Contents Synopsis
3
Introduction
4
Chapter One: What’s in a Name?
5
Why is the right brand name important to a business or product?
7
What goes into a successful brand name?
8
Chapter Two: On your Mark, Get Set, Brand
11
Chapter Three: Protecting Your Brand
17
Conclusion
24
Appendix A: Research Questionnaire
25
Appendix B: A Dictionary of Branding Terms
26
Endnotes
29
Bibliography and Illustrations
30
Synopsis Branding is the process of establishing relationships between product and consumer. Design is one of the methods used to create this connection. It can be instrumental in determining the success or failure of a product or service in reaching its target audience. Brand as defined by The Dictionary of Business & Marketing is a name, sign or symbol used to identify items or services of the seller(s) and to differentiate them from goods or competitors. The creation and development of a brand name is the primary step in engineering a memorable brand. There are numerous examples of successful brand names in all areas of commerce. The methodology used to achieve success can be just as varied. Every leading expert has his own philosophy and formula for creating memorable brand names. Immediately after creating a brand name, the moulding of a brand identity begins. This is where identity design comes in. Identity design is the process of creating the necessary branding materials to assist in the marketing of a company’s product or service. Items included but are not limited to the following are business cards, logos, letterheads and other materials. Once the brand identity is fully developed, it is necessary to put the tools in place to maintain its integrity. From brand manual to advertising strategies, these processes all show the relevance of design to successful branding.
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Introduction In an abstract in Marketing Profs., an online magazine, Kristine Kirby Webber of The Canterbury Group, Ltd., says, “Branding allows a company to differentiate themselves from the competition and in the process bond with their customers to create loyalty.”1 In other words, branding is about establishing the relationship between consumer and product or service for long-term results rather than the short-term sale. In one of the five-series guides prepared by the Design Business Association for managers involved in commissioning design projects called Managing Corporate Identity Programmes, they state that in order to create long-term value in a brand, the following must be taken into consideration: ✔ ✔ ✔
the creation of the brand-name and/or trademark; the development of the corporate identity; and the maintenance of the brand.
Introducing designers and/or design managers when management makes a decision about each of these processes assists in determining the future success or failure of any brand in an ever-changing global marketplace.
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Chapter One
What’s in a Name?
What’s in a Name?
The first step in establishing a successful brand is the creation of a company name, product or service, and a trademark. Successful product and company names may appear to have been created by magic, but many of these names were established through extensive research and analysis of their respective markets. Some company names are created from the names of their founders. A couple of examples of this include The Disney Company, whose founder was Walt Disney, and Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide, a global advertising conglomerate founded by the Saatchi Brothers - Maurice and Charles Saatchi. Both companies were established from the reputation of their founders. Company names can also be created from service descriptors. Examples of these are Foot Locker, an athletic apparel chain, and Pizza Hut, a fast food restaurant franchise. Both of these company names are self-explanatory and easy to remember. The more popular course of action in recent times has been name engineering which is the process of creating a name from the base of two or more words to create a new and distinct meaning. Companies such as Microsoft, Novell, Enron, and Macromedia have all engaged in this practice. The common rationale for engineering a company name was to differentiate between the individual i.e.. the founding members of the oraganization, and the organization itself. This rationale used is to enable the company to exist on its own repuation. Companies that employ these methods increase their chances of generating innovative, memorable names.
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Illustrating one of the reasons why is the right brand name important to a business or product.
Why is the right brand name important to a business or product? The brand name is a customer’s first contact with a company and/or its products. It is what consumers use to talk about a product to other potential consumers. The right brand name makes consumers and other businesses want to use a product or associate with a company and is what consumers remember when they want to use a product again. Secondly, the right brand name begins the sale for a company. It is a company’s first sales representative, one that works around the clock, 7 days a week.
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What’s in a Name?
