Matthew Tucker
Graphic Design
Is there such a thing as Ethical Branding? In the Capitalist Western World brands play a huge role in influencing people’s actions, from the clothes they wear to the foods they buy. There has been at least an attempt to brand almost everything from simple products and services to entire cities or countries. It is mainly about involvement and association, it enables people to define their self-‐perception with a set of values or views. “Branding these days is largely about involvement and association; the outward and visible demonstration of private and personal affiliation.“ Page 14, Chapter 1, Wally Olins, On Brand 2003 In the current, competitive market place, rebranding is often needed to rejuvenate or revamp a companies values and public image. Brands often have readily comprehensible messages of socially ethical values but it could be said that they are using this as a way of connoting a lifestyle to sell their products or services. When studying the writing of practitioner Wally Olins it becomes much clearer how brands operate and how they connect with their target audience. He unpicks the corporate world and describes the essential rules for successful branding, defining the links between business, brand and customer. He states that any good brand can be broken down to a core idea and the four vectors which are; product, environment, communication and behavior. “The product is what the organization sells. Environment is where it makes or sells it. Communication is how it tells people, every audience, and about it’s self and what its doing. And behaviour is how it behaves.” Page 176, Chapter 9, Wally Olins, On Brand 2003 Contextual and Theoretical Studies Richard Miles
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Matthew Tucker
Graphic Design
The core idea represents what the company stands for and why it exists, it provides the brand with coherence, consistency and a powerful emotional attitude or idea. For many people in Western Civilization, environmental and economical factors are a highly valued selling point, they offer customers satisfaction and contempt. It is this message that people often associate themselves with. “Branding is no longer just about adding value to a product; branding represents and promotes lifestyles and brands themselves become a kind of culture.” Ethical Branding and corporate reputation, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Ying Fan 2005 In addition to the core message when breaking down a brand through the four vectors it becomes apparent how the core message is communicated and delivered through the services and products. When an organization is being branded or re-‐branded the appropriateness of the environment is hugely influential on who will see it, how they will react and how successful it will be. The environment and the experience that it provides is something companies need to keep consistent with their core idea. When looking at food markets and similar environments such as furniture stores the layouts are designed so that you walk around the entire shop often picking up unnecessary goods before you reach the tills. This is morally and ethically questionable, as for the customer it may actually be more beneficial to have a more open planed environment allowing people to go directly to what they want and leave. Environmental branding is also often based on the concept that many people will choose predictable environments whether this is consciously or subconsciously. Sections of supermarkets are environmentally branded around the idea of Contextual and Theoretical Studies Richard Miles
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Matthew Tucker
Graphic Design
markets and fruit stalls which could be done to exploit how people perceive the produce they are buying. The layout suggests a less corporate set of produce and more of a local and fairer way of buying your shopping. They are branding to provide the customer with a nice place to shop, When looking at food produce as a product and how it is branded around ethical issues specifically fair trade and organic products, it is common for it to cost significantly more. It could be said that it is used to exploit insecurities and manipulate buyer’s emotions to feel morally satisfied even when they have paid more. It could also be said that if the big corporations were fairer in the way they dealt with these issues and took smaller percentages that the price wouldn’t necessarily have to be higher. A product will have to meet and maintain certain standards to assure that customers return, one bad experience could be enough to deter them from returning to the store as well as telling associates about their bad experience. This is also equally as important through the other three vectors. Wally Olins denotes that the way a brand communicates has to be linked to their core idea, it is all about how the product or service is advertised and promoted. It is used to bridge the gap between the target audience and the organization. When dealing with ethical values it is common for companies to express these connotations as a marketing tool. They create customer perceptions of the brand and determine whether a brand is successfully established and eventually turns a profit. Traditional forms of brand communication through advertising have proved extremely efficient with rebrands or new campaigns allowing brands to reach out to further audiences or completely reinvent their public image, however to compete with the current market new methods and techniques are being used to stay in the corporate race. Contextual and Theoretical Studies Richard Miles
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Matthew Tucker
Graphic Design
Finally brand behaviour is applicable to the way a brand is seen, heard, felt and even smelt or tasted. Like brand communication it is applicable every time someone interacts with the brand. Any successful brand should have consistent and organized behaviour unless strategically decided otherwise. The behaviour of a brand is used to ensure that the same desired brand experience is delivered to all audiences whether this is externally or internally, if the desired message comes across to the employees then the same message should effectively be delivered to the customers. When looking at the rebrand of the Co-‐operative by design studio Pentagram through these four vectors it becomes easier to deconstruct and understand the ideas and strategy behind the rebrand. "The Co-Operative movement began in 1844 as a response to the inequality caused by the industrial revolution, forming numerous co-operative societies in retail, agriculture, and housing. Each society was owned and run by its members and worked for the benefit of its local community. The Co-Operative group was formed from the merger of many independent retail societies." Brand Identity Now, Page 109, ED Julius Wiedemann. Research shows that the Co-‐operative, statistically, was formed as an ethical and moral organization. The core idea behind the rebrand was one of unity across all fronts of the organization as well as getting the employees to maintain and portray the same values. The first step in the rebranding of communication was the name change, the Co-‐ op was often synonymous with low quality products and dated retail. The name change to ‘The Co-‐operative’ re-‐connected the strong ethical credentials of the organization. Also with the likes of super giants like Tesco and Sainsbury’s pioneering new levels of value it was clear that the Co-‐op had to change its public perception and reach out to a different market. Contextual and Theoretical Studies Richard Miles
