In daily life, we often have the experience that most brands are recognized through the logo, while some brands can be recognized at a glance without the logo. For example, when you see pants with "three bars" from a distance, you will quickly respond, and these are probably Adidas pants.
Relatively speaking, Nike is not so easy to identify. You must be very close to find Nike's "little tick" logo.
Every time a user uses your product in public, it is an excellent exposure opportunity for the brand. The more prominent your symbol is, the higher the brand exposure will be. Therefore, the result of this symbol difference can be imagined. In the case of the same sales volume, the spread of Nike is far less than that of Adidas just considering the spread of product channels.
The same is true in the field of new media communication. Every communication by users is providing exposure opportunities for your brand. At this time, except for the logo (which accounts for a small proportion of products and content, it is extremely difficult to identify, and the advertising meaning is too heavy, which is easy to cause reaction), you should provide other super symbols so that users can identify your brand at a glance.
Therefore, determining brand symbols is brand development New media operation The first step is to properly integrate brand symbols into the content, so that brand symbols can be spread with the spread of content and improve Marketing Efficiency.
1、 Five basic symbols of brands
According to the sense classification, brand symbols can be divided into visual symbols, auditory symbols, olfactory symbols, taste symbols and tactile symbols.
1. Visual symbols
Visual symbols can appear in all content forms except audio content, which is the main form of brand symbols. The most common visual symbol in content is brand logo. For example, Red Bull's brand logo will appear in a large number of videos used for content marketing.
Screenshot of Red Bull Man Arrow Plan Flying Over the Great Wall
However, as mentioned earlier, brand logo recognition is relatively low, especially in long-distance and dynamic display, the use of unique brand colors can effectively improve the recognition. For example, Tiffany's unique blue, Coca Cola's red and so on.
However, the categories of colors are limited. Most of the colors with strong visual impact, such as red and yellow, have been occupied by many brands, and the homogenization is very serious. If you create unique graphics of the brand, you can further improve the recognition of brand visual symbols. For example, Louis Vuitton uses brown as the background color, four leaf flowers surrounded by a circle, four pointed stars, concave diamond with four pointed stars inside, and the abbreviation "LV" of the founder's father's name to form a unique Monogram pattern (commonly known as old flowers in Chinese), which has become the most famous and representative pattern of Louis Vuitton.
The blue border that often appears in Durex's copywriting, together with Durex's copywriting, has become a classic brand symbol.
Jiangxiaobai, produced in Chongqing, has repeatedly incorporated Chongqing symbols into its own content products, including the launch of Chongqing Flavor Commemorative Products (product packaging is also one of our media channels) on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Chongqing's direct administration of the Central Government:
Jiangxiaobai Chongqing Flavor Commemorative Edition
In the self-made animation of the same name "I am Jiangxiaobai", a large number of Chongqing landmarks were restored.
Left: Hongya Cave; Right: Liberation Monument
2. Audible symbols
Among the five symbols, only visual symbols and auditory symbols can be transmitted through the Internet, and auditory symbols are more suitable for video and audio content. Auditory symbols are the second largest symbol category after visual symbols. Moreover, enterprises generally lack awareness of the development of auditory symbols, and there is still much room for the development of auditory symbols.
There are not many classic auditory symbols. For example, the "lights, lights and other lights" that appear in all Intel advertisements, the "HelloMoto" greeting of Motorola, the "HelloKugou" greeting of Cool Dog Music, and the "Night Listening" and other audio public accounts, the unique voice of the anchor is also an auditory symbol.
Both auditory symbols and visual symbols can be a classic text. For example, when you hear or see "I speak for myself", you will think of "JumeiYoupin"; When you hear or see "world peace", you will think of "Xue Zhiqian", because Xue Ziqian has put the words "I am Xue Zhiqian, I hope world peace" at the end of almost all his blog posts. Although there is no information about the brand in these texts, the symbols have been firmly bound to the brand.
3. Olfactory symbol
Among all human senses, smell is the most sensitive and the most closely related to memory and emotion. But unfortunately, at this stage, smell is difficult to spread through the Internet and cannot become the main identification symbol of brand content marketing for the time being.
At present, the practice of olfactory symbols is mainly carried out in hotels, FMCG, cosmetics and other industries. Basically, all international high-end hotel groups have their own "smell". For example, Shangri La, the largest luxury hotel group in the Asia Pacific region, has formed an exclusive "Shangri La fragrance" brand. Shangri La Hotel aims to create a taste of global luxury and warm family for busy business travelers. It is expected that customers will feel the warmth and comfort of Shangri La within the first 10 minutes after entering the hotel.
In order to achieve this goal, Shangri La cooperated with an Australian company to develop the "Shangri La Fragrance" in 2001, which was inspired by the description of Shangri La in James Hilton's novel The Lost Horizon published in 1933: a peaceful and pleasant paradise. The "Shangri La Fragrance" takes vanilla, sandalwood and musk as the keynote, and has some unique fragrance of bergamot, white tea and ginger. It not only has the fresh and elegant flavor unique in Asia, but also has the effect of soothing mood and easing mood.
With the development of technology, brand olfactory symbols can also be easily added to traditional media such as magazines and newspapers. For example, Kraft Foods' advertisements in magazines also make good use of smell. As long as readers rub some points in magazine advertisements, they will emit the taste of advertising products. Take a full page advertisement of Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese as an example. The advertisement shows a picture of a strawberry cheese cake. After friction, the picture will give out the sweet taste of this dessert.