What goes into a successful brand name? Understanding the importance of having the right brand name is one thing, the creation of it is another. Is there a right or wrong way? Is it blind luck, or is it a carefully executed strategy? Mentioned below are some of the methods marketing professionals employ for developing a successful brand name: Clear Meaning (Semantics): A brand name should have an intrinsic meaning of lasting significance, connoting a class or category of the highest rank. For example, the recently-merged FirstCaribbean International Bank which is the amalgamation of Barclays Bank PLC and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). Creative Structure (Morphology): A brand name should have a creative and imaginative structure. The Terminix product, for example, is based on the Latin root “termin”, meaning “to end”. The IX of “Terminix” is based on the Latin prefix “ex-”, meaning “away” or “gone”. The new suffix, “-nix”, further implies negation, prohibition, elimination. The final product, “Terminix”, exploits the similarity between “termite” and “termin” to suggest the complete and absolute elimination of termites. Appealing Sound (Phonology): A brand name should have a pleasant psychoacoustic effect on the hearer. Some companies employ onomatopoeia (as in Zip Lock), alliteration (Tinker Toy), rhyming assonance (Nutter Butter), and other rhetorical devices to assure that their brand names stick in the minds of those who hear them. Recognition Value: A successful brand name should be instantly recognizable. Paul Newman’s name on his salad dressing line, Newman’s Own, is instantly recognizable because of his fame as an actor. Recognizability can also derive from the name of the product line itself, the word for the problem the product resolves,
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and many othersources. A prime example of this is the “True Value”, a cooperative comprised of members who are entrepreneur-retailers.
Illustration of Strategic Name Development’s web presence
Prestige Value: A commercial name should possess the power to command admiration. Products with French or Italian names often command such prestige. “Clinique” sounds more prestigious than “Clinic” and “pasta” is more sophisticated than “noodles”. The selection of certain words or morphemes can contribute prestige value; that is why “Premier”, “Super” and “Ultra” frequently appear in commercial names.
Catchy Rhythm: Pleasing poetic syllable patterns may add to the memorability of a company or product name. A roller coaster named “Super Duper Looper” may sound silly, but people remember the name. Emotive Value: Certain words elicit strong cultural or psychological reactions. Names with “Bajan”, “mother” or “family” in them not only evoke positive cultural responses but can also have warm emotional effects on the hearer. The creation of a company or brand name is such a precise science that the are companies solely dedicated to the creation of these names. One such company is Strategic Name Development. This Minneapolis-based company has had decades of in the creation of memorable brand names. Examples of these include, Allsteel, the second largest office furniture manufacturer in North America, and named annually as one of the best-managed companies in the world; and Sprint the world’s first only all-digital, fiber-optic network.
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What’s in a Name?
A good naming company is strategically focused, fluent in emotional shorthand, listens twice, is more than a creative powerhouse and lastly, will constructively challenge the client. The above-mentioned are the Strategic Name Development’s 2 philosophy on judging a good naming company. Firstly, a good naming company knows that the most critical part of naming a business, product or brand is not the actual naming. Rather, it is establishing the strategic positioning - what is the one key thing that the naming should convey? The goal is to allow your customers to feel a connection and sense of loyalty toward your company or product name. As mentioned before, listening both strategically, to center the name, then phonetically, to ensure linguistically sound, pronounceable, sonorous and balanced name characteristics results in a name that will be well received by the target market. When naming a business, creativity is no longer sufficient. The same holds true for developing a product name, service name or brand name. In 2003, over 260,000 trademark applications were filed in the U.S. alone and more than 98% of the dictionary is currently registered as domain names on the worldwide web. Naming a business or developing a product name is too important to be left only in the hands of marketers. Who better to decide on brand- or product-name viability than the target market? A good naming company uses leading-edge research tools and techniques that give consumers or business customers, not marketers, the final word. From American Express to Tyson Foods, the most prominent companies understand the importance of strategic naming that truly identifies with their customer-base. Countless Fortune 500 organizations have trusted naming professionals to either name their company or create a brand or product name.
