3. BRAND IDENTITY
What is the brand’s particular vision and aim?
What makes it different?
What need is the brand fulfilling?
4. BRAND IDENTITY
What is its permanent nature?
What are its value/values?
What are the signs that make it recognisable?
5. What Is Brand Identity?
“Brand Identity helps to define how the
company plans to leverage its brand in
order to
Reach its corporate vision,
Uphold its corporate values and
Achieve its corporate mission…
“It forces senior management to reach
consensus on longer-term growth
objectives and stake out where that
growth could and should come from.”
1.42
--Scott Davis, Brand Asset Management, 2000 p. 38-39
4
6. Why Brand Identity?
“The more meaningful people find
your marketing, the more they’ll be
willing to pay for your stuff, and the
more loyal they’ll become to your
brand. They’ll make more of an
investment in your brand
emotionally, and they’ll be more
motivated to choose it and spread
the word about it.”
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7. Internal Culture
& Values
Note: Kapferer puts
“Relationship” here
Capabilities
Note: Kapferer calls this
“Physique”
Personality
Noble Purpose
Note: Kapferer puts
“Reflection” here
Shared Values &
Community
Note: Kapferer puts
“Culture” here
Aspirational
Self-Image
Brand Identity Prism - Elements
Adapted from the ‘Brand Identity Prism’ by Jean-Noel Kapferer, The New Strategic Brand Management, 2012, p.156
Rallying Cry
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8. SIX FACETS OF IDENTITY
Physique: physical qualities and tangible added values
Personality: The way it speaks of its products or services shows
what kind of person it would be if it were human
Self-image: The customer’s own internal mirror
9. SIX FACETS OF IDENTITY
Culture: The set of values feeding the brand’s inspiration
Relationship: The brand endeavors to share with its customers
Reflection: The perceived client type
10. This element answers the question: What do we do?
Many brands have problems with their physical facet because their
functional added value is weak. Even an image-based brand must
deliver material benefits. We focus on capabilities, which are about the
brand’s value-added.
Example: Foster Farms Frozen Cooked Chicken
2 1.9 9
Prism Element: Capabilities
Capabilities:
• Chicken – Highest quality
• Cooking – Making perfectly cooked chicken
• Resource – Helping you make successful
dinners
11. This element answers the question: Who are we?
Strong brands are built on a strong culture and a clear set of shared values.
• Brand’s core beliefs and way of operating.
• Unwavering, and and uncompromising.
According to Kapferer: “The cultural facet of brands’ identity underlines that
brands are engaged in an ideological competition.”
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Prism Element: Internal Culture & Values
Example: Nike
Nike champions ‘solo willpower’ with a
dose of optimism, and addresses a
major sociological insight:
Millions of people in the world
today know that they can count
only on themselves.
12. This element answers the question: Why do we exist?
Strong brands are a vision of the world. The idea of ‘Being of Service’
underlies this facet of the Brand Identity prism. It is meant to be motivating
to employees, and important to customers and other external stakeholders.
Noble Purpose refers to the larger goal or cause the brand aspires to serve.
It is about the brand’s ambition -- what the brand wants to change in
peoples’ lives; how it aims to make their lives better.
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Prism Element: Noble Purpose
The Usual Suspects
• Patagonia
• Body Shop
• Ben & Jerry
• Newman’s Own
Newcomers
• TOMS
• Innocent
Examples:
Surprising Addition?
• P&G
13. Source: Jennifer Aaker
2 1.12 12
This element answers the question: How do we deliver?
Some brands are incredibly earnest, others are super smart. By
communicating their personality, brands build character. Consumers identify
with the brand’s personality or project themselves into it.
Prism Element: Brand Personality
14. This element answers the question: What do
we have in common?
Brand loyalty provides a sense of belonging.
Whether it’s formal or grassroots, that
connection provides a powerful bond and source
of distinction.
Example: Harley Davidson’s creation of a brand
community was central to its turnaround
• Created a group of ardent consumers organized
around the lifestyle, activities, and ethos of the
brand
• Retooled every aspect of the organization—from its
culture to its operating procedures and governance
structure—to drive its community strategy.
• Made Harley into one motorcycle manufacturer that
understood bikers on their own terms.
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Prism Element: Shared Values & Community
“Shared value suggests that
profits that are imbued with a
social purpose can enable
companies to grow while
advancing society. It frames the
enterprise mission and
objectives in a new way. All
profits are not equal. Those that
advance society are better, and
those that detract from society
are inferior.”
-- David Aaker, “Creating
Shared Value vs. Leveraged
Social Programs”, Harvard
Business Review, 6.30.11
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/06/c
reating_shared_value_vs_lever.
html
15. 1.14 14
Prism Element: Aspirational Self-Image
This element answers the question: What do
customers want their use of the brand to say
about them?
• Repeated use and reliance on a brand
demonstrates its value to the user.
• Brand loyalty provides an emotional or self-
expressive benefit.
• Use of the brand tells others something about the
user, and it tells the user something about
her/himself.
Example: Lacoste
• Users see themselves as members of a chic sports
club – an open club with no race, sex or age
discrimination, but which endows its members with
distinction.
• This works because sport is universal.
16. This element answers the question: what does all this add up to?
The Rallying Cry is 3-5 word shorthand encapsulation of your brand
identity.
• Defines the category of business for the brand, sets boundaries and
clarifies what is unique.
• Should be memorable, crisp and vivid.
• Stakes out ground that is personally meaningful and relevant to
employees.
• Not an advertising slogan, and, in most cases, not used publicly.
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Prism Element: Rallying Cry
Emotional
Modifier
Descriptive
Modifier
Brand
Category/Industry
+ +
17. Disney: Fun Family Entertainment
http://youtu.be/MAE_OgMrkaQ
Ritz-Carlton: Ladies & Gentlemen Serving
Ladies & Gentlemen
http://youtu.be/AANS1QlS6kQ
BMW: Ultimate Driving Machine
http://youtu.be/NJ81ivxPl20
Betty Crocker: Homemade Made Easy
http://youtu.be/qm-_TIE2w2Q
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Rallying Cry - Examples
Emotional
Modifier
Descriptive
Modifier
Brand
Category/
Industry
+ +
Most powerful when it articulates the DNA
of a company and is used as a
touchstone or North Star when making
difficult decisions e.g., about business
strategy, crisis management, acquisitions,
new product introductions.
21. Physical product
Sports and
fitness
Personality
Traditional, Conser-
vative, Collective
Culture
European
Traditional
Self-Image
Relates more to
competing than to
winning
Reflection
True sportsmanship
Strong work ethic
A good team player
Relation
Quality and
Heritage
Brand Identity Prism - Adidas
25. SOURCES OF IDENTITY
The brand’s typical products
The power of brand names
Brand characters
Visual symbols and logotypes
Geographical and historical roots
The brand’s creator
Advertising: content and form
