Branded Without a Logo

MILENA KUKOVA, ID 123 5267, DESIGN AND BRANDING STRATEGY, BRUNEL UNIVERSITY

Table of contents

Acknowledgements 1

Executive Summary 2

Abstract 3

Introduction Focus of research 6

Purpose and Motivation 7

Structure of the research 8

Aim and Objectives 9

Methodology 10

Methods 11

Findings Primary Research

Interviews Overview 16

Segmentation 17

Focus Group 26

Test 1 – Consistent design 27

Test 2 – Element evaluation 30

Repertory Grid 36

Survey 38

Expert Interviews 44

Immersion 54

Case Studies 60

Literature Review

De-branding trend 65

Differentiation 71

Relationship between people, animals and automobiles 74

Reasons why automobiles looks to similar 88

Other topics 96

Discussion

De-branding trend 104

People and recognition elements 105

Relationship between people, animals and automobiles 109

Automotive sameness 112

Recommendations

Recommendations 114

Conclusion and Verification 118

Limitations 119

Recommendations for further research 119

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Acknowledgments

A research from this magnitude was my first serious and professional work. It was stressful, full of extremely hard situations, exhausting research practices and moments of joy. I would like to thank all people, voluntarily participated in all stages of the research, without the project would not have been possible.

Special thanks to all Experts, agreed to share their professional opinion with me and patient enough to explain clearly, respond again when asked, though they were busy, found a time to help me as well.

Would like to thank to my family and friends as well, for all the support and help I received during this hard period. Without their advices and guidance I would have not been that strong.

Finally, but not least, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my tutor – Patrick Jordan. Even though all lecturers from Brunel University were preparing us through the whole year for the final stage – they provided academic knowledge. Patrick extended the education to the last day and provided professional and practical knowledge. I was guided and corrected, and without his guidance, I would have never known how to create a real professional work.

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Executive Summary

The logo, as a symbol of instant brand recognition and clear signal for authentic product, in the recent years has experienced changes. Brands deliberately started removing logos from their products, or stores, gaining different advantaged from this action. This also called de-branding trend, has received bigger attention have spread to even more industries than before. But without a logo, a problem of brand recognition emerges. An industry, which products are perceived as very similar, like the automotive industry, would have serious consequences if the logo is removed. This paper targets automotive brands, competing on the European market, which would like to strengthen their brand recognition. From a design perspective, the paper, focuses only of the exterior aesthetics of automobiles, covering main aspects of how people differentiate automobiles, without a logo, what causes automobiles to be produced similar and what could be used to enhance the brand recognition. The strategic guidelines formulated into a framework would recommend strategic directions in which automotive brands could strengthen their brand identity on automobiles without using a logo.

This report is aimed at Brand Managers, Design Strategist and Designers, people, responsible for the design of an automotive brand, who possess the power to enhance the brand identity of the automobile to a new level of recognition.

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Abstract

Background

Famous brands like Heinz, Marmite and Levi’s have intentionally removed their logos were selling their de - branded products, in an Initiative organized by one of the famous British retail centers – Selfridges. Though, no reliable source was found about where this de-branding trend started, it was considered that the trend began from fashion, which with time extended to other industries. Brands that took advantage of the trend, had different approaches and strategic directions aimed at specific goals and market segments. However, to take full advantage of the trend, brands should tackle and adapt the trend in their own advantage. De-branding trend have spread to different industries, through the years, and could continue receiving attention other industries in future. If applying this trend, in the automotive industry, by removing the logos of the automobiles, could lead to a serious problem. This led to the key research question – how would removing logos from automobiles, affect the automotive brands? Hypothesis was developed as an answer to that question – If logos are removed, automobiles will lose their brand recognition.

Aim and Objectives

The aim of this project is to develop strategic guidelines, which will assist automotive brands to express their brand identity on automobiles, without using a logo. This would be achieved in a few steps formulated into the research objectives which focused on specific topics:

1. Investigating further the de-branding trend and why people would prefer de-branded products 2. Examine how people differentiate automobiles and to what extent they depend on the logo to

be recognized 3. Investigation about relationship between people and automobiles 4. Investigating the reasons why automobiles are designed so similar. 5. Development of the Strategic guidelines

The methodology was divided in 2 stages – Initial research, which was mainly focused on testing the hypothesis and covered briefly all the topics stated in the objectives. The second stage was focused more on key elements of recognition, further narrowing them, and possible ways to accomplish brand recognition.

Findings

Initial research revealed that today automotive brands have significantly enlarged the size of the logo, placed on automobiles. Interviews with experts in the industry revealed that the presumable aim would be to strengthen their brand image. If an automobile could be recognised without a logo, then the brand image would be strong. However, results revealed that extremely low percentage of automobiles could not be recognized without a logo. From a focus group and individual interviews the initial elements of

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recognition were investigated, followed with different reasons explaining why automobiles designed and perceived as similar.

In the second stage of the research, became clear that through bigger logo, the brand image could not be strengthened, because of the limits the logo retains. The initial recognition elements were narrowed down and evaluated to the most important. Furthermore it was investigated the unique connection that bonds people and automobiles. The emotional side of this connection, would effect on the decision people need to take when purchasing their new automobile. The role of consistent exterior design was found to be of main importance for recognition. However, there should be flexibility within this consistency that would allow the design to evolve.

The guidelines were developed in the shape of a DNA. This framework would represent the fusion of the Brand DNA and the Automobile DNA into one – clearly displayed brand values and identity with personality and emotion expressed through the exterior design of the automobile.

Larger image could be seen in the Recommendations Section, page 114

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Simplicity, thought to be a necessity, the recession the whole world faced and the commercial clutter overwhelming the consumers, evoked a change into people’s preferences. As a response to these events “quiet goods” appeared in one of the famous British retail centers – Selfridges. Famous brands like Heinz, Marmite and Levi’s have deliberately removed their logos and sold their de - branded products. This de-branding, however, was not something new – other companies like Absolute, with its No Label campaign, and Starbucks, opened their unbranded coffee shop in 2009. Though, no reliable source was found about where this de-branding trend started, it was mentioned that “there is already a No Logo clothing line” (Klein,2010).

It is believed that a logo, does not create the brand. But without a logo, the problem of brand recognition emerges. Automotive industry is an industry which could have serious consequences, if brands remove their logos. The problem lies in the impression that “all cars look the same” (Roy, 2010).

Currently, automotive industry was facing a difficult times during the world recession. With it, the people’s preferences changed, as well as their budget, creating a mass downfall in the industry, and the need to cut costs became even more necessary. The well-known platform sharing and re-badge engineering, exists as a way to cut costs, however, choosing the cheaper, and safer side does not always lead to profits. Borrowing designs from one company, changing the logo, and sold under a different brand name, is first of all not always successful, not always cheaper and definitely not good for a brand.

There is already a study, mentioning the design cues that could be used from automotive brands, however, the aim of the study was totally different, and not fully explained why they should be used and which of them people do perceive easier and faster to achieve recognition. In this paper all of the above would be clearly explained, as well as the limitations that a logo has, the emotional bond, associations and relationship between people and automobiles and the most important, the reason people buy a specific automobile.

Introduction

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Focus of the research

The focus of the report is concentrating on the automotive brands competing on the European market, however, other brands were considered when appropriate.

From a design perspective, the paper is focused on the exterior aesthetics of the automobiles. The aesthetics take an important part of the brand attributes, which are used from companies to build their brand identity. Brand attributes include characteristics like:

1. Functionality – how the product or service works 2. Aesthetics - form, colours, textures, layout 3. Marketing – the advertising strategy 4. Price Point – expensive, cheap, and average 5. Behavior – how the company treats customers and employees 6. Brand Dress – how the brand express itself with logos, fonts, slogans

This paper is mainly focused on the Aesthetics attribute and more specifically – the form of sub – elements in automobiles, e.g. headlights, which are connected to a certain degree with the layout.

Brand Attributes

Aesthetics

Brand Dress

Functionality

Marketing

Behaviour

Price Point

Form Colour

Layout

Texture

(Jordan, 2012)

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Purpose and Beneficiaries

The purpose of this report and the guidelines, are developed to assist automotive brands, to successfully express their brand identity on their automobiles, without using a logo. This would enhance and strengthen the brand recognition not only from a distance, where the logo could not be seen, but also increase recognition in people not interested in the automotive industry.

The work is intended for people, who are allowed to build, develop and evolve an automotive brand – Brand Managers, Design Strategist, Designers and Strategic Planners - people that could manage and enhance the brand identity of the automobile to a new level of recognition. The work is targeting brands that wish to strengthen their brand identity and especially brands entered the marked comparatively late (Asian brands). Beneficiaries would also be people today strive for cleaner and simplified look, which would reinforce the personality and character of the automobile.

Motivation and value of the project

The motivation behind this project could be looked from different aspects. At the beginning of the research, the motivation for undertaking this specific topic came from the De - branding trend, which created concerns that automobiles would not be recognisable without a logo. Hence, a brand should obtain a really strong brand identity, and should have other strong design cues, to be able to differentiate from competitors.

The other aspect of the motivation came during the research, when it was noticed the dramatically growing size of logos placed on the vehicles in the newer generations of automobiles. This could be interpreted that brands were trying to strengthen brand image.

The third aspect was the de – badging of automobiles, that is popular in Europe. Every person had own specific reason for removing the logo, however, the most common of them were because an automobile, without a logo and any other elements describing the model, transform it into more cleaner, simplified and aesthetically pleasant automobile. Certainly, people have different opinions and the group of people preferring totally unrecognisable automobile were found through the research, to be really small, and the issue could be addressed in another research.

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Structure

The overall research was following a specific structure, which begins with the next chapter – Aim and Objectives – the detailed and more in-depth focus and explanation about each specific objective that would lead to the aim of the research.

The following Methodology chapter describes the overall structure, methods and topics reviewed.

In the Findings Section, all the data received throughout the research were divided into 2 sections – Primary Research results, and Secondary research results.

The Discussion followed the objectives and summarized and analysed all the data gathered from the Findings Section.

The last section includes Recommendations, in which the final guidelines would be formulated into a framework and explained in detail, followed by Limitations and Suggestion for further research.

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1. To investigate the development of the de – branding trend and identify possible reasons why people would prefer de – branded products

2. To examine how people distinguish automobiles and evaluate to what extend these vehicles depend on logos to be recognized

3. To investigate the relationship between people and automobiles

4. To identify what causes automobiles to be designed similar

5. To develop strategic guidelines for automobile brands to indicate their brand identity, without applying logos on their automobiles

To develop strategic guidelines that will assist the automotive brands to express their identity on automobiles, without using logo.

AIM

Research question

How removing the logo and de – branding the automobiles will affect the automotive brands? Hypothesis

If logos are removed from automobiles, these vehicles will lose their brand recognition.

OBJECTIVES

Aim and Objectives

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`

Methodology

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The methodology followed a specific structure and was divided on 2 stages. The first stage was focused mainly on defining the problem, development of the hypothesis and testing it. All of the steps were covered and in the first stage, however, in the second one, they were more deeply investigated and evaluated.

Methods

Method Primary Research

Description Purpose Justification

Interview*

Face – to face conversation with different people, in which automobile pictures were shown; Internet and help from other people were not allowed

• Test if people recognize the

automobiles without logos • Find out where people look

at in absence of logo • To investigate to what

extend automobiles rely on logos to be recognized

• Control the length of

the interview; • Make sure internet

and other help it not affecting the opinion

• Easy for the interviewees

Focus Group

Group of people with average and high interest in automobiles gathered in one place, to discuss selected topic

To monitor how people distinguish the automobiles, how they convince others, what are their evidences for it

People act differently when on individual interview and in groups

Immersion Type 1

Experience the de – branded products

Observe and experience the de-branding products;

Find out how other industries cope with the new de - branding trend

Repertory Grid

Images with automobiles without logo, grouped by 3, 1 to be eliminated with a specific reason; face-to-face, done individually

To examine how people perceive the automobiles, and how they describe them

Find descriptive dimensions and used it further in a survey;

Test 1 Consistency evaluation

Total of 10 brands - 6 brands with front view, 5 with rear view. Each group had to be grouped by brand; the models were from 1970s to 2013

Investigate whether people would be able to connect old models with new models of the same brand

Investigate whether consistency would lead to better recognition and most considered elements for recognition

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The interviews were from extreme importance and were more complicated than the other methods used for primary research. The interview was created based on showing automobiles to people, and they had to recognise the shown automobile. An individual, face – to –face interview was the only option because of the following reasons:

• Each person was shown pictures of 136 automobiles, intended to be sold in the European market, from more than 30 brands. This could have taken a long time

• If it was done in a survey format, online, people could provide irrelevant information by using internet to compare the photos or asking friends to help them with the survey

• More people would agree to undertake the research if it was easy and less demanding from the interviewee

A total of 41 people were interviewed and each person was asked 2 questions, to determine, if they have an interest in automobiles and to investigate the role of design. People with very low interest were not included in the research.

1. How interested are you in automobiles? Low Mid High 2. Is the design of the automobile important to you? Low Mid High

Some logos of the automobiles, were replaced with fake one – e.g. exchanged the logo of Mercedes with Honda’s logo to determine how much automobiles depend of their logo to be recognized.

