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As our world gets smaller and busier through technology, logos that are instantly recognized and clearly understood are more important and more valuable than ever.

The logo works so much harder today–especially when compressed down to sixteen pixels favicons, used as buttons, links, or embedded in content on a mobile screen. When a logo can transcend any language, linguistic or cultural barrier, tell a compelling story and reflect the brand’s essence, its value is irreplaceable. 

What Paul Rand said about the importance of the logo three decades ago still holds true today: “If, in the business of communication, image is king, the essence of this image, the logo, is the jewel in its crown”.

Logos are the abbreviation of the history, value, benefit, promise and every other trait of a brand. They can take the form of a symbol or word mark, representative of the brand and its promise. 

For centuries, logo forms have been stitched into the visual fabric that surrounds and connects us.

The FedEx logo is legendary among designers. It has won over 40 design awards and was ranked as one of the eight best logos in the last 35 years in the 35th Anniversary American Icon issue of Rolling Stone magazine. 

Lindon  Leader explains that what he’s after is what he calls “the punch line” and that he’s delighted when something isn’t what it appears to be at first glance: “You look at something, then you look at it again, and you say, ‘Hey, wait!’ and ‘Oh, I get it!’” Lindon is after what he refers to as “one plus one equals three.” “The FedEx logo without the hidden arrow is just plain vanilla—one plus one equals two. With it, it’s one plus one equals three.”

A logo cannot make an impression or create differentiation unless it reflects a unique thinking behind the brand and represents an imitable idea. 

Great logos are strengthened by and representative of by a combination of one or more elements, explored in this project, that help a brand stand out in the clutter. 

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Studies show that when customers are engaged on a more personal level, they feel closer to the brand emotionally. Personalization appeals to our desire to feel more important than others. It makes us feel cared for.

Details lie in knowledge. Knowledge lies in personalization. And personalization comes through in the service. 

A late night shopping destination for most, Mr. Porter is the closest shopping associate a stylish man can have. Besides offering the opportunity for every man to look dapper, it is a highly personalized service. It knows who you are the minute you visit the website, with the page header switching from “Mr.Porter” to “Mr.Largo” - the first sign that this brand is yours.

It has the most reliable item measurements, detailing each size of every item, not offering a generalized chart like other shops. And if returns are necessary, Mr Porter has the most intuitive and frictionless process of any online retailer, an easy form that includes the reason option “Not for me.”

The delightful touches of personalized packaging Mr. Porter provides its customers are priceless. Each order is packed in black tissue paper and sealed with a personalized sticker with your name on it.

When you open the box, it’s the first thing you see, a gesture of warmth, a soothing capitalist hug, an acknowledgment of vanity.

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Brand should be chaotic and unexpected, instead of structured and predictable. The ‘Chaos Theory’ tells us that chaos will always prevail. And to design the unexpected, the world’s leading brands will always need to embrace the inputs of chaos. It is the very details that make or break any competitive advantage a business may have.

Leading brands across the world paying more attention to detail than ever before. Detail portrays knowledge.

Google is the most valuable real estate on the internet and an inevitable part of our everyday lives. But how can one make basic information interesting?

The Google doodle is a fantastical parade of surprise illustrations, mini-games and interactive experiences fashioned out of the Google logo. As a result, part of the fun of visiting Google every day is you never know what you might see next.

The lesson for all brands is simple: take the every day beyond the obvious to create resonance with your audience, create anticipation and delight with surprise to make their experience of you unforgettable.

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Every brand needs a target audience. In most cases of consumer brands, it appears that the target could simply be everyone because it is a product everyone uses. But that is not the case.

Great brands focus on an aspirational target -  select few people, who attract other people to wherever they are. Aspirational target or “magnets” are the primary target of brands that help it design narrow and sell wide. 

Nike designs shoes for professional and semi-professional athletes. However, most people buy Nike products, because they aspire to be like their favorite athlete and follow their footsteps. This makes the athletes the “magnets” and us the “takers.”Magnets spread the word and increase the hype for the brand, while defining the brand perception. They define who will eventually buy the products and services and help differentiate products in a category.

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Branding is closely related to psychology - it depends on the study of human behavior as well, albeit in the marketplace. In psychology, it is believed that your overall impression of a person ("He is nice!") impacts your evaluations of that person's specific traits ("He is also smart!”). This is commonly known as the Halo Effect.

Brands successfully use this to differentiate and drive sales. When any one product of a brand strongly resonates with consumers, they automatically deem the entire product line of the same brand superior.

