Brand, Identity and Reputation: Exploring, Creating New Realities ...

Role of Design on Brand Building. Evaluating Design Dimensions of Branding Elements, Managers and Design
Experts Reactions
Isa Moll, ESADE, Spain
Eliane Cristine Francisco Maffezzolli, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, Brazil
Jordi Montaña, Universitat de Vic and ESADE, Spain
Introduction
The good design issue has been treated in the literature as a dilemma: what makes a good design? Who are able to
define it? How can this issue be related to brand identity and branding? (Hertenstein, Platt, & Veryzer, 2005; Heskett,
2005; Svengren-Holm and Johansson, 2005; Stompff, 2003; Rams, 1995). According to this, the main objective of this
study is to define what means a good design, how it can be measured and reflect branding aspects.
Brand identity is a set of association based on the brand‘s essence, belief, values, as well as on the product/service
positioning definitions, segmentation, product, distributing channels, promotion and pricing. (Aaker & Joachimsthaler,
2007; Bouchikhi & Kimberly, 2003; Bhattacharya & Sen, 2003; Mukherjee & Hongwei, 2008). Moreover, it is also
associated to features, traits or attributes that might distinguish it from other organizations, and it is usual to find these
concepts translated into design.
It means that the visual and symbolic aspects of design can help one brand to be perceived in a different way by
consumers and the market in general. In previous works (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2003; Keller, 1993) this theme has been
treated as an important key to branding, as one brand should be noticed always in a same way by consumers. In other
words, every contact point with consumer should be the result of a branding strategy. For instance, if a brand has an
essence and values to be transparent and friendly to the environment, all the visual contact should emphasize these
aspects. Therefore, design is a key to keep brand perceptions aligned.
Purpose
In spite of it, to measure and control this brand alignment it is not easy, as design should be used in many different ways
in the whole business. According to this, it is important to consider what means a good design, how it can be measured
and how it can affect branding. Design can reflect business purposes and orientation. For example, if the company is
devoted to be extremely innovative, product design should keep this position and also the company‘s graphic design. It
includes a higher thought about colors, symbols, and visual information that can confirm this position. Moreover, this
innovation position should suggest a higher involvement with web design. In summary, design is present in all the
elements that the company addresses to the market, they constitute a communication vehicle that transmit the
company‘s positioning and consequently affect the brand building process. A tool for evaluating design may help
managers to judge if the inputs send to the market are consistent between them and aligned with the brand strategy.
Methodology
Based on this objective and according to Gabrielsen, Gronhaug, Kahle, Kristensen, Plenborg, Wilke, (2009) previous
study, the design of three key business elements: product, logo, and web; were measured considering the following
dimensions: functionality, credibility, and expressivity. Functionality includes criteria such as convenience and easiness
and is close related to the performance. Credibility stands for the reliability; and expressivity refers to the meanings a
product, logo or web design is associated with.
The methodological design was defined by a quantitative approach and was conducted though 4 steps: (1) literature
review, (2) questionnaire face validation with experts, (3) questionnaire face validation with managers, (4) fieldwork to
test the proposed model. 58 Spanish companies defined the empirical context considering small and medium segments
from varieties industries. All of them were evaluated by a manager and by two design experts. The measurement scales
were evaluated by exploratory factorial analysis and omega reliability. To verify the proposed relations into the model
were used correlation and regression analysis. The results offer insights about what mostly affect a good design and also
reveal critical differences about the manager and the design expert perceptions.
Scales validity and reliability were checked though exploratory factorial analysis and Omega index. These procedures
are aligned to small samples (Bisbe, Coenders, Saris, Batista-Foguet, 2006). In order to summarize the major findings,
scales related to product, graphic and web design were statically acceptable considering managers and experts data.
Results
Scales of product design were acceptable, considering: product credibility (Ω experts = 0,80