SO, WHAT IS A BRAND?

“If you want to differentiate yourself from your competitor, you have to find a way of talking about yourself with an emotional context, and which creates a contact between you and them. That’s what a brand does.” – Wally Olins

That was one of the questions on a Tuesday `s lecture. You recognize your favorite brand by its name, or logo, or its colors or even its main star product, but is a brand only that to you or is it its meaning, values, actions and promises that you love and support about your favorite brand? It honestly got me thinking, what is my number one brand, the one I have connection with, to which I trust and always come back to. I honestly didn’t know. Because I, and maybe a lot of people, don’t think about that actually, until they come across so, what is a brand? The first thing they think is where they shop the mostly, and what products they like more than the ones from other brand, or which products their bathroom or closet contains more then the other ones? Or at least I had those, and many more questions when I read that question on a Tuesday morning.

I think that a word brand should not be so formal, that the first thing you think is the product, is should be more to it. Whether it is a makeup brand, food brand, clothes brand, car brand, if people have trust and bond with it, they will always come back to it, as well as recommend it to their friends and family.

A v+brand should be a place, either luxurious and elegant or quirky and intriguing, but always energizing and encouraging with being fashion – forward, and of course soothing and inviting for people to linger. It should also have the right atmosphere, visual or not so visual, and give people experience to make them want to stay longer and leave with a good memory.

`Commerce, content and community´ - Simon Mottram, Rapha

“We open stores where we want to hang out” – Acne