Creative Brand Strategy - Project 1A

01/04/21 - 09/04/21 (Week 1 - Week 2)

Atiqah Farzana Binti Syalleh Karimyee (0336740)
Creative Brand Strategy
Task 1A

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LECTURE NOTES

Week 1: Introduction to Creative Brand Strategy

It was our first time having a class with Ms. Low, so we had a quick introduction session for her to get to know us better. She provided us with a recorded module briefing that we were supposed to watch before class. She then briefed us on our tasks again and what we are expected to do over the course of this module, which is to create an entire brand for a campaign.

Week 2: What is Brand Strategy?

Brand strategy defines positioning, differentiation, the competitive advantage, and the unique value proposition. 

Developing an effective brand strategy involves three key components:

1. Brand Positioning

1. Brand Architecture

1. Brand Extension

A brand positioning is the conceptual place you want to own in the target audience's mind - the benefits you want them to think of your brand.

A brand truly communicates when it sets the brand apart from the competitor, making it immediately recognizable, and creates an emotional connection.

Brand architecture is the logical, strategic and relational structure for all brands in the portfolio. It is used to ensure clarity, synergy and leverage across the portfolio. The three different ways to organize brands within a company is:

        1. Monolithic - (a.k.a Branded House) is characterized by a strong, single master brand, for all brands bear the master brand's name identically.
        2. Endorsed - characterized by marketing synergy between the product or division, and the master brand. The product or division has a clearly defined market presence.
        3. Pluralistic - characterized by a series of unrelated brands. The master brand name may be either invisible or inconsequential to the consumer, therefore new brands are developed.

Brand extension involves stretching the brand into attractive categories, by creating 'equity bridges' for customers to cross.

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INSTRUCTIONS

Module Information Booklet:

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PROJECT

Project 1A - Case Study (Group)
Week 1 (01/04/2021)

Project 1A required us to analyse an existing, well-established campaign and do the following research:
    
    1. Identifying its brand strategy (brand story, objective/purpose,  brand values, vision & mission, target audience, positioning).
    2. Understanding its brand experience (event features and activities).
    3. Reviewing its key visuals and applications (pre-event, during event, post-event).

We were grouped with 4 members consisting of me, Jojo, Adeel and Amelia. We had about an hour to find a campaign to base the case study on. Using Miro, we planned and discussed everything there. In the end, the campaign my group decided on was The Mental Health Coalition by Pentagram. This particular campaign aims to destigmatize mental health in the hopes that it would be more openly talked about in conversations.

Here is our slide presentation on The Mental Health Coalition:

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FEEDBACK

Week 1 (29/03/2021)

General feedback: We can reference Pentagram for the case study selection, but we are not limited to it as there are many other campaigns out there that may suit our interests.

Specific feedback: Out of our two shortlisted campaign choices (Fashion for Good vs. The Mental Health Coalition), Ms. Low thinks that the mental health campaign has a much larger application aspect.

Week 2 (08/04/2021)
General feedback: Analysing campaigns will help us in understanding the whole purpose of the campaign and its core message. Ultimately, this will aid us in creating our own campaign branding for Project 1B. 

Specific feedback: Ms. Low said the brand experience section of our presentation was very interesting and unique, especially the IG face filters, mood meter, in addition to the collaborations with celebrities. These create more engagement with the audience, along with the celebrities' fanbase- the campaign's audience expands. Overall, it was a well-rounded and detailed presentation.

REFLECTION

Experience: Week 1 (01/04/2021); I was lowkey worried about the workload for this module, considering that our previous branding module was quite a lot to handle. Hopefully, having learnt branding before, this time around might be more manageable as we already have some experience with it. Week 2 (08/04/2021); There was a variety of case studies that we saw in the past week up till today's class, which has been a good exposure to new designs and brand identities.

Observation: Week 1 (01/04/2021); I think this first class had a clear introduction to the module and what we will be doing in the next few weeks (but I have a hunch that this would be more of the heavier modules). Week 2 (08/04/2021); Seeing everybody's case studies was very eye-opening because their campaigns were all different from each other's, but all had a meaningful purpose to change the world through a small gesture. 

Findings: Week 1 (01/04/2021); I learnt that campaigns would have the same brand identity just as any other brand would. Before this I only assumed that brand identities were for brands (shops) or professions only (mainly commerce, specific professions like a novelist, etc.). Week 2 (08/04/2021); I found it was important to listen through others' work, as they might have something that could be beneficial to me even though our case studies were different. 

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FURTHER READING

Pentagram - All Projects Archive
Week 1 (01/04/2021)

The Pentagram website had all the archives of various campaigns and brand identities for all kinds of brands. We were told to look for a campaign from this site for our case study, hence we searched through many different works. 

Upon clicking a post, it will direct you to a page filled with the whole brand, its identity, values, collateral - all condensed into a brief page.

Here is an example of a brand identity, the London Design Festival 2020. The page contains large videos and GIFS, collateral, and short quotes about the event with links to learn more about the brand. Just one page is enough to get the gist of a brand, despite the length of the page.

Abstract: The Art of Design | Paula Scher: Graphic Design - Full Episode
Week 2 (08/04/2021)

While on the topic of Pentagram, I remembered this Netflix docu-series called 'Abstract: The Art of Design' which takes the audience on a journey through a renowned graphic designer's work process in every episode. It aired in 2017, but last year all the episodes became available on Youtube, too.
The episode above followed Pentagram's first female principal, Paula Scher, through her daily work life, goals and motivations, and her current passion project (a large map of the U.S made up of miniscule painted state names, counties, and zip codes).

From this episode, I learnt that typography is a great tool that can enhance your design work. As Paula Scher is known for her typography, she explains some of her thought processes behind her work, and how even the slightest change of a stroke can make or break the design. I think what makes her work so special is that she is able to visualise something and convey it into a clever design with a deeper meaning under it, thus creating an incredible piece of work.

Rewatching this episode gave me the motivation and push to work as to how I felt the first time I watched it. A key takeaway from this episode would be a quote from Scher: "I am driven by the hope that I haven't made my best work yet."