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Chapter Two
On your Mark, Get Set, Brand
On your Mark, Get Set, Brand
Upon successful completion of creating the brand name it is time to move to the next stage of the branding process, the creation of the corporate identity. The corporate identity is what a company comes to represent in the eyes of the public, not just its trademark. The products, services, business philosophy, and behaviour of a company become its corporate identity, for better or worse. Just as Enron was more than an energy company and Coca-Cola is more than a soft drink. It is therefore extremely important to put the right foot forward. The first step in doing so is the creation of a logo. If the name of a company is the first sales representative the public is in contact with, then the logo must be the face of the said representative. A logo appears on all of an organisation’s sales tools, from its business cards and stationary to its Web site. As a result, its design will influence the design of all its marketing materials, for better or worse. A professional-looking logo can be leveraged to create professional-looking materials. A poorly designed logo cannot. In other words, you need a “brandable” logo - one that can be used when designing other materials to brand your company. The design of a memorable logo must fit a basic criteria. It should be distinctive, easy to reproduce in small and large sizes and can be applied to a number of items such as business cards, letterheads, print and electronic advertising – magazines and television, merchandise and signage. A general rule of thumb for determining if a logo will be memorable: if you cannot look at a logo for fewer than 10 seconds and re-draw it with decent 3 accuracy, it is probably too complex to be easily remembered. How it is designed can also make a company look like it has been around for awhile even if it has only one employee and just opened its doors last month. Persons who see it will associate
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with it the positive attributes of big companies like security and financial stability. Yet it can still deliver the entrepreneurial qualities associated with a small company, such as personal attention and superior customer service. The creation of a logo can be done in three possible ways: logo type (name of service company) and symbol, logo type only and symbol only. The logo type and symbol is the most frequently used approach, especially among new organisations. In order to establish itself quickly in today’s competitive marketplace, a new company must have a strong visual identity which will be readily recognised no matter the application.
The evolution of one of the most successful and visible brands, Nike.
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Example of consistant use of a logo and corporate identity in stationery.
On your Mark, Get Set, Brand
As a company develops brand equity, it is more inclined to use the other approach to the logo type. This is usually used to give a “facelift” to a brand, show the public that the company is maturing along with the consumer. One of the most successful brand evolutions has been Nike’s. Simple in design, its logo started out with the traditional logo type and symbol (the Nike swoosh). As time progressed, the logo constantly changed to its present-day use of the Nike swoosh only. Upon completion of the logo, the creation of collateral materials is the next step in the corporate identity development. These materials include but are not limited to letterheads, business cards, envelopes, brochures, etc. The use of these items help to enforce the brand’s presence in the market. These materials are carefully and methodically designed to reflect the corporate culture of its owner. Corporate culture is defined as the shared values, beliefs and aspirations of members of the community, which find expression in the way they routinely behave and cooperate (or not) with others by way of formal and informal relationships Sometimes the corporate culture of a company is already known, other times it has to be created. An example of a corporate culture which has been created is outlined by Ricardo Redman, CEO of Acute Vision Inc., a visual communications company based in Barbados. “One of the challenges we were faced with when creating the corporate identity for Durette Marketing Inc. was establishing the target market. In 1997, we were approached by the company to help build their brand. You see, the company was in existence for about 13 years and had virtually no visual presence in the market. They wanted to increase their current market share. Upon analysis, we learnt that their product was far superior to its competitors. We decided to market Durette as a lifestyle choice, something to aspire to rather than simply a window or door. By doing this we, as professionals created a memorable and brandable logo to capture the attention of the consumer.
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On your Mark, Get Set, Brand Additionally, we found out through our research that even though it was men who mostly purchased the product, it was the women who were left with the cleaning and maintenance of it.� As a result we decided to educate the public on how easy it was to clean through advertising in the press, on television and various brochures and flyers. In our research we discovered that consumers were unreceptive to purchasing the Durette brand because of the price. It was more expensive than its competitors so we decided that rather than lowering the price of the windows, it would be best to sell it to the public as a high-end product as it lasts longer than its competitors. As a result of the methods used in branding Durette, it is now one of the most recognisable leaders in the uPVC window manufacturing industry in the Caribbean.� As mentioned before, the most important aspect of design to a corporate identity is uniformity. There must be a level of consistency throughout the look and feel of the collateral materials. Where the logo is placed, what kind of imagery is used, the language of the copy written, and the typefaces used are all instrumental in creating a memorable brand. If a company goes to the trouble of having a great looking business card, letterhead and brochure designed and then has a sign created for its building that does not even remotely resemble the materials produced. This dilutes its corporate identity and may give potential customers the impression that it is a less than professional company, therefore causing loss of potential revenue. Creating these materials will not secure the success of a brand totally but it will maintain the integrity of a company’s corporate identity as well as a carefully executed marketing and/or advertising strategy. This is the way in which a brand is protected.