Method Primary Research

Description Purpose Justification

Test 2 Element switching

e.g. headlights of Kia were replaced with headlights of BMW

To evaluate what defines a brand recognition, body or sub element - e.g. headlights

To investigate whether one element is enough for recognition, and which one

Survey

8 different brands from different segments, no logo, rated by dimensions found through the Repertory Grid;

Investigate the relationship between owners of the automobile and animals

Quantitative data was needed to create conclusion

Case Studies

12 individual case studies with automobile owners, how they feel about the brand and the design

Consider people opinion on whether they want their automobile to be recognisable without a logo

Examine whether people owning very low or high class automobile, would want the brand unrecognisable

Expert Interviews

Consultation with an expert in a specific field – automotive designers, strategists, etc.

Ask questions which could not be found freely; professional opinion and advice

Provide guidance and new areas of research

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Automobiles shown in the pictures were covered all segments used in the commission of the European communities (European Communities, 1999)

• A – mini cars • B - small cars • C – medium cars • D – large cars • E – executive cars • F – luxury cars • S – sport coupes • M – multipurpose cars • J – sport utility cars

Car segmentation:

For the Literature review, multiple sources were used to explore relevant issues. The most important data came from Design Journals, Scientific articles, works done by lecturers from other Universities as well as data from online sources like newspapers, websites, forums and statistics. The main topics covered in the research could be found on the following page, where the primary and secondary researches were explained visually.

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Interviews The individual interviews were conducted with 41 people, with consideration of the interest of each interviewee. The low, medium and high interested people were approximately the same quantity for best results.

Each interviewee was shown a total of 136 images of automobiles, from 36 different brands, without a logo, from different segments. There were automobiles, with original logo replaced from another brand, to examine whether people consider only the logo. All brands and models shown were intended for the European market

The interviews duration varied between 10 – 20 minutes, depending on the knowledge and speed of answering.

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Summary Total people with: How important is automobile design?

Interviews – 41 people Automobiles – 136 Brands – 46 Total answers – 5576

High interest – 11 Mid interest - 15 Low interest – 14

High - 18 Mid - 20 Low - 3

Overall Results

76%

24%

Total Recognisable Automobiles

19%

81% Recognised Unrecognised

Automobiles with fake logo In the test, some original logos were replaced with different logos, to test whether people would recognise the actual brand of the automobiles. The percentage of recognition was close to the one without a logo.

Recognised Unrecognised

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The automobiles used in the interviews, were intended to be for the European market. However, not all brands have European roots. Brands from US and Asia are also competing for a share in the European market. In order to investigate whether local brands are better recognised than the foreign ones, the results were arranged by region.

By Region

Segmentation of Interviews

Europe 31% Asia 9% USA 26%

Only 9% of Asian Brands were recognised from Europeans


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13%

87%

New Automobiles (up to 2 years old)


34%

66%

Old Automobiles (over 12 years old)


The results revealed that with time, automobile recognition progressively grows. However, significantly low percentage on the new automobiles was recognised, from which could be concluded that new generations automobiles could not be connected with previous older one.

Automobiles were divided into 3 age groups – New, Middle age and old automobiles. The data was arranged and evaluated which

By Age


29%

71%

Mid age Automobiles (4-11 years old)


Time

2 years

4 – 11 years

12 years

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Segmentation of Interviews By Segment

Dividing cars by segmentation, the initial testing revealed that the most recognisable segment is the luxury automobiles (F segment), and the most unrecognisable – the SUV.

Recognised

Unrecognised

23% 26% 24% 21%

27% 29% 28%

24% 18%

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By People

People interviewed had High, Medium and Low interest in automobiles. The level of interest of each person mattered for the research because people with no or very little interest would not be able to provide relevant information. The information below displayed the percentage of recognition for each group.

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15

12

Low Mid High

Interest in the Industry

Low Interest

Medium Interest

High Interest

11% 41% 23%


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People/Segmentatio

Low Interested people In this section, each group of people – from low, medium and high interest was investigated which segment is more recognizable from which group of people.

15% 11% 15% 7%

15% 10% 15%

12% 3%

Recognised

Unrecognised

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People/Segmentatio

Medium Interested people

19% 27% 24% 20%

26% 30% 25%

23% 19%

Recognised

Unrecognised

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People/Segmentatio

In this section, each group of people – from low, medium and high interest was investigated which segment is more recognizable from which group of people.

40% 44% 35% 42%

43% 53% 43%

43% 38%

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The results, revealed that both the front and rear part of the automobile was almost equally recognized from the interviewees from all automobile age.

Summary The total percentage of recognizable automobiles among people with different interest in the industry was found to be significantly low. It could be concluded that time people learn to differentiate automobiles better. However, new generations of automobiles were found to have extremely low percentage of recognition, from which could be concluded that visual connection between new and older models automobiles of the same brand is missing. The less recognisable brands in Europe were the brands, that have foreign roots, and more specifically Asian brands. The most recognisable segment of automobiles was found to be the Luxury segment, and the less recognisable – SUVs. As expected, people with less interest in the industry had recognised fewer automobiles and gradually went high with the people’s interest. Further segmentations of the results by people/segmentation, did not reveal huge differences between the automobile categories, with exception with the low interested people, where the least recognisable with only 3% and 7% for SUVs and Large automobiles respectively. The recognition divided in front and rear side of the automobile, was almost equal.

Front and rear view

31%

70%

Front


30%

69%

Back


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Focus Group

During the interviews, people used specific elements to explain themselves, when naming a brand. The focus group was formed to further investigate where exactly people look at and what reasons they could use against other opinions to convince that the model displayed was produced form which brand.

The participants were shown same pictures used for the interviews, but only a part of them. They were used to begin the conversation and later on leave the conversation to the group.

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Focus Group

Before

Outcomes When shown a new model automobile, most people gave different opinion, and all of them had his/her own hypothesis of why it is the stated brand. When a person gave an opinion, other people interrupt and argue, and had explanation why.

Most of the parts that people pointed out as an argument were:

• Shape and style of the headlights • Front bumper • Front grille/shape • Side lines – the shape of windows,

handles, wheels • Tail lights • Back windows • Roof • Spoilers

At the beginning of the focus group, almost all of the participants clamed, that they will distinguish the brands. When shown the pictures, however, people found it difficult to recognise the most. An interview was not conducted to these people before.

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For the first test, 9 different brands were selected. From each brand, were selected a few automobiles based on their year of manufacturing. The period of time followed approximately from 1970 – 2013. This was used to examine, would people be able to connect current generation automobile with previous generations, and identify which elements were the bridge between new and old generations.

The automobiles were grouped in 2 – front and back. On the front side were used 3 models for each brand and on the back only 2. Total participants - 11, exercise done individually.

Notes

Searching for good quality image, from 1970s proved to be a challenge for the front side, however, when it came to the rear, it was even harder. An image with appropriate view and quality was a must, as the images were printed. To avoid confusion among people and the test to be reliable, automobiles from 1970s from the rear were not shown.

Consistent Test 1

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0pic

1 pic

2 pic

3pic

BMW

Alfa Romeo

Ford

Peugeot

Citroen

Renault

01234567

0pic

1 pic

2 pic

3pic

Back

BMW

Audi

Lancia

Jaguar

Citroen

Results Front

The graph illustrates, that the brand recognised from the people are BMW and Alfa Romeo. The other brands people managed to recognise were 1 picture from 3.

When people were grouping automobiles, most of them gave only 2 reasons for selecting the specific pictures. The first was the Headlights, and the other one – the Grill.

In the back testing, the automobiles were 1 picture less, than the front one. Even though the majority of people failed to group the images together by brand, their arguments were the tail lights and overall shape of the trunk door.

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0pic

1 pic

2 pic

3pic

The graph represents the combination of results in front and rear. People, that couldn’t connect exterior with specific brand from rear side, were come compared with the front side.

The results revealed that the brands using consistent design, in the front of the automobile, were of huge importance when people were grouping the models by manufacturer. Even the people with low interest in automotive industry were able to group the brand correctly. When it comes to the brands using inconsistent design, people failed to group them correctly all of the pictures. However, they mentioned that they group automobiles by the design of tail lights Sorting people by interest, the percentage of recognition was as followed:

Low Interest

Medium Interest

High Interest

24% 31% 38%

People


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Test 2

In order to investigate which of the elements is most important, the second testing was developed. This test was developed with the help of Photoshop, to switch one element - grill or headlights from one brand, to another, to investigate, which sub- element of the automobile was the most important for the brand recognition. Total participants -11, exercise done individually.

A total of 7 automobiles with switched elements were selected. Each automobile was numbered e.g. T1.

Notes

Since no specific element than tail lights was found, only they were changed. The shape of the rear door was not am element that could be easily replaced. The elements of the rear side were harder to replace as the shape of the trunk door have different overall design that rarely match from another brand. Test images were done to investigate how important the tail lights might be for recognition.

Element Evaluation

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0%

64%

36%

T2

BMW

Alfa

Other

37%

27%

36%

T1

Audi

Pegeout

Other

T1

T2

Body – Peugeot

Switched element – Grill (Audi)

Body – BMW

Switched element - Grill (Alfa R.)

BMW 0%

Original image

Original image

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73% 0%

27%

T3

BMW

Kia

Other

46%

9%

45%

T4

Audi

Mitsub

Other

Body – Kia

Switched element - Grill (BMW) T3

Kia 0%

Body – Mitsubishi

Switched element - Headlights (Audi) T4

Original image

Original image

33

9%

46% 45%

T5

Kia

BMW

Other

27%

0% 73%

T6

Mercedes

Honda `

Other

Body – Kia

Switched element - Headlights (BMW)

T5

Body – Honda

Switched element - Taillights (Benz) T6

Honda 0%

Original image

Original image

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18% 0%

82%

T7

Lotus

Alfa

Other

Elements Low Medium High

Headlights 2 1 6 Grill 6 6 10 Body - 1 4 Total No People 4 3 4

Body – Honda

Switched element - Taillights (Benz) T7

Alfa Romeo 0%

People and Elements

People from each group used as argument the headlights, the grill. The rear element switching did not reveal any significant element of recognition. Different groups however, revealed that the high interested people do look at more elements and compare them to determine the brand. They also consider the whole body of the automobile more than the low and medium interested people. The arguments given from participants could be seen in the table below:

Elements Low Interested Medium Interested High Interested

Headlights 2 1 6 Grill 6 6 10 Body 1 4 Total No People

Original image

35

9%

58%

33%

Body/ Grill

Body

Grill

other

9%

46%

45%

Body/ Headlights

Body

Lights

other

Summary of Test 1 and Test 2

The results from Test 1 revealed that automobile brands using more consistent design were highly recognisable even for low and medium interested people. However, the rear side of the vehicles did not achieve high results.

The overall results from Test 2, revealed that people recognise most the Grille of the automobile. The second element was the Headlights. As far as the rear side is concerned, people could not determine the brand and the percentage of people recognised the body or the borrowed element were significantly low, compared to the front side.

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Repertory Grid

The purpose of this method was to investigate how people perceive, associate and talk about the automobiles. The exercise was done individually with combination of 3 images with different models from different brands, with erased logo. The participants were supposed to exclude 1 of the images that does not fit with the other 2 and argument themselves for the choice.

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By the owner By size By design By features

• For young person • For old person • Feminine • Masculine • Wealthy • Mid class • Professional • Amateur • Gangster • Playboy • Teenager

• Small • Big • Low • High • Squeezed • Long • Confined • Spacious • Solid

• Simple • Complex • Fashionable • Old fashioned • Cute • Ugly • Funny • Serious • Aggressive • Arrogant • Angry • Sexy • Boring • Rounded • Stupid • Distinctive • Nice design • Bad design • Friendly • Malicious • Weird • Luxury • Modern • Unique • Organic • Futuristic

• Functional • Effective • Safe • Unsafe • Stable • Convenient • Easy to handle • Fast • Slow • Reliable

Like a protector Aerodynamic

Results When People talked about automobiles, they used words as they use to describe a person – eyes, nose, and face. There is also evidence for the usage of the words used to describe a person in automotive magazines and articles.

The words used to describe automobiles could be arranged into 4 groups.

People also tended to associate automobiles with animals: Frog, Snake, Shark, Eagle, Tortoise, Tiger Raven, Crock, Bulldog and Alien.

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Survey

The purpose of the survey was to understand how people perceive a certain design, connect the design of the automobile with the person and investigate further whether people associate automobile with animals. Total responses received -37.

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Animal Associations

Felines – Lion, Jaguar, Cheetah, Leopard, Panther, Puma/ total 19 answers of wild cats

Bird – Eagle, Hawk

Other – snake, crocodile, shark, cobra, Horse

Total responses - 29

Summary – fast, deadly, predator animal

For young person/ old person

Masculine/ Feminine

Squeezed/ Stretched

Simple/ Complex

Fashionable/ Out of style

Low class/ High Class

Affordable/ Expensive

Funny/ Serious

Aggressive/ Amicable

Arrogant/ Humble

Angry/ Calm

Sexy/ Unsexy

Ordinary/ Special

Boring / Interesting

Flat/ Rounded

Stable/ Non stable

Distinctive/ Bland

Good design / bad design

Slow/ Fast

Short/ Long

Animal Associations

Felines – Lion, Kitten, Cat/ total 9 answers

Small animals – Rabbit, Squirrel, Mouse, Frog, Dog.

