The document discusses the brand identity prism, which describes a brand through six facets: physique, personality, culture, relationship, customer reflection, and self-image. These facets are interrelated and form the boundaries that define a brand's identity. The physique is the brand's tangible qualities and features. The personality is how the brand communicates its character. The culture encompasses the brand's underlying values and principles. The relationship facet applies especially to service brands. Customer reflection is how the brand builds an image of its target user. And self-image is how users develop an inner relationship with the brand.

1. Brand Identity
Prism
by
Anoop Kumar Gupta
MAIT

2. ► When a brand consists of multiple products, care should
be taken to ensure that their respective positioning
converges on attaining the same core value (that of the
parent brand).
The brand identity prism

3. The brand identity prism

4. The brand identity prism

5. 1. A brand, first of all, has physical specificities and
qualities – its ‘physique’.
► It is made of a combination of either salient objective
features (which immediately come to mind when the
brand is quoted in a survey) or emerging ones.
► Physique is both the brand’s backbone and its
tangible added value.
► The first step in developing a brand is to define its
physical aspect: What is it concretely? What does it
do? What does it look like?
The brand identity prism

6. ► The physical facet also comprises the brand’s
prototype: the flagship product that is
representative of the brand’s qualities.
► There used to be a picture of the famous Coca-
Cola bottle on all Coke cans. Thus, in using the
image of its traditional bottle, Coca-Cola aims to
remind us of its roots.
The brand identity prism

7. ► There are several delicate issues regarding Coke’s
physical facet. For example, is the dark colour part of
its identity? It is certainly a key contributor to the
mystery of the brand. If it belongs to the brand’s
kernel, key identity traits.
► Many brands have problems with their physical facet
because their functional added value is weak.
► Even an image-based brand must deliver material
benefits. Brands are two-legged value-adding
systems.
The brand identity prism

8. 2. A brand has a personality. By communicating, it
gradually builds up character. The way in which it
speaks of its products or services shows what kind of
person it would be if it were human. In the prism,
brand identity is the personality facet of the source.
3. A brand is a culture. A brand should have its own
culture, from which every product derives.
► The product is not only a concrete representation of this
culture, but also a means of communication. Here
culture means the set of values feeding the brand’s
inspiration.
The brand identity prism

9. ► The cultural facet refers to the basic principles governing
the brand in its outward signs (products and
communication).
► Major brands are certainly driven by a culture but, in
turn, they also convey this culture (eg Benetton, Coca-
Cola, IBM, etc).
► Mercedes embodies German values: order prevails.
Symmetry governs this brand: the three-box bodywork is
a strong physical characteristic of Mercedes. The brand
symbol set at the nose-tip of every Mercedes further
epitomises this spirit of order.
The brand identity prism

10. ► Countries of origin are also great cultural reservoirs for
brands: Coca-Cola stands for America, as does IBM,
Nike or Levi’s. Canon and Technics deny their Japanese
origin whereas Mitsubishi, Toyota and Nissan
emphasize it.
► Brand culture plays an essential role in differentiating
brands. It indicates the ethos whose values are
embodied in the products and services of the brand.
► This facet is the one that helps differentiate luxury
brands the most because it refers to their sources, to
their fundamental ideals and to their sets of values.
The brand identity prism

11. 4. A brand is a relationship. Indeed, brands are
often at the crux of transactions and exchanges
between people. This is particularly true of
brands in the service sector and also of retailers.
► The relationship aspect is crucial for banks,
banking brands and services in general.
► Service is by definition a relationship. This facet
defines the mode of conduct that most identifies
the brand.
The brand identity prism

12. 5. A brand is a customer reflection. When asked for
their views on certain car brands, people immediately
answer in terms of the brand’s perceived client type:
that’s a brand for young people! For fathers! for
show-offs! for old folks! Because its communication
and its most striking products build up over time, a
brand will always tend to build a reflection or an
image of the buyer or user which it seems to be
addressing
► Service is by definition a relationship. This facet
defines the mode of conduct that identifies the brand.
The brand identity prism

13. ► Reflection and target often get mixed up. The target
describes the brand’s potential purchasers or users.
► Reflecting the customer is not describing the target;
rather, the customer should be reflected as he/she
wishes to be seen as a result of using a brand. It
provides a model with which to identify.
► Consumers indeed use brands to build their own
identity. In the ready-to-wear industry, the obsession
to look younger should concern the brands’
reflection, not necessarily their target.
The brand identity prism

14. 6. Finally, a brand speaks to our self-image. If reflection is
the target’s outward mirror (they are …), self-image is
the target’s own internal mirror (I feel, I am …). Through
our attitude towards certain brands, we indeed develop
a certain type of inner relationship with ourselves.
► Even if they do not practice any sports, Lacoste clients
inwardly picture themselves (so the studies show) as
members of an elegant sports club – an open club with
no race, sex or age discrimination, but which endows its
members with distinction. This works because sport is
universal.
The brand identity prism

15. ► These are the six facets which define the identity
of a brand as well as the boundaries within which
it is free to change or to develop.
► The brand identity prism demonstrates that these
facets are all interrelated and form a well-
structured entity. The content of one facet
echoes that of another.
► The identity prism derives from one basic concept
– that brands have the gift of speech. Brands can
only exist if they communicate.
The brand identity prism

16. ► Since a brand is a speech in itself (as it speaks of the
products it creates and endorses the products which
epitomise it), it can thus be analysed like any other
speech or form of communication.
The brand identity prism

17. ► The brand identity prism also includes a vertical
division.
► The facets to the left – physique, relationship and
reflection – are the social facets which give the brand
its outward expression. All three are visible facets.
► The facets to the right – personality, culture and self-
image – are those incorporated within the brand
itself, within its spirit.
► This prism helps us to understand the essence of
both brand and retailer identities
The brand identity prism