Building strong brands in Asia:selecting the visual components of

Abstract Asian brands have often struggled to develop quality images.The visual aspects of branding have received little attention onhow they might be used to strengthen brand perceptions in Asia.Guidelines for designing visual brand stimuli are developedusing evaluations of logos in China and Singapore.There is a significant relationship between design and the responsescompanies seek.including positive affect,perceptions of quality,recognition,consensus in meaning.and feng shui.Howdesigns are perceived,and their effect on consumer responses,were similar between China and Singapore.Companies areencouraged to leverage design to strengthen their brands.In particular.they should select logo designs that are elaborate.natural,and harmonious as these created positive affect and quality perceptions,clear meaning.true recognition,and feng shui. Many of these relationships hold in the United Sates as well,implying that the visual aspects of brand strategies mayaccomplish companies'goals across intemational borders. D 2003 Elsevier B.V.All rights reserved. Kewords:Logos:Brand image:Corporate image:Design:Asia

1.Introduction Kotler,Ang.Leong.Tan.2003:Parrott,2001: Rabano,2000:Temporal,2001).The development Companies in developing countries increasingly of strong brands is especially important in Asia.Asian recognize the benefits of building strong brands,such companies face several challenges in building strong as surviving adverse economic conditions,enjoying brands including the presence of strong intemational greater longevity,exerting greater power in distribu- brands and perceptions by some that Asian brands are tion channels,expanding sales beyond small domestic inferior (Jacob,1993:Schmitt Pan,1994:Schutte markets,becoming more competitive in hiring and Ciarlante,1998). retaining staff,and increasing profits (Goad,1999: Visual stimuli are a critical part of any brandingstrategy.These stimuli include the logo,signage,pack- aging.product design,advertisements,and web sites. Hutton (1997).Schmitt and Simonson (1997).and others argue that visual stimuli can assist in building strong brands by differentiating products,creating loyalty.allowing for premium pricing.cutting through clutter,and protecting against competition.These prop- ositions are supported by recent research showing a high correlation between the design quality of visual stimuli and financial performance of the company (Hertenstein Platt.2001:Wallace,2001).Visual stimuli may be effective because they are leamed faster and remembered significantly longer than verbal stim- uli (Erdelyi Kleinbard,1978).In addition,the visual aspects of image can create quality perceptions critical for building strong brands in the absence of verbal material.However,most research on Asian branding has focused on verbal elements (e.g.,English names being used for Asian brands to connote quality,Schmitt Simonson,1997)with less attention being paid to the visual aspects of brands (see Tavassoli,1999,2001; Tavassoli Han.2001.2002.for exceptions). The role of visual elements in contributing to brand strength may be even more important in less industri- alized countries,when operating across national boundaries,or when operating in countries with visu- ally oriented writing styles.For example,Ekuan,Fran- cey,Raymond van Niekerk.and Butler (2001)report that Indian brand symbols can overcome issues of literacy,phonetics,pronunciation,language and dialect (recent counts have identified 50 languages and over 400 dialects).Han and Schmitt (1997)found that corporate identity plays a bigger role in consumer decision-making in China than in the United States They suggest that companies prominently display their logos and names to enhance corporate identity when advertising in East Asia.In addition,individuals from countries with logographic writing systems (e.g.,Chi- na,Japan,and Korea)are more attuned to a brand's visual components than people from countries withphonological language systems like the United States (see Schmitt,Pan,Tavassoli,1994:Tavassoli,1999. 2001:Tavassoli Han,2001.2002).All of these conditions indicate that Asian companies,in particular. should consider visual strategies to build strong brands. This paper examines the impact of the design of visual brand identifiers in Singapore and China and provides guidelines for selecting design elements for brand strategies in these cultures.In particular,we study brand logos because they are one of the primaryelements of a company's visual branding strategy Logos are the repositories for brand associations,are used in multiple media (e.g.,business cards,statio- nery.buildings,vehicles,and packaging),and their design and selection is costly in terms of both mana- gerial time and money (Hutton,1997:Lentschner. 2001).In addition,logos are the most common ele- ment of the marketing mix to be used in an unaltered form when going abroad (Kapferer,1992).Finally, research indicates that findings about design are large- ly generalizable across different stimuli (e.g..symbols, pictures,objects,etc.),so findings regarding logos should generalize to other visually oriented marketing elements(e.g..packages,advertisements:Berlyne, 1974a).This research links logo design to the responses they evoke to advance design theory and provide managerially useful guidelines for the use of design in Asia.Toleverage design,companies need guidelines to insure logos are selected that achieve corporate goals.Companies typically give input to designers regarding their goals and then select from a pool of designs presented by the designer.Yet both companies and their designers rely primarily on intu- ition in such decision making.Managers need guide- lines that they can communicate to designers and that will assist them in selecting designs with character- istics (e.g.,roundness,complexity,etc.)that will achieve their goals (e.g.,create perceptions of quality) Our ultimate goal is to develop managerial guide- lines for designing logos in Asia.We start by identi- fying what types of responses to design are of particular importance to managers.Next,we examine the aesthetics literature to identify what design char- acteristics are important for logos and how they might influence consumers responses to logos.

Based on these literature reviews we develop a series of studies to address four fundamental questions.

1.Are there underlying factors that capture multiple design characteristics within Asian countries?

2.Are there underlying factors that capture multiple responses to logo design within Asian countries?

3.Can managers manipulate design characteristics to influence consumer responses to logos?

4.Is there a regional perspective that explains the influence of design on responses to logos or are these relationships country-specific?