Have you ever wondered about the lifespan of a brand? Do they all last the same? Or they swing from ‘a flash in the pan’ time span and ‘they lived on and on’? Does the principle of ‘well-begun is half-done’ hold true here? A close look at the history of branding makes it crystal clear: most brands fail. Reports suggest that 96% of businesses fail within 10 years of inception. Disheartening it may sound, but the way forward need not be!

Can we draw up a list of do’s and don’ts to ensure your brand succeeds? Is it about time? Or space? Omission or commission? Claim and performance are what finally lead to your brand image. A strong brand will go a long way to help you conquer the highs and lows of the market, the changing industry regulations, the frequent technological advances, and the fluctuating demands of customers.

Here are 7 branding pitfalls to avoid, especially if you are in the F&B industry:

1. Lacking a clear brand promise: Brands that lack brand promise weaken their standing. Since the relationship between brand and customer is based on trust, sticking to your brand promise is important for establishing a pact with them that ensures consistent service. But most of all, it should be kept – every time. The brand promise is paramount in all dealings with the customer, delivering on all touch points: who you are, what you do and also how you are different from others. McDonald’s is a successful brand today because it delivers on its brand promise: when customers see the Golden Arches, they know they can expect simple food with great service and value.

2. Not differentiating your brand: In the competitive F&B domain, being unique is imperative. Ensure that you are able to project the real differentiation beyond your product offering: highlight strengths that are unique to your brand and the special services you offer. A constant reinvention, recharging, revitalisation will go a long way in setting your business apart. Wine manufacturer Sula scores high on differentiation; consumers can enjoy a trip through the vineyards, visit the winery, and set a peek into the winemaking process.  

3. Blindly following trends: Trending is the name of the game today, and our attention is constantly entrapped by a hashtag, an Instagram story and the like. What is important to remember is that these waves come and go. But none of them are permanent, none last forever. Focus your energy on crafting your own unique story and tell it your way, regardless of what everyone else is doing. With revenue in chocolate spreads amounting to $2,121 million in 2018, if you are targeting the health-conscious customer with low-fat, low-sugar waffles, it won’t be a good idea to showcase your product with high-calorie chocolate spreads in your advertisements.

4. Not staying relevant: Like time and tide, the fast pace of the industry waits for no one. Would that mean your brand has to embrace every new technology or social media platform? No, certainly not! The goal for any brand should be relevance — and in order to remain relevant, you must be nimble, dynamic and aware of current trends. If you have the ability to evolve alongside the shifting perceptions of your customers, industry trends and technology advances or risk, the chance of becoming irrelevant is unlikely. With the demand for vegan and vegetarian food increasing, it might make sense for restaurants to offer organic and ‘farm-to-table’ items on the menu and meet the needs of customers trying to include more vegan food into their meals.

5. Not focusing on core values: A rock-solid company culture backed by a brand’s core values will ensure internal misalignment, which can be a common and major problem, never arises. If your brand is misaligned internally, your frontline employees will not relate to or believe in your brand’s purpose. The result will be a pattern of poor behavior will affect customer experience, which in turn will affect the company’s bottom line. AMUL’s strategy of branding through advertising and campaigns have helped them establish a strong place in peoples’ minds – founded in 1946, the brand still sticks to its core values.

6. Not telling an effective branding story: With a plethora of marketing and advertising campaigns flooding the market and staring the customer in the face, it is important to be able to rise above the commonplace! Your brand can either be part of the white noise that constitutes the background of your customers’ experience, or you can command their attention with a brand story that is relevant, meaningful, compelling and unique. Of immense importance is that your brand story articulates your brand vision clearly.

7. Not thinking glocally: The world is more and more diverse, and ignorance or ethnocentricity should never become your bane. The best way to welcome customers from myriad backgrounds is to use branding techniques that all your customers can relate to. Practice cultural sensitivity, be inclusive, respect feedback from all and do you research when venturing into unknown territories. As consumers become more and more finicky about where their food comes from, Dunkin’ Donuts franchisees source their own supplies, subject to compliance with the brand’s specifications.

