Brand Magic: The Importance of Communicating Brand Identity

by Elena Maximova
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Even though Mike Kuniavsky in Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research asserts that “brands are incredibly powerful parts of the user experience and can color users’ expectations to the point that all other factors virtually vanish,” he leaves the discussion of brands’ influence on user experience out of the book. In my opinion it is worth discussing at least because: (1) a company’s brand identity influences design of all its products (including website, software, packaging, etc.), and (2) in most cases, brand identity is a more influential factor in purchasing than the quality of product itself. Therefore, it makes sense to add product’s brand identity as yet another variable when analyzing the user experience.

Understanding The Consumer-Brand Relationship

Why do consumers value brands?

  • Brands make consumer’s choice easier
  • Brands help consumers in expressing themselves
  • Brands bring promise of a quality product
  • Brands deliver emotional benefits (e.g., satisfaction of being part of a global community, being able to share identity with like-minded people, and comfort)

All these benefits provided by strong brands to the customers return back to the companies as consumers’ brand loyalty and, hence, increased revenues.

There is a question of what is more important in brand management: actual functional distinctions, such as innovative product, or perceived uniqueness. Unfortunately, perceived characteristics of a product become more important than functional characteristics. As Alexander Biel argues in his article Discovering Brand Magic: The Hardness of the Softer Side of Branding [1], functional innovation does not guarantee competitive advantage for sufficiently long period of time (because it is easy to imitate) while “image and personality of the brand, and the quality of the relationship between the brand and the consumer” create perceived value for the consumers that touches him on a more emotional level so that it is harder for competitors to imitate. For example, Microsoft’s new operating system, Vista, closely imitates most of the functionality of Apple OS X. However, for many consumers around the world, Microsoft’s promises of innovative design for higher productivity, greater ease of use, and increased entertainment experience are communicated better than Apple’s.

Points to Remember

Brand is a company’s intangible asset that can have a dollar value associated with it [2]. An interesting study [3] conducted in the UK market by the Design Council in 2004 suggests that companies that are design-oriented or effectively use design, including branding design, outperformed the FTSE 100 index over the period of 10 years by 200%. Usability practitioners, therefore, should not leave out brand identity outside the scope of their research.

Product functionality is important but communication of product’s identity to consumers is even more important – it creates added value and helps strengthen consumer-brand relationship.

References

1. A. Biel. (1997). Discovering Brand Magic: the Hardness of the Softer Side of Branding, International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 16, No. 3.
2. BusinessWeek Best Global Brands 2006
3. The Impact of Design on. 2004. Stock Market Performance. An Analysis of UK Quoted Companies 1994-2003.