Other – Dolphin, eagle, Hammer Fish, Otter

Total Responses 24

Masculine/ Feminine

Small/ Large

Low/High

Simple/ Complex

Cute/ Ugly

Funny/ Serious


Arrogant/ Humble

Angry/ Calm

Sexy/ Unsexy


Flat/ Rounded

Distinctive/ Bland

Friendly/ Unfriendly

Malicious/ Kind

Short/ Long

Summary – predominating small friendly animals

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Masculine/ Feminine

Small/ Large

Low/High

Squeezed/ Stretched

Confined/Spacious

Simple/ Complex




Cute/ Ugly

Funny/ Serious


Arrogant/ Humble

Sexy/ Unsexy

Ordinary/ Special


Functional/ Useless

Comfortable/ Uncomfortable

Flat/ Rounded

Stable/ Non stable

Distinctive/ Bland

Slow/ Fast


Short/ Long

Animal Associations

Felines – Lion, Jaguar, Cheetah, Leopard, Panther/ total 13 answers of wild cats

Other – Shark, Horse, Wolf, Reptile, Woman


Summary – dominating fast, deadly, predator animals

Animal Associations

Big Animal – Rhinoceros, Bear, Buffalo, Elephant, Bull

Other – Lion, Fat Tiger, Men


Summary – enormous aggressive wild animals


Small/ Large

Low/High

Squeezed/ Stretched

Confined/Spacious

Simple/ Complex



Cute/ Ugly

Funny/ Serious

Angry/ Calm

Sexy/ Unsexy

Ordinary/ Special


Functional/ Useless


Safe/ Unsafe

Slow/ Fast

Malicious/ Kind

Short/ Long

41


Masculine/ Feminine

Small/ Large

Low/High

Squeezed/ Stretched

Confined/Spacious

Simple/ Complex



Funny/ Serious


Arrogant/ Humble

Angry/ Calm

Sexy/ Unsexy

Ordinary/ Special


Functional/ Useless


Safe/ Unsafe

Flat/ Rounded

Stable/ Non stable

Distinctive/ Bland


Malicious/ Kind

Short/ Long

Animal Associations

Main – Lemur, Koala, Rabbit, Squirrel, Mouse, Panda

Other – Owl, Turtle, Pigeon, Chicken


Summary – predominating herbivorous

Animal Associations

Predators – Lion, Leopard, Jaguar, Tiger, Hyena, Fat Cat, Snake

Other – Whale, Cockroach, Horse, Old Monkey


Summary – enormous aggressive wild animals


Masculine/ Feminine

Small/ Large

Low/High

Squeezed/ Stretched

Confined/Spacious

Simple/ Complex




Cute/ Ugly

Funny/ Serious


Arrogant/ Humble

Angry/ Calm

Sexy/ Unsexy

Ordinary/ Special



Safe/ Unsafe

Stable/ Non stable

Slow/ Fast


Short/ Long

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Masculine/ Feminine

Small/ Large

Squeezed/ Stretched

Confined/Spacious

Simple/ Complex




Funny/ Serious


Arrogant/ Humble

Angry/ Calm

Sexy/ Unsexy

Functional/ Useless


Safe/ Unsafe

Flat/ Rounded

Stable/ Non stable

Distinctive/ Bland


Slow/ Fast

Malicious/ Kind

Short/ Long

Animal Associations

Small animals – Dog, Rabbit, Frog, Mouse, Humming bird, Bee, Koala, Turtle, Fish, Puffer Fish


Summary – small harmless animals

Animal Associations

Big animals – Polar bear, Bear, Ox, Hippo, Ostrich, Gorilla, Pig, Elephant, Ram

Other – Fish, Bat


Summary – big sized animals


Small/ Large

Low/High

Squeezed/ Stretched

Confined/Spacious




Cute/ Ugly

Funny/ Serious


Arrogant/ Humble

Angry/ Calm

Sexy/ Unsexy

Ordinary/ Special


Functional/ Useless


Safe/ Unsafe

Flat/ Rounded

Distinctive/ Bland



Malicious/ Kind

Short/ Long

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The synthesised results would be grouped in a table.

Usually women are perceived as sexy, as a main reason automobiles advertising are associated with women would be seen later. However, the automobiles perceived to be for women were not sexy.

The automobiles rated as masculine were mainly characterised with aggressive, arrogant and distinctive sexy look. The animals used to describe them were different types of wild or domesticated cats. The one automobile rated as masculine was also perceived for older person. The automobiles rated by this category were perceived as ugly, unsexy and calm. Automobiles for young person were mainly rated as feminine (totally 3) and just one as masculine, with the same characteristics as displayed in the table for both categories.

Total 3 classified as Feminine Total 3 classified as Masculine Total 3 classified for old

person

3x Bland 3x Friendly 3x Kind 3x Unsexy 3x Calm 3x Humble 3x Amicable

2x Aggressive 3x Arrogant 2x Sexy 2x Distinctive

3x Ugly 3x Unsexy 3x Calm

Animals Predominating small harmless animals

Animals Association mainly with Felines or other predator

Animals Enormous animals, or fat ones

Summary Survey

44

Expert Interviews

Expert interviews were needed to investigate topics not found any books, magazines or internet sources. Some of the experts were conducted with automotive designers, former employees of automotive manufacturer as well as Brand Strategists, Researchers and Graphic designers.

45

Former employee, Human Factors at

Cyriel Diels

Why automobiles look so similar? “The costs involved in creating a new model are huge. Designing vehicles that are distinct is risky from a business perspective as consumers may not like more advanced or differently looking vehicles.”

“The world of car design is very small and you will find that most designers have worked as a designer for at least one other OEM. Some designers have pretty much done a world tour throughout their careers having worked for most OEMs.”

Automotive designers

“This is probably a design trend, which tend to come and go. Whether this reflects the attempt for brands to ascertain themselves I don’t know. It may be related to creating a stronger face following on from Audis success in creating a highly recognizable face across models.”

Bigger size of logos

“De-branded products may also be aesthetically more pleasing, the brand logo signifies mass product without logo it may appear more exclusive.”

De-branded products

Will people be able to recognise automobiles without a logo?

“Form lines, the lines along shut lines or body panel edges, are key form the descriptors and are of primary importance of delineating the shape. Depending on the individual’s knowledge and experience, these form lines will be sufficient to identify the make and model.”

E-mail Interview

46

Automotive designer,

Current Project: Future London Taxi

Niels van Roij

Face to face Interview

“People associated brands by the region they were produced - German automobiles were known for their reliability, and Italian, for their stylish look – values that today could not be used to compete with. Visual impact plays a huge role today and that is why bigger logos could be interpreted as trying to strengthen the brand image.”

Bigger size of logos

Why automobiles look so similar? On mentioning this question, the designer disagreed that automobiles look similar. However added:

“It’s too risky and too expensive to launch a new design concept.”

Will people be able to recognise automobiles without a logo?

“Actually, some brands test this. Before the new design start manufacturing, a meeting is organized with specific people, to be test subjects. They are shown a few models of cars, all of them with the same colour, usually silver, and same interior. They have to point a car, which looks like the new Ford for example.”

47

He also mentioned that there are 3 steps of recognition.

“These examples show there is not an exact fixed measurement, you could say roughly step 1 is 20-10 meter, step 2 is 2-1 meter and step 3 is 2-1 decimeter. There is nothing like an official and specific distance.”

20-10 meter

2-1 meter 2-1 decimeter

Examples the designer used to explain. Source: www.netcarshow.com

48

Automotive designer at

Ajay Dhankar

E-mail Interview

Do you try to embody the brand values within the design? “Current generation of JLR cars tries to strongly portray its brand values”.

Is consistent design important?

“Consistency is very important. Being consistent is positive in the sense that it creates a strong identity for the brand and people can relate to it. This can result in fan following and increase in future sales. But it can’t be taken as a fact.”

“Every user is different and also keeps on changing his mind with time; I think this is why brands keep evolving themselves in terms of design language etc.”

Do you test the approved concept without a logo before manufacturing?

“All current models of Jaguar and Land Rover have a very strong brand identity and it’s a fact that they can’t be mistaken for anything else. The logo test is a very old method of identifying the strength of your design and all premium brands swear by it.”

Future vision “I would say that differentiation will be more difficult as every company is competing with every other company and doing what other has succeeded doing in recent past. Hence, they all look same. However there will be phases now and then where technology may lead to differentiation.

49

Head of Colour and Trim at

Pete Cullum-Kenyon

E-mail Interview

Commenting the logo (no question was asked)

“A brand or a badge, especially for a luxury segment car, I think is almost irrelevant. It is almost vulgar to have to remind someone of who makes this car.”

“My personal view is that developing a brand identity is a very good thing…I personally like design statements and design freedom, and I find it all the more engaging, intelligent if you see something that is both pushing the envelope, and yet somehow has sufficient brand 'DNA' as to be recognisable as a product from a particular brand.

Brands, whether we like it or not, also stand for a certain personality or performance or level of quality. People may choose a car to reflect an aspect of their own personality or something which they wish to project, or perhaps identify with. Why not make things easier for our customers?

Brands, People and Personality


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Interviews with another 2 automotive designers who preferred to stay anonymous

Anonymous

Both people mentioned that sometimes it is a management decision to design a car in a certain way and designers just follow what has been said to them.

Automotive Design Director at

Frank Stephenson

Comment on what looks right

“…it costs exactly the same amount of money to design a beautiful car as it does to do an ugly car……Let’s don’t take a risk. And the cars tend to look boring and to start to look all the same…”

Secondary Expert Interview

Former automotive designer at

Adam Bazydlo

“When designing a vehicle it is important to embody the brand values within the design.“

Do you try to embody the brand values within the design?

(Stephenson, 2013, cited in Kitman, 2013)

“Peugeot are consistent with their exterior design and the value of being consistent is that your cars don’t disappear in the crowd, they are always seen as Peugeot”

What could be the values of having consistent or inconsistent

51

Senior Designer Researcher at James Steiner

Phone Interview

Strategist, Reluctantly Brave

James Pattison

E-mail Interview

“Many brands have several different elements which they use differently. E.g. Gucci has the G, the link pattern, the G pattern, and also the red/green bands. The brand is unmistakable - but also inconsistent at the same time? “

“Giving a brand the opportunity to differentiate is useful as it can 1. appeal to different markets/ segments and 2. also give the brand flexibility to evolve and expand. Look at brand such as Sainsbury which have their basics, normal and taste the difference - catering for different consumers and hence allowing them to grow. “

Differentiation

“Consistency is important depending on the brand. HM for example have multiple styles selling in their store, but they are consistent in their Branding.

For a company like Procter and Gamble, consistency is needed to differentiate their products.

Companies that have single product, like BMW, differentiation, is not needed.



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Expert Opinion

In this section, Design experts were asked to rate the level of consistency for the brands, used for the first test – Test 1, which evaluated the importance of consistency for the recognition of the brand by the exterior design of the automobile. Their task was to rate the automobiles from 1 to 10 by consistent design in the exterior design of the automobiles, where 10 was the most consistent. All experts were selected to have design knowledge as it was a must for the exercise

Botyo Botev, Web Designer

Mobina Nouri, Product Designer

Graham Dove, Web Designer

Patrick Jordan, Design, Marketing

and Brand Strategist

Paul Bermudez, UX Researcher and

Graphic Designer

Stuart Norman, Interaction Lab Manager

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The front side, was rated by experts as overall higher than the rear side. The most consistent brands, were BMW and Alfa Romeo, were rated average consistency 7, which was significantly high rating compared with the other brands in the front side. These brands were also the most recognisable brands from participants in the Test 1.

The rear side of the automobiles shown, were rated extremely low in terms of consistent design, with the highest score of 3,8. On the rear side, people in the Test 1, performed worse, than in front.

Front Mobina Stuart Paul Graham Patrick Botyo Average

BMW 8 8 8 5 8 5 7

Alfa Romeo 9 6 6 7 7 7 7 Ford 8 4 4 0 4 2 3,6 Peugeot 6 5 5 6 4 2 4,6 Citroen 6 4 4 4 7 4 4,8 Renault 7 3 3 0 6 6 4,1

Rear Mobina Stuart Paul Graham Patrick Botyo Average

BMW 5 4 2 0 1 5 3,2

Audi 4 3 2 0 1 3 2,2 Lancia 4 5 3 0 0 5 2,8 Jaguar 7 7 6 0 0 3 3,8 Citroen 4 3 4 0 0 4 2,5

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Immersion The immersion was 2 types. The first type was to investigate how people would recognise the brands through their products. By experiencing these products, key elements of how products could differentiate from one another were investigated. The place visited was the London’s retail centre – Selfridges on 8th February 2013.

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Immersion – type 1

The store separated a section, on its first floor, where the products for sale were not supposed to have a logo on them.

Identified

A few brands like Heinz, Marmite and Beats were very clearly identifiable, even though I neither own Beats earphones nor I have tasted Marmite. However, Heinz and Marmite were having the label with the description and only the logo was discarded. The earphones were also clearly identifiable from a distance where the engagement was not seen.

Beats Heinz Beans Marmite

Unidentified

On the other hand, Levi’s was not recognized. There was simply a pair of jeans for me.

