A brand is really a business’s identity, it is used to show the world what they are all about, their personality. This identity is made up from a number of different components, some visual such as their logo, brand colours and the layout of their digital products (app, website etc.). A Key non-visual component is the brand’s “Tone of Voice”. This is how a brand “speaks” to its audience whether that is in writing, on-line or how staff speak to customers/clients on the phone or in person. I am not an expert on copywriting (a key element of “tone of voice”) so this is something I will need to research further. As a brand is a businesses identity, it needs to have certain qualities: it needs to be unique to differentiate from other brands, it needs to be memorable and it needs to resonate with the businesses target audience. The brand will also once in use be recognised as part of the businesses reputation and if successful should allow people to form an emotional connection with the brand. A truly great brand will allow people to tell us something about themselves and their character by their choice of using that brand.
We started this week’s lecture by going through some general housekeeping with regards to this new module IXD103 Exploring Identity, one of two modules we will complete this semester. After this we moved on to look at what our deliverable would be for the module: a brand guidelines document and a prototype landing page for a modern bank aimed at 16-25 year olds.
We then looked at the basics of what a brand was, what they are designed to represent and why companies and businesses need them. We looked at the process of branding and how just like design thinking it is a five-stage process, which you can see below.
Source (https://www.yourhyphen.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/The-branding-process-new.png) Last Accessed 31/01/23
As the first stage of this process is research we looked at all the different research methods we could use. These included: online surveys, interviews, observations in the real-world, competitor reviews, forum posts and Twitter gripes. From this research we could then look at collating the data we got into an affinity diagram to help use our research to clarify our strategy. Other methods we could use were to build Customer Empathy Maps and User Personas. All of these methods would help me to find out what my ideal customer wants and needs from a banking brand. This would then allow me to clarify a strategy so that my brand could best fit these customers.
I am fortunate to have used these methods before as part of a Google UX Certification I completed during the Summer of 2022, so I am comfortable using them to carry out the research process.
We then we given some time to begin compiling our research (my research is below) before ending the day’s class with a short lecture on “Tone of Voice” a key part in any brand. We discussed brands having 5 key words associated with themselves that would guide them in all that they do and I will ned to mind map some ideas for this in relation to my bank.
During the final part of the lecture we discussed something called the “Linguistics Register” this was not something I was familiar with. I could understand the concept as it breaks down the different ways language can be used and in what scenarios this would be best suited. It is quite academic in nature but I do feel it would be worth further research as it is a tried and tested method and something I could use to guide how I write for my brand. As someone who is not always the most comfortable with words a guide and some rules as how to best create copy would be a huge help for me.
The brief for this semester’s deliverables was to create a brand for a new modern bank, with a target audience of 16-25 year-olds. While this is a common age demographic grouping, for me it covers such a wide range of development and changes in a person’s life that to create a brand that spoke to all of them would probably end up as a compromise of different needs. For this reason I decided to specifically look at University students, most university students will fall into the 18-24 age range, so well within the range of the brief.
I feel university students stand out from other sub-groups within the age range by the way they receive money. Most will receive the largest amount of their income from student finance, with possibly a part-time job, money from parents, a scholarship/bursary or a combination of these to supplement that. Student Finance pays money into student accounts in three instalments, usually late September (start of the academic year), January (for the start of second semester) and Easter. This is significantly different than how other people within the 16-25 age range will get their money with most receiving it monthly either as an allowance from parents, or a salary from part-time or full-time work.
This difference is important as most people across all age demographics, will receive their income monthly and most bills are set to coincide with this. Therefore, managing money is different for university students. I will need to research this further but I believe offering help with this as well as the other aspects of life that make being a University student a unique time in a person’s life will give me the opportunity to tailor my brand to a specific group of people.
While this might rule out a selection of potential customers, I feel it will allow me to concentrate on my chosen group (university students) more and appeal to their specific needs and connect with them on an emotional level, which is a key marker of a successful brand.
