looks upon visual-branding with the eyes of a designer instead of looking at it from a broader perspective… Anyways… The rest is quite inspiring,
Kind regards,
Hank
As a 28 year old student from Estland I hope to graduate as a designer here in The Netherlands this year. I have read the whole discussion sofar and I hope to have a wide perspective in the eyes of others beeing just a design-student, wheather a designer could play an important role in Branding. We’ve been discussing the subject at our academy and we found out that designers in many cases never have to deal with Branding at all. Adding value to a company and their assingment needs is achieved by good and improved design. Sometimes esthetics in design plays an important role in a Brands success, in other cases design is better of beeing non esthetically and pure functional. Vernacular design could be adding value to a Brand as well. A Brand isn’t always a global matter either and beeing a young progressive mind, we might consider our focus on local businesses first. Naomi Klein told us important lessons about multinationals (http://www.naomiklein.org/no-logo) that could change our vision towards export of our own values. A local Brand is also connected to peoples lives. So I think design in relation to Branding is just a feeling and all other goals will be achieved by those commercial people anyway. Designcompanies should just make beautiful design and play their creative role the best way. Thank you, Hanja Vaslav.
Dear Hanja,
Thank you for your joining the discussion.
Please click on the following link:
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=EwjWBhhKvFY
It is a short film about the graduate project of a girl named Fanny Lau from New England (USA). I never met her, so I don’t know her, but I admire her for what she did.
Although it is a fake project (when you Google the mentioned local brand, you will notice that it still looks as it did in the start of the film), it shows us so perfectly the added value of design in the proces of building and managing a brand.
She created a new visual identity, based on a brand personality that will / would fit the expectations of the target group (using the words of a business professional => she took the outside-in route to develop the brand identity instead of an inside-out route*). At the same time, she took the visual language of the competition, and the characteristics of the product category into account.
Bravo Fanny Lau! Well done. You are a designer, but you are also somebody who can build a bridge between business and design! Wish you were here! I would hire you immediately : )
Back to Hanja:
Good luck with your graduation this year. I really do hope that Fanny has shown you the relevance of design for business and that branding is not just a feeling.
Cheers,
Marcel
PS: The inside-out route to build a brand identy is the opposite of the outside-in route. Although most brand identities are created by a mix of these two routes, the route of some brands is more focussed on the inside-out route. You can think about high fashion brand, who carry the signature of the founder (designer => Armani or Victor & Rolf) in all products and just hope that people will be attracted to it. An other example of brands with a focus on inside-out identity development are service companies with a monolitic brand architecture, who use their name and their own values as the main starting point for everything they do.
Nevertheless, in most cases identity development is based on a mix between the two routes, because both routes do contain a certain risk. A business risk of course! Well… I will not annoy you with that. I should take a lesson from Fanny Lau’s film myself ; )) She made the process of brand development so clear and simple!
Fanny truely did a nice job and I’m sure other students had different approaches. In the netherlands a belgium chocolatier refers to australian aboriginals, while the products are made in belgium. It’s a metafor for natural. out of the box thinking.
Hi Hanja,
I assume you mean Australian Homemade? Well… I really love the brand => its service concept and the look & feel. So beautiful!
Nevertheless… I have heard from reliable sources that the chain is not profitable. Besides that, it is not a Belgian chocolatier, but it is owned by Bart van Elsland nowadays, who earned a fortune by selling his franchise retail chain of bakery shops (Bakker Bart). What I am trying to say is that the man is so rich, that he can afford it to loose some money on Australian Homemade. If the brand was owned by a company that is stock market listed, I am sure that a lot of their outlets would be closed or the service concept would be changed.
Nevertheless… it is really a marvellous brand and I think that we should be happy that not every brand is owned by companies who are stock market listed, and managed by business professionals. In outline 3, Tom wrote about Originals versus Professionals. Undoubtedly, Mr Bart van Elsland can be considered as such a Original. It is not an easy person to work for (I can tell you from my own experience), but sure he is a man with vision and a lot of guts.