The fourth pillar in Steve Job’s strategy for Apple is to create a halo effect so that people starve for new Apple products. When Apple launched the iPod in 2005, its sales were up 68 percent over the previous year. Interestingly, the iPod and iTunes together accounted for only 39 percent of Apple’s sales. The other 61 percent of Apple (computers, software and services) also did well. 

To cut through the clutter, clever brands place their dollars on their best product, so that it can serve as a Halo Effect on the other products. However, this is no guarantee for products that don’t live up to consumer expectations.

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Pricing is an important part of a brand to establish differentiation. While the challenge is about “owning” a particular price point in the category, brands often get lost in the rut to gain more sales at the cost of perception through short-term tactics like price promotions, that condition consumers to buy only during sales. A living example of failure would be J.C.Penney!

Crossfit has successfully functioned at a relatively higher price point than other gyms, during the recession, with a continuous influx of members. It does this by focussing on the right target audience - people highly focussed on fitness, minus the fancy mirrors and equipment, great value for the price through personalized attention dedicated towards achieving personal goals of users and delivering more than expected in the form of a community, diet training and encouraging competitions. 

A pricing strategy that is supported by greater value than expected and aimed at the right people can prove to be a key differentiator in the ever cluttered marketplace.

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We are now in an era where we have lost trust in the authorities, companies and institutions that have failed to provide proof of equal opportunity and fair practices. We are sidestepping the conventional methods to create our own platforms where each person can participate in the brand they believe in. We want to meet as equals, where each contributes and everyone gains. 

In keeping up with this mindset of crowdsourcing and crowd-funding, brands today need to encourage and ensure customer participation through simplicity and humanity, in order to retain mindshare. They need to think less about selling and more about enlisting. ; to equip their customers with knowledge, skills, tools and even marketplaces — and to let customers use their brand. 

Kickstarter is a way to attract funding that sidestep the banks by leveraging the power of the crowd to create new products. It has garnered immense trust and support from the new “mainstream”, because of its open-ended and transparent process. And in exchange for this trust, it has given consumers a sense of empowerment to make change themselves.

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People personify things all the time, right from pets to cars and boats. We like to see things through the lens of human characteristics, because that is the analogy we understand the best. Likewise, brands need a well-defined character so that we can relate to them and understand their nature. A brand’s character is nothing but a set of human traits that best describe it and set it apart from others.

Facebook is a leader in its category, with a “fun”, “playful” and “friendly” character. It is like that socially popular friend who is funny, entertaining and easily like-able. Defining the personality creates differentiation, emotionally engages users and articulates consumer perception of the brand. 

For example, we now “like” our social life as long as our popular friend “Facebook” endorses it! Brand personality can be expressed through design, actions, employee behavior and emotional communication.

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The brand manifesto is a clear declaration of the purpose and intent of a brand to the consumer through touch points such as posters, websites, etc. It is a specific, transparent and emotional story that tells customers why the brand exists and what it is passionate about, therefore giving people a reason to care.

A great manifesto not only inspires consumers, but inspires employees and attracts future talent. North Face has a visual manifesto in the form of a video, that ties a common thread between climbers, snow riders, ultra runners and all outdoor adventures - the thrill of adventure and the love of exploring.

It is a source of inspiration to overcome hurdles and believe in the power of nature and adventure, making North Face an authentic and admirable brand that is beyond lofty statements. It gives us proof that we should never stop exploring.

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Hybrid design or brand ecosystem is the seamless integration of software and hardware into everyday objects, right from the iPod and iTunes to the cable box and, TV and remote. Ecosystems influence how consumers  discover, engage and experience brands. Brands are consumed everywhere and anytime, and hence are pressed to work in synchronicity with other brands. Brands need to be designed to deliver content whenever and wherever the consumer is, across devices and platforms.

Rdio is a “social jukebox”, that streams over 20 million songs to play on the web, on a mobile device or even offline. It also functions as a remote control between devices, so that you never have to shuffle between your laptop and guests at the next party.

Today, consumers require products to be intelligent, aware and empathetic to their needs, eliminating any additional steps to interact with the brand and working towards an ecosystem that give consumers the freedom to access related functions effortlessly.

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Despite millions of dollars spent marketing the concept over the past decade, only 28% of people know what terms such as “sustainable,” “responsible,” “eco friendly” and “green” really mean, and just 44% say they trust green claims coming from big brands.

The need of the hour is brands that are environmentally conscious and simplify it for consumers. In order to excite and motivate millions of people to change their habits and make different choices, then they need to cut through the “green” noise. Guilt and fear make us uncomfortable, but what could truly motivate us is hope, empowerment and personal achievement. Brands need to make the promise clear without over-communicating so that consumers get it, trust it and want to be a part of it.

