Since ancient times in order to leave a mark, people have branded their livestock, their property, even their slaves. Today, we don’t brand our belongings, except possibly livestock as they did in days gone by. But the principle of branding can be applied to today’s products, in the way that branding is designed to make a mark, or an impact. So when structuring a brand or remaking one it is important to develop a characterisation, so as to illustrate its uniqueness; because like a brand on a hide, the brand of a company needs to be recognisable.  Look at some of the world’s famous brands and you will see how their identity is recognised not just by its name but by its logo or its trademark. COCA COLA – MICHELLIN,   ICI – APPLE, ORANGE – BT – MICROSOFT all are good examples of combination logos and names.

How can this work for you?

However, in the case of Orange and Apple, the name is not even relevant to the product, on first glance you would think it is a fruit, but careful branding designates it as something else.

Consider, this you are the C.E.O. of Orange Telecoms – and you need a new brand, what do you do? You already know that Apple use an apple as part of their identity, so an orange logo is not such a good idea, but the colour orange, that is another facet. Which is exactly what Orange did, the brand they created was simply the colour orange and from that idea they were able to colour the world Orange; which as a global operator of telecoms was a pretty shrewd way of saying we have arrived.

Branding is a science; it is not just about a design, it is about the identity of that design and how it can affect the product, the wrong branding can adversely affect the product, because if the brand isn’t strong enough or sharp enough it won’t be seen and if it’s not seen then nobody buys the product. Once the brand is in place, then the creativity can kick in, and the design can be incorporated so it can be creatively used to develop not just the brand but the strategy of the product.