Branding Tips for Success

Each year, there are a variety of opportunities for growing F&B companies to excel. But staying on top of changing customer needs, designing new packaging, and employing the latest technology is essential in a competitive marketplace. No matter how big or small your brand is, building a credible identity is essential as it is one of the first steps along the path to success. Ensuring you have clarity of the basics will allow you to steer clear of avoidable errors and take a significant amount of stress out. The value of a good brand is quite simply, beyond measure. So, make sure to avoid these pitfalls and witness your brand’s success all along.

Looking for help on branding your F&B business? Write to us at info@lokusdesign.com.

Your business plans are in place, the product is taking shape nicely, the top management is champing at the bit, especially the sales and marketing folks are eager to start talking about what you have to offer. Except there’s one thing missing – the perfect name for your brand. The name you choose can either emphasize the value you espouse or distance you from it. A good name is critical both from business and branding perspectives. Do you know? Google was launched as BackRub in 1996. “Google it” has become a common verb now, we can’t even imagine the alternative! Clearly, there’s a lot in a name!

Different Types of Brand Names

Coining a name for your brand is not easy. If you want to name your brand after something common in the English language, chances are you’re no longer left with much choice. However, there are other options:

• Use the founder’s name (Tata)
• Describe what you do (Bharat Petroleum)
• Choose a lexical name that includes puns, compound words or phrases (Dunkin’ Donuts)
• Use an acronym (AMUL)
• Just make up a word (Xerox)
• Use an evocative name that doesn’t map literally but metamorphically (Nike)
• Or take a word out of context and hope it resonates with the world (Apple).

But what goes into this decision when there are no easy options?

Points to Consider:

With millions of brands springing to life every day across the world, the process of coining a name for your brand is becoming more challenging, to say the least. In a web-driven world, reports suggest that there are over 860 million domain names registered worldwide, and some experts believe that over 99.9% of words from the English dictionary are already registered – what names are you left with then? Here are some points to consider.

1. The brand name should align with the overall brand identity and personality. There’s no denying that coining the perfect name is a daunting task. After all, the name needs to perfectly represent your vision, your brand’s purpose, and culture – and all this has to be done in just one or two words!

2. The brand name should be easy to understand and relate to for the target customer/ markets. The name you choose should make sense to the largest slice of customers you are looking to address. And, the name you build must be relevant to all the customers you define.

• Is your brand name easy to recall?
• How many times do you have to hear it before you remember it?
• What does the word look like in print? Does it look as good as it sounds?

Do you know? When the founder of Sony Corporation – Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo – decided to use the acronym Totsuko for his company, he realized Americans had a tough time pronouncing the name. That’s when the name Sony was chosen – a mix of the words sonus or sound and sonny or a slang used to describe a young boy, which the founder considered himself to be.

3. The brand name should be unique, ownable, and a correct fit in its product categories.

• Does it fit across product categories while telling its own unique story to consumers?
• Is it unique and ownable in its categories? Does it generate a fair amount of curiosity?

4. The brand name should be good to sound/ good to say. Remember – you have only one chance to make a really good first impression. Stick to shorter words with fewer syllables and a catchy flow. These are more likely to gain traction with your target audience.

• Does your name sound good over the phone and in person?
• When you say the name aloud, do you think it will echo for years to come?
• Is there a chance the name will be mispronounced or misspelled?

5. While choosing a name that’s unique, easy to pronounce, good to hear etc. is important, what’s just as important is for your brand name to comply with the various applicable IPR laws and legal mandates.

• Research the applicable laws and mandates for your type of company and the geography you operate in. You don’t want to sound like another brand or to convey something objectionable in a part of the world that may be crucial for your business.
• Ensure compliance to protect your reputation, image and brand identity.

