Iconic Brand Language

An iconic brand language is so much more than just a logo, For a brand to be ‘iconic’ it has to deliver on multiple levels such as font, tonality, image style, and even the more obvious things such as colour choices. A brand should be a cinematic experience for its consumer, in my opinion. The process of seeing a brand to being a loyal customer towards it is a step-by-step process that is made possible by the experience the brand language provides.

One of the main things to take into consideration is the company under which the brand exists. When under a house of brands such as Gillette, Tide, and Vicks all fall under the corporation of Proctor and Gamble or better known as P&G. Each of the sub-brands of Proctor and Gamble has a different brand language. Gillette as a brand language is manly, safe and is shown as a necessity. Whereas in a more monolithic brand architecture for companies such as Mitsubishi, they maintain the same brand language and tonality no matter what product they are selling, from generators to cars, they have the same brand language and tonality.

Another concept of brands and brand language is endorsed brands such as the Marriot Group. They lead with a strong sub-brand but maintain the same brand language throughout all the subbrands too. They may change the colour and wording but overall the tonality remains the same and always with the heading of Marriot in bright red. This shows consistency with a little change to help consumers differentiate between for example Marriot Courtyard hotels and JW Marriot hotels.

As mentioned earlier iconic brand language has many layers to it aside from font, logo etc. It also includes the silhouette, the sound, and often even things relating to texture and sensation. These are the elements that form your brand's “noticing power”. Apple has one of the strongest noticing powers. Its apple logo can be spotted by people within a split second and without having a second thought about it. Even in the apple logo, there is texture at play. You will realise that when you touch the logo on the back of your Macbook or iPhone, it's often a different colour from your phone or Macbook and also has a different texture when compared to the rest of the gadget.

The most important element of a brand's identity and language is consistency. It provides consumers with an idea of what your brand os and the more consistent you are, the likelihood that consumers will remember your brand and associate it with your brand language increases.

This is where signature elements also come into play. One of the best known signature elements is the one of Coca-Cola. When you think of Coca Cola the first thing that comes to the mind of most people including me is the bright red colour that accompanies it. Since the very beginning, Coca-Cola has maintained that and now it is part of its brand identity. In the book Iconic Advantage, it mentions that “The real power is unlocked when they are solid and consistent over time” while referring to signature elements as well as brand language as ‘they’.