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Matthew Tucker
Graphic Design
“We changed the name back to the “Co-operative”. This name felt like a straightforward and authoritative straightforward statement of fact and reconnected the business with the roots that were central to its ethos” Brand Identity Now, Page 111, ED Julius Wiedemann. The second major development of brand communication was changing from the 1993 logo, which was still based on a cloverleaf to a modernist, sans serif, Helvetica logotype that portrayed a higher quality and value of products and service. There was also a dramatic colour change from blue to green, again expressing the environmental views the company held so strong, keeping everything from packaging design to signage consistently sleek and clean. Bold statements of the company ethics were delivered through out the store as well as across the face of the store. It could be said that again these statements, despite being true, were being used to reach a larger audience and effectively increase profits and the price of produce, but in the unethical world of business its hardly a dishonest or manipulative technique to compete. The rebrand of its environment also played a huge role in its reecent success. This in turn with its communication was about creating a consistent brand across all fronts that reconnected it with its fundamental principles of fairness, responsibility, and community ownership. Brand Identity Now, Page 110, ED Julius Wiedemann. The start for the environment but summultaniously linked with brand behaviour was the internal initive of ‘together’ which united employees under one common business vision. The branding united all the Co-‐operative businesses under one consistent brand. The store interiors were redesigned and provided customers with a joyful experience. This was an essential tool in getting Contextual and Theoretical Studies Richard Miles
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Matthew Tucker
Graphic Design
customers to return. The same way if someone enjoyed our stay at a hotel because they enjoyed the atmosphere it would encourage them to return. The internal rebranding of the store has connotations of health and an ethical ethos, using green signage and keeping the type consistent with the logo. Although this seems an innocent and neturally uninfluential it could be said that these ethics were used as a tool of manipulation, Wally Olins makes a similar perceptions on bottled water. “But bottled water has emotional connotations of health, purity and fitness which seem to have a special resonance for the Western World. And very many peole, including me, are perfectly willing to pay relatively large sums of money to pay for the emotional satisfaction they derive from drinking it.” Page 181, Chapter 9, Wally Olins, On Brand 2003 The rebranding of the product included all of their self-‐branded produce, which essentially is more ethically sourced and produced than other corporations on the market place. The designs were kept consistent with the rest of the brand communication sticking with Helvetica Neue and simple green black and white colour scheme, delivering the same consistent and coherent message of unity. The new packaging designs were created using sustainable, recyclable print methods and materials. Although statements these statistics were used to promote the organization, it is environmentally beneficial and will hopefully pioneer a new attitude for rest of their competition and eventually become a standard. Finally within the product and produce branding of the company, many of their self branded and named brand produce is organic or labeled with fair trade, the Contextual and Theoretical Studies Richard Miles
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Matthew Tucker
Graphic Design
same issues of price difference and using ethics to create higher income for the company could be suggested. However if they were to go against these and start selling cheaper produce then essentially they would be bringing down any progress made in creating a fairer world. When analyzing the last and possibly most important of the four vectors, behaviour, the Co-‐operatives true intentions finally become visible. Essentially the ethos behind the organization is all based around being a fair and beneficial part of the community. The Co-‐operative are involved in multiple schemes to help benefit local communities and environmental progress, just to name one they support saving the world bees because of their positive impact on the environment. Again although these initiatives could be said to have underlying intent, the more the organization raises the more attention the cause gets, in turn the more money will be raised. The behaviour of the Co-‐operative stays consistent through across all fronts, service is often efficient and friendly, somewhat crucial for any brand with a service element. But without the other three vectors it wouldn’t have made the rebrand as successful as it was. Ethically employing approachable and friendly staff is something that every company should consider which makes it hard to analyse from an ethical point of view. In conclusion of the composing four vectors in relation to The Co-‐operative, overall incentive and intensions it becomes clear that they use their ethical values to promote themselves. Also it is true that they entice customers through healthy, ethical connotations but they do stand strong in their effort to apply their values in the corporate world. Essentially it’s very hard for such a large corporation to be ethical, but if there is one that is setting the example for change it’s The Co-‐operative. Contextual and Theoretical Studies Richard Miles
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Matthew Tucker
Graphic Design
Bibliography Books Wally Olins -‐ On Brand 2003 Ed. Julius Wiedemann – Brand Identity now! Helen Edwards & Derek Day – Creating Passion Brands 2005 Majken Schultz, Mary Jo Hatch and Mogens Holten Larsen – The Expressive Organisation 2000 Melissa David – More than a name, An introduction to Branding 2005 Naomi Klein -‐ No Logo 2000 Monsa, Brand and Branding, 2009 TV / Film The Greatest Movie Ever Sold – 2011 Naomi Klein -‐ No Logo Documentary Online
http://www.co-‐operative.coop/corporate/Sustainability09/ecological-‐ sustainability/ http://elleeseymour.com/2011/03/29/the-‐co-‐operative-‐revolution-‐rebranded/
Contextual and Theoretical Studies Richard Miles
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