النص الكامل لحلقة Brand Identity

shape and the script. 00:04:56.160 --> 00:04:59.279 And for Apple, it tends to be the white space. 00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:07.279 Everything else in their system supports that one signature and the way the brand supports the main singer in the orchestra. 00:05:07.519 --> 00:05:16.879 So here's a thing that's often overlooked is an identity system is a decision to be one thing on purpose over and over and over again. 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:19.360 And the power comes from that repetition. 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:28.399 So you keep the color, the type, and the spacing across a thousand different touch points, and the customer ends up remembering it. 00:05:28.480 --> 00:05:32.879 It becomes sharper over time and it builds brand equity over time. 00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:35.759 You vary this too much, it becomes less memorable. 00:05:35.920 --> 00:05:45.040 A different look on a website and the deck and the packaging, each one of them is fine on its own, but together they cancel each other out. 00:05:45.279 --> 00:05:52.800 The customer does not end up holding the memory, it just blurs out the memory and they hold to nothing. 00:05:53.040 --> 00:05:58.560 So consistency is what turns a pile of parts into a picture that they can hold into memory. 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:01.439 He's the guy that always wears that black shirt. 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:06.160 Anyone can copy your visuals, but no one can copy your consistency. 00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:14.319 Now, most modern professionals love to talk about subliminal logos, but in the business community, people tend to skip over it. 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:18.079 And these subliminal logos have a lot of marketing potential. 00:06:18.319 --> 00:06:24.560 It gives people something to talk about and it adds additional recognition over time. 00:06:24.879 --> 00:06:27.279 FedEx is the most famous logo. 00:06:27.439 --> 00:06:30.000 Once you start there, you'll start seeing them everywhere. 00:06:30.399 --> 00:06:36.639 We have Amazon, they have an arrow that goes from A to Z, signifying that everything is possible from A to Z. 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:44.160 And it also forms a smiley face over time, which people identified as customer experience and what that feels like. 00:06:44.399 --> 00:06:50.879 Then we have Toblerone, we have that mountain, and then inside that there's the negative space that forms the bear. 00:06:51.120 --> 00:06:57.040 The bear has to do with the city of Bears, which is in Switzerland, which is where it originated from. 00:06:57.120 --> 00:06:58.480 It's the founding city. 00:06:58.639 --> 00:07:03.360 So it has a little bit more deeper history there, and you can always talk about that. 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:06.319 And then there's also Basket Robin. 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:10.000 If you look at the BR word mark, and you'll see a 31 there. 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:12.480 And that talks about the 31 flavors. 00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:15.920 And then there's the Tour de France. 00:07:16.079 --> 00:07:18.720 And the Tour has the yellow sun behind it. 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:25.040 And if you look at the O and the U and the R, it combines and creates a silhouette of a cyclist that's pedaling. 00:07:25.279 --> 00:07:27.519 So the cyclist is the brand. 00:07:27.839 --> 00:07:29.759 And you have the Pittsburgh Zoo. 00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:35.600 You have the silhouette of it, is the tree in green, and then the negative space forms additional animals, right? 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:39.439 We have a gorilla and a lioness, and they're facing each other. 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:44.079 The animals are the zoo's residence and hidden inside the tree. 00:07:44.639 --> 00:07:46.399 Then you have Formula One. 00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:51.600 We have the F and the one, which creates a negative space that forms into the arrow of speed. 00:07:51.839 --> 00:07:54.639 The logo itself is kind of like racing. 00:07:54.879 --> 00:07:56.800 And then there's another brand. 00:07:56.959 --> 00:07:58.240 We have Cisco. 00:07:58.560 --> 00:08:04.079 The Cisco mark, but it's actually a stylized representation of the Golden Gate Bridge. 00:08:04.160 --> 00:08:17.519 Because Cisco was founded in San Francisco, it has a signal strength that like visualizes the bars, and because it sells networking equipment, so it also has two meanings into those stylized lines, right? 