The aesthetics of brand image design

Essay from the year 2014 in the subject Design (Industry, Graphics, Fashion), grade: 1.1, Central Queensland University, course: Brand Image Design, language: English, abstract: Aesthetics are an integral part of marketing communications, influencing the design of logos, advertising, atmospherics and package design. The strategic management of brand image design is essential to developing and implementing a corporate or brand identity. According to Simonson & Schmitt (1997), aesthetics can create tangible value for an organization because:

¿ aesthetics creates consumer loyalty

¿ aesthetics allows for premium pricing

¿ aesthetics cuts through information clutter, increasing the memorability of the visual marks of the company, which in turn increases its chance of selection at the point of purchase

¿ aesthetics affords protection from competitive attacks

¿ aesthetics can save costs and increase productivity, as employees and outside suppliers need to spend less time in creating new layouts and messages

David Garvin¿s (1987) book, the Eight Dimensions of Product Quality, consists of performance, features, reliability, conformance, durability, serviceability, aesthetics and perceived quality. The concept defines aesthetics as ¿the subjective dimension indicating the kind of response a user has to a product. It represents the individual¿s personal preference¿ (Karch, 2008).

Aesthetics management should begin with a thorough status quo analysis of every aspect of a company or brand¿s visual and sensory identity. The objective of this analysis is to get a clear understanding of the identity that the organisation wants to project for itself and its brands in its aesthetic output (its corporate expressions) and how customers perceive the organisation¿s current aesthetic output (customer impressions).

(Simonson & Schmitt, 1997, p.45.)

Brand Identity focuses on the following attributes of aesthetics, outlined by Friedlander (2012):

¿ Colours

¿ Fonts

¿ Logos

¿ Images

¿ Layout