Building a brand is a challenge, but sustaining it is bigger. Brands become larger than life and we acknowledge this fact in our routine life.  Sometimes we also fret over it, when we see the new generation becoming overtly brand conscious. Brand building is not industry specific. Any business, that wants to reach out to the consumers, needs to invest in a brand. Well groomed brands invoke an emotional stimulus amongst consumers. Brand owners encash on it through better margins.

Right from the outset, design plays an important role in brand building. Any interface with the consumers has to be supported by coherent design thinking. Creating a cohesive brand needs a design strategy that can create well thought of positive interfaces with the consumers. Product is definitely the nucleus of these interfaces, but so are all the direct touch points with the consumers.

During the brand building exercise, concurrent design innovation should be kept as a key to sustain the brand and penetrate in to the consumers' heart.  Many a times, the brand owners loose sight on changing consumer aspirations.

In an endeavour of scaling up the volume, the aspect of product experience takes a back seat while all the energy is spent on value engineering and push sales marketing strategies. This leads to monotony in consumer experience and gradual detachment with the brands. Whereas the strength of brand shields these anomalies for some time, but eventually as the consumer is exposed to the reality, the brand starts decaying.

Legendry brands have conviction in concurrent innovation. They believe that consumer perceptions endorse the trust in them. A smart way of innovation is to integrate technologies in a compelling form (body) to create a high Desirability Quotient. Innovation is not peripheral, it has to be extracted by diving into deeper orbits. It has to be meaningful for the consumer. Shallow thoughts lead to gizmos, while articulated thoughts lead to delightful features.

Building a brand requires a winning product, pull marketing and compassionate pre & post sales interfaces. Constant endeavour on value creation keeps the interest alive and expectations intact.

Brands are ephemeral, but continuous grooming can make them eternal. Design happens to be an acknowledged path to this eternity!