00:08:18.079 --> 00:08:26.319 So that gives a brand deeper talking points and becomes more memorable for the people, especially if they're also in San Francisco. 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:28.879 Like, hey, look, there's the Golden Gate Bridge. 00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:31.279 Okay, so then we have Hershey's Kiss. 00:08:31.439 --> 00:08:32.799 The kiss is the word mark. 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:36.639 You look at the K and the I, there's a silhouette of a hidden kiss in it. 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:39.519 And sitting between them is the negative space. 00:08:39.759 --> 00:08:41.440 Then we have Vio, right? 00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:43.679 This is Sony's computer line. 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:57.440 The logo has a stylized V and an A that's forming an analog kind of wave, which is a parable in itself, that they are the bridge between analog and digital computing. 00:08:57.600 --> 00:08:59.840 Now I could go on and I could list 30 more. 00:08:59.919 --> 00:09:09.200 We have Carefor, LG, NBC, The Bronx Zoo, Milwaukee Brewers, the Guide of Food Writers. 00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:18.639 And once you know what you need to look for, you realize that many of the logos that you've walked past your whole life are carrying a secondary meaning that you've never noticed. 00:09:18.879 --> 00:09:28.159 So we do this work every day where we try to see what hidden meetings we can bring into the logo or how we can make it more memorable. 00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:38.960 And so with the American Cancer Society in 2024, the sort of hope was kind of getting lost alongside and the word mark inside the trapezoid shape. 00:09:39.039 --> 00:09:51.360 So

we pulled those things out and lost the additional visual noise to make it simple, scaled it up so that it could stand alone by besides its name. 00:09:51.600 --> 00:09:55.840 So you'll be able to see the before and the after, and the point was simple. 00:09:55.919 --> 00:10:01.360 We give the strongest part of the mark enough room to be seen so that it can carry the whole brand. 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:08.799 And you can see this in some of our other work as well, as whether you're looking at taste, frequency, lantern light. 00:10:09.039 --> 00:10:17.600 And this is one of the things that I am most passionate about, as it really gives a brand more potential to be remembered. 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:24.799 It is worth asking why a designer would spend 200 iterations to hide an arrow that works fine without it. 00:10:25.039 --> 00:10:32.320 There's three reasons why logos with subliminal qualities and storytelling potential should not be overlooked. 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:36.799 And its first is that the discovery moment travels. 00:10:37.039 --> 00:10:38.960 It travels further than it would. 00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:47.279 When they catch the FedEx arrow or the Amazon smile, their brain files that logo deeper than they otherwise would. 00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:49.440 And they cannot keep it to themselves. 00:10:49.759 --> 00:10:54.000 They'll end up saying, Hey, did you see the FedEx logo has an arrow behind it? 00:10:54.240 --> 00:10:58.080 And that's one of the most shared facts about any logo that's ever made. 00:10:58.320 --> 00:11:01.919 The hidden layer turns into a customer evangelist. 00:11:02.159 --> 00:11:08.399 And every retelling is free PR and another round of exposure that you really never paid for. 00:11:09.440 --> 00:11:15.279 And secondly, this shows Signal and Craft, and it shows that it has a story to tell. 00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:30.559 And that says something. 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:34.559 And so, of course, the last thing this reinforces the meaning. 00:11:34.720 --> 00:11:38.879 The best subliminal details double down on what the brand already stands for. 00:11:39.039 --> 00:11:46.399 FedEx Arrow reinforces speed and delivery, and the Amazon Smile reinforces customer happiness. 00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:54.240 Baskin Robbins with the 31 different flavors and varieties, and Formula One with racing. 00:11:54.480 --> 00:11:59.679 The subliminal layers is not random cleverness, it is the brand's core idea. 00:11:59.919 --> 00:12:10.240 So let's take this back and zoom back out because I do not want to leave you thinking that identity is only about the logo and the hidden secrets within it. 00:12:10.399 --> 00:12:14.320 Color is often a most loaded bearing piece of an identity. 00:12:14.639 --> 00:12:23.840 Color is pre-recognition, you recognize the Tiffany blue and the target red before you recognize really any word mark. 