How are Successful Brands Recognised by Their Visual Appearance with IKEA and MUJI - Essay Example

A brand is an aggregation of all the physical and emotional characteristics of a company, or a product and service, with which the customer encounters at all the points of contact. Roellig (2000) emphasizes the importance of branding stating that it helps build a compelling relationship across a wide range of audiences. Branding communicates a brand’s business proposition. Roellig further states that the most successful visual expressions of a brand are its core attributes, and the purpose is to establish a strong emotional relationship between the brand and its audience.

Brand elements may include a symbol, slogan, logo, or anything that helps in identifying and distinguishing a specific product (Manocha, 2014). Successful brand elements include brand names as they communicate quality and evoke specific structures associated with the brand (Srinivasan & Till, 2002). The most important element in creating a global brand name is the brand name and the related wordmark or symbol. This represents the company or the product or service throughout the world.

Branding design includes company or product name, logo design, graphic design, packaging design, display design, advertising design, promotion, and the concept of culture (Schrube-Otts, 2000). The use of brand elements or a combination of elements helps to form a style that expresses the theme of the enterprise, which becomes the differentiating factor.

A brand should be able to help consumers to identify with it. A brand is not restricted to a logo, a symbol, or a slogan; it depends upon the customer’s perception of the stimulus when the brand is presented. Brand names communicate details about the product quality, reputation, heritage, status, and aesthetics (Baltas & Saridakis, 2010).  Brand identity and distinct positioning are communicated across all nations through packaging graphics, which should, to a large extent be standardized. Brands are visually recognized by their signature color schemes and unique graphic elements before they are recognized by their name (Roellig, 2001).

Brand consistency is usually related to the brand’s visual identity, which includes the logo and the style used in communication (Plomp, 2012). Consistent visual identity does help anchor brand association in consumers’ minds but building a powerful and compelling brand requires more than visual identity.