31 October 2016
Chances are, if I list a simple series of colours and ask you to think of something you can buy that matches each colour, you’ll probably have no problem at all – Purple = Cadbury’s chocolate; red = Coca Cola; green and yellow = Subway, and the list goes on.
Colour is one element in an important array of attributes that make up your brand assets – but the tactics for building a strong brand are more than just picking a colour.
Unpacking what it takes to build and keep a strong brand identity, UniSA Professor Jenni Romaniuk will present the second in UniSA’s Enterprising Partnerships lecture series Building Brand Identity on November 1 at the Allan Scott auditorium, Hawke Building City West campus.
Prof Romaniuk says her lecture will give the audience, not only an insight into what constitutes distinctive brand assets, but practical metrics to assess the strength of a brand asset.
“Brand assets can be anything from a logo or jingle, right through to the colours used on a product or to represent an organisation, and even the people or characters that represent the brand,” she says.
“And the more we learn about neuroscience and human psychology, the more we realise that brand building is a sophisticated business, and easily derailed by poor (even if well-intended) decisions.
“Colours may be strongly associated with a certain kind of product but if all products in that category use the same kinds of colours, you have to decide how you will distinguish your brand so it is easily identified. However, there are many challenges.
“For example, launching a new range of pasta sauce, should you choose green and red packaging because those are the most common colours for packaging pasta? While this might make it easier to identify as a pasta sauce, it could also make it difficult to stand out from other, better established brands.”
And it is not just colour that can set a brand apart, Prof Romaniuk says, shapes, logos, jingles, characters all have a role to play – indeed one of the big challenges is selecting smartly from the vast array of possibilities.
The seminar delves into the best criteria for making these decisions.
“Your brand assets should make your brand easier to find and buy than the competition,” she says.
“One of the challenges for marketers is to get a clear perspective on the value of their brand assets.
“You can be very close to the products or businesses you are marketing and not have the objective perspective you need to argue a case for change or the status quo.
“Our research has defined a tool to deliver good metrics to measure brand identity and at this lecture I want to explore some of the common mistakes people make when handling their brand assets and some of the quick wins that can be made by having a sensible strategy in place.”
She says measurement is essential for one of two critical areas: selection of distinctive brand assets and the execution of promotion around those assets.
“A successful brand identity is about 30 per cent smart and around 70 per cent smart execution,” Prof Romaniuk says.
“We have learnt that building strong brands is both an art and a science – it is where creativity and science meet which is why marketing is such a challenging and rewarding career and a truly fascinating area of research.”
The lecture, Building brand identity, More than just a logo? The building blocks for a strong brand identity, will be held on Tuesday November 1, from 8.30 am, Allan Scott Auditorium, Hawke Building, UniSA City West Campus, 53 North Terrace
Adelaide.
The Enterprising Partnerships lecture series showcases the vital partnerships that UniSA’s top thought leaders have with the end-users of their research and highlights the economic and societal impact of research that is inspired by real-world challenges.
Media contact: Michèle Nardelli mobile: +61 418 823 673 email: michele.nardelli@unisa.edu.au
