Using Philosophy To Create Brand Identity
Among marketers brand identity has become a catchy term. Companies are talked into the idea that they need to find something like the essence that both identifies them and differentiates them from other companies. In other words, they are told it is necessary to find their real identities. Some even call such identities as the personality of the companies. So, for instance, it is said that such company is fun, creative and elegant, while that other is serious, traditional and luxurious. People say that the personality of the company represents the values that it stands for. And although all this might sound pretty persuasive and smart, it seems that not too often is questioned the way in which the identity of a company is created.
How can then anyone obtain the identity of a company?
Surely many of you may be thinking that you do not need to engage into that issue, insofar as you can delegate that job to a brand identity consultant. However, since there are plenty of consultants in this field, I guess you might want to get the best option for your business, so the question is which criteria to follow in order to pick out the consultant that best suits your business. I mean, have you ever asked yourself which process do these consultants follow in order to create your identity? Do they simply get inspired and find the essence of your company?
I guess that at some point you might have asked yourself how brand consultants create brand identities, and if you still have never thought about it, I would recommend you start doing it. Looking for a brand identity agency or consultant can be compared to looking for a good therapist. As you probably know, there are many different approaches in the field of therapy. Some might suit you well, some others might not. The same happens with brand agencies/ consultants. There are different ways of doing branding. It is advisable to understand which approach or methodology the agency uses, so if you disagree with it, you can find a better option.
Remember that getting the wrong brand identity for your business will have a big impact on its economic performance, which could yield bad disastrous results. For this reason, you must be thoughtful when selecting the people you entrust to take on this work. A brand identity creator is kind of like a doctor. If they do not know how to read the symptoms of the body of your business, they might end up prescribing things that will not only not solve the problems but also create more conditions for the sickness to grow.
Could there be a method whereby brand identities can be adequately articulated so that they correspond to the nature of a business at issue? A method that does not depend on questionable subjetive tendencies? I am firmly convinced that the answer is YES. How would such a method look like?
I propose what I call a phenomenological approach for the development of brand identity.
Why the adjective phenomenological?
This adjective makes reference to phenomenology which is a school of thought firstly proposed by Edmund Husserl and afterwards further developed by Martin Heidegger.
According to both philosophers, every single entity of the world should be considered as a phenomenon which is both etymologically and philosophically that which appears to a conscious subject. Put in simple words, it could be said that the phenomenon is the experience. That is, stricto sensu we never perceive entities but experiences. In this regard, every attempt at discovering the nature of an entity implies going to the phenomenon, i.e. the experience, that corresponds to it.
Thus, if we want to find the concept of, let us say, dog, it would be necessary to go to the experience that corresponds to that word. That is, we would need to find different interactions with dogs. Such interactions might be named as the experience of dog. Likewise, if we want to find the concept — that is, the true nature — of a restaurant, it would be necessary to go to the phenomenon of that restaurant. We, thus, would need to view the experience of that restaurant. Such experience would be constituted by all the interactions we may have with it. In every interaction some aspects would appear. All these aspects would be unfolded into three realms. One would correspond to the physicial sensations we obtain from the world, the other to the ideas suggested by the physical sensations, and the third one to the way we value the ideas suggested. All these three realms would appear united in the phenomenon, so it would correspond to the person that applies the phenomenological approach for the development of brand identity to scrutinyze the experience in order to disentangle all the relevant aspects coming through the three realms. Such aspects are to be considered as objective since, as has been aforementioned, entities are ultimately phenomena and the aspects inhere in these. In this regard, in analyzing a phenomenon, the phenomenologist would be able to perceive the connections between certain ideas and values in respect to the sensorial perceptions (what we seen, what we smell, what we hear, what we feel). This proposal fits perfectly well both the current theories of neurosciences and those of the philosophy of the mind. That is, whenever we experience the world, we never experience something merely physical, but ideas and values at the same time. It is the works of our minds that enable us to separate in abstraction all the realms that are present in the phenomena. This idea has also been endorsed by radical empirism through William James. Due to this, some authors justifiably argue that phenomenology and radical empirisicm are more akin than what it is prejudicially thought. In any event, up to this point it has been sufficiently explained in general guidelines what constitutes what I have called the phenomenological approach for the development of brand identity.
At this point, one may wonder how it is possible to use the perceptions we have from a phenomenon — sensorial perceptions, ideas and values — as meaningful data in order to create the identity of a business. In other words, how can we use our general impressions of a phenomenon in order to create branding?
First and foremost, the brand consultant needs to be able to read the experience. How can someone offer to create the transmission of certain values through the interactions with your business when they cannot in fact read the values your business is currently transmitting? A brand consultant needs to pin down which values your business is currently transmitting. She needs to establish which net of ideas is supporting those values. She needs to determine which sensorial perceptions are connected to the net of ideas and also the way in which the ideas are connected to the perceptions. This amounts to saying that a brand consultant must first of all offer a triplet. This latter must be constituted by the analysis of sensorial perceptions in the way in which they suppory certain ideas and, finally, an analysis of these ideas in the way in which they support certain values. The final analysis must then have three parts: sensorial perceptions- ideas- values. The analysis must specify the way in which the content of each part is related to each other. For this reason, it must be claimed that a brand consultant must be a reader of the experience. In other words, they must have a working concept of experience.
How can one, however, determine which values and ideas are attached to the sensorial impressions? In order to do so, one must first of all understand the values and way of thinking of the culture where the client has her business. Without this understanding, one cannot determine what values and ideas the business at issue is transmitting. Nor can one articulate the expected values and ideas that the business should be transmitting. One needs to understand the culture wherein the business is embedded in order to do good branding.
Final Remarks
The brand consultant or agency that is entrusted with creating or redoing your brand should have an adequate understanding of the structure of the experience. As has been explained, every experience is primarily constituted by three realms: the sensorial impressions — the ideas suggested by the sensorial impressions — the values attached to the ideas. Thus, any good brand consultant should be able to read the experience that your business is offering in those terms. What is more, in order to redesign the experience of your business the brand consultant ought to have an adequate understanding of the culture that frameworks your business. Only in those circumstances would she be able to work based on clear and objective criteria, and, therefore, your brand would not be subjected to arbitrary determinations.
