“Design is in everything we make,
but it’s also between those things. It’s a mix of craft, science, storytelling,
propaganda, and philosophy.”—Erik Adigard
Licensed brands achieve
greatness by design. Clear strategy, consistent brand management, implementable
tactics, as well as stellar design that fully leverage these brands make
superstars among a sea of licensed properties that often fail to live up to
expectations.
Design is a crucial component
of the marketing mix. It represents both art and science as it analyzes,
interprets and gives visual expression to the brand and its core assets.
Uncovering those assets associated most strongly with the licensed property;
those that are indicative of the brand and elicit emotion among fan devotees,
are the starting point. The unique brand story can then be captured and told by
utilizing great design.
By deconstructing the brand
down to its DNA, its visual cues can be examined. The most dominant, emotive one
can be leveraged as the brand’s visual hook or icon. The visual hook becomes
the backbone of a strong, creative visual strategy along with the brand
identity. When set within a standardized style guide, the licensed brand then
stands alone and stands apart from every other brand in the marketplace,
licensed or not.
Licensed properties benefit
hugely from a unique, highly differentiated visual hook that is consistently
employed, regardless of product category. The key to success is to make their
use within the style guide flexible
so it adapts easily to evolving customer tastes and trends. Flexibility must
also be built in due to the nature of various categories of consumer products
that will bear the license.
Obviously, some product
categories present more challenges in this regard, and many categories have
minimal or no packaging. Think apparel like t-shirts, caps and sneakers and kids’
room décor. By making sure the style guide demonstrates ingenious examples of
incorporating the visual hook in a variety of ways, licensees will see how
limitless the possibilities are. Instead of feeling limited by their product
categories, they will find ways to effectively leverage the licensed property
utilizing more than the brand identity.
This kind of visual strategy
has the power to connect the brand story to consumers within products and on
packaging quickly. It works to leverage the licensed property’s story,
eliciting emotion from people. Nothing accomplishes that better than using a
hook or icon that is truly representative of the licensed brand.
All that can be done to
assist licensees by providing them with a visual strategy they can apply in a
creative manner necessarily implies more success for the licensed brand.
Otherwise, licensing partners have to rely heavily on the brand identity alone
or develop artwork that may not be consistently representative of the brand.
By building in flexibility
within a style guide, licensees are less likely to ad lib freely which can lead
to brand dilution. It is obviously desirable to encourage the development of
great artwork within the parameters of the style guide. In that way, the look
and feel of product and packaging are cohesive and true to the licensed brand.
So how can a style guide be
flexible and the visual strategy elastic? Show various ideas for applications
of the visual hook in major consumer product categories. Demonstrate the clever
ways it can be extended and used. Clever representations of the signature
visual in patterns, badges, as part of illustrations, as symbols, or as
punctuation will give licensees some good ideas. Standardizing the visual
attributes of the hook but showing how it can be stretched for various
applications gives licensees valuable guidance.
The beauty of such a visual
creative strategy: it remains fresh and relevant. Yet it is consistent and true
to the brand. It has the power to become iconic to legions of brand fans.
Consumers will actively seek it out and they’ll be surprised and delighted by
the inventive ways in which the visual hook is used. This is especially true
for children and their favorite kids’ brands. When branded products appeal at
such a cognitive and emotional level, they prompt consumer purchases. Further,
they create anticipation for more from their audience.
Generating excitement around
licensed properties, and keeping a consumer audience hungry for more – that’s how
great licensed products are created.