Cheers,
Marcel
Uhmmmm… after I have Googled Mr Bart van Elsland, it became clear for me that he is no longer the owner of Australian Homemade.
Apologies for giving you old facts who are not correct anymore, but I am sure that you understand my point about brands owned by Origins versus brands owned by Professionals.
Have a nice weekend,
Marcel
The style Fanny used could also have been used for an average american bank or an insurance company for instance. The current shop looks pretty warm and original. The chocolate owners do their best to add modern service for their customers, even with cliché colours and style. their goal is to be like a chocolaterie shop and to have the best selection. Simple business concept and I like it this way. Modern design is not needed here I suppose. Watch their website: http://serenadechocolatier.com/home.htm
I would not advise Hajenius –the famous cigar specialist based in Amsterdam– to change their identity or retail concept either. Their clients would not apreciate it at all. The smell of new furniture would ruin the smoking experience. So some worlds are best of the way they are. Maybe they were designed once, maybe they just grew naturally to the point of their success.
I think visual branding plays no role in these kind of business. VB has to do with newco’s, new business companies collaborating with modern business strategists and designers. Brand managers decide to add value based on facts and figures. V-B is part of a global business more than local businesses. A V-B-specialist thinks big and tries to change it all. A local design service specialist is also a good listener and is also in service of local business needs and local customers, trying to share the values of the local brand. I hope to become such a local designspecialist after graduating, and I hope to add value to small businesses in my homecountry and work and be part of a small economy. Trying to help my people in their business in a professional way combining design with a personal touch.
Maybe a stupid question here: does my role also play a significant part in Visual Branding too, or will I be just some local designer in such a case, because my work would not relate to any significant marcom? I am open for any comment.
Dear Hanja,
1) Visual Branding is not a synonym for modern design. My interpretation of Visual Branding is using the power of visual language (even Aristotles said that perception starts with the eye!) to express the personality of a brand. I am not a designer, but I do strongly believe in that power. It has nothing to do with the usage of modern versus classic symbols. It’s about creating a trade dress for a brand by using the visual language that does fit it’s personality (inside-out) and does meet the expectations of the audience (outside-in). Nobody has said that you are not allowed to use classical symbols. If that reflects the personality, then you have to use them!
2) Visual branding is not a tool or an instrument that is put aside for newco’s, new business companies or whatever. Even a small shop or a very small product brand can use to express their personality and to amplify the differentiation against the competition.
3) You will have to choose you own role in life. Nobody can tell you what to do. Well… there is something I want to say. It is important that you believe in what you do. You really have to do things with passion!
4) Please allow me to finish with two quotes:
• Aesthetics can be so powerful. It can turn a commodity into a premium product! - Marty Neumeier.
• There are no big or small brands. There are people* who think big and people who think small. Henk Roozendaal (former creative director of Result DDB).
Cheers,
Marcel
* People can be replaced by marketers, businessmen (or women), local shop / company owners, entrepreneurs, business professionals (as mentioned by Tom in outline 3 and 7). Every one who is involved with the management of a brand. No matter what size (you know what I mean) the brand has.
Well, I like the mindset where a certain visual impact is involved to share a vision on connecting people. If this would also consider the visual impact of Brands like Greenpeace, Warchild, Amnesty or any other non-profit organisations I’d be cozying up in the same foxhole, of course. Thanks for your kind words.
Dear Hanja,
It goes without saying that Visual Branding does also effect non-profit brands : ))
Like I said, VB means using the power of visual language to express the personality of a brand, to amplify the differentation towards its competition and last but not least… to attract the audience.
VB can and should be used by any brand. No matter what size and no matter if it is a profit or a non-profit brand.
Welcome in the foxhole!
Cheers,
Marcel
Please allow me the share on more quote of my hero Marty Neumeier with you: ‘Aesthetics is the language of feeling. And in society that is information-richt and time poor… people value feeling more than information!’