The bottle of Clinique, was a plain bottle with standard pump in the top - no label, no description what it contains. As e person not using their products, nothing could have distinguished that product from others..

A dark bottle as shown on the right was not Identified. No label, no description what it contains on the product, or for what it is used for. No description on the side, next to the bottle, only a name. For the non – consumers like me, this product stays unidentifiable.

Other products like writing paper, pens and other stationary, were not identified.

Image taken in Selfridges, 8 Feb. 2013

Outside Selfridges, 8 Feb. 2013

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The difference

There was a difference in what it was published on the website and in newspaper articles. It was said that there were sold de – branded products. However, the beats earphones had engraved logo on each side, and products like Vaseline and nail polish still had their logos on.

This as well might be just another advertisement of the store and the bands included in the initiative.

Immersion, type 2– Automotive

In the second type of Immersion, the key aspect to be considered would be the 3 steps of recognition the automotive designer Niels van Roij mentioned.

However, taking into account that one to be able to see the details, seen on the closest image – (2-1 decimetre), the distance between the automobile and the person should be extremely close.

Images taken in Selfridges, 8 Feb. 2013

Images taken in South London, 3 Sept. 2013

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Since people, would rarely look at automobiles that close, from this position, the distance for each step was scaled, and the shortest distance was 2-3 meters. But first, the difference of the logo would be investigated, as there was not reliable source, which acknowledged the size, except some American models.

Both automobiles, on the pictures, were Toyota. However, the difference in the logo is 3cm, which is about 33% more.

Another brand had even more drastic difference in size. To visualise the significant size difference, logo sizes were compared with female hand with palm size 16cm, measured from the beginning of the palm, to the longest finger.

Logo size: ~9cm, Ford Focus, 1998

Logo size: ~14cm, Ford Transit, 2000 Logo size: ~21cm, Ford Transit, 2006

Fords images taken in Brunel University, 7 Sept. 2013

Images taken 29 August 2013

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Combining this fact with the 3 steps of recognition mentioned from the automotive designer, The answer is clear.

Images taken of an automobile with small logo.

However, the logo of the BMW is of the smaller ones. That is why an automobile with a bigger logo

Logo seen as a dot

Logo vaguely seen

Logo clearly seen

All images taken in South London, 3 Sept. 2013

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Automobile pictured with larger logo.

On the second step (the image in the middle), the logo was clearly distinguishable, for me as a person with normal sight. However, the image could not capture it clearly due the textures which this particular logo reflected. On the other hand, comparing side by side, the VW logo was more distinguishable. Because the logo of the BMW was positioned slightly on the top, the automobile on the far right, was with smaller logo as well, captured approximately from the same distance. The benefits from a bigger logo are clearly seen.

Logo seen as a dot

Logo more clearly seen

Logo clearly distinguishable

Images taken in South London, 4 Sept. 2013

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Case Studies

Individual case studies were conducted with people owning automobiles from different class. The purpose of the method was to investigate whether people would want their automobile to be recognisable without a logo. Most participants preferred their automobile to be recognisable, and even though the brand was found to be from high importance, if the design was not meet their aesthetic preferences, they would not buy the automobile.

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To examine the result received from the initial interviews regarding brand and design, and for investigating whether people would want to be recognised in their automobile, 16 interviewees agreed to participate. They were all drivers, currently owning an automobile. The questions asked were:

1. What automobile do you drive? 2. When you buy an automobile, what is more important – the design of the automobile, or

the brand? 3. If your automobile, does not have a logo, would you care, if other people would be able to

recognise the brand of your automobile? 4. How important is to you, others to recognise your automobile?

Rusi Kaushik Romulus Mobina* Minou* Ines* Paul Graham

Car Mazda Opel Renault Renault Audi Ford BMW Seat

Brand or Design Brand The price Reliability

Brand, then Design*

No Brand Brand then Design

Design

Recognition No Doesn’t matter

Doesn’t matter

Doesn’t matter / Yes

No No Yes Don’t care

Others Not at all

Not important

Not important No No

Not important

Yes

Rumi* Elena* Patrick* Stoyan* Sonya Krum Lyubka Iliya*

Car Mercedes Fiat Land Rover Fiat Merced

es BMW Seat VW

Brand or Design

Both are important Design None Brand Brand Both Brand/

Design

Recognition Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Others Yes Yes Yes Don’t care Yes Yes Yes Yes

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*Mobina – would not buy the automobile, if the design is not good. It is good to be recognisable but not that important

*Minou – “I want them to look at the automobile, not the brand”

*Ines – “I don’t believe in brands, because you pay too much just for the brand”

*Paul – “Won’t buy the brand if the design is not good”

*Iliya – “Both are important as, but even if the brand is good, I would be ashamed if I am seen in a ridiculously designed car. And definitely don’t want to be seen in it. “

*Rumi – “For me the design is really important, I like my car to have personality. I want others to recognise my car because of image and status, however, I would prefer if there was another car from the brand that looks similar, so thieves won’t be able to recognise the modification.”

*Patrick – “In some circumstances is good others to recognise your car, for example when going out on date it would be good”

*Stoyan - “None is important. The newer is the car, the less you will spend time fixing it”

Doesn’t matter

High end

Low end

No Yes

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From the mapping, is clearly seen that, the majority of the interviewees prefer their automobile to be recognisable even without a logo. The people owning a mainstream brands, the number of people is almost equal in the 3 sections. People owning an automobile from the economy section, and in the premium, wanted their vehicle to be recognised as well. The people that didn’t want then automobile to be recognisable, was significantly lower than the other 2 groups. The high end – luxury automobiles, and the new economy vehicles were not considered, due to the fact that luxury vehicles are in lower quantity and thus hard to find participants, and the lower end, because it is still new segment and people in Europe are not driving that kind of vehicles, at least are extremely low interest in them.

It could be concluded that even though the brand matter when purchasing an automobile for most people, if the design was not found to be attractive, people would not buy the brand and in some cases to feel ashamed of the design, not of the brand.

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Literature Review

65

The invention of the logo dates back thousands of years ago. As a symbol of instant recognition, the logo was and it is still used to provide information without words or letters. However, a few years ago, a new trend, that removes the logo from the products, the roots of which is thought to have started in the fashion, has now spread to other industries. It is called De – branding trend.

Recently, one of the of the London’s most famous retail center – Selfridges, organized an initiative, in which many famous brands like Heinz, Marmite, Levi’s, Beats and Crème De La Mer, voluntary removed their logo, and sold their de-branded products.

Initially this trend is thought to have started from fashion, when people started to prefer to buy more “'quiet goods, without a brand mark” (Jamieson, 2010).

Industries Involved 2009 – Absolute launched No Label and claimed that it is more importants what is inside than what it ourside and “dares to face the world completely naked” with the (Absolute, 2013)

2009 – Starbucks opened unbranded coffee shop, Seattle, called “15th Avenue Coffee and Tea”(Gilbert, 2009), still continuing in London, Starbucks opened in 2012 (Tepper, 2012 )

2013 – Crème de la Mer, Clinique, Beats by Dr. Dre joined the Selfridge’s initiative to remove and sell de – branded products(Selfridges, 2013)

Fashion

Drinks

Food Cosmetics Audio

De - branding

The trend

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Fashion industry has influenced automotive industry “nearly since the birth of the automobile.”(Kurczewski, 2011).

Examples

Levi’s AMC Gremlin, 1970s, Source: sub5zero.com

New Fiat 500, Gucci edition. Source: Gucci.com

The connection The connection between both industries is seen in the designers.

Fashion designers, become automotive designers.

Fashion and cars have probably never touched so many lives as they do at the moment, says Anthony Prozzi, Senior Designer at Ford Motor Co.

(Kurczewski, 2011)

“ “

Antony Prozzi, fashion designer currently working for Ford Motor Company, Source: beautyandthebeatblog.com

Relationship between Fashion and Automotive Industry

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Logos in Fashion and Automotive Industry

1970s - “Logos on clothes were generally hidden from view, discreetly placed on the inside of the collar.”(Klein, 2010)

1980s - The logo came out “onto the outside of the shirt” (Klein, 2010) and was used as accessory. Moreover, the logo was growing in size, and was dominating on the clothes. And ”since the Eighties, designer logos have been used as a means of indicating wealth and status.” (Abraham, 2010).

2010 – “Consumers prefer more discreet branding” (Jamieson, 2010).

Logos in Fashion

Logos in Automobiles

Citroen AX4, 1997, Source: wheelfever.net Citroen C1 ,2012, Source: onuart.com2

This fact, was only commented in various blogs from people in different parts of the world. It was noticed in US in 2008 when the logo on pickup truck grew 250% more than before:

Having in mind this progression of the logo in terms of size, very similar thing is happening to the automotive logos. Recently, they have grown up in size as well:

Logo size, Source: (Mays, 2008)

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Why would people prefer de-branded

Fashion

Automotive • People “have become less interested in

logos” (Orena, J, 2013)

• New perception of luxury

• Global Recession (Jamieson, 2010) – people didn’t want others to know how much they have spent for a bag or shirt.

• Simplicity was dominating trend in 2009, and now “Simplicity considered not only as a trend but as necessity”, 2013 (Davies, 2013)

Different people provided different for removing their logo or other badges off their automobile:

• looks better (97X, 2011) • cleaner look (RunInColorado, 2006) • classier • adds mystery of the vehicle (Dunderhi,

2011) • easy to clean or wax (SKY, 2011) • hide the engine modification (230Terry,

2006) • don’t want others to know they have a

basic model (97X, 2011) • prevent stealing(rajah996, 2006) • cultural preference- a model "badge" is

ostentatious. (Kanuck, 2011)

“

“

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Comparison between fashion and automotive industry

Both fashion industry and automotive industry, express status. And today

“You were what you wore became you are what you drive (Kurczewski,

2011)

For the comparison between the 2 industries, high end and low end brand would be selected. From the premium segment, BMW was selected, and from the economy – Kia. In the fashion industry, Chanel and HM. Brand from both industries were selected not to be too cheap or too expensive.

A positioning map for brands in the clothing market, adapted (IB Business and Management, 2013)

Automotive Brand Positioning (Cardesignresearch, 2013)

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Premium brands in both industries are characterised by high prices and more time of manufacturing than the low class brands. The lower classes have shorter production time and offer more affordable prices and probably more trend responsive. However, the huge difference between the both industries is the quality of the products. The comparison revealed that in the automotive industry the premium brands are not that reliable as they should be for the price they cost and at the same time brands like Kia have decent quality and high reliability.

Fast Fashion (Low Class)

Classic Fashion (High Class)

Premium Automobile Brands

Low Class Automobile Brands

Examples

HM Chanel BMW Kia

Affordability

Cheap Expensive Expensive Cheap

Production

2 weeks 2 times a year Every 7 years 28 weeks

Quality Reliability

Low Quality Low Reliability

High quality High Reliability

High quality but Low Reliability

Descent quality High reliability

For table reference see References/ Automotive and Fashion comparison

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Differentiation

72

(Nworah, 2013?)

Differentiation We live in a world, where boundaries are not what they used to be. The diversity of cultures, people technology created the world as we see it today. The major difference is that today there is a choice. Today the milk is not just milk – but semi-skimmed, low fat, whole milk, soya milk, chocolate milk, banana milk, milk powder, milk that could last months.

This applies to other industries as well. Automotive industry has different products, and before they were not as much as today. Today there are mini, small, medium, large, executive, luxury, sports automobiles, as well as multipurpose vehicles and sport utility vehicles. Today, the number of vehicles worldwide “Surpasses 1 Billion” (Tencer, 2011). With the bigger choice, and the growing competition between the brands becomes “difficult to brutal” (Aaker, 2004), differentiation becomes of key consideration for brand recognition.

Brand distinctiveness or being able to differentiate from competitors is embodied into the Brand’s DNA which stands for “Distinctiveness, Novelty and Attributes, as compared to those of the competition” (Nworah, 2013?).

Source: bibi.uz

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According to Young and Rubicam Brand Asser Valuator, the brand strength is measured by Differentiation and Relevance.

http://young-rubicam.de/tools-wissen/tools/brandasset-valuator/?lang=en

“Differentiation has been found to play a key role…in fact a healthy pattern is to have differentiation higher than relevance, relevance higher than esteem and esteem higher than knowledge”(Aaker, 2004). Differentiation could be expressed not only with

distinctive logo, but also with specific features and shapes. However, this feature would be meaningless unless branded. “A branded differentiator is a branded feature…that creates a point of differentiation for a branded offering that is meaningful for customers and merits active management over an extended time period.” (Aaker, 2004) The branded feature and ingredient, in the tangible world refer to specific elements, though which visually people could differentiate one brand from another.

Branded Differentiator Exclusive

• Feature • Ingredient • Service • Program

Differentiation comes on the first place, because “if a brand fails to develop or maintain differentiation, all brand will start look the same to consumers, and price will become the dominant decision determinant” (Aaker, 2004).

Y&R Brand Asset Valuator, updated, (Young and Rubicam, 2010)

Branded Differentiator (Aaker, 2004)

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Relationship between people, animals and automobiles

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People, participation in the primary research, described an automobile, using words, usually to describing other people.

