All the way from Egypt
Livestock branding has been around for quite a long time. The idea was that if I had a cow, I would burn a symbol onto her to mark her as mine so that if anyone were to steal my precious Belle (I named her), everyone would see the symbol and know that she belonged to me. Well, in terms of marketing, branding isn’t all that different from our bovine friend’s situation. Companies want to set themselves apart from the rest of the competition, branding themselves a certain way to consumers to create a particular image, a perception, a promise.
The ingredients for a branding cake
Creating a brand is similar to cooking a lovely meal; a series of steps that look and sound ever so easy on paper yet always turn out to be harder than Jamie Oliver promised them to be. Branding isn’t as simple as ticking off from your shopping list, it’s an identity that will represent the soul of the company. Brands aren’t static either, they change as cultures and technology evolves; different stances and opinions are taken in adverts; different colour schemes reflect new internal leadership; different slogans prophesy a new direction.
When one mentions a company, certain aspects spring to mind as our brains associate the moniker with the appropriate visuals, just like when we imagine a face as we hear their name pop up in conversation. Before we get to the visuals, an entity’s name can skew a consumer’s perception of the company: Nike, in Greek mythology, is the goddess of victory which connotates that their products bring gold medals. Many companies find their name from their owners or founders which overtime, through branding, gains its own meaning: Disney is simply a surname which now carries a lot of importance to a lot of people.
Accompanying the name is the logo, a visual representation that is meant to convey a whole company’s ideologies in a single glance. Take Amazon; the name originally carried no meaning as the founders had no idea what it was they were going to sell, yet the logo contains the arrow starting from the ‘a’ and ending at the ‘z’: “Here at Amazon, we sell everything from A to Z.” The positioning of the orange line and the bend in the ‘z’ also forms a smile creating a positive and friendly image to consumers.
Our logo utilises orange, a colour generally associated with creativity and friendliness
Logos aren’t just a sum of shapes, words, and their positioning but also the colour scheme used. Colour psychology is an in-depth topic but to summarise, different colours represent different feelings, emotions, and ideas. Red can convey a sense of love and romance while it is also the colour of blood, representing anger, war, and bloodshed. Logos aren’t films; a logo is only given a brief second to fill its viewer with an emotion giving the colours more ‘basic’ and ‘universal’ meanings: orange connotates friendliness, green for peaceful, purple for creativity (yes, there are obviously exceptions. When isn’t there?).
Case studies
Let’s take one of the powerhouses of branding and marketing, McDonald’s. Even though the fast-food chain has franchised all the way across the globe and back, they still feel homey, as if they will always be your friend. Firstly, their logo is the golden arches, a simple curved ‘M’ which used to be used in their establishments but what is more important is the bright colour; a yellow that screams optimism, hope, happiness. Their slogan is also simple yet catchy, a statement which everyone knows and, after years of advertising, knows exactly how to say it (with the classic jingle preceding it).
Funny, friendly, and flowing; all adding to the brand’s image.
Speaking of adverts, McDonald’s have released commercial after commercial, each time enforcing their branding, ethos, and style. Not every ad is the same, but most come with a light-hearted touch; a friendly outlook to keep the happy and friendly image alive in the minds of the consumers. The variation of their classic green and yellow end slate, the choice of music in the commercials, the balance between advertising a product or the brand itself; the burger giant has created a personality which may not exist physically, yet is lying in wait in all our minds until the moment we mention the Scottish name.
Pavi Pama released a series of adverts which, although having different narratives, follow the same thread and ideologies. The slogan “Kullħadd Jaf” (“Everybody Knows”) emphasizes the idea that as a consumer, the obvious place to shop is Pavi or Pama. The colours used in the logo are a rich and dependable blue, backed by a comforting and peaceful green. The adverts need to reflect all this as branding isn’t being used to sub-consciously stick within the viewer, but directly attract their attention to the company.
By focusing on the brand and its slogan, the viewer will now have a personality alongside the name.
When producing the adverts, we created a concept that not only pushed the idea that everyone knows that Pavi and Pama are the places to go for that weekly shop but can also be revisited in the future. The commercials show a dependability: the editing is natural instead of rhythmic, the music is soft and classical, yet they each bring a slight level of humour into the mix creating an approachability to the brand. By creating a consistent message and meaning, consumers begin to associate the company with the image you give them. In a world full of brands and conglomerates, having an image tied to your name can be that extra push setting you apart from the rest of the competition.
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