First lecture - Branding:

In the first part of my Wednesday lesson I was introduced to branding through a lecture which taught me about key ways to sustaining a business and how to create a brand, what branding is about and what comes under the branding umbrella. I learnt about bread and butter designs which are a staple product that appeals to the larger market to create a continuous cash flow for the business and allow enough money for innovation in other products which may not appeal to everyone.

I also learnt about triggers which are things that remind you of a brand and reinforce a brands image such as; logo, colour, shape, letters, images, swing tags, signage, staff presentation, packaging and scent. Some of these triggers are emotional touch points which is people customers associate with the brand like store staff, and the personal experience of the staff and how the brand treats them. Each emotional touch point should reinforce the brand in a positive way. I was shown A and F as a case study as there is a clear strong brand image put forward by this company but in some peoples opinion, the brand doesn't always take as much care with it's emotional touch point through staff by treating them well as they would like.

Our second case study to look at was Louis Vuitton and with this brand we first learnt about the brand pyramid. 

The levels of a brand pyramid are; personality, values, emotional benefits, physical benefits, attributes, positioning and essences. After I learnt about the branding pyramid we went through a serious of photos of products and endorsements to decide which products were on brand or off brand and I was surprised by the amount of tacky things assosiated to the traditional Louis Vuitton print which has in fact been the victim of a large amount of counterfeit material produced and sold on the black market. This was obviously an off putting factor for the rock clients of Louis Vuitton as the brand started to loose it's exclusivity and classic polished brand image. After looking into how Louis Vuitton started to loose they're brands edge we were shown how it was once again revived through advertisements and new campaigns. Although in Louis Vuittons 2009/10 move towards discreet luxury, craftsmanship campaign they got into trouble for suggesting they're bags were hand stitched, rather than hand finished, by the ASA. 

The third and final brand case study I was shown as about Pierre Cardin and how the brand over saturated the market and lost customer confidence creating logo fatigue along the way, I was also shown two essays written about Pierre Cardin and logo fatigue called 'Valuing a diluted brand - Pierre Cardin' and 'Has logo fatigue reached it's tipping point?' 

We later returned to the Louis Vuitton case study, where we looked at evolving brand DNA where Louis Vuitton used new associations and collaborations to help them regain control of they're brand image, going into art exhibitions and other markets than the fashion industry. The brand then made it's products less easy to copy.