Final Thoughts

When Shakespeare said, “A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet,” he was probably unaware of the branding impact a poor name would have. Today a strong, memorable brand name that rings with the inner “purpose” of the brand has become the essential first step in establishing the identity of the brand. The pitfalls of picking an inapt name are many. If confusion is the first reaction your name evokes then you’re in a bad place. The right name sets the stage for the customer’s resonance with the values of the brand and all that it represents. The right name conveys to the right customers, who you are, what you do, and where you fit (or don’t fit) in their life. Naming your brand is that key element of your strategy that can define the future trajectory of your business. And no amount of name-calling will change that!

Looking for help on naming your brand? Write to us at info@lokusdesign.com.

~Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself~ Coco Chanel

Trends come and go, the weather changes from sunny to snow, time changes from 1 to 4, but the one thing that never changes is the desire to be beautiful. Brands in the booming personal care space have to constantly innovate in order to offer beautiful products to make people look and feel beautiful. Staying relevant and offering products that meet the needs of consumers has always been in style. And no, you do not need Jennifer Lawrence or Aishwarya Rai to endorse your brand to succeed; all you need is to follow certain best practices – practices that you believe in, practices that support your brand’s purpose. Do that and see how your brand shines.

The evidence of their eyes

Nobody will believe that you can make them look great if your own product doesn’t look the part too. We live in an ever-increasingly visual world. Use every opportunity to broadcast your belief in the inner beauty of your product across people’s consciousness. They must know that whatever you’re offering is true to your brand’s purpose, that you have the expertise to do it and that your efforts are born out of a genuine desire to make consumers look better and feel better. Johnson & Johnson, with its “So Much More” global campaign, is “paving the way in baby care by advancing research on the importance of multi-sensorial experiences in happy, healthy baby development; it aims to enhance bath time rituals to stimulate baby’s senses and provide parents an opportunity to nurture baby’s ability to learn, think, love and grow”. J & J cares, and their consumers know it.

But natural (and organic)

The global natural and organic personal care market has been growing at a rapid pace; Persistence Market Research projects it to be valued at $21 billion by the end of 2024. Consumers are driving a clear trend toward sustainable living that includes buying local, organic products, with a passion for authenticity. Personal care brands that use chemicals and adulterated ingredients fast falling out of fashion. Consumers today are choosing products that are aligned with their own values. They seek information on the origin of products, what the environmental impact is, and who they are buying from. In India, Forest Essentials, a traditional personal care brand, maintains the highest standards of purity, authenticity, and quality as each product is handmade using traditional methods. The discerning consumer buys into that vision too.

But Stay Simple

The greatest brands are often the simplest to understand and appreciate. These are brands that are easy to use and that make consumer’s lives easier. Achieving success with your personal care brand doesn’t require you to use complex or elaborate branding techniques. What you need is simplicity. It is simplicity that brings clarity. The idea is to make simple promises and deliver on them. Align your customer experience with your messaging for real impact. Take Dove’s promise for example. Dove is helping 40 million people build self-esteem and positive body confidence. They unambiguously say, “Dove believes that beauty is not one dimensional; it is not defined by your age, the shape or size of your body, the color of your skin or your hair – it’s feeling like the best version of yourself. Authentic. Unique. Real.” As an aside, that message could apply to brands too!

Package it Right

Packaging your product carefully is essential to put the right message across. This is the vehicle for all that you want to convey about the brand. The signs, symbols, colors, shapes, and even textures should convey the intended message – a message that resonates with the consumer. Your packaging should convey and emphasize your core values and purpose. Pick a method of packaging that is reflective of what your brand is about. The Body Shop’s latest packaging aligns with its ambition to be the world’s most ethical and sustainable business; 58% of its packaging is sourced from non-fossil fuel derived materials and all of the company’s clear plastic bottles are made with 25% recycled materials.

Get Social

You might be creating beautiful products, but are you showcasing them to your audience in their medium of choice? In a world of Facebook and Instagram and online shopping, people are hungry for new experiences, and products that make them feel great about themselves. Make the most of social media – share your product story, the reason for building the product, your efforts in creating the product, the techniques used and the benefits it will offer to the consumer. A carefully crafted social media campaign will allow you to connect with your audience in a place they consider “personal”! And if you are lucky, they might even share their positive experiences on social media. Nivea, for instance, is very hands-on when it comes to social media marketing; they actively reach out to people tweeting about skin problems and offer tips and product suggestions that will help overcome their problems. Isn’t that great?