To understand how people perceive automobiles and moreover how they differentiate them, led to investigation of human recognition abilities. The results would be used to create differentiator

People

Recognition A study revealed that people recognize other people by looking at their face. The face “provides vital information about a person’s identity and characteristics such as gender, age, health and attractiveness.”(Nauert, 2012)

“They all consist of the same basic parts — two eyes, a nose, two ears, and so on — with the only differences being small variations in the colour, shape, and spacing of features. And yet a face is never just a face; it is always someone’s face.” (Mehta, 2012)

Human face

Sum of parts Another study, exploring the human recognition abilities, confirmed that, people recognize faces in 2 ways – holistically and “sum of parts” (Gold, et al., 2012), meaning the eyes, nose and mouth. The first method is recognizing the face by overall features, and the second one – is that people focus more of the eyes, nose and mouth. Both methods are almost equally important for the recognition. In other studies, these both methods are referred as “global and local strategy”. (Nauert, 2012)

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When using local recognition strategy, people look at within a “triangular area between the eyes and mouth” (Nauert, 2012).

Local Strategy When using global recognition strategy, people look at “how the features are arranged”(Nauert, 2012)

Global Strategy

Eyebrows

“One facial feature has, surprisingly, received little attention from researchers in this domain the eyebrows. Sadret al.[70] have presented evidence suggesting that the eyebrows might not only be important features, but that they might well be among the most important, comparable to the eyes. “(Sinha, et al., 2006)

Eyes

“The eye is the window of the soul…the intellect, the will are seen in the eye” Hiram Powers, American sculptor, 1805 -1873

A scientific research claimed that “eyes are window to the soul” (DailyMail, 2007).

“Results suggest people with different iris features tend to develop along different personality lines” (Larsson, cited in Daily Mail, 2007)

It is believed that “eye contact is a powerful stimulator of love and affection. This is because when you look someone directly in the eyes, his/her body produces chemical called phenylethylamine that makes the person feel in love (Pscychologia, 2013).

Source: silwergoff.livejournal.com

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A theory called Recognition-by-components revealed that people are able to recognise an objects because “the visual system extracts geons - simple volumes such as cubes, spheres, cylinders, and wedges…”(Kirkpatrick, 2001), which is proposed to function in the following way:

” RBC proposes that representations of objects are stored in the brain as structural descriptions. A structural description contains a specification of the object’s geons and their interrelations (e.g., the cube is above the cylinder). A perceived object is analyzed by the visual system, which parses the object into its constituent geons. Then, the interrelations are determined, which include aspects such as relative location and size (e.g., the lamp shade is left-of, below, and larger-than the fixture). The geons and interrelations of the perceived object are matched against stored structural descriptions. If a reasonably good match is found, then successful object recognition will occur. “(Kirkpatrick, 2001)

As far as the faces were concerned, another study regarding face recognition revealed that people recognise objects faster than faces:

350ms It was found that people “can accurately report the identity or category of an object in the central visual field remarkably quickly: ~350 ms in humans. “ (DiCarlo, et al. ,2012)

4 seconds Recognition of faces, however, needs more time, as they are more complex than the simple volumes and it “requires sufficient encoding time” (Curby, 2009), approximately 4 seconds.

Objects and Faces

As human brain process objects, which are built from geons, simple 2d shapes, means that people could perceive and recognise simple forms significantly faster than a while face.

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Automobile as an animal

A lot of people, from the conducted interviews and focus group used to associate automobiles as animals. The survey revealed that depending on the models, people perceive the vehicle as a different animal.

Animal Names or Symbols: Advertised as animals

Source: lmostalwaysthinking.com

Source: uk.adforum.com

Source: .1addicts.com

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Automobile as a person

‘It is this highly visceral relationship between bodies of people and bodies of cars that forces us to

acknowledge the humanity of the car in the first place’(Miller,2001 cited in Sheller, 2003)

Automotive brands were named after their founder:

Or particular models:

Association with a woman

Source: lmostalwaysthinking.com

Source: uk.adforum.com

Source: .1addicts.com

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Emotional relationship

“When cars become members of families, repositories for treasured offspring, and devices for demonstrating love, practicing care, and performing gender, they bring into being non-conscious forms of cognition and embodied dispositions which link human and machine in a deeply emotive bond.”(Sheller, 2003)

To a certain extent, automobiles are like clothing - “they make you feel a certain way when you are in them and convey an image to the world” (Barth, 2007). Moreover, they are today ‘Ready to Wear’.

The automobile “convey status, suggesting wealth, importance, or a practical nature.” (Barth, 2007), and it is like “mobile mirror to their soul.” (Hawley, 2010)

“The ‘love affair’ with the car, its sexualisation as ‘wife’ or lover, suggests a kind of libidinal economy around the car, in which particular models become objects of desire” (Sheller, 2003)

Love

Bond

Automobiles are like l h

Fiat 500 advertisement. Source: www.youtube.com

Fiat 500, Source: www.youtube.com

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In a several different studies, the automobile and the person driving it, was considered to

differentiate as a new life form, a hybrid between person and machine, as “biomechanical beast,” (Dant, 2004) in which people experience new emotions that could have never been experienced without the automobile. “The embodied orientation to a world of rapidly moving objects from a sitting but rapidly moving position is something that must be learnt.”(Sheller, 2003)

“Touching the metal bodywork, fingering the upholstery, caressing its curves, and miming driving ‘with all the body’ suggests the conjoining of human and mechanic bodies.”( Sheller, 2003)

“The car-driver social being”, where” she or he becomes merged with a car to create a new cyborg life form, the ‘car-and-driver’,” (Dant, 2004)

“The driver-car is not a species resulting from chance mating but a product of human design, manufacture and choice. The particular driver-car may be assembled from different components with consequent variations in ways of acting, and its modal form may vary over time and place.” (Dant, 2004)

Neither the human driver nor the car acting apart could bring about the types of action that the assemblage can; it is the particular ways in which their capacities are brought together that bring about the impact of the automobile on modern societies.”(Dant, 2004)

‘It felt alive beneath my hands, some metal creature bred for wind and speed… It ran like the wind. I ran like the wind. It was as though I became the car, or the car became me, and which was which didn’t matter anymore’ (Lesley Hazleton cited in Mosey 2000: 186). “It transforms the way we sense the world and the capacities of human bodies to interact with that world through the visual, aural, olfactory, interceptive and proprioceptive senses. We not only feel the car, but we feel through the car and with the car.” (Sheller, 2003).Of course, not everyone feels the automobile in that particular way, however, “different kinds of persons obtain different kinds of psychological benefit from car use.”(Sheller, 2003), or they might as well not realise it, but only feel it.

BMW advertisement, 2013, Source: youtube.com

Some brands, realise the connection between the automobile and the person, and advertise it.

Automobile and driver

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When the wild animals are concerned, in some cultures, a skin from a wild animal, more specifically a predator animal, was used as symbol - “Leopards are seen as a symbol of pride, beauty and wealth” (Mabuse,2012), and it is worn “as traditional gear, including Zulu royalty and high-profile individuals like President Jacob Zuma” (Mabuse,2012).

People and animals automobiles

Wild animals are not obedient. They could be “characterised as dangerous because they respond only to nature and not to human domination”..” the level of savagery associated with some of these animals has led to their being used as elements onto which human characteristics and conflicts might be projected”( Benavides, 2013)

“…the power, danger, and might of the forest as opposed to human settlement, and they are viewed with admiration and awe and fear”.(Tambiah 1969, cited in Benavides, 2013)

Animals are used as a metaphor or as an analogy in order to talk about human beings where an expression of positive and negative aspects and every culture, possess different mythology regarding animal symbolism.

However, people sometimes associate themselves and adapt wild animal feature, for example, the cat eye look advertised by Maybelline.

As the automobile, was perceived and advertised as women, a study revealed that men with high sexism “did not perceive sexually dressed women as fully human...They found that when women were dressed sexually (compared to when they weren't), people implicitly associated them more with animals (Heflick,2010). Most commonly women are perceived as cats and just like them are “often branded as sneaky, slinky, mysterious, hard to read and impossible-to-please.”(Blakeley, 2009). Cats have developed different associations through the years, however in Europe they are have negative and positive associations - “ In the former, greed, ferocity, and violence are emphasized; while in the latter, seduction, beauty, and power are highlighted. One could also speculate that the more culturally distant from the human world the feline is—in other words, the wilder it is—the more intense these associations become (e.g. comparison of a domestic cat with a tiger).” (Benavides, 2013)

Source: mccannlondon.co.uk Source: malepatternboldness.blogspot.ca

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It is psychologically determined that “people often equate freedom with having a lot of control over things.”(Johnson, 2011) – control over other people, animals and automobiles. As wild animals are unpredictable and follow only their instincts, just like people could refuse to respond in the desired way. Most of the time they could be manipulated but not entirely controllable. Automobiles were designed to follow and respond to the human will, and obey unquestionably through actions. Controlling a vehicle could be as dangerous as controlling a wild beast – losing control over wild animal or an automobile could be both fatal.

Emotional Values

“Feelings and impressions of a product are important for the decision of purchasing it or not (Schutte, 2005)”

People are emotional creatures. As such we are influenced sometimes more from the emotions than from rational thinking. For example, people are often influenced from their emotions when buying an automobile. “Car consumption is never simply about rational economic choices, but is as much about aesthetic, emotional and sensory responses to driving” (Sheller, 2003).

When looking at customer buying behavior, there were basically 2 reasons when people chose a particular automobile. The first is rational thinking, concerning fuel economy, engine size, and so on. The other aspect was emotions. Buying an automobile, usually involves both aspects. The proportion of each depends of the person.

Buying an automobile, usually involves both aspects. The proportion of each depends of the person. However, premium brands like Bentley, Aston Martin, are purely emotional led decisions. (Trend Tracker, 2011).

People do buy cars led by emotions (Trend Tracker, 2011).The emotional-led buying behaviour is more domination through people with 55%, and 45% for rational thinking. The Trend Tracking research confirmed that the emotional decision making is about to continue growing.

55% 45%

Source: agcoauto.com

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However, mainstream brands like Peugeot, Fiat are usually rational led. Looking at the emotional mapping used in a consumer research, it is clear that brands are divided mainly purely emotional or rational. There is only one example of emotional and rational decision for an automobile – the Mini.

Brand Positioning on the emotional and rational scale (Trend Tracker, 2011)

The gap discovered, a way mainstream brand to recapture their customers again, knowing that today Europe automotive manufacturers experienced huge losses during the recession.

Through emotions brands could reach deeply and create strong bond through which brands could gain loyal customers.

“When cars further become breeds and kin, they enter even more deeply into an emotional geography of human and physical relations…car-users become ever more deeply ‘cathected’ with cars and their material cultural sedimentations, one of which is the brand. For those who have become so deeply attached to their cars and to the physical, cultural and emotional geographies that have become ‘natural’ within car cultures, how easy will it be to give up this part of the self, the family, friendship and kin networks?”(Sheller, 2004)

GAP

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A brand has a family of products as a family has family members. Since the automobile was considered to be like a person, and it was examined that consistent design in automobiles it is important to be recognised, led to investigating the relationship and similarities within a family.

This process of inherited visual cues, was seen in people and in one of the most recognizable automobile brands.

Insofar, it was investigated that consistent design contains strength to brand recognition. The key challenge would be to avoid too much consistency and achieve flexibility within consistency.

BMW, 2013

Evolution

Similarity between family members, photographs taken by Frauke Theilking

BMW, 1998

Alfa Romeo and BMW were the brands rated to be the most consistent exterior design. They, just like the family members, have specific recognition elements that made them from the same family. This kind of relationship in products, created high recognition as the results from the primary research revealed. Today BMW is actually “the most powerful and well recognized in the world.”(Nedelea, 2013).

Source: wallpaperstock.net,topspeed.com

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The answer to that question is hidden in the human facial expression. On the picture below, with the different face expressions people are capable of, one element, does not have much flexibility, comparing it with the other elements, which form the facial expression. This element is the nose.

Face expressions have been analysed from scientist and the table below reveals the elements used to formulate a facial expression.

Emotion Darwin’s Description

Anger nostrils raised, mouth compressed, furrowed brow, eyes wide open, head erect

Contempt lip protrusion, nose wrinkle, partial closure of eyelids, turn away eyes, upper lip raised,

Disgust lower lip turned down, upper lip raised, expiration, mouth open, spitting, blowing out protruding lips, clear throat sound, lower lip, tongue protruded

Fear eyes open, mouth open, lips retracted, eye brows raised

Happiness eyes sparkle, skin under eyes wrinkled, mouth drawn back at corners

Joy zygomatic, orbicularis, upper lip raised, naso labial fold formed

Sadness corner mouth depressed, inner corner eyebrows raised

Surprise eyebrows raised, mouth open, eyes open, lips protruded,

Source: istockphoto.com

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Table 1 Descriptions of face elements used to formulate expressions, Source: (Matsumoto, 2008).

“Facial expressions, then, are elements of a coordinated response involving multiple response systems” (Matsumoto, 2008).

However, the nose, was only mentioned only 2 times. Eyes, eyebrows, mouth and lips were dominating elements involved in all of the expressions.

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Reasons why automobiles looks similar

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Explicit and Implicit Cues

Every brand has its own name, personality and values. In the case of a product oriented brands, like automotive brands, it is key to transform the values into design features. Source: (Karjalainen, 2007)

Explicit

Implicit

Explicit cues “are embedded in the design features designers implement with the intention to be immediately perceived and recognised” (Karjalainen, 2007).

