“A well designed product communicates a whole bundle of qualities and values, particularly if its expression is consistent with the other design elements of the brand – the communication, logo and packaging. It is therefore at the heart of what the company is about.”
- “Designed for Global Success”, International Enterprise Singapore
Design has become an important brand factor in determining whether a product and the company sinks or soars. International companies like Microsoft, Nokia and Apple have been such successful companies that have leveraged on design as a brand differentiator to create new market values for companies to capture substantial market share.
If you are a designer seeking to start a company on your own in Asia, branding is a very important key to help you carve a niche in the market, so here are some tips on building a strong brand:
1. Differentiate your brand identity amongst the rest
Finding a strong brand identity to describe what you are designing and marketing helps a lot in differentiating your products from the rest. A good way to brand your company is to consider the following factors: what your company’s unique qualities are and who your target market is. A brand identity will only have values when it is communicated correctly to the appropriate audience, and the views of the customers are determined by what they see and hear from the brand identity. Therefore, a strong brand identity will bring forth strong brand awareness.
The best brand names are brought to life with strong, clear and memorable visual identities that encapsulate the brand’s personality. With Asian brands gaining wider popularity, companies like the “Barang Barang” are lifestyle shops that have successfully communicated their brand identity with their modern Asian ways of marketing. With the Asian brand meaning of “everything” for “Barang Barang”, it is a name that many customers can identify with, when it comes to buying contemporary Asian furniture and accessories.
2. Being consistent in your design philosophy
Being consistent in promoting one’s design philosophy is important in creating a strong brand personality. When all the design expressions of a brand are tuned in to the same look and feel, the same promises and values, this can then therefore create stronger design branding to the target market.
Adopting a ’no-frills” design philosophy as the key to their branding, Stikfas has been very successful in creatively marketing their products to consumers throughout the years. When Stikfas was first advertised in Toyfare, a leading toy industry magazine a few years ago, it was the clean, starck design of Stikfas with the bold black lettering that attracted Hasbro, toy giant, to notice their advertisements. Even to this day, Stikfas ads and box covers still follow the same concept: a single large Stikfas figure with a white background and a bold black tagline that shows witty content, to attract the market worldwide.
3. Designing to suit your customer’s needs
According to trends analysts, the latest consumer movement entails customers having their say in product design. Globalization and the growth of the Internet have made the world’s 6 billion consumers more aware of choices across the planet. So people are more design-conscious of what they use and wear today, resulting in a rise of the creative class seeking for creative pursuits. Producers are therefore seeking greater customer input, to cater for people who want more control over what they use and wear.
Therefore, customization has been one good marketing strategy that caters to different peoples’ needs. Companies like Gmask has tapped on this idea of customization to create different design skins for different accessory designs (handphone, laptops, iPods), thus providing individuals the possibility of personifying their own possessions.
Branding is not about how much you spend on advertising and media, but rather about what you do differently to stand out from the crowd. Therefore, design plays an important key role in redefining the language of business marketing.