Experience Unmatched Success

Although a big name and attractive packaging will compel people to try your product once, but for them to become brand loyalists, they need to love what they buy. In an ever-increasing competitive environment, you need to make sure you are standing out from the crowd; create a memorable and appealing brand that is true to your purpose. Get creative; unravel your consumer’s essential needs and drive your branding efforts towards providing real value. Beauty, after all, is not just skin deep; it is a lot more than that!

For more on how your Brand can capitalize on these emerging trends, write to us at info@lokusdesign.com.

The F&B Industry is undergoing a massive transformation. As more and more brands enter the scene, and as new and unique demands of customers rise, there is a growing need for the players in the industry to reinvent themselves. Wider issues like obesity, food-waste, carbon footprint concerns, ethical sourcing, and rising sugar levels have all come into the spotlight and the need for brands to ensure public health has become key considerations. Let’s look at 5 trends that F & B brands need to watch out for in 2018:

1. Healthy Alternatives: As health concerns rise across the world, 2018 will see F&B brands making health their top most priority. Brands will make headway in incorporating holistic health and wellness into their products and ensure their products are healthy and nutritious. With consumers seeking natural, wholesome, guilt-free, great-tasting products that ensure healthy indulgence, lactose-free and gluten-free products will become increasingly popular. In a bid to go healthy, Coca-Cola has been cutting sugars in their drinks by almost 30%. Pizza Hut aims to eliminate MSG and added trans-fats from their menu wherever possible.
2. Minimal Processing: As health concerns emerge, consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental and health implications of eating too much red meat, salt and sugar – the global sugar consumption in 2016 was a whopping 180 million metric tonnes. Brands that deliver high quality, no-preservative, low-processed foods in their most natural form stand to make it big in 2018. Organic products, cultured meat, natural and clean products, and plant-based alternatives will become preferred healthy options for millennials. The worldwide market for organic food & beverages could cross $200 billion by 2020. Kraft, which had been using artificial colours and flavours in its iconic Mac and Cheese quietly rolled out its newly formulated product with no artificial preservatives, flavours or dyes. Hershey is in the process of removing genetically modified beet sugar from its chocolates and switching to cane sugar instead.
3. Veganism: Personal health, climate change, animal welfare, and carbon footprint concerns are all pushing the world towards vegetarianism and veganism. As people become more aware of healthy and ethical lifestyle choices, several popular food brands are now entering the vegan space in order to meet the needs of the growing vegan population. In the coming years, red meat may no longer be the star of the plate; instead, beans on a bed of quinoa could be the swanky new ingredient at every restaurant. 2018 will see the F&B brands that offer egg substitutes, vegetarian meat, almond milk, tofu desserts, coconut yogurt, and vegan butter rising in popularity. Food Delivery service Just Eat surveyed 20 million deliveries and reported that the demand for vegan and vegetarian food had increased by 987% in 2017. And nearly 40% of dairy style products now contain vegan alternatives.
4. Local sourcing: As consumers become more aware of their food preferences and the impact sourcing has on the environment, local or sustainable sourcing are becoming popular movements. Trends such as “farm-to-fork” and “stem to root” are gaining immense popularity for they support local sourcing and help reduce food waste. 2018 will see brands that place value on sustainability and transparency, and that support local produce becoming more and more sought-after. For selling Snickers in India, Mars International is sourcing peanut – one of the main ingredients for the chocolate – from Rajkot. PepsiCo India does contract manufacturing of potatoes in Punjab for its potato chips.
5. Brand Transparency: The highly-aware and Internet-savvy consumer of today is placing immense value on brand transparency – not just in marketing, but also processing and supply chain. According to the Sustainability 2017 report from the Hartman Group, 69% of consumers demand more information about a company’s personal, social, economic, and environmental practices. “Informed and savvy consumers are demanding more from the foods they eat, and some are prioritizing ingredients over brands,” says Andrew Mandzy, Director of Strategic Health and Wellness Insights, Nielsen. The demand for products that are made by brands that care may be just what consumers are looking for this year – brands they can believe in and trust. Brands that are true to the company’s history, values, and attributes, have no secret ingredients and those that feature ethical claims on their packages are going to make it big in 2018. Tesco uses a traceability database that enables consumers to get sourcing information on various chicken, eggs, bakery, and frozen food products. Nestle India is executing a web series titled “From Our Kitchen to Your Kitchen”, where consumers will be invited to learn about products and how they are made.