On the other hand, being too consistent, with certain cues, could lead to sameness. A good example of this kind of consistency is Aston Martin.

Implicit cues comprise references that cannot be distinguished but, when used, ‘make sense’…. If they fail to communicate the brand character, recognition is not supported“(Karjalainen, 2007).

Moreover, “grasping the implicit level of recognition is a particularly challenging task” (Karjalainen, 2007).

Source: (DeMuro, 2013)

Some people, participating in the primary research for recognising the automotive brand, could not explain why they thought it was a specific brand. They only mentioned that they “feel it”.

On the other hand, the explicit cues were a dominating argument for huge percentage if the participants.

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Health and Safety

1. The first consideration is about pedestrian safety. The front end should be designed “flat and wide”, and lifted a little up (Ury, 2012)

2. High belt line, resulting front higher front 3. Aerodynamics - in order to be more fuel efficient and thus resulting as flat front end which leads

to raising the trunk line even higher and bigger. “This is why so many cars now have trunk profiles that resemble the back end of an elephant” (Ury, 2012)

4. The first 2 result into higher doors with bunker windows, which is also a result from the airbags installed in the roof above the windows

Summary of how automotive design had changed according to Health and Safety Regulations

5. “Higher rollover chance of survival”(CNET,2012) – for this the side pillars were made thicker airbags that are installed in the pillars itself, which on the other hand results into less visibility. Thick pillars (marked in yellow), for safety and airbags to fit in. This with combination of smaller windows could lead to less visibility.

Thicker Pillars, Source: holden.com Limited visibility as result of thicker pillars, Source: which.co.uk

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6. Taking into account European, Asian and US regulations

Automotive designers

Insofar, it was discovered that the automotive design is limited and most of them have made a “world tour” (Cyriel, 2013) and have worked for the most automotive manufacturers. However, designers as artist have their own style.

“After years of painting, drawing, sculpting or whatever, your style becomes you. You are your style. Inseparable, one and the same, no matter what you choose to create.”

Sonja Donnelly, Fine Artist

The design of Jaguar XF was described as “eye-catching, to be sure, but it looks much more Aston Martin-like than vintage Jaguar (KBB, 2013). The common between both vehicles, they were both designed by the same person – Ian Callum.

Higher front end of automobiles for lowering the damage in case of accident with pedestrians. Source: ISO Standarts

Aston Martin, 2005, Source: caradvice.com.au Jaguar XF, 2012, Source: motortrend.com

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Ownership of the brands

As a direct result of the world recession and the need brands to cut expenses to survive “many car brands have merged under the corporate umbrellas of just a few big global car giants” (Newbury, 2005). However they ”never considered in enough depth exactly how the products would be differentiate between the brands”( Newbury, 2005).

Since a lot of companies have merged, being sold and bought, design of the automobiles have been copied if not all, at least there was a close resemblance between models. At first there was similarity between Jaguar, Aston Martin and now with Ford. Even though Ford had sold Aston Martin in 2007(BBC, 2007), and Jaguar Land Rover, the new Ford Fusion 2013 has significant similarities with the front of Aston Martin:

The similarity is very noticeable and hugely criticised - “A $20,000 midsize family sedan that resembles the front of a $200,000 Aston Martin sedan” (Atiyeh, 2012 ). Frank Stephenson, currently a designer for McLaren, commented the similarity:

“I can’t understand, for example, why Ford today -- I’m not criticizing Ford -- why they’re putting the Aston grille on it, your designer or design team should be creative enough to come up with something revolutionary, fresh, cutting edge. Don’t steal — not steal, but borrow, even though they’re closely connected” (Stephenson, 2013 cited in Kitman, 2013).

Aston Martin (left) and Ford Fusion (right) Source: msnautos.com

http://editorial.autos.msn.com/blogs/blogfilter.aspx?author=x9f8ca60510e2cffe2ae0f4588bcebe84a4b52e009f563735

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However, the examples continue with Today, Toyota, Subaru and Scion.

The three amigos, Source: (CarBuzz, 2012)

100% of the interviewed people could identify neither the Toyota, nor the Subaru, but most of them said it was the same car.

Both automobiles are sold in UK, on the same price – “from 24,995” (Toyota, 2013). The Scion is sold in US for approximately the same price: $25,255 (Scion, 2013)

It is common practice automotive companies to adjust the design according to the preferences of a region, however these three automobiles “are virtually identical, save for the badging” (CarBuzz, 2012)

“We've seen more than a few cars in the past share engines and platforms. In some cases, they were offered by the same manufacturer with different body styles (an example is the Toyota Camry/Lexus ES 350). In other cases, manufacturers from different countries marketed "fraternal twin" products to their respective customers (Toyota Matrix/Pontiac Vibe and Mercedes-Benz SLK/Chrysler Crossfire). But in the case of the FR-S and BRZ, manufacturers from the same country are marketing "identical twin" cars to basically the same customer. ..So now we have two nearly identical cars from two different Japanese carmakers competing in the same market segment.” (Mitani, 2012) what is more concerning it that these brands “don't see it that way”. (Mitani, 2012)

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Lancia Thema (left) and Chrysler 300c (right)

The financial problems US brand experienced through the recession led to the “sale of Chrysler to Fiat.”(Bigman, 2013)

Fiat saw Chrysler ”as a primary way to preserve the money-losing Lancia brand.”(Dickens, 2013).

However, re-badging Chrysler automotive designs as Lancia’s, could be viewed as attempt to revive Chrysler, not Lancia brand. The Lancia design adopted Chrysler’s grille, and the Lancia Thema is no doubt the Chrysler 300c model, as Niels van Roij commented the 2 photos. Lancia basically became Chrysler. Further investigation revealed that

“The success of Marchionne's game plan in Europe depends a lot on whether Lancia's loyal and conservative customers will continue to buy Lancias even if they are blatantly rebadged Chryslers.” (Kacher, 2010). The results from selling the de-badged Lancia were not optimistic. “2012 Lancia sold almost 2.000 units of the Thema (UK included): 20% of the target (10,000), which is nothing “(Felipe, 2013).

Design coping is usually well spread in Asia and more specifically China. The country famous with its “copycat culture” (Wainwright, 2013), and “ its attitude to intellectual property” (Wainwright, 2013).

Image Sources: europecarnews.com, netcarshow.com

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An example how some of the Chinese automobiles look like:

Chinese version of BMW 745i BMW, 745i

Legal actions had been taken before against copycat automobiles from BMW and Mercedes they “are threatening legal action against Shuanghuan”, which they claimed have copied BMW X5 and Mercedes’ Smart. However ” it’s not clear if copying a car is illegal” (Edmondson, 2007)

Sources: index.hr Sources: cleveland.olx.com

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Other topics

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Aesthetics as Differentiator

Today, people are bombarded with all kinds of advertisement and promotions in the real and in the

digital world. “An attractive Aesthetics cuts through this clutter” (Schimitt and Simonson, 1997) and helps the physical product to stand out from its competitors.

1. Ratio – is referred as to the proportion of the vehicle – e.g using The Golden Ratio Pythagoras Theorem, The golden ratio.

2. The Balance includes aspects as symmetry or asymmetry.

3. Rhythm. The first aspect of the rhythm was connected with the size of the elements used in the body of the automobile, and the other – the flow –“A flowing rhythm gives a sense of movement.”(Liming and Mingyang, 2011).

4

4. Unit and Variety includes Shapes, Position of elements like headlights, Colour and Material. In this section, the shapes would only be considered.

5. Whole and Part – automobiles as a one whole objects, and the different parts construction the whole.

As was found through the primary research, the ratio, Rhythm, the unit and variety are principles through which people perceive an impression of the automobile, but not recognition.

From the above described Aesthetic principles, only Balance and Position of elements would be considered further.

Aesthetic Principles

1. Ratio 2. Balance 3. Rhythm 4. Unity and Variety

5. Whole and Part

• The Golden Ratio • Fibonacci Number • Bell’s Number

• Symmetry • Asymmetry

• Regular • Flow • Shape

• Placement • Colour • Material

• Whole • Parts

(Liming and Mingyang, 2011)

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v

z

Balance Symmetry in the animal world is connected with “fitness and high genetic quality” (Zaidel and Cohen, 2005), while asymmetry as a sign of illness and diseases. “The biological situation in humans is different from animals because humans possess multiple skeletal and anatomical asymmetries as well an anatomically and functionally asymmetrical brain” (Zaidel and Cohen, 2005)

The study reveals that asymmetry was related to emotions – good or bad, attractiveness and resemblance. However the difference between “the natural asymmetry and abnormal asymmetry has not yet been determined.” (Zaidel and Cohen, 2005).

Asymmetry could be considered as attractive without causing too much asymmetry in the most important parts of the face like beauty marks.

Beauty mark, does not change the overall symmetry. Source: biography.com

Asymmetry in important recognition elements. Source: faceresearch.org

Automobiles are also symmetrical. An element like number plate, especially in the Alfa Romeo, is an asymmetric element not widely seen by other manufacturers. Although this element is larger to be compared with a beauty mark, it could be argued whether it affects the overall symmetry or not. In the case of Audi (image on the right), the asymmetric element was the trunk locker – small, functional, asymmetrical element which drags attention to it, but does not dominate.

Asymmetry in the important recognition elements like headlights, grille could be perceived as abnormal.

Source: honestjohn.co.uk Source: weilinet.com

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When it comes to the rear side most automobiles are symmetrical just like the front.

Other companies use asymmetry.

Land Rover Discovery 3, Source:carpages.co.uk Land Rover Discovery 4, Source: autocarzine.com

Land Rover Discovery 2013, Website Images of the model. Just one image on the rear (Land Rover, 2013)

Source: seriouswheels.com Source: lincah.com

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Concentrating on the front side of automobiles advertisement and promotion of automobiles could be a reason why people could not expose specific elements for recognition except for tail lights. The second most recognisable element was the shape of the trunk door. The evidence displayed from the manufacturer’s websites with image for new automobiles, there was no emphasising on the rear side. People have to learn no differentiate automobiles by themselves, with time. This could be perceived from manufacturer’s aspect that the rear side is not important. While that kind of strategy might not apply for other brands, partly explains why people could not connect the brand with the automobile from the rear side. On the other hand, people view other automobiles most of the time on the rear side, while driving, or in traffic and not the front, and the back of the automobile should not be ignored.

Kia Cee’d 2013, Website Images of the model. 2 images from the rear that does not provide clear look of the back (Kia, 2013)

When driving mainly the rear side is of person’s attention, Source: lotustalk.com

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“As visual symbols, shapes are also important source of a global identity. Unlike names, shapes cross cultural boundaries with relative ease” (Schmitt and Simonson, 1997). However, a shape, could be used to symbolise something. This symbolism is specific for culture or society. Shapes in the aesthetical aspect, is again a broad description. Moreover, “the shape of an object can differ according to the angle of perception, it is considerably difficult to classify various shapes systematically” (Lee, 2007). Shapes that were considered important from people participation in the survey were angularity. “Angularity is associated with conflict, dynamism and masculinity; roundness evokes harmony, softness and femininity” (Schmitt and Simonson, 1997) . “Personalities are often read into particular shape. Large shapes, tall or wide, are often perceived as powerful and strong, while small shapes, short of thin appear delicate and weak...The way size is evaluated varies strikingly on cultural and regional norms.” (Schmitt and Simonson,1997).

However, “the shape of an object can differ according to the angle of perception, it is considerably difficult to classify various shapes systematically.”(Lee, 2007). Moreover, same shapes could have different meaning “because of its size and its environment. For example, we usually feel that a small dog is cute, but a heavy dog may be felt fearful.”

Methodology which explains and transfers meaning to respective shapes already exists. This methodology is referred as Kansei engineering. Kansei Engineering “is part of a family of engineering methods aiming at translating user’s feelings into concrete product parameters.”(Levy, 2003). The basic of

how it works could be seen in the image: Kansei is the impression somebody gets from a certain artifact, environment or situation using all the senses of sight, hearing, feeling, smell, taste, as well as cognition. Rather, it is an all-embracing methodology containing rules for how different tools can interact with each other in order to quantify the impact a certain product trait has on the users’ perception.

“The design of the Mazda Miata is known to be the first and probably the most famous project based on Kansei Engineering”(Levy, 2013) and since then many companied adopted it. It is considered that “the car industry has led the development of KE (e.g., Mazda, Nissan, Ford, Saab, Volvo…)” (Levy, 2013)

Kansei Engineering creates shapes that respond to people’s feelings and impressions, and would be insufficient to achieve brand recognition based on feelings. However, the Kansei Engineering could help strengthening the associations and feelings people have toward automobiles.

Shapes

Source: emeraldinsight.com

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Simplicity trend “is the future” (Daniells, 2011)

'simple pleasures' trend. Department

store Selfridges, for example, launched its 'No noise' campaign in January, de-branding well-known products and paying homage to minimalist design with a 'quiet shop' designed to give consumers respite in a world full of commercial clutter. (Kepm, 2013)

Simplicity isn't a trend; it's a necessity (Davies, 2013)

Not only are the simplest brands outperforming the major stock indexes, consumers continue to say that they’re willing to pay a premium for simplified experiences. (Davies, 2013)

Top Home Design Trends For 2013 Favour Simplicity (WSJ, 2013)

“Organic, natural colors, simple prints, rustic finishes and open spaces are proving to be the top home design trends of 2013” (WSJ, 2013)

Simplicity is everywhere.

