How do identity designers understand and analyse their target audiences

The overall focus of this project is the process, the strategy and the different methods used by successful designers to create strong brands and identity designs. Although this already is a potentially detailed area this report will especially focus on one part of it, namely; it will concentrate on the initial research aspect and the in-depth, mental and highly personal understanding of the target audience.

“IDENTYFING AND UNDERSTANDING YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT FIRST STEPS IN CREATING A SUCCESSFUL IDENTITY DESIGN”

This is the average and most common opening line to most of the design books and journals, focusing on branding… This kind of sentence is usually followed by: “once you’ve established your target market…” BUT... where exactly is the part that explains the most important first step? They tell us what to do but they seem to have missed out the part on how to do it. How do designers understand their potential consumers? What are the methods of the research? What methods are used to get audience to open in order for me to know what they like or dislike? What are the best ways of getting a range of useful information from the target audience? How to communicate with them and make them a part of the design process?

CHAPTERS

To give the report a nice flow and make it easily understandable it will be divided into several chapters… here are the possible headings and the contents:

THE BRANDING PROCESS – In the next chapter I would like to briefly explore the overall idea of a process used to design a strong brand, maybe come up with a generated version of this process. Here I will also start directing the spotlight onto understanding the audience.

BUT WHY? - here I would like to talk about the reasons why we should explore and understand our potential customers. I want to possibly give examples of a successful brand, which understands their market and compare it with one that has completely misunderstood their addressers… This chapter will also explore how brains react to visual stimulus. Here I would like to have a short scientific exploration into the human brain and focus on the emotion and the memory. I think it’s essential for the designers to know exactly how our brains work in order to give them the information they want in the way they want it. It is especially important when exploring the target market, as the aim is to have something appeal to a specific part of society. This chapter will show how the addressees are likely to analyse what they see.

AND HOW – this chapter is probably going to be the longest one; here I will explore the different ways of market research. I will look at other designers’ techniques and what they do to understand their audience. Essentially I plan to conduct a test research by myself. The main aim of this chapter is to clarify exactly what is missing from most of the current books, and start answering the posed questions. I might create this chapter in a form of ‘TO DO’ list…

THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING - In this chapter I would like to look at the rest of the process of designing a brand. Here the aim is to create an action plan and design a process of creating a brand from scratch, to witch I can refer when designing an identity in the future.

THE END OF THE BEGINNING - I will have the conclusion here… obviously I cannot see to the future so I don’t know how my research will conclude… but unless I’m missing the point of the report this is the way it’s supposed to be.

PLAN

- Firstly I have to read a lot, then read and then I have to read some more. After all the reading I still have to read some more because there are books and blogs, more books, and journals, and magazines, online articles, websites and… oh well loads of books…

- Start designing the research

- I would then like to create questionnaires and conduct some interviews

- Then I will read some more just to compare my findings from the questionnaires and interviews

- I’ll then visit some relevant places

- In the mid time keep on developing the design

- Then I will get some feedback

- Then I will conduct a research, I’ll probably do some experiments

- Get more feedback

- Read more things

- And finally produce the conclusion

- Finish designing

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books:

Wally Olins. On Brand. – Wally Olins, Thames and Hudson 2003

The New Guide to Identity – Walff Olins, The Design Council 2006

Wally Olins: The Brand Handbook – Wally Olins, Thames and Hudson 2008

Cool Brands – Ben Hudson 2008

What Is Branding – Matthew Healey, RotoVision 2008

Identity Design Sourcebook – Clay Andres, Catherine Fishel, Pat Matson Knapp, Rockport 2004

Packaging Makeovers – Stacey King Gordon, Rockport 2005

Marketing Research in Practice – Paul Hague, Peter Jackson, Clays ltd 1992

How to do Marketing Research - Paul Hague, Peter Jackson, 1990

Communities Dominate Brands – Tomi T. Ahonen, Alan Moore, Futuretext 2005

Consumer Behaviour – Henry Assael, 1998

Emotional Design – Donald A. Norman, Basic Books, 2004

Buy-ology – Martin Lindstrom, Business Books, 2008

Designing Brand Identity – Aleena Wheeler, Wiley,2006

The Mental World of Brands – Giep Franzen, Margot Bouwman, 2001

Beyond Branding – Nicholas Ind, Kogan Page, 2003

Essentials of Visual Communication – Bo Bergstrom, Laurence King, 2008

Web:

http://www.emotionalbranding.com/Emotional_Design/Emotional_identities.aspx

http://devworld.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/XHIGDesignProcess/XHIGDesignProcess.html

http://www.state.mn.us/mn/externalDocs/OET/Blueprinting_081108014406_SDL%20Tridion%20BluePrinting.pdf

http://www.ideo.com/

http://www.ajpark.com/articles/2009/06/understanding_branding.php

http://www.brandinstinct.com/

http://www.interbrand.com/

And many, many more to come…

Marta Siolkowska