Supporting Mindfulness

Today’s consumers look for a connection with the foods they eat; they want to know where foods come from, how they have been sourced, and how healthy they are. Mindfulness will be a hot trend in 2018 for it is this body-mind connection that will influence F&B brands to improve the transparency of their products.

These movements present a challenge for brands that have defined their purpose around more superficial values. They will have to look deep within themselves to find that health-oriented purpose or that historic passion for sustainability the brand has always believed in. In order to keep up with the new consumer’s focus on health and sustainability, F&B brands will need to showcase their positive valence and communicate how they can add meaningful value to their suppliers, their employees, and the consumers. It is this Purpose that will make people ally themselves with the brand. The key is, to tell the truth, especially about nutrition, to the conscious consumer.

For more on how your Brand can capitalize on these emerging trends, write to us at info@lokusdesign.com.

2018 is the year of ‘Purpose’. Often confused with Positioning, a brand’s “Purpose”, is simply the reason the brand exists. It provides a clear strategic direction and vision to the business- it helps you see the bigger picture when you are tied down by tactical nitty-gritty of work. It aligns people and processes while making decision making easier/ more intuitive at all levels and functions.

A critical factor related to Purpose is driven by discovering a brand’s reason for being and identifying how the same can be communicated to the brand customers. Take, for example, the ‘Open Your World’ campaign by Heineken. The ads were generally well received but the campaign still faced criticism since the idea of the advertisement were not wedded to what Heineken seemed to stand for. The campaign showed the coming together of people with different views on climate change to feminism to transgender rights over a beer. However, Heineken could be easily replaced with another brand quite legitimately since the campaign was not deeply connected to the visible purpose of the brand itself.

Clearly, it is your brand Purpose that can inspire brand loyalty and enable your audience to engage emotionally with your brand. Given that Purpose has to be born from a place of inner passion, what are the key things that you need to consider while defining it?

1. Purpose, vision, and mission do not mean the same thing

Purpose defines ‘why’ a brand exists. It is the meaning behind a brand’s existence… an idealistic view of what you stand for. Mission, on the other hand, are the quantified steps that a brand needs to take in order to achieve the set goals. It involves fleshing out of initiatives and tactics that help a brand achieve operational excellence, assist product development or define brand communication or go-to-market strategies. ‘Vision’ is the destination of where you want the brand to head in the future. Do not use the three interchangeably.

2. Purpose doesn’t have to be linked to profitability.

Purpose has a higher order of reason than just making a profit. It has to be more than driving shareholder value. For example, a lot of people think that bankruptcy looms large in Tesla’s future. However, the main Purpose of this company is not to make money but to pioneer smart electric cars, build the infrastructure to support them and develop the battery technology not limited to cars. The profit factor here is ancillary… and Tesla is succeeding in the pursuit of its Purpose.

3. The pursuit of something greater than yourself

Jim Stengel, former CMO of Procter and Gamble in his book “Grow” highlights the results of a 10-year study of 50,000 brands and revealed that brands centered around improving people’s lives beat their competition by wider margins. These businesses grew 50 times more than their competitors and an investment in them would be 400 percent more profitable than an investment in the S&P 500. The CEO of Unilever, Keith Weed also stated that some of the highest performing brands in Unilever’s portfolio were those driven by a Purpose that supports a cause that is greater than profitability. In Unilever’s case, that Purpose is of sustainability.

Purpose thus has to be focused on what problems an organization wants to solve, how the pursuit of that change is going to make a difference in the lives of people and where the brand fits in while articulating that change.

