Let your reputation work for you

How many great companies waste their potential by falling short of developing their organization´s identity. They have a great product or unique service, they make a solid effort in satisfying their clients, the service is great, the market segment has potential for growth - yet nothing happens.  

They are basically invisible !

Build your companies personality !

I will avoid to use the marketing jargon of branding, brand equity and brand identity altogether. Instead I will talk about your companies personality. Just like a person, a company is being perceived as a “being”. It can appear friendly or cold, dynamic or old fashioned, superficial or knowledgable. It has a tone of voice, it has core values, it has values and ethics. 

A brand creates value

We all know how a brand works in the retail arena. It is very much the same for services. 

These questions have to be clearly answered:

• How comprehensive is your service ?
• How unique is your service ?
• Where are you better than your competition ?
• Are you clearly differentiated ?
• How easy is it to get in touch with you ?
• How quickly and how knowledgable is the reply ?

Any contact an outsider has with your company is part of the brand experience

1. The vision and mission

A companies culture is based on its V&M. It needs to be communicated inside the organisation and then reflects to the outside. Employees need to identify and believe in the objectives if they are to become good ambassadors. 

2. A graphic identity

From the stationary and website to the office design and the uniforms, every visual expression should fit with the overall graphic identity.

3. Reminders

Just like friends that you don´t see very often, an organisation needs to reappear from time to time to avoid to be forgotten. This can be done through a yearly event, an emailing, a phone call or some sponsoring event. Scheduling activities through the years are part of the marketing plan. Stay in the conscious part of people´s minds. They will then know who to call when they need your service !

4. People

Do the drivers of your company cars drive like hooligans ?

Does the person who answers the company phone answer with a tired: "Ehhhh" ?

Do your workers leave the messy clean up to the client ?

Remember that the biggest asset are your employees ! Train them well ! And change them if they don´t identify with your organisation !

A successful personality has a coherent visual and graphical identity, has employees that are ambassadors for the company, and delivers what it promises.

The essence of a company´s personality is captured in the brand octagon which is followed by a communication plan and calendar ! Building a successful personality is longtime project. It is not a matter of heavy investment but rather of consistence.

Dieter Rams vs Jonathan Ive

Braun vs. Apple

For years now Apple has harvested design rewards for their numerous i-products. It has all been down to Steve Jobs genius of hand picking another genius, Jonathan Ive, as a chief industrial designer we hear. Jonathan Ive picks up any electronic product and turns it into a gorgeous hot selling success story. His track record is very impressive indeed. 

So where did Jonathan Ive get his inspiration from ? Is he a loner that has been touched by god ? Or did he admire and was influenced by others ?

When we look at the images above it is evident ! Apple´s calculator is a copy of the old revolutionary Braun product. And so is the first ipod. And when we look at other Braun products we are stunned to see the identical approach to design.

Is Ive stealing sheep ?

When asked Ive will talk with admiration of Dieter Rams. Dieter Rams was to german electronics manufacturer BRAUN what Ive is to APPLE today. 

Check this out:

So did Jonathan Ive steal sheep ?

To say so would be an unfair assumption. By bringing in Rams´s designs into some Apple products Ive really pays tribute to his master.

Jonathan Ive is one of the few industrial designers today that have a chance to fully express themselves with the unwavering support of a production company in their back. He keeps Rams´s design legacy alive and follows in his footsteps. And Apple´s success shows: Design sells !!

Kitsch or Design

You have seen it, a little girlande here, an underline there, and why not add a little shadow effect to make it look nice ? The page fills up and the eye wonders where to look first.
Look around you and you will see it everywhere. Horror ! It shows a lack of grasping the concepts of design. It is cosmetics ! Maquillage ! And it results in kitsch !

Good design is logical. It never looses the objective out of sight: Getting the message across. Beautiful design is not the objective. Effective design with impact is. And often, as a result, effective design turns out to be amazingly beautiful. But that is just a side effect !

Sometimes good communication design is not beautiful. Take advertising for a supermarket for example. The design must reflect the value-for-money offer and will be bold and crude. The design looks as cheap as the products. The logo appears in Arial bold and primary aggressive Pantone 032 red, typesize 96, and prices appear crossed out, underlined, and bold. And yet it is very effective and works for the client.

At other times the purification process of communication design creates products that are beautiful and timeless. By sticking to the classical concepts of typography, laws used already by Bodoni and Baskerville, delving deep into the message and structuring the logical sequence for the reader we designers help the reader to enter the document, make absorption as uninterrupted and smooth as possible.

We only have text, colors, images, and the support to strengthen the objective. EVERYTHING that doesn´t reinforce the message, has to be eliminated. It is a distillation process that at the end only leaves the essential.The result is strong and efficient design ! And Impact !

Just like we like design to be...