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:27.360 In a crowded feed, color is what catches the eye. 00:12:27.519 --> 00:12:33.360 And good identity has one color that owns the brand, not a palette of eight. 00:12:33.759 --> 00:12:39.200 Every time you add another shade of color, you're making things more difficult to be remembered. 00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:45.279 Really, brands that have one or two colors get remembered more than the brands that have three or four. 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:51.840 One signature color that the market learns to attach to you and that you defend legally where you can. 00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:55.120 That ends up giving you a lot of potential. 00:12:55.360 --> 00:12:56.480 And typography. 00:12:56.639 --> 00:13:00.559 Typography is the second most load-bearing piece in the visual system. 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:05.279 Most companies use forgettable type because they are afraid to commit. 00:13:05.440 --> 00:13:12.559 But type carries a tone, and a brand set in Havetica feels different than the same brand that's sent in condensed serif. 00:13:12.879 --> 00:13:19.759 A brand set in Geometric SAN feels different than the one in a more humanistic soft type. 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:26.320 So you pick it deliberately, you own it, and do not reach for the safe choice because the distinctive one is scary. 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:27.840 And then there's imagery. 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:34.000 Imagery is the third, whether you commission photography license it, or you have an illustrative style. 00:13:34.159 --> 00:13:34.399 Right? 00:13:34.559 --> 00:13:37.519 Apple's photography style is recognizable. 00:13:37.840 --> 00:13:42.480 Patagonia's documentary style is its own brand. 00:13:42.799 --> 00:13:45.039 All of these work together. 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:48.720 But apart, they kind of produce confusion. 00:13:50.480 --> 00:13:56.159 Now, everything I have described so far you take and you see with your eyes. 00:13:56.720 --> 00:13:59.840 You have logos, colors, type imagery, site. 00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:01.759 It's all from your site. 00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:03.440 You have five senses. 00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:11.440 And most brands fight for attention, use all five if the tools are available. 00:14:12.559 --> 00:14:29.279 So you start with sound, MasterCard spent two years building a sonic identity, dozens of artists around 2,000 melodies, narrowed down to one, and there is a sound that your card taps or a reader and the melody under every ad. 00:14:30.240 --> 00:14:38.960 Within the first year, their own commission research, 77% of the customers said that the brand felt more trustworthy because of the sound. 00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:48.000 At checkout, the sound that it made added more signaling of trust and acceptance every time it played. 00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:49.919 So think about what that is. 00:14:50.080 --> 00:14:52.799 A brand that you can recognize with your eyes closed. 00:14:53.759 --> 00:14:56.000 Now listen to this. 00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:00.799 Yup. 00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:03.360 That's the Intel 4 No Bong. 00:15:04.480 --> 00:15:05.759 Now listen to

this. 00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:16.159 Listen to this. 00:15:20.320 --> 00:15:21.200 Can you guess it? 00:15:21.759 --> 00:15:24.399 That's the HBO static before it was the show. 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:26.559 It's still famous till today. 00:15:27.039 --> 00:15:30.960 You know all three of them, and you don't even need the logo. 00:15:31.519 --> 00:15:33.360 Now let's think about smell. 00:15:33.759 --> 00:15:36.559 Smell skips the analytical steps, right? 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:37.840 It goes straight to the heart. 00:15:38.080 --> 00:15:42.320 It's something that you feel, it's something that you remember, and it brings back past memories. 00:15:42.559 --> 00:15:49.440 And that's why smell can drop you back from a moment that happened 20 years ago before you can even really name it. 00:15:50.399 --> 00:15:53.360 Cinnabon is a brand that really understood this. 00:15:53.600 --> 00:15:58.879 Matter of fact, they understood this so well that they put their oven right there in front of everyone. 00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:05.360 And so when they pull out the new freshly made Cinnabons, they make sure that the scent goes everywhere. 