Brand Yourself

a

story

International fashion and

in

by Irene van der Heijden,

branding

in

THE MANUAL

IN, the manual

page 1

IN, the brand

vision

mission

ambition

core values

page page page page page

IN, positioning

page 7

IN, personality

brand personality

brand template

effectiveness model

brand personality

page page page page page

9 9 9 10 12

IN, style

tone of voice

colour chart

font type

page page page page

13 13 14 14

IN, source

Page 15

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in

THE BRAND

V

ision The telling of stories is being used for years and years in all sorts of fields. In literature, obviously, but also in art, music, psychology and even in business. But, in marketing as well.

Feminisation, the name for the megatrend that indicates the rise of the softer values for both men and women, and conservation, the megatrend that points out the inspirational influence the past can have and has, are the two trends that are essential for IN. Those two trends show that appealing to people’s emotions is key, and, with the use of the immense power of the age-old storytelling, tremendously effective. Humanising a brand by telling its personal story will make the consumer relate to the brand and build up a connection. And, in combination with the possibilities of modern technology, narrative is the most promising tactics of today. Fashion brand should realise they need to spread their passion to able the consumer to relate to the brands. IN is a brand that helps those fashion brands with telling their stories. It believes that every brand should have its plot.

M

ission IN is a talkative brand that tells stories that appeal to peoples emotions. That is how IN builds up close relationships with clientele. And despite the fact that IN has a great imagination, this brand always sticks to the truth.

Storytelling techniques allows people to not just involve them with the stories as an audience, but to make them storytellers as well. The repeating and announcing of stories in the same way that legends, myths and rumours are being spread; it is a human need to pass things on. ‘IN’ helps fashion brands with how to use this principle in the most valuable way. IN is the brand that talks, chats, speaks, tells converses, discusses, but most of all communicates.

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THE BRAND

A

mbition Every story has its readers and every reader is a consumer. IN wants to HELP fashion brands to talk, chat, speak, tell, converse, discuss and communicate, simply, to tell their story. Because, in our opinion every brand should have its plot.

The future of IN is in struggling fashion brands that want to tell their stories.

By listening to them and talk to them we can create a unique story for every individual brand.

Even if our aim is 100%, IN will be successful if 90% of the brands it has worked with will have their new exclusive stories and are able to express their stories to their clients and make them able to emotionally connect to them.

The purpose is to make those brands successful (again) and increase their sales.

C

ore Values A short list of core values indicates what is truly important for IN as a brand. These are not values that change from time to time, situation to situation or person to person, but values that stay, and underline our company culture. The only way to keep what is important to this brand, is sticking to these core values. These are the soul of IN. Narrating Imagination and truth Appealing to people’s emotions

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POSITIONING

P

ositioning The position of IN is visualised in two graphs.

The first graphs focuses on the feeling the client has with the brand.

IN understands how important it is for a client or consumer to feel comfortable with a brand. A client will definitely have great affinity with IN, as is shown in Graph 2.1. IN will comfort its client much more as other brands would. Another thing that is certainly visible in Graph 2.1 is that IN is more emotional rather than clinical. IN will appeal to a client’s emotion, instead being a cold, unemotional brand.

Graph 2.2 indicates IN as a spellbinding brand. It tells stories you just can not keep your mind of. When IN is talking, you will not be able to focus on anything other then that story its telling. It is that interesting and original. IN is not of few words. In fact it is very much talkative, something that is mostly appealing to a client. Especially in combination with its spellbinding feature.

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Affinity

Graph 2.1

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Emotional

Clinical

Incompatibility Talkative

Graph 2.2

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Spellbinding

Reserved

Of few words 8

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PERSONALITY

B B

rand Personality So what kind of person would IN actually be if it was a person? After seeing the following brand template and effectiveness model you will definitely get an idea of it.

rand Template The brand template shows three types of brand values; the functional and emotional personal features, and expressive brand value.

And also, the brand essence. The brand essence is the most important value for the brand, in the case of IN it is “Every brand should have its plot�. IN thinks bonding your costumer to your brand is best done by telling a story. And the best way to do that is, firstly, by using your skills you have picked up at your International Fashion & Branding-study at the Amsterdam Fashion Institute where IN got its degree in 2010. (functional personal features). Secondly, by revealing your emotional personal features; emotional and truthful, to comfort your client. And thirdly; by being talkative, narrating and by using your imagination, the expressive brand values.

