Phygital – what a horrid word, but I don’t have anything better to describe the new interface relationship brands have with their consumers. Brand identities have a difficult job to get noticed and connect to consumers in this complex world, but the basics of branding still apply. Your brand still needs to be recognisable and relatable whatever the interaction.
It used to be quite straight forward. TV and Print ads brought brands to the attention of consumers so that when the lady of the house went to do her weekly family shop, she would recognise those brands on shelf and put them in her wobbly shopping trolley. In the early days TVs were black and white, so your brand identity had to be distinct without the use of colour; therefore, contrast and shape were critical and resulted in classic brand marks like Coca-Cola, Heinz and Ford. Their profiles are instantly recognisable today even if you can only see small parts of them.
Thankfully we have moved on from the old days; our tellies are in colour and Mum has burnt her apron. Our screens have moved from the living room to our personal phones, laptops and I-pads, our magazines have been replaced by TikTok and our bus-stop posters are supplemented by huge digital displays down the A roads.
We are now being told we need to be ‘digital first’. Social media is where you need to spend all your marketing time, effort and money if you want to be successful. To do that you are told you need a constant stream of content because everyone has an attention span of a demented spaniel puppy and the memory of a bored goldfish. Thank goodness for AI – help is at hand to generate all that bothersome content so you can stream out endless variations on a theme and keep everyone happy.
Whoa! Not so fast. All channels are in play – TV ads are still watched, print has had a knocking, but still has its part to play and what would we do without shelf wobblers? E-coms and DTC must play a role and there’s still a lot of folks who listen to the wireless.
We need to stop thinking about designing for Digital First, which implies everything else is a has-been, and start thinking about creating identities that work across, a less snappily titled, Interconnected Matrix of Consumer Interactions! Inevitably people will be exposed to many different sources of information, each with its own benefits and challenges, and they will all interlace in the consumer’s mind to build a complete picture. We need to manage that total impression.
The retail shelf still has a classic 10ft, 3ft, 1ft design hierarchy of what’s visible on pack and what you should be communicating at each point. The e-coms journey still hasn’t been worked out from what I can see out there, ranging from stripped back minimalism to a baroque information overload. The e-coms space allows for a more measured interaction with the consumer in browsing mode and puts them in control of what they see. QR codes offer the opportunity to link consumers from the physical space into the digital one when they want to explore, making us rethink the relevance and role of websites. Our physical and digital identities need to work seamlessly across these domains.
By contrast social media is a frenzied activity of momentary interactions. You had better make sure your identity is 110% consistent and recognisable across channels and over time in order to stay in the memories of our eager spaniels and scrolling goldfish. Shouty, blocky typography is trendy and prevalent, but unique, ownable typefaces would be more distinct and memorable. Flashing images and rainbow colours scream for attention but get lost in the social media kaleidoscope. Better to own a colour and keep it consistent. In all this visual soup the need for a clear and distinct pack form, logo and strapline is still as important as it was in the black-and-white days, if not more so.
To finish, we must mention your most valuable brand asset- your logo. It is the distillation of everything you stand for and a beacon for consumers. The need for a tightly controlled brand mark has never been so important. It is tempting to animate it and this can add to its impact, but it must never be disrespected and played with to suit a short-term activation need.
If you don’t value your identity, consumers won’t value your brand.