RAW for the Oceans is a G-Star collaboration with Bionic Yarn and the Vortex Project. Together they make sustainable clothing from recycled ocean plastic, with a clear and motivational message, “The oceans need us.”

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Perceived quality is usually at the heart of what customers are buying and hence forms a bottom-line measure of the impact of a brand identity. The perceived quality reflects a measure of “goodness” that spreads over all elements of the brand. Even when the brand identity is defined by functional benefits, most studies will show that perceptions about those benefits are closely related to perceived quality. When perceived quality improves, so generally do other elements of customers” perception of the brand.

At Toyota, for instance, the conversation hinges on quality. The company’s unique approach to quality--called “Kaizen”--translates into improved design, procurement, production, logistics, vehicle performance, and environmental impact resulting in a better end-product and user experience. More brands should take a hint from Toyota by communicating quality and encouraging people to prioritize it.

In short, quality drives financial performance, strategic thrust and brand perception.

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Humanimals are a hybrid of humans and animal behavior and characteristics. Known as Anthropomorphism, they are abundant in popular culture and were adopted by civilizations as ancient as the Egyptians and the Greeks.

Today, humanimals are an integral part of many brands, as they enhance the attribution of emotions in a positive way and influences how we relate to products.

They appeal to the child within us and always put a smile on our face, thus increasing the emotional connection with the brand.

The hybrid and absurd nature of humanimals makes them unavoidably comical. Their use in advertising can help to establish a brand’s tone of voice at he first glance and seamlessly set the mood for the communications.

Kia Soul, in the USA, has been successfully using anthropomorphic hamsters in their advertising for the past 4 years. Their latest commercial, which features the now famous hamsters totally transforming themselves into fit, stylish, head-turning machines (just like the new Kia Soul), has reached over 14 million views on YouTube.

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A brand promise states what the customer can expect from the brand. It is simply a promise that the brand should keep and possibly exceed through its offerings. The statement should go beyond products and services to reflect the brand’s character. It should support the positioning by being differentiated, credible, inimitable and relevant.

Coca Cola promises to “inspire optimism and uplift.” It does not speak about providing the best soft drinks in the world , but tells us what people can expect from consuming the brand. Every product, service and communication from the company lives up to the promise of uplifting, be it “Coke open happiness” or pop-up installations that recycle empty Coke bottles.

A promise should filter every decision a brand makes towards each stakeholder.

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Branded content is the manifestation of attributes, market drivers, research, and business objectives, in a way that arouses curiosity, entertains and adds value to our day.

Now, brands need to actively capture their audiences' (increasingly short) attention spans and actually engage consumers. The challenge is to find a brand’s natural voice before customers simply migrate to the next brand that is truer to its roots.

Red Bull captures the attention of its information-savvy consumers through instant gratification. It provides a portion of its more than 5,000 videos and 50,000 photos to users free-of-charge. The content is always in and around the product, but never about the drink itself.

The brand idea manifests itself in several adrenaline bursting stories that inspire and motivate people to be the change in their life. It is entertaining, shouts out in the content clutter and reaches the right people.

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Advertising is the quickest and most efficient way to tell a story to a large audience. It translates elaborate strategies into simple, human stories that can strike a chord with people and make them believe in the reason for the brand’s existence.

Advertisements can be as short at 20 seconds, which makes it important to be succinct, clear, emotional and real, so that it resonates with the audience immediately and stays in their memory. It should remind them of a personal connection, scenario or behavior, so that they can relate to the brand, more than its competitors.

P&G "Best Job in the World" resonated with people world over during the Olympics. P&G doesn't have anything to do with the Olympics because it doesn’t make anyone run faster, but it does help the people who help the people who do. It told an honest, emotional story about the relationship between a child and their parent giving millions of people goosebumps and tears, remembering the person who was always there for them.

Advertising is about applying the emotions to the right reasons and communicating the brand benefit beyond functionality.

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Pop-up stores are often a new age manifestation of old-time retail like fairs and bazaars. A Pop-Up can be a way to develop some interest and brand awareness, making some much needed sales, without the risk of long term rental agreements and a fall-out. 

Originally associated locally with the food truck, global brands are creating short-term spaces, tailored specifically to the location as ways to engage their audience, and put a time limit on a purchase. But this time limit moves beyond retail sales events; Pop-Ups elevate the retail experience beyond bricks and mortar and into our growing desire to connect and share. The purchase is almost secondary to the experience.

Kate Spade created a pop-up store for its Saturday Line, in partnership with e-bay, where customers purchased handbags and accessories through tablets and their orders were shipped to their home within an hour.