Selfridges’ quiet room, where people could rest from invasive promotions, Source: BBC.com

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“Simplicity is Golden.”

(Taylor, 2013)

Simplicity in technology

“As a constantly connected culture, we deal with a nonstop flow of information, some of it important and relevant, most of it not. We are constantly evaluating, filtering and, of course, creating content, and it all gets pretty exhausting…Becoming overwhelmed is all too easy, and a reduction of clutter in a user interface (UI) can create a little visual zen.” (Taylor, 2013)

Simplicity in Design

“Collective consciousness swing from a love of all things textured, beveled and drop-shadowed to a desire for flat colors and simple typography” (Taylor, 2013)

Simplicity allows “Focus on content” (Taylor, 2013)

On the right, Apple’s iOS6 and newly launched iOS7 with more simple and clean look

Apple’s iOS6(left) and newly launched iOS7(right) with more simple and clean look, Source: letsunlockiphone.com

Simplicity in design Source: smashingmagazine.com

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The popularization of the De - Branding trend, have currently influenced more industries– food and beverage, cosmetics, audio and stationary. While Absolute launched its Limited edition No Label “to manifest the idea, that no matter what's on the outside, it's the inside that really matters” (Absolute, 2013) Starbucks opened de - branded shops, as a new strategy to attract lost customers after closing about 700 stores. Starbuck’s de - branded shops continue to emerge today as well. Both brands used the removing of the logo as a strategic direction, or to enhance a clear brand message. However, there is no reliable evidence why the other brands removed their logos, only that they did follow the trend. From the immersion, as a person with certain interest, brand like Heinz, Marmite and Beats were clearly identifiable because of the shape, color and graphic style of the displayed product and labels. Other products, I personally failed to recognise, did not have any label or description to identify or help me identify the product. Moreover, I have never used these products, where I have bought Heinz before and I am familiar with the brand and its identity.

So far, there has been little discussion about the growing size of logos placed on automobiles. Both interviews, from Cyriel Diels, and the automotive designer - Niels van Roij, suggested different reasons, but they were both concentrated on strengthening the brand image or face expression. Size, as dimension of a shape or form, is “perceived as powerful and strong” (Schmitt, 1997 ) and it could be a reasonable explanation for creating a larger logo, for strengthening brand identity on the automobiles. The growing size of logos, was noticed in the fashion industry, during the 1980s. This could be only a coincidence in both industries, but considering the fact that fashion had influenced automotive industry since the first automobile, there is a chance that the logo might as well be affected by the De-branding trend.

The obvious relationship between fashion and automotive industry led to comparing both industries by several aspects. The comparison revealed that while on the high end brands in fashion, quality and reliability was high, did not match the same for the automotive industry. Luxury brand automobiles, use quality materials, however, the reliability of the automobile is considered to be low, while the low end brands, have decent quality and high reliability. However, it was clear from the emotional mapping of automotive brands (page 70) that premium brands are more emotional than lower class brands. On the other hand, the manufacturing period for automobiles, had shortened. That process, like in the fast fashion, could lead to lower end brands to be more trend responsive, which however, hides a negative effect that being too trendy, an automobile could quickly go out of fashion.

De –branding trend

Logos in Fashion and Automobiles

http://www.absolut.com/products/nolabel

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Since each industry, has its own reasons to de-brand, people as well has its own reason to prefer not branded items. In the case of fashion, people perceived not having a logo as a new luxury or just to hide away the sum they spend for a specific product. While the latter, partly was the reason for removing a logo from automobiles from some people, the majority of people wanted to remove the logo were more emotional related – because this way the design of the automobile adopts more cleaner and classier look, or purely practical reasons – easier to clean, wax, etc. People also exposed other aspects – they didn’t want others to know that they have a really expensive modification of a model, or just the stock one. People owning basic model, wanted to hide it away, and people with the modified, didn’t want others to know that they spend a fortune. In order to be clear whether people would want their automobile to be recognisable among other people, owners with brands belonging to economic, mainstream and premium level were interviewed (classification of automotive brands, page 54). As the results revealed, people who wanted their automobile to be recognisable without a logo, were significantly more than the others for which it didn’t matter, or didn’t want to be recognisable.

Removing the logo, and all other model modifications, would allow the automobile to stand out for its design and personality, posse cleaner look and on the same time remain unknown modification for most people. The logic behind this comes from the human nature. When meeting someone, one may struggle to remember the name properly at the beginning, however once remembered, there is no need to ask, read his or her name, or remind it anyway. Pete Cullum-Kenyon, Head of Colour and Trim at Bentley, considered the logo to be irrelevant and vulgar to have to remind someone who makes an automobile, especially for the luxury segment. It is known how an automobile looks like, all it is needed to find out the name. Moreover, most automotive brands use a logo, a symbol of the brand, not their name written on the automobile, and people still do need to know which names stays behind a specific symbol. However, removing the logo could lead to a problem related to the identification of the automobile, especially if it becomes a mass practise for every brand.

With so many automotive brands today, and the growing competitors, differentiation is even more important. The brand’s strength was measured by its ability to differentiate and stay relevant with its style. Differentiation is even encoded into the brand’s DNA. However, most automotive brands relayed to the logo, to make them differentiate from competitors.

From all data gathered from different methods of primary research and literature review on the topic, could be concluded that at a current stage, automobiles’ brand recognition strongly depends on the logo to be recognised. As the growing size of the logo, could be taken as an act through which automotive brands were trying to strengthen their brand image. As became known, unless the logo becomes significantly bigger, recognition from a distance would not be possible. Moreover, people with slight sight problems would be impossible to reach the second distance. Visually, the 3 steps could be expressed through the scheme below. The distance used was approximately measured during the immersion.

People and recognition elements

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Middle circle

Moving to the middle circle with approximately distance to the automobile 12m (orange), more details would be visible, however, unless the logo is with a bigger size, and the person viewing it has perfect sight, then the brand could not be recognized by low interested people. However, at this stage headlights for examples, would be more detailed and people with medium interest would probably perfectly recognize the automobile, if they have the knowledge for the brand and their automobile.

Inner Circle

Only at a close distance, the logo is clearly visible, with details viewed from the elements of the automobile, like headlights.

However, one element, stood out, and was clearly visible, from the far distance – the front grille.

Even though the headlights were the second most recognisable element after the grille, from a distance they lose their detail and blur. Through this element, the automobile is recognisable even in the greater distance. The logo could not achieve that level of recognition, unless becomes even

12m

24m

3m

Outer Circle

People with high interest in the industry, just like experts, consider more elements to determine the brand like the overall body shape. Which means that, in the outer distance (24m, yellow circle), mainly experts or people with high interest would be able to recognise the automobile, since the distance would be big and the local elements would look smaller with fewer details, and the logo, impossible to recognise.

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bigger in size, which could be considered as “posh” and even stimulate people to remove the logo even more.

People, recognise automobiles, like they recognise faces, and the most recognizable element fit within a triangular shape just like in the human face. The holistically recognition of the human face, could be connected with the holistically approach of some people, not being able to name specific element, except that they feel that it belongs to that brand. When interviewing experts in the automotive industry and regular people, a huge difference occurred when they pointed out distinguishable elements. Experts, mainly mentioned body lines, proportions, body panel edges and shoulder line, silhouette, while regular people actually looked more specific elements to determine the brand - front grille and headlights. The logo itself is a specific element, which could have led people to search for another specific element for recognition.

On the other hand, recognition within a triangular shape, might be of high importance for recognition, because there is nothing on the outside of it. Currently the most important elements of all automobiles do fit within that shape. For the front side are the grille and headlights.

Even thought, it was not clearly explained from people, which were the elements that made them identify a brand, except tail lights, in all of the methods used so far, their actions and way of explaining led to elements again closed within a triangular shape. An explanation for the confusion cause in the rear side, could be because of the absence of an element like the grille as it is for the front. Using asymmetry as in the case of Nissan Cube or Land Rover could be powerful recognition, however, asymmetry applied in a larger scale could could become too consistent element and transform into a challenge to re-design for future. However, there could be another way which will not have such drastic impact on the overall symmetry. This element as referred from Aaker – the ingredient, could be a small detail, which could be asymmetrically positioned on the rear side. Though this detail, might not be able to reach the full potential of the grille as size, the tail lights are larger than the detail, nevertheless, the detail would break any doubt people may have to determine the brand. Even from a distance, if it seen as a dot, it would still be on a different position compared to the other brands. The detail would also allow more freedom in the design of the other elements constructing the rear side of the automobile.

The role of consistent design would increase the recognition among people with low or medium interest, as the results revealed:

Source: greenmotor.co.uk

Source: spoilercentre.co.uk

Source: weilinet.com

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However, the grille, or the shape that would be used to communicate the brand identity, would remain unknown and not understood, if not communicated. The branded feature, or ingredient, needs to be branded, to be connected and associated with the brand. These elements should be unique to a specific brand.

Even though the grill was the most powerful tool for instant recognition, headlights like eyes, could spark emotions. Scientifically proven, that eye contact could lead to affection and love, because of naturally releasing chemical from the body. Moreover, the eyes express personality and will. For creation of such emotional lines and achieving that kind of affection, the headlights, need to have defined shape. Creating visually appealing forms, needs deep understanding of consumers and how they perceive the shapes. Kansei Methodology was developed with a purpose to create visually appealing shapes that express what the product should express with its design.

People and Automobiles

Recognition requires consistency. On the other hand, being too consistent could have negative effect, and cause automobiles from one brand to be too similar. Though it might be an intentionally strategy, Aston Martin was a good example for too consistent design. The golden middle between 2 extremes could be described as flexibility within consistency. The answer to achieving flexibility within consistency is hidden in the human face expressions.

Looking at the face expressions, it is noticeable that the only part of the face - the nose, has quite limited movements – most of the times used to express anger or disgust. The other elements, eyes, eye brows, mouth play a key role in forming the expression.

The nose like in mathematics could be perceived as a constant – an element that remains unchangeable. The other sub – elements in the facial expressions are variables – they change to from an attitude and express emotions. If applying this to an automobile “face”, the primary

24% 23% 11%

Low Interest Medium Interest

31%

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branded feature should be where the grille usually is placed. Having a constant allows other elements to change more. This constant, would change with time and models, however, the structure and shape should be slightly adjusted in order recognition to remains. This element would be instantly recognisable, because people recognise shapes for milliseconds, than they need to process and recognise the whole face of the automobile.

People usually compare a sum of part before determine the brand/face. The headlights as secondary element of recognition, could possess level of consistency, lower that the primary element, and thus have bigger level of flexibility in their design.

The level of consistency, between models, for the primary and secondary element of recognition, depends on the brand – some brand would want not to be too consistent and adjusting the shapes of the element. It is important, brands to avoid drastically changes from one model to another, thus not being recognised from people.

If a brand would like to move to different look, to signify changes in the brand, or any other reason, it is important to have a bridge between the old look and the new look.

The relationship between people, animals and automobiles, is the control. The influence people use on other people, to manipulate and control them, the control people have over every living thing today, however, wild animals do not follow people’s will but their nature instincts which stimulates people even more to try to control them – because they are dangerous, ferocious, and in the past people dressed with animal skin from a predator, to express respect and status. Automobiles could be considered as mechanical beast which people could control. Of course, playing with a wild animal, or with an automobile and not knowing exactly what specific moves could do, could both lead to unpleasant results. On the other hand, people use automobiles just like clothing, to express something– status, wealth, style, personality. Although not everyone would associate automobile with a person or an animal, “different kinds of persons obtain different kinds of psychological benefit from car use.”(Sheller, 2003), or they might as well not realise it, but only feel it. The different benefits people feel and express through an automobile could be divided in four parts or pleasures.

Relationship between people, animals and automobiles

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The physical Pleasure, was connected with the physical aspects of the automobile – what people could see, touch and even smell, which is more associated with the interior. As far as the socio pleasure is concerned – status and wealth are usually connected with the price of the automobile. However, people might not want to show express themselves as a wealth, but their state or style.

The psycho and ideo pleasures, are connected more with how people perceive themselves through the automobile, the personality match with one’s personality and the automobile’s one, defines the person, and moreover, could lead to love for it. The automobile could add value to one’s psyche and – from a busy day, the automobile is a place where one could have its own time and do what he or she wants, because they own it, it is like home – a place, where people feel safe and control it.