Functional Personal Features; AMFI - degree; International Fashion & Branding

Emotional Personal Features; Emotional Truthful Every brand should have its plot

Expressive Brand Values Talkative / narrative Imagination

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PERSONALITY

E

ffectiveness model Who am I? A storyteller. IN is a talkative brand that tells stories that appeal to peoples emotions. That is how IN builds up close relationships with clientele. And despite the fact that IN has a great imagination, this brand always sticks to the truth.

How does that impact my behaviour? IN communicates talks, chats, speaks, tells, converses and discusses. But before saying, IN always thinks. This brand always thinks about how to combine its imagination with truth to come to a fervent story.

How does my behaviour impact people around me? IN gets people emotional involved with a story. Weather these emotions are optimistic (as they usually are) or downbeat, it makes people relate to a brand or product.

How do people experience me? People experience IN as an imaginative, truthful and talkative person. Someone you can always go to, to drink a cup of hot coco and listen to a breathtaking story.

How does that impact my effectiveness? People feel comfortable with truthful and talkative persons. And the fact that this ‘person’ is telling wonderful, imaginative, nice stories helps them to feel attracted to both IN and the story IN is telling.

Is all of this consistent with my core values? All of this is certainly consistent with IN’s core values, Narrating, imagination and truth, and, appealing to emotions.

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How does that impact my effectiveness?

People feel comfortable and enjoy listening

Is all of this consistent with my core values?

Tallies with narrating, emotional, and building up relationships

How do people experience me?

Imaginative, truthful and talkative.

Who am I? A storyteller

How does my behaviour impact people around me?

People get emotionally involved

How does that impact my behaviour?

Communicating, talking, chatting, speaking, telling, conversing and discussing

in

PERSONALITY

B

rand personality So what kind of person do you think IN would be? Use you imagination.

IN would like you to see IN as a warm, affable and emotional person.

Someone you feel comfortable with. Someone like your grandpa, or grandma.

An old wise person with a great imagination sitting in a big old chair nearby the fire place. Wearing a wool vest, pantaloons, slippers and reading glasses on the tip of the nose. Big hands holding a big book with curly, handwritten letters telling loads and loads of stories. We, as grandchildren, sitting on the carpet with hot coco listening to amazing stories.

Absorbing information is one of IN’s main hobby’s. It is a person with wisdom.

How else would it be able to come up with the most amazing stories? All of them are combined with truth and facts. This person likes to search for information. Therefore it reads and reads and reads. What does he read? “Elsevier” and “HP De Tijd”, both magazines with loads of general information. But, since it likes to know everything to form its stories, its keeps track of the latest fashion-, music-, art-, computer magazines etc., as well. It reads different newspapers thoroughly, to stay up-to-date and to know what is going on in the world and to know what it is that keeps the consumer busy. TV is also an important factor in the life of IN. Not just opinion programs like “NOVA”, “Pauw & Witteman”, but also lifestyle programs, like “Life & Cooking” and “Passion for fashion” are interesting.

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STYLE

T

one of Voice The telling of stories is being used for years and years. IN is all about this age-old tactic, with it, it goes back to basics. Back to history. But IN is not old-fashioned; it keeps up with the latest trends, fashion, and technology. The brand therefore choose for a nostalgic but modern look. This combination of history and contemporary are shown in every form of IN’s appearance.

Firstly, in the use of colour; apply of a nostalgic chocolate colour brown and a modern light blue, gives the brand the most significant outdated-with-moderntwist look. The brown colour your grandma use to have her kitchen in and the fresh ocean blue your little niece has in her kids’ bedroom.

Secondly, the use of these two different font types, gives the reader the exact feeling IN wants to give the consumer. The classical sheriff letter “Book Antique”, for the “old newspaper feeling”, and the modern sans-sheriff “Dustimo”, what nowadays could also be used for your trendy fashion- and lifestyle magazines.

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in C

STYLE

olor Chart The colour IN uses are a nostalgic chocolate brown and a modern light

blue.

R = 111, G = 79, B= 40

Pantone 3105

F

ont type The fonts IN uses are the classical sheriff letter “Book Antiqua” and the modern sans-sheriff “Dustimo” Book antiqua;

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Dustimo;

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

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SOURCE

s

ource UNKNOWN, 2006. Trend Track; Narrative. London, United Kingdom. WGSN Think Tank. Available from: http://www.wgsn-edu.com/members/think-tank/ features/ti2006oct02_018066?from=search#top [Accessed 6 Januari 2008]

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