00:16:05.679 --> 00:16:17.519 So much so that even if their stack is so full, the workers are told to put cinnamon and sugar back into the oven so that smell is back into the air. 00:16:17.679 --> 00:16:30.080 And you can find cinnamon packed everywhere, and you will always smell it from a distance and you know the identity before you even see their logo or the words or the colors. 00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:32.799 Abercame did something similar. 00:16:32.879 --> 00:16:35.120 They had cologne pumped through the vents. 00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:44.799 And the research at Washington State showed that people spent 20% more when there was a simple positive scent in the air. 00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:58.799 And then there was a feeling, the physical kind, the emotional kind, the weight of a card in your hand, the resistance of a dial on your fingertips, the exact tension on your laptop when you open it. 00:16:59.039 --> 00:17:06.319 All of these things have been designed, and none of them by accident, and it really is what brings a full identity to life. 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:11.039 The identity you feel through your fingers before you have a real word. 00:17:11.680 --> 00:17:15.680 A brand that you can only see is the easiest kind to forget. 00:17:16.880 --> 00:17:26.160 One more layer that is outside of what people usually think of when they think about the five senses is delight. 00:17:27.279 --> 00:17:31.920 And Daniel famously cited this as the peak end rule. 00:17:44.160 --> 00:17:46.079 And they remember the end. 00:17:46.480 --> 00:17:48.880 And the rest basically fades out. 00:17:49.200 --> 00:17:51.119 Now, hear that as a brand builder. 00:17:51.279 --> 00:17:57.680 Your customer is not scoring every single touch point, they are keeping the peak and the ending. 00:17:57.839 --> 00:18:00.880 So you get to choose where to spend your

energy. 00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:04.799 Disney has you waiting in line for hours. 00:18:05.039 --> 00:18:08.799 And then at the end, what you remember is the fireworks. 00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:14.000 So the wait was for most of the hours, it was most of the time of you being there. 00:18:14.160 --> 00:18:16.640 But the fireworks ends up being the memory. 00:18:16.799 --> 00:18:19.039 And that is the rule to doing this work. 00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:22.160 The smallest version of this cost almost nothing. 00:18:22.480 --> 00:18:36.240 Tiffany Bucks, you can bring yourself to throw it away, but the handwritten note inside the bag, the way the good app celebrates the thing you finish instead of going quiet, they are not decorations. 00:18:37.119 --> 00:18:41.119 They are the peaks that people end up keeping. 00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:48.400 Design the peak, design the ending, and let the middle be ordinary, because it has to be. 00:18:48.720 --> 00:19:02.240 Some of the most rigorous research and marketing behind the book, how brands grow, argue that brands grow less by being different and more by being easy to recognize and easy to recall, easy to remember. 00:19:02.480 --> 00:19:04.400 Byron Sharp put it into four words. 00:19:04.559 --> 00:19:07.759 Branding lasts, differentiation doesn't. 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:14.400 And I've spent five episodes on differentiating, so let me draw one clean line to keep it moving. 00:19:14.640 --> 00:19:18.319 Positioning is the argument of why you are the right choice, and it lives in your words. 00:19:18.559 --> 00:19:22.000 Identity is how fast someone can recognize in the first place. 00:19:22.240 --> 00:19:23.680 So you do need both. 00:19:23.839 --> 00:19:32.720 So one estimate that JKR put is that global marketing spend is nearly$4.7 trillion a year. 00:19:33.440 --> 00:19:43.519 And about 85% of all that marketing spend is actually not distinctive, meaning only about 15% is actually truly ownable to that brand. 00:19:43.759 --> 00:19:47.759 So most brands are not losing because their idea is wrong. 00:19:47.839 --> 00:19:53.759 They are losing because nothing about them is recognizable enough for people to remember. 00:19:53.920 --> 00:20:04.640 They blend in, they sound like everybody else, and then they pay to introduce themselves over and over and over again as if nothing is remembered. 00:20:05.119 --> 00:20:08.160 And the market does not forget the bad brands. 00:20:08.400 --> 00:20:15.039 It really forgets the forgettable ones, the ones that are of nothing distinctive and nothing ownable about them. 00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:20.400 A good identity isn't just a document, it's a train capabilities across an organization. 00:20:20.559 --> 00:20:26.960 Every designer, every marketer, every product team remembers and internalizes the rules. 00:20:27.200 --> 00:20:32.079 They produce on-brand work without really asking because they know it so well. 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:35.680 They know when to bend the rules and