4. Does Purpose resonate in everything the organization does?

Purpose has to resonate with everything that an organization does – whether it is externally with its audiences or internally with its employees. A strong sense of Purpose is what attracts the right talent to an organization. A Deloitte survey states that “Millennials would prioritize the sense of Purpose around people rather than growth or profit maximization.” And if you were wondering, Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers also have the same set of motivations. Elon Musk puts across this point as well, “Putting in long hours for a corporation is hard. Putting in long hours for a cause is easy.” As with employees, Purpose also aligns the people of the organization with the processes to make decision-making easier and intuitive across all levels and functions.

5. Does your brand Purpose spell authenticity?

The thing with brand Purpose is that it has to be ‘authentic’. And for it to be authentic and inspiring it has to be true to the brand’s inherent Positive Valence and Values. This can only be achieved if the brand looks inwards to understand why they do what they do, what are its passion points and at the intersection of these two with how the brand can be of service to the world. It is important to discover the reason behind why a brand came into existence and relating that with what the world needs helps with to discover a solid brand Purpose – one that does not get caught in the noise of competitive cacophony and becomes the driving force behind a brand. Unilever, as an example, discovered their brand Purpose by doing an archaeological dig. The brand’s Purpose was fleshed out by William Heskith Lever in the 1890’s with Sunlight “To make cleanliness commonplace; to lessen work for women; to foster health and contribute to personal attractiveness, that life may be more enjoyable and rewarding for the people who use our products”. Today Unilever’s stated Purpose stands at “helping people to look good, feel good, and get more out of life.”

6. Brand Purpose is open to evolution

Everything about an organization, including brand Purpose has to keep itself open to evolution. Purpose has to manifest in everything that a brand does but it has to also focus on remaining relevant with time. The original purpose of Tesla was ‘to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable transport’? It was later updated to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.” The replacement of ‘transport’ with ‘energy’ signaled Tesla’s shift from being an automotive-focused company to becoming a company focused on providing a clean energy ecosystem. Purpose is one, Mission is many.

7. Think of the ‘product’ as a service

In order to manifest the brand Purpose, organizations need to look at their ‘products’ as a ‘service’. Only then can they bring Purpose to life in clear and meaningful ways. Under Armour is a great example of this. Their Purpose is to ‘Empower Athletes Everywhere’. By using technology to create connected fitness experiences such as UA Health box, they are evolving from being just another apparel company to becoming a personal health and fitness guide. By thinking of the product as a service, organizations gain the capability to build and enhance their capabilities and drive this agenda across the board. Think about it. This approach gives companies the opportunity to drive user experiences that stand at the intersection of ‘useful and delightful’. It helps in adding value to people’s lives and helps the brand gain a degree of loyalty that no TV advertisement or campaign can generate.

When a brand thinks through these key points to define its Purpose, they can stand out in a competitive landscape. The “Purpose” they define will help them define their brand personality, the brand attributes, its differentiators, and the brand story in an original, authentic and organic manner… and it has been proven that in the world of copycats only the original and authentic can survive.

For more on this, write to us at info@lokusdesign.com.

Could the current crisis facing Facebook be stemming from the lack of a clearly defined/ understood/ practiced Purpose? It may well be so. Facebook grew because it gave people a platform to connect with one another beyond boundaries. However, Facebook continued to, consciously or unconsciously, position itself as a platform, the best out there yes, but still just a platform. There was no personal or emotional connect that Facebook could forge with their users… simply because they only focused on delivering a functional service and made no attempt at showcasing why they did what they did, something that is essential to create a connect with the brand. As a result, the people on Facebook began to view it as a utility -like their electricity company! Possibly as a direct result of this, Facebook today is easily losing users in the face of the public backlash it is experiencing.

What does Purpose actually mean?

A report by HBR defines purpose as “the aspirational reason for being which inspires and provides a call to action for an organization and its partners and stakeholders and provides benefit to local and global society.”

