Week 4 - Brand, Marketing Campaign and Design Style

By CRAIG KUNCE

Group Directions - In Class

  • The instructor will present Brand, Concept and Style
  • As a Group, get one actual product example from the classroom sample cabinet/bins
  • Define the brand being communicated
  • Define the target audience being targeted (Sex, age, income, married, children, hobbies, interests)
  • Define the marketing campaign being used in your design sample
  • Define the design style being used in your design sample
  • What would you change? (What works?, what doesn't?)
  • Each group will present their findings to the class, (approx. 10 minutes per group)
  • Include some type, but mostly art in your presentation
  • All group members must speak
  • Be creative. Educate us and entertain us!
  • Other groups will take notes to compare and contrast findings

Brand

The brand is consistent and usually never changes.

The brand is simply: what people think about when they think of your company.

What do you think about when you think of Subway? Fresh sub sandwiches? Eat Fresh? Jared? Kids meals? All are correct answers, depending on your opinions of Subway. However, Subway hopes that one fits you and your lifestyle—especially Eat Fresh!

Marketing Campaigns

The consistent brand directs each different marketing campaign.

Marketing campaigns can change and often do in order to target specific target markets. The marketing campaign can be, and often is, the company's brand.

Here are several marketing campaigns Subway has used to reach different target markets :

Design Style

The brand and marketing campaign direct the design style.

What will your message look like? Everything you design fits the brand and marketing campaign—the typefaces, art, photography, colors, patterns, layouts, borders, etc.

Design style focuses on appropriateness. Meaning, is the design style appropriate to deliver the brand or marketing campaign's message to the target market?

Examples: If you really like drawing anime, and your client sells anime comic books, your design style will be a good fit. However, some designers can't break-away from their own passions and will design a web site for a drive-in hamburger restaurant using their beloved anime style—a horrible idea and a poor fit for their client.

We must be flexible as deisngers and think of our clients needs. All seasoned graphic designers have the ability to design in many different styles, and they have an inventory of skills to serve their client's needs—not just their own artistic needs.

Remember that a graphic designer works for someone else (the client). It is important to design for their needs. message and target market (customers).

Samples

I believe that there are too many design styles to list and categorize each one—and then follow that style somewhat blindly. Instead, I challenge you to focus on your client's message and/or brand and design using a style that is appropriate for them and their customers.

Simply put: Does the design style look like it goes with your client's message and customers?

If I visit a bank's web site, I should say to myself, "this looks like a bank should look." (it is appropriate). If I visit a skateboarding store's site, it should look like a skateboarding site.

Here are some examples to demonstrate brand, marketing campaign and design style?

(Subway):

 

Subway brand

BRAND: Subway's brand is Fresh alternative to fast food (Eat Fresh!)
Marketing Campaign: Same as the brand
Design Style: Fresh veggies, photos of fresh subs and food (notice the chips are in the back)

 

Subway Jared

BRAND: Fresh alternative to fast food (Eat Fresh!)
Marketing Campaign: People interested in a healthy lifestyle and weightloss with their long-running spokesperson Jared
Design Style: Fresh veggies and healthy and successfully thinner Jared with his old pants. Green tab looks like a dietitians file/guidelines.

 

Subway kids

BRAND: Fresh alternative to fast food (Eat Fresh!)
Marketing Campaign: Subway Kids. They have their own web site and lots of fun and interactive areas to involve them in the Subway kids brand experience. This site is Flash-based and "cooler" that the basic HTML-based Subway web site for older adults (grow ups this way).
Design Style: Interactive, Flash-based site that looks like a media player, colorful, no pictures of broccoli or brussel sprouts, avatar drawings of kids dressed like today's kids, and cooler type.

Note that the brand is still intact. It is still influencing the marketing campaign and style. The Subway logo is still used. The green and gold colors are the same. The wheel on the left reflects the brand with categories including information about the food and healthy activities.

More Style Samples

 

rudolphs

BRAND: 1920s "casanova" Rudolph Valentino themed bbq ribs restaurant with custom sauces
Marketing Campaign: Reinforce the brand image—1920s era themed silent movies/actors
Design Style: 1920s design elements—b/w, borders, wall paper, typefaces

 

johnny rocketts

BRAND: 1950s malt shop themed fast-food restaurant
Marketing Campaign: Reinforce the brand image—1950s era themed malt shop
Design Style: 1920s design elements—neon signs and lettering, bold colors, fried food, with an updated menu (salad). The Flash movie playing on the web site harkens back to the 50s drive-in movie short films that played during intermission.