when to hold a line. 00:20:35.920 --> 00:20:42.000 The documentary, the brand book, the style guides, the panel libraries, a reference, but it's not the work. 00:20:42.319 --> 00:20:47.279 The work is hundreds of tiny decisions made every day across a company. 00:20:47.440 --> 00:20:49.440 Does this email use the right font? 00:20:49.759 --> 00:20:53.119 Does this slide follow the same spacing rule? 00:20:53.279 --> 00:20:55.759 Does this photo fit our photography style? 00:20:55.920 --> 00:20:59.680 Does this ad carry the right amount of white space? 00:20:59.920 --> 00:21:06.319 When identity works and skills, it stacks and it grows over time and it's easier to remember. 00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:09.359 Every impref reinforces the last. 00:21:10.559 --> 00:21:15.119 The brands gain recognition faster than a single campaign could deliver. 00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:19.119 A loose identity that has a lot of variants tends to do the opposite. 00:21:19.279 --> 00:21:25.200 Every piece of the company ships and makes things a little bit fuzzier, a little bit harder to remember. 00:21:25.599 --> 00:21:28.720 And so being consistent is key. 00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:38.640 I've worked on award-winning logos, and the ones that broke out were not the brands with the most traction at the start that just had the most beautiful logo. 00:21:38.720 --> 00:21:51.359 They were the ones that built the most ownable assets across every touch point: the website, the deck, the packaging, the hold music, the receipts, and with systems clear enough to scale. 00:21:51.680 --> 00:21:55.440 An identity that holds across a hundred touch points. 00:21:55.839 --> 00:21:57.440 That is the strategy. 00:21:58.079 --> 00:22:01.519 Most companies are already spending money to be remembered. 00:22:02.160 --> 00:22:05.119 Their identity is just too weak to hold the memory. 00:22:05.359 --> 00:22:16.079 So you are gonna pay for it either way, whether you invested in it or not, and whether it's strong, every dollar of your marketing has to fight harder and harder. 00:22:16.319 --> 00:22:18.640 So every brand pays to be remembered. 00:22:18.720 --> 00:22:22.079 And when you stand out, you earn a higher recall. 00:22:22.559 --> 00:22:24.079 You are easily remembered. 00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:29.200 And when it's weak, you end up spending more money and it's like a leaky bucket. 00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:33.680 You don't know where it's coming from, but you're just fighting hard to gain traction. 00:22:33.839 --> 00:22:43.039 With a strong brand identity, it's like you stand out, you earn higher recall, means that people remember you more for the same amount of spend. 00:22:43.279 --> 00:22:46.240 Think of it as a permanent added value. 00:22:46.400 --> 00:22:50.319 You flip the coin and it's continuous advertising discount. 00:22:50.480 --> 00:22:55.279 The recall you've already earned acts like the ad spend that you've never really paid for. 00:22:55.440 --> 00:22:57.440 It's just a continuous discount. 00:22:57.519 --> 00:23:02.240 A Nikonic brand never pays for full price for attention again. 00:23:02.559 --> 00:23:06.640 That's really the power of brand identity when it's strong. 00:23:06.880 --> 00:23:08.160 So here's your takeaway. 00:23:08.319 --> 00:23:12.559 Identity is not a logo, it's everything a person can recognize you by. 00:23:12.799 --> 00:23:13.039 Right? 00:23:13.279 --> 00:23:18.960 We have the color, shape, sound, sense, the peak they remember, and the ending that you gave them. 00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:24.480 So run the smash test, take your name off your own brand, look at what is left. 00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:28.640 The color you own, a sound, a feeling, a smell. 00:23:28.799 --> 00:23:33.119 If the answer is nothing, you do not really have a strong identity yet. 00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:35.759 It might be leaking you market expend. 00:23:36.400 --> 00:23:37.839 You just have a name tag. 00:23:38.240 --> 00:23:43.759 So in next episodes, we're gonna talk from brand identity to brand voice. 00:23:44.319 --> 00:23:45.519 How do you stand out? 00:23:45.599 --> 00:23:47.440 How do you become remembered? 00:23:47.759 --> 00:23:56.319 And what that looks like, and how you're gonna withstand different campaigns and through different kinds of content, churn, etc. 00:23:56.480 --> 00:23:56.880 etc. 00:23:57.519 --> 00:23:59.759 So we'll walk you through the process of that. 00:24:00.160 --> 00:24:03.119 So thanks for listening, and we'll talk soon.