Purpose is the reason a brand exists. It is the core that drives all organizational decisions and is the reason that drives every call to action. Purpose highlights the inherent, intrinsic, authentic, and inspiring strengths that are fundamental to a brand and helps flesh out the shared values that construct it.

If you take a look around, some of the most successful Brands have always seemed to have a very strong sense of Purpose. Tesla, Amazon, Apple… all companies that we love have a strong sense of Purpose that breeds loyalty and love, even in the face of adversity. Take Apple for example. The company is driven to challenge the status quo by thinking differently. And even though we know that Apple slows down the batteries of older phones, it doesn’t deter us from being loyal to the brand.

Having a strong Brand Purpose matters…

Purpose, clearly, is not a marketing tagline used to influence and impress. Purpose-driven brands have more engaged employees and loyal customers. They manage transformational change better and are better at innovation. And yes, Purpose-driven brands also make more money. But why is this? Rebecca Henderson, the John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard Business School says, “The sense of being part of something greater than yourself can lead to high levels of engagement, high levels of creativity, and the willingness to partner across functional and product boundaries within a company, which are hugely powerful…Once they’re past a certain financial threshold, many people are as motivated by intrinsic meaning and the sense that they are contributing to something worthwhile as much as they are by financial returns or status.”

With a strong brand purpose, organizations can align their products, services, experiences, and offerings to their customers and clearly define their value proposition. It is the reason why within an organization different products, services, the marketing programs, the business units, and extensions are related to and are differentiated from one another. Purpose gives a brand all its meaning and that defines its personality… the traits that a brand would display should it assume a human form. This complex identity that a brand creates, fosters loyalty, that of its customers and of its employees. That’s because a brand with purpose has a clear sense of direction.

According to Harvard Business Review, “64% of consumers cite shared values as the primary reason they have a relationship with a brand.” By tapping into its inherent Positive Valence to define its Purpose, brands can reduce Entropy, the chaos that is pervasive in an intensely competitive market. This helps them to not only identify who their customer base is but also helps them articulate clearly what they stand for. This is how these brands resonate with their customers without getting trapped in a competitive frenzy.

A clear brand purpose brings more coherence to the brand strategy, provides greater brand clarity, opens up opportunities, provides credibility, and instills a strong sense of confidence and optimism among all stakeholders. Simply put, Purpose, paves the way for creating an ‘Authentic’ brand experience. And an ‘authentic’ brand experience is a powerful differentiator.

Where does Purpose stand today?

Brand Purpose cannot, indeed, must not, be solely leveraged for marketing purposes. Purpose must resonate as real and have the capability to persist over a long period of time. It has to show a societal impact…something that cannot be achieved with just a new advert or shiny new packaging. Pepsi’s advertisement featuring Kendell Jenner witnessed a spectacular backlash within 24 hours of airing. The memes surrounding this promotional campaign were savage as they ripped apart this awkward political campaign because people perceived the campaign as an opportunistic attempt to tap into the Black Lives Matter movement.

In his book “Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies”, author Jim Stengel says, “Purpose creates a meaningful goal for the brand—a goal that aligns employees and the organization to better serve customers.” Purpose clearly is the silver bullet that gives an organization the capability to make strong, impactful and clear decisions…those that create a distinct brand perspective and influences what the organization does and doesn’t do.

Companies like The Body Shop have become strong brands because they have a clear sense of purpose. The Body Shop specializes in selling all-natural products. They are visibly directed by the “Enrich, Not Exploit” purpose. The organizational goals, product goals, and social goals are all aligned to this purpose. Airbnb is another great example of a purpose-led brand. Their purpose was to make people across the world feel that they could belong anywhere. It helped address the “universal human yearning to belong” and helped people to become better and more complete versions of themselves.

Purpose has to be true to the business, the organizational culture and to the products and services it delivers. It has to be the single criteria by which an organization evaluates ‘all’ its actions…to its consumers, its products, and product launches, to the partner strategies, organizational structure, employee interactions…everything. And when it does so, it creates a meaningful impact in today’s’ world and this has a world of benefits -the most key being a meaningful existence!