The automobile, as a product respond to the four pleasures, which define a successful and desirable product. Different people perceive and feel differently about a specific automobile. The influence the brand possesses would be a powerful tool to inspire and direct people to the right automobile associations, not leaving people entirely to interpret the design themselves. However, the emotional impact automobiles possess over people, and the ideological aspect, remain out of focus for many brands, especially mainstream and economic brands. A desirable automobile is usually connected with luxury and premium brands. As a research revealed, there is a market gap, existing today, where the high end brands are strongly emotional, and the rational ones – more practical and feature oriented. The strongest side of luxury automobiles is the emotional communication to

Four Pleasures

Physio Pleasure

Socio Pleasure

Psycho Pleasure

Ideo Pleasure

Series of sensual triggers, Smell, touch, sight

Extension of river’s body, feel through the automobile

Express status, wealth, importance

Or taste, style, rationalism

Freedom, Control, Safe, reclaim time

Love affair, worship, ego-formation

Personality Match, mirror to their soul

Self – image, people define themselves through the automobiles

Four Pleasures visualised, (Jordan, 2002)

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people, and the strongest side of low end brands is their reliability and efficiency. If a brand could combine both aspects, become desirable and reliable, this brand would attract many potential customers, and moreover, would be able to keep them. This is where the market gap appears – there isn’t a brand, that is affordable, desirable and reliable. Currently automotive brands are divided in 2 - lower end brands are rational, where luxury brands are emotional.

The emotional bond people have automobiles, might not be understood by many. The automobile, the more it is desired, the more it becomes worshiped, loved, and even sometimes just want to spend time with. Just like a friend – one has expectations from it, and relies on these expectations to be fulfilled, when needed. If it fails, one might forgive, or it might become unwanted friend. The desire, the emotional bond, the acceptance as a friend, would lead to brand loyalty. However, while desire and emotions could lead to purchasing an automobile, the brand loyalty depends also on reliability of the automobile.

Evolving the brand

Maintaining consistency would be good for creating long lasting recognition. However, the world changes and innovates constantly, and so the people’s taste and preferences. A brand should remain relevant with its design, not just rely and constrain itself within the recognition in design.

A brand that has more than one product, which is the case with automobiles brands – they have one product, as James Steiner suggested, however, the brand have different models, which differ from one another visually and with targeted group. The brand could be visualised as a family, and its models could be the family members, then they should have similar visual identity, just like people, coming from the same family. That similarity could be connected with the human DNA. There is DNA of people, and today DNA of the Brand and even DNA of the automobile.

The DNA is “Constantly Changing through the Process of Mutation” (Scitable, 2013).This mutation, in the living organisms, could refer to innovation in the technological world. People change with every generation, however, it is never clear which genes will be inherited.

In the mechanical world, people have control, over the design of the automobiles. They decide which elements to be inherited in the next generation models.

That evolving strategy BMW has, led “BMW to be the third most recognisable manufacturer brand (McGraw Hill,n.d.) and most powerful automotive brand in 2013 (Badenhausen, 2012) .

Innovation/Evolution

Source: seriouswheels.com

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(Badenhausen, 2012)

Behind the automotive design, there are reasonable rules to follow, which create the impression that automobiles look the same. Some of them are connected with safety, another with designer’s own style. And when a designer switches employer, then he or she transfers his or her own style to the next company. It is widely known that “automotive OEMs have shared this (platforms) engineering across products” (Sehgal and Gorai, 2012) in order to cut expenses. However, as become clear, they share more than the platform, and it some cases the whole – the platform and the exterior design. This practice, remain unclear for most people and it was even called cannibalism because same automobile was sold 3 times under different brand name, on approximately the same price on the exact targeted group, on the same market, as seen from the example with Toyota GT86, Scion FR and Subaru BRZ. Even though the Subaru was intended to be limited edition, there would be no reason why people would buy a Subaru and not a Toyota, since the difference in only in the “badge”. Since automotive designers, are trying to express the brand values through the design, lead to the inevitable question – what brand values could possibly share these 3 different brands? If people still know that this is made by Toyota, and moreover, seeing that this automobile is sold as a Toyota as well, what could be the value of other brand with same design is not clear.

Taking one design, rebadging it and sold under different name would not necessarily be cost saving. If the production of an automobile are extremely high, as mentioned from automotive designers, then manufacturing an automobile with design (of not accepted brand like Chrysler), would not lead to profits. People still could see that it is re-badged Chrysler. The result was clear – Chrysler sold only 2% of the targeted quantity. This actions could be seen as not attempt to revive Lancia, but Chrysler. There are many examples, in which Automotive groups (Parent) companies influence their owned brands (child companies) in terms of design.

Automotive sameness

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Unfortunately, child companies like Lancia, would never reach their full potential, because the brand receive strong influence from the parent company. Once it was designed to be a Lancia, today, it is designed to be a Chrysler. If that child company is sold 2 or 3 more times to another parent company, there would be a high chance that the design on the Lancia would change again. After change of ownership the design would probably have nothing in common with the original one.

These child companies, could never be strong and create impact on people, and be recognised for what they are. This is not to be said, that parent company must not own other class brands under its wing, however these brand should be developed on their own, and have something to differentiate from the other automotive brands.

Sharing platforms, however, is something people do not see because is hidden below the exterior. People won’t be able to actually see the platform physically, however the design on top, could be perceived as a blank shell – the outlines, proportion does matter for the overall impact on people, however, could be the same, but it’s the content that matters most for recognising and creating distinctive design. This is not to be perceived that the overall shape, proportions and lines are to be ignored. However, they play a key role more for creating an overall impact on people vision and association.

Summary

The key elements and guidelines would be formulated into a framework, through which the guidelines would be explained in detail. The framework would be illustrated as a DNA, fusion of both automobile and brand DNA, to achieve highly recognisable brand through an automobile.

Parent Company 1

Parent Company 2

Parent Company 2

Child Company

Child Company

Child Company

Selling to Selling to

Change in design

Change in design

Visual of how design of child companies could change with change of ownership

Exterior (Shell)

Platform

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Strategic framework through which automotive brands could express their brand identity on automobiles without using a logo

Intangible aspects

Recognition Strategies

Recommendations

115

Touch Point

To successfully merge both Brand and Automobile DNA, a touch point from both sides should be selected. Example of a touch point could be personality (both the brand and the automobiles have personality). To create a

combination of both into one personality the first step would be to define the automobile model that would be produced. According to it, a selection of brand values should be selected to be expressed through the vehicle. (Not all brand values could be express through a single model. For example – there are different models of automobiles in one brand, and producing small vehicle, might not be able to express safety since small automobiles have the impression of unsafe vehicles, but could be expressed as friendly and cute). The personality of the automobile would be formed partly of the personality of the brand, and the personality of the specific model that would be produced.

Recognition Strategies

Once the personality is defined, there are 2 things to be considered – the brand identity and the automobile’s personality expression, formed in the previous step.

Tangible Strategy

The way the brand identity would be express on the automobile, should be expressed through specific features, or details, to achieve instant recognition. The recognition elements would be 2.

Front side of Automobile

The first would be a primary element of recognition – a shape, large enough that currently is visualised in the most automobiles as a grille. That element would provide instant, recognition from a long distance. The

secondary element of recognition would be the headlights. The headlights just like human eyes have extremely powerful emotional effect over people. To achieve long lasting brand recognition through models and generations, a level of consistency is needed for both elements. The primary element of recognition, should have higher level of consistency, when innovating, while the headlights could have lower level of consistency. The reason behind, is because people look for a secondary recognition element to reassure themselves that the viewed automobile is from a specific brand. People abilities to recognise are connected with more than one element. The following examples would support visually the level of the changes.

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Grille:

Headlights:

Rear side of Automobile

The rear side should have 2 elements of recognition as in the front. However, a primary element of recognition is currently missing. There are the tail lights as the secondary element. What could be done would be either to have primary recognition element, like the grille on the front, or to create a smaller recognition element, which would transform tail lights as a primary one. Visually, it would look as the following examples:

Element between tail lights

Though this detail, might not be able to reach the full potential of a grille, the detail would break any doubt people may have to determine the brand.

Secondary recognition elements are recommended to be used both for the front and on the rear side. If a brand decides not to use a secondary element in the front, recognition of the brand should

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be still high. However, if the secondary element is missing on the rear side, it would risk the brand recognition through the rear side of the automobile.

If there is not secondary element of recognition, especially for the rear side, people’s vision expands, and goes through the overall impression of the design, which has proven to be extremely difficult to recognise a brand through it.

Intangible Strategy

Brand values and automobile associations could be expressed through the body lines. They are not something specific people to rely on for recognition, but they have powerful impact on people’s perception for the automobile. Through feelings, and not something specific, people could have the feeling that it is the brand, and that kind of strategy should be used as addition to the Tangible Strategy. Automotive brands could use only recognition elements to express brand identity, or a combination recognition elements and overall impact,

but should avoid using Intangible Strategy as people are searching for specific elements for recognition. Only experts or people with high interest in the industry would be able to successfully differentiate automobiles from one another through intangible signs.

Aesthetics

Balance

The role of aesthetics is to create physically pleasant and desirable automobile. Aesthetics provide more a feeling than recognition. However, the balance expressed through symmetry or asymmetry could affect the recognition. However, using asymmetry, for the

front of the automobile, is not recommended as it could be perceived as abnormal and not aesthetically pleasant, as the front is perceived as a face. Asymmetry could be used for small details or detail that would not affect the overall symmetry of the design. Asymmetry could be used to lead viewer’s look to the position of the asymmetric element, as it would be the only thing asymmetrical. That asymmetrical element could be either secondary or a primary recognition element, depending on its size. Asymmetry applied in a larger scale, like of Land Rover Discovery, could create recognition; however it could become too consistent element, that might not be able to evolve with time, and before applying wider area of asymmetry it must be viewed aspects for further development of it.

The main result from using Ratio, Rhythm and Unit and Variety are intangible. However, through them, the feeling of unity and automobile as a whole could affect people’s perception for a specific model. Aesthetics are something that would be best known from automotive designers. They as

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specialist in the area would be highly familiar in the area and with the help of tools such as Kansei Methodology would know best how to create aesthetically pleasant and desirable automobile and recognition elements.

Defining and designing the recognition elements, is as much important as to create them stand out and capture the attention of the viewer. Simplicity could be used as strategic tool, through which the recognition elements would be able to stand out from the overall design of the vehicle. The more cleaner and simplified is the overall design, the more complexity would be allowed into the recognition elements.

For achieving recognition through the recognition elements, they should be consistently used, for each model, with every generation. They could be changed, re – shaped, adjusted, innovated, but their main features should remain the same. Every other shape and form on the automobile, could be flexible, it could be changed and designed specifically to express certain brand values or strengthen characteristic of the personality or association of the automobile. Primary recognition elements (e.g. grille), would allow recognition that with a logo, would have never be achieved.

The results from using these guidelines would not be immediate. These guidelines should be taken into a long – term strategy or otherwise, recognition would not be achieved.

Brand recognition is possible even without a logo. Brand recognition through the product, the automobile, would be stronger, immediate and at a long distance and could be considered as even stronger than the logo could achieve. Every brand, should have recognition elements, clearly defined one. They should be unique as shape, express emotions through which people feel a connection with the automobile. The stronger the emotional connection the more loyal to the brand people would be. Whatever the elements are chosen for a brand, they could be the most unique form ever created, however, if not branded, they would remain unknown and unrecognisable to the world. Although consistency is vital for recognition through generations of automobiles, the consistent elements should evolve and innovate with time. Not evolving, not adapting to the ever changing world, would lead to irrelevance.

The guidelines were verified by the automotive designer Ajay Dhankar. The initial guidelines started with defining an association as a person or an animal that would have defined the personality of the automobile. However, as advised from the designer that would be left open, as there might be other association people have for automobiles. He also mentioned that I strictly suggest using specific elements for recognition, while some companies might prefer to create very differently designed automobiles. However, from the experience I had with regular people, automobile owners and experts, brand identity communication through the overall impact the automobile, was not considered from the majority of people. Only experts thought and explained in a different way the

Conclusion

Verification

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similarities between models using to describe body line shapes, proportions, etc. the overall impact requires more sophisticated approach to recognition, which regular people do not understand as the experts do. That is why it was recommended to use primary recognition elements with a combination with consistency to increase automotive recognition to people with low and medium interest in the industry.

As the research project was limited in terms of time, volume and people conducting the research (only me), therefore there are limitations that follow:

• A research in a bigger scale is needed, with greater number of participants in all of the primary research methods used to gather and evaluate information

• The research was done during daytime only, and therefore the light as a tool for differentiation was not investigated

• The immersion was done by me, as a person with certain knowledge, experience and vision. • The project was written only from consumer or potential customer point of view. I was not

allowed to know any specific details for a certain brand as I am not employee of that brand and thus I had limited access to data from experts and to be able to clearly understand issues.

Throughout the research, it was difficult to investigate some issues. The first one, was concerned with the automotive companies and why automobiles were produced similar with other models, in some cases – even the same. Even though, I thorough investigation was done, as a person, outside an automotive brand, I was unable, and moreover not allowed to know certain aspects. Further investigation would be needed for a brand:

• How a specific brand operates in a company architecture - who takes the decisions for approving a vehicle for manufacturing, how do they make the decisions

• How automotive designers are working in the company - what could be done to create fresh ideas for automotive designers so they do not have significantly strong presence of their style

• Is the designers too often changed (as they have their own style, if it is successful and liked from customers, a change of the designer means a change of style to a certain extent, and thus the brand might not be able to express style efficiently)

• Are there specific recognition elements already or they need to be reinvented (the whole history of the brand should be considered before taking a decision)

• Does the automotive brand, brand their distinctive elements • How would light compliment recognition • Rear side of automobiles should be tested further, for investigation of the recognition

elements more specifically

Limitations

Recommendation for further research

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Total Word Count – 2292, including, tables, graphs, schemes

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