The Brand Gap: How to Bridge the Distance Between Business Strategy and Design
by Marty Neumeier
ISBN: 0735713308
Publisher: New Riders Publishing
Pub. Date: January 2003
Lost in icons, avatars, logos and typeface? Uncertain of messaging, corporate imagery or taglines? Having troubles finding your audience or moving your product? Wondering how all of these build your brand, how they will push your company and build your success? Confused as to how to combine the logic of business with the magic of design? The Brand Gap is an excellent handbook on the steps toward understanding the elusive concept of Branding… explaining what a brand is and isn't, and how it will push you to success!
I have been choosing colors, design elements and corporate imagery, coming up with logos and selecting typeface for quite a while now. Working with established firms, start-up companies and mom and pop shops. All of these contracts required the usual components of an identity system, but all somehow missed the essentials of a Brand. These simple essentials are ones that designers are aware off, ones that marketing knows all about but no body seems to address them directly. The Brand Gap explains these unspoken questions and straightforward concepts in an easy to read and aesthetically pleasing manner. Neumeier explains, and provides numerous examples for, each of the 5 steps toward getting started in establishing a brand. 5 disciplines on "how to bridge the distance between business strategy and design" - to bridge The Brand Gap.
From understanding the importance of user experience and product placement to sitting down with the marketing team and understanding the business' direction - Neumeier is the true brand guide.
IN A NUTSHELL:
INTRODUCTION
What a brand isn't
Why is brand suddenly hot?
In version we trust
What's your brand worth?
Brand happens
The brand gap
Introducing the charismatic brand DISCIPLINE 1 : DIFFERENTIATE
Three little questions
It's different - I like it
The evolution of marketing
Globalism vs. tribalism
Focus, focus, focus
Are you growing or harvesting your brand? DISCIPLINE 2 : COLLABORATE
It takes a village to build a brand
The new collaboratives
Hooray for Hollywood
The power of prototypes DISCIPLINE 3 : INNOVATE
Where the rubber meets the road
When everybody zigs, zag
Brand or bland
Those crazy new names
Icons and avatars
It's all packaging
Does our website look fat in this dress? DISCIPLINE 4 : VALIDATE
The new communication model
People are different
Test is not a four-letter word
The myth of focus groups
How to avoid getting skewed
The swap test
The concept test
The field test
What are we looking for? DISCIPLINE 5 : CULTIVATE
Are you growing or harvesting your brand?
The living brand
Every day you write the book
The brand as a compass
Protecting the brand
Where are all the CBOS?
The virtuous circle
Take-home lessons
Recommended reading
Acknowledgements
Index
Colophon
About the author
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