For more on this, write to us at info@lokusdesign.com.

Apple. McDonald’s. Nike. All of these brands have iconic logos. Simple yet powerful. Striking yet pleasing. When you see the Apple logo, you think of sleek, forward-thinking gadgets. When you see McDonald’s golden arches, you think of Big Macs and fries. When you see Nike’s swoosh, you think of fitness. So, what sets these logos apart? There are three major aspects: uniqueness, easy recognizability, and legibility across billboards and mobile phones, print and online advertising. That said, let’s look at the top 5 most iconic logos of all times and see what makes them stand out from the rest.

1. McDonald’s

Who doesn’t recognize McDonald’s golden arches? Although one reason is that the brand – valued at $88 billion – is internationally known, the other is just how simple the design is. That is what makes it so popular. Founded in 1940, McDonald’s was first known as McDonald’s Famous Barbeque; it was in 1962 that the arches were incorporated in the logo and in 1968 the arches resembled “M”. Today, not only do people recognize the logo, they subconsciously (or consciously) seek it on a long road trip across the country. Do you know? The logo was derived from real arches that were part of their restaurant architecture, and now is an integral part of their branding.

2. Apple

The bitten Apple has always been famous, but it’s prominence has grown manifold over the years due to the rising popularity of Apple products. According to Forbes, Apple is the world’s most valuable brand, estimated at $170 billion as of May 2017. Undeniably one of the most easily recognizable logos in the world, the bitten apple logo came into existence in 1976, and was characterized by a rainbow spectrum (representing Apple II which was the world’s first computer with color display). Today, the logo offers a modern, monochromatic look but that doesn’t stop it from being recognized all over the world – and has become more a fashion statement than a trademark. Do you know? Apple’s first logo depicted Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree – in a bid to relate the computer company with the man who revolutionized science with his theory of gravity!

3. Coca Cola

For a brand that came into existence 132 years ago, Coca Cola has seen it all. If only logos could talk! Probably the world’s most widely recognized brand, the name Coca Cola was chosen because the founder thought the “two Cs would look well in advertising. Over the years, the logo has undergone several distinct changes: from different scripts to extra swirls, tail tweaks to a red disc, fishy shape to a white wave – although the logo has undergone constant change, what has remained timeless is the dedication of the company to associating themselves with happiness. What works for Coca Cola is the sheer longevity of their brand – for someone who has been around for more than a century, being recognized is not hard. Do you know? Consumers enjoy more than 1.9 billion servings of Coca-Cola’s beverages each day!

4. Nike

Nike’s swoosh logo is one of the most recognizable brand logos in the world. Although the company was launched in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports, the swoosh logo was designed in the year 1971 for a meager $35– when the Nike name was adopted. The logo was designed in an attempt to convey motion, and also to symbolize the wings of the famous Greek Goddess of Victory, Nike. Over the years, the logo has undergone several tweaks – the red and white color palette has given way to the solid black swoosh that is representing the robustness of the brand in a powerful and positive manner. Do you know? Nike’s logo is the most profitable logo in the world and is worth $26 billion!

5. FedEx

The shipping company’s simple logo is probably best-known for its hidden image. Started by a young entrepreneur in 1971 as a small delivery company, the first logo went by the full name of Federal Express. The current logo was designed in the year 1994, and the different colors of the “Ex” represent different delivery types: while an orange “Ex” stands for express, the red stands for freight. Today, the brand has grown to become a powerhouse in the world of delivery (with annual revenue of $60.3 billion), delivering packages for every holiday and sale imaginable across the world. The distinctive look of the logo is recognized by everyone – from the logo on a truck on the highway to the plane on the runway. Do you know? The space between the “E” and “X” on the FedEx logo forms an arrow that denotes the company’s forward direction, speed, and precision.

NBA superstar LeBron James had said, “There are some teams and logos you see, no matter where you are in the world, and you know exactly who they are and what they mean.” While not a branding or design guru, it’s hard to argue with LeBron that this is really what a great logo should be all about, isn’t it?

For more on this, write to us at info@lokusdesign.com.