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Chapter Three
Protecting Your Brand
Protecting Your Brand
After the creation of a successful corporate identity, it would be a shame to let it lose momentum. One of the ways of ensuring that this does not happen is by implementing a brandmaintenance campaign. The first step of developing brand maintenance is the creation of a corporate- identity guidelines manual. This manual basically explains in detail the correct use of the corporate identity. It details how the mark was created and can be recreated. It shows an official colour palette, grid system, typography, correct and incorrect usage and placement of the mark, corporate communication dimensions and placement of the mark as well as how the mark should be used in a Web site. The guidelines may extend into grammar, usage and writing styles specific to that company and its audience. They also serve as an aid in preserving the integrity of the brand as well as establishing brand equity. The amount of detail in a corporate identity manual is often determined by the size, nature and budget of an organisation. For example, Tower Bucknall Austin, a quantity surveying and project management company in Barbados, had just undergone re-branding their image and needed a method of keeping their newimage consistent. They did not have a huge budget for a fully detailed corporate identity manual, so the design team in charge created a four-page style sheet with basic guidelines. The following is a descriptive outline by Michael Hutton of Michael Hutton Design, a Strategic Design Firm based in Tacoma, Washignton, on how to go about creating a corporate identity manual:
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Protecting Your Brand
✪ If you have the freedom to create a colour palette, choose the corporate colour palette wisely. Present the colour or colours in formats for print and digital media. This variety gives your client the option of using the colour consistently throughout print, Web and even television graphics.
✪ Set a standard for typography. Choose no more than two complete typefaces as their core typefaces. This gives your client the option to choose different weights of a font without going from one typeface to another. You may offer them two additional alternative typefaces as well. All of this ensures a proprietary look to their organization.
✪ Set up a standard useful grid system for all layouts. ✪ Show your clients how the mark should be properly used. Also, show them how it should not be used. If the logo has different elements, consider if the elements can be used independently, and if so, demonstrate it in the manual.
✪ Demonstrate how the mark should look on the letterhead. Include measurement, and placement. In addition, explain the minimum size requirements for the logo. A logo’s legibility is important for all scales.
✪ Be sure to give your client all of the graphics you developed. Colour, no colour, vector, raster, letterhead templates and so forth.
✪ Present the guidelines in a full-colour, cleanly designed book. Wire or coil bind the book with a cover and distribute several copies for your meeting. Be sure to save one for yourself. This also becomes an additional multi-faceted portfolio piece for you. It demonstrates knowledge in the project, publication design, technical writing, identity development 4 and understanding of a company’s brand.
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A well-executed, long-term brand strategy is another method used in brand positioning. When done correctly, a brand will trigger pride among customers pride in owning, pride in working with, pride in doing business with and/or talking about the brand without coaxing or coaching. Many world-class brands or companies share in this luxury such as CocaCola, Starbucks, 5 BMW, Nike, Apple Computers Inc., and Harley-Davidson.
Example of a section of a brand manual, produced for the City of Edinurgh’s Investment program.
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Protecting Your Brand
To have a nice logo will not guarantee that a product or service will be accepted by the general public. A good design firm or designer recognises this fact and will carry out a design audit or research. This research entails finding out the size and complexity of the project, the desired result to be achieved for the project, the target market of the product, its demographic and psychographic data, its competitors, strengths and weaknesses. Upon completion of this investigation, the next step the designer takes is preparing the design brief. A design brief is an outline of deliverables needed to successfully market a product or service and is usually created by a design manager or creative director. Understanding the research also enables the manager to make informed decisions on which media to use. For example, if the desired target audience for a product is 1,000 persons in the areas of Christ Church in Barbados it would be more sensible and costeffective to print 3,000 full-colour brochures or fliers and have them distributed in the area through the postal service rather than placing a full-page advertisement in the newspaper. Or if you are targeting a particular age group, say 18-25, a designer would not create imagery that is more suited for 35-50 because, more than likely, it will fail to achieve the desired result. Another component of brand management is the ability to recognise whether a design-based solution is necessary for a particular situation. Public relations, a non-design based solution, is a very important tool used to protect the integrity of a corporate identity. Many companies and or organisations have been ruined by their inability to control negative public relations. An example of this in Barbados was the dispute within the Democratic Labour Party’s about the appointment of David Thompson as leader of that Party as being against the Party’s constitutional rights. Because of the constant bickering of internal Party matters, the public’s confidence in the Democratic Labour Party’s ability to lead the nation could be detrimental whenever election time comes around.