4. Taste symbols
The application of taste symbols is relatively narrow, which is mostly found in the food industry. The unique taste of each food is the best taste symbol of the brand. In addition, luxury goods that advocate style will also make exquisite catering in stores to stimulate and delight consumers' taste. For example, Armani, Gucci and Hermes have opened cafes to strengthen their connection with consumers through taste.
GucciCafe in Ginza, Tokyo
5. Tactile symbols
Tactile symbols are displayed through the unique properties of materials, and each material has a wonderful place to stimulate the senses. The Japanese design master Hara Yanzai, who applied the tactile symbols to perfection case The guiding design of Rumeitian Hospital. All directions of this maternity and children's hospital are designed with white cotton cloth. The guide icon or text is printed on the white cotton cloth, which can be dismantled and washed at any time.
The guiding design of Meitian Hospital in Japan
The soft, comfortable and warm white cotton cloth is used as the design of the sign. On the one hand, it breaks the rigidity brought by the original outline of the sign, making it gentle, lively and more humane, and reducing the patient's tension with the hospital; On the other hand, materials that are not resistant to dirt can be used to remind medical staff to pay attention to cleanliness at all times. Therefore, in addition to the good routine guiding function, Meitian Hospital's guiding design also leads to another communication mode of guiding signs.
2、 Three characteristics of supersymbols
Supersymbols have three important characteristics: simplicity, uniqueness and repetition. Simplicity and uniqueness are relative to the target user's mind, and repetition represents the absolute number.
1. Simple
Simplicity is a relative concept, which means that it is easy to recognize, understand and spread compared with the target user's mind. According to the associative learning theory, Memory is a network composed of many nodes and connections representing associative relationships between nodes 。
In such a memory structure, daily symbols and brand symbols represent the nodes among them. When the two are combined and repeatedly presented through marketing, the two nodes in the audience's memory are activated at the same time, and an associative connection will be established between them. The connection will also be strengthened with the increase of presentation times. In this way, emotions or meanings associated with daily symbols will be transferred to relevant brands.
Therefore, the key to creating simple symbols is to find symbols that already exist in the minds of target users and achieve grafting through artistic means. If your target users are all people, then you need to find symbols that are common in the minds of ordinary users.
For example, the three major religions in the world all use extremely simple visual symbols - the star and moon symbol (Islam), the reincarnation symbol (one of the symbols of Buddhism), the cross symbol (Christianity), and the Star of David (Judaism); Most national flags of various countries also use very simple symbols - sun, moon, stars, stripes, etc.
From left to right are: cross symbol, reincarnation symbol, star of David, star and moon symbol
More and more brands have discovered this secret, so more and more brands have created symbols according to the common signs in daily life, such as Apple, Mango TV, Orange Hotel, Socket College, Steamed Bun Business School, Strawberry School, etc.
When we look back at Apple's first logo, we will find that it is really complex compared to the minds of ordinary users. This logo was designed by Ron Wayne, one of Apple's founders.
Wayne designed it as a nameplate with a picture of lonely Newton reading and meditating under the apple tree. On the edge of the nameplate is engraved the lines of the British poet William Wordsworth, surrounded by the ribbon like Apple logo. First of all, there is a huge amount of information, including patterns, poems and brand information. Moreover, patterns are realistic patterns with rich details. Poetry itself is a minority culture. Most users do not have a clear concept of poetry in their minds, let alone the works of a specific poet. Therefore, this logo was quickly replaced.
But if your target user is a group with more complex minds, then, in order to distinguish from popular brands, you can find symbols that do not exist in the minds of ordinary users, but only exist in the minds of target users, and try to express such symbols as simply as possible.
2. Unique
Unique means that brand symbols are rare in the industry and can show the unique personality of the brand. For example, the Chaos University, which gathers the world's top innovative education resources and is built for high-end business people, has a simple brand symbol at first sight. It is a circle, but this circle has its unique features - irregular and notched, which symbolizes the formation of a confused state in which the former atmosphere, shape and quality are integrated without separation, that is, the original meaning of chaos.
Chaotic university brand symbol
The symbol of apple also has simple and unique characteristics. The main image of "apple" originates from life and often appears in fairy tales (such as the Bible) and fairy tales (such as Snow White). It is one of the fruits that people all over the world are familiar with and love, but it is not an ordinary apple - it is missing a mouthful, Although Jobs' original intention was only to make people not mistake Apple for Yin Tao, this gap gave the brand more imagination and increased the brand's personality.
3. Repeat
Once the brand symbol is determined, it should be reflected in all brand content, including We Media content and advertising content. We media here not only refers to microblog and WeChat, but also includes all the products, packaging, factories, employees, vehicles and so on of enterprises, all of which can be mediated. The cumulative effect of time will strengthen the impression of brand symbols in users' minds.
3、 Summary
According to the sense classification, brand symbols can be divided into visual symbols, auditory symbols, olfactory symbols, taste symbols and tactile symbols. Supersymbols have three important characteristics: simplicity, uniqueness and repetition.
PS: Sister Chen is a university new media teacher. Every Wednesday, share one“ You can put it directly into the book after writing ”New media thinking.
PPS: I have entrusted the "Knight of Rights Protection" to protect the rights of my articles. If you need to reprint, please contact Sister Chen for authorization, and plagiarism must be corrected.