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The above-mentioned example is not the only way in which the integrity of a company or corporate identity can be potentially ruined. Another way is the mismanagement of design resources. One of the ways to ensure design resources are not wasted is to introduce the design team in the planning process of the marketing strategy. This allows all parties to be absolutely clear on the direction of the marketing. As such, designers will not waste time creating visuals that are not appropriate in achieving stated objectives, saving a significant amount of time, money or resources. An example of wasted design resources described by the Creative Director of Acute Vision Incorporated is mentioned below. “In 1999, The Mutual Bank approached Acute Vision Incorporated to brand their Champion Account. The marketing committee of the bank had decided that they wanted to use a montage of various images and professions, for example, seaside landscapes, cane cutters and construction sites with workers to sell this account. The design team, realising that this would not successfully sell this particular product, decided to take another approach, using portraits of actual account holders, as people will see someone they recognise and will relate to that person. The completed visual received a less than favourable response from the committee and the design team was forced to deliver the requested visual. The Mutual Bank had hired an external marketing consultant who concluded that a personalise approach would be more advantageous and the committee decided to use the design team’s favoured concept.�
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Conclusion
Regardless of the size of an organisation, the corporate identity is its most important asset. Safeguarding its identity through the use of brand maintenance is one way of guaranteeing its continued success. Nike, Coca-Cola, Disney - what do these companies have in common? The best athletic shoes, the best beverage or most interesting rides? Not necessarily. But what they do very well is market, publicize, advertise and protect their brand. Whether it is the creation of a successful brand name and design or simply the maintenance of its corporate identity, the financial success of companies has come at the cost of millions of marketing dollars spent and endless hours of thoughtful and studied application.
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Appendix A Research Questionnaire 1.
What level of importance do you place design on branding?
2.
How do you go about accessing how much design is needed when branding a particular product or service?
3.
When discussing the product, what emphasis does the customer/client place on design?
4.
Who, in your opinion, do you think is least resistant to introducing design at the beginning of planning the branding strategy?
5.
Give an example of your most successful design-based branding exercise and outline why it was successful?
6.
Why do you think some individuals access design as purely decorative and not really necessary to the success of their brand?
7.
What, if any, are the reasons that the design process can prove to be a failure of a brand?
8.
What design management model do you use in your everyday approach?
9.
Where do you place the most emphasis in your design approach, purely on aesthetics or on the balance between form and function?
10. How do you measure the success of your designmanagement approach to branding?
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Appendix B
A Dictionary of Branding Terms “Look and Feel� The overall impression created and maintained over time by the consistent presentation of the brand in the prescribed manner and in appropriate contexts. Brand The sum of all the characteristics, tangible and intangible, that makes the offer unique. Brand Equity The value of the brand in its holistic sense to its owners as a corporate asset. Brand Essence The distillation of a brand’s intrinsic characteristics into a succinct core concept. Brand Extension A new product or service that is related to an existing brand, but that offers a different benefit and/or appeals to a different target segment. Brand Harmonization The synchronization of all elements of brand identity, across a line of products or services and/or across geographic markets. Brand Identity The outward manifestation of the essence of a corporate brand, product brand, service brand or branded environment. Brand Identity Equities The value of specific elements of identification (e.g., name, symbol or colours) to the brands owners.
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Appendix B Brand Positioning The specific niche in which the brand defines itself as occupying in the competitive environment. Positioning addresses differentiating brand attributes, user benefits and target segments, singly or in combination. Brand Revitalization A major overhaul of a brand, starting with its positioning and proceeding through creative regeneration of the brand identity. Branded Environment The graphic system of identification as applied to threedimensional physical space. Branding The process by which both a brand and brand identity are developed. Co-Brand Use of two or more strong brands in relation to a common offer. Typically, but not always, the brands are given equal emphasis. Examples: Chevron and McDonald’s, Visa and Citibank. Corporate Brand The gestalt of the organization, including its philosophy and culture as well as its physical characteristics. Corporate Image A corporate image refers to how a corporation is perceived. It is a generally accepted image of what a company “stands for�. The creation of a corporate image is an exercise in perception management. It is created primarily by marketing experts who use public relations and other forms of promotion to suggest a mental picture to the public.
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Appendix B
Descriptor A term used with a brand name to communicate an informational attribute (e.g., variant, function, occasion or target segment) used to describe or identify something. Digital Branding Using digital media to create, build, manage and revitalize the relationships between a brand and its audiences. Symbol A “symbol” is an abstract sign to represent the brand. Typography The typestyle specified for brand communications other than the basic brand signature. Typography is often an existing font, but may also be a modified font or custom-designed font. Verbal Identity The brand name and other verbal elements (e.g., descriptor or tag-line) of the brand signature. Visual Identity The symbol, colours, formats and other visual elements of the brand signature. Wordmark A “wordmark” is the stylized treatment of the brand name and serves the same functional purpose as a symbol.
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Endnotes
1. MarketingVOX News. The Definition of Branding (2002), at <http://www.marketingvox.com> 2. Strategic Name Development. How to judge a good naming company. (2000), at <http://www.namedevelopment.com> 3. John Williams, Crafting a Memorable Logo (2005), at <http://www.entrepreneur.com > 4. Michael Hutton, Solidifying a Brand. What is a brand? about.com\(2004), at <http://graphicdesign.about.com/od/ idmanuals/a/solidbrands> 5.
Jeffrey Mucci, Creating a Winning Organization and Culture (2005), at <http://www.marketprofs.com>
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Bibliography and Illustrations Bibliography Allen Adamson. Branding Articles & White Papers. Traditional Brand Positioning Can’t Last. At <http://www.landor.com/Branding>, 2005. Michael Hutton. Solidifying a Brand. What is a brand? At <http://graphicdesign.about.com>, 2004.
Jeffrey Mucci. Creating a Winning Organization and Culture At <http://www.marketprofs.com>, 2005.
Wolf Olins, The Wolff Olins guide to corporate identity, (1985). John Williams, Crafting a Memorable Logo At <http://www.entrepreneur.com >, 2005. Strategic Name Development. How to judge a good naming company. At <http://www.namedevelopment.com>, 2000.
Illustrations Cover:
Branding By Design, Author, 2005
Page 3: Why is the right brand name important to a business or product? iStockphoto.com Page 5:
Illustration of Strategic Name Development’s web presence
Page 7: The evolution of one of the most successful and visible brands, Nike. History of Nike, 2004 Page 8: Example of consistent use of a logo and corporate identity in stationery. Author, 2006 Page 11: A collection of Corporate Identity Manuals. Author, 2006 Page 12: Example of a section of a brand manual, produced for the City of Edinburgh’s Investment program. Author, 2006
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Compiling a research paper is an academic journey during which a number of people are challenged, stressed, and burdened. This thesis could not have been completed without the assistance and support of many people and some public acknowledgement and appreciation of their efforts is due. I would like to particularly thank my parents for their love and moral support which enabled me to pursue the course of study. I am indeed fortunate to have such special parents and their patience, encouragement, and assistance was remarkable during this effort. I also extend special thanks to Mr. Robert Sandiford, my Supervisor for his help and guidance throughout the course of this paper. Appreciation is also extended to Ricardo and Donna Redman, Mark Marshall, and the rest of the staff of Acute Vision Inc.; Kim Bascombe and Mr. Ken Udeya of Blackbird Design, who supported me in spirit and encouraged me to pursue this journey when my spirit was weak. A great debt of gratitude is also owed to those who proof-read the myriad of scripts and all those who assisted me in various ways. Without their invaluable assistance I could not have completed this research paper.
Ruby Park, St Philip BB18077 Barbados Telephone: (246) 249-2847 â&#x20AC;˘ Email: kirk@ibrandbydesign.com
www.ibrandbydesign.com