Trade Dress: How Brandnames and Trademarks Work
Branding Strategies Turn Consumer Recognition to Consumer Insistence
Nov 9, 2009
The modern consumer is brand-conscious to the point where many buy the brand and not the product. The consumer, sometimes because of his/her lack of special knowledge, cannot form a pre-purchase quality judgment of the product or the product’s appropriate qualities for his/her needs. So the consumer buys either on the basis of support (in the customer loyalty sense of the word) toward the individual supplier or on the basis of confidence in the product manufacturer (Boone & Kurtz, 2008).
If the product is unbranded, the consumer may have trouble identifying it with its maker. To meet growing competition and to make the most of advertising, a manufacturer who is most directly dependent on consumer buying must implement a branding strategy.
Brand Name and Trademark
The brand name is an identification which serves to distinguish the product (Boone & Kurtz, 2008). As an identification mark, the brand name may be the name of the business making the product like “Pokka” Green Tea. The name may be taken from a geographical location or may attempt to reflect the quality of the product. The brand name may also be a trendy, artificially created compound like “CapriSonne.”
A successful brand name must measure up to certain qualifications like being easy to pronounce, spell, and remember; being distinctive and not easily confused with any other name; suggestively alluring of the product and, hopefully, of its use; and complying with legal requirements.
Occasionally the brand name is also used as the trademark. The trademark however may be something quite different. It could be a design, a signature, or the combination of a design and brand name. A trademark made up wholly or in part of a design that gives a visual effect may be more valuable than just a brand name (Boone & Kurtz, 2008).
Psychology of Branding
A number of tests have been made to determine the effectiveness of trademarks and their design. Psychologists have found, for example, that persons and faces are more easily remembered than objects, and that objects are less easily forgotten than actions. Form is more easily remembered and recognized than color, even though colors are more accurately remembered than numbers (Diprose, 2007).
Why Is All This Important? Recognition, Preference, and Insistence
The manufacturer should clearly recognize the results he hopes to achieve from such trade dressing - the brand name and trademark - before deciding what form of branding he will use. An identification mark may result in three distinct responses from the consumer: consumer recognition, consumer preference, and consumer insistence (Boone & Kurtz, 2008).
A consumer will normally select and recognize some article, whose identification mark he has previously observed on a package or in an advertisement. Preference is stronger than recognition. A consumer, who favors a product adequately enough to be aware of its branding, will probably not easily accept a substitute product. Consumer insistence is when the consumer will not accept a substitute at all.
Trade Dress in Practice: Tea and Energy Drinks
Many associate the drinking of tea with a ritual of relaxation and contemplation. One glimpse of a large retailer shelf offering tea and that image of serenity instantly disappears. Tea is a product with a culturally rich history and storytelling is a major asset in trade dress: it is a way to build understanding and demand for authenticity and quality of experience.
While there seems to be an absence of storytelling playing a role in the packaging of tea, Yogi Tea does a great job of preserving the history and cultural importance of tea with a simple, yet eloquent, summary of their tea, as well as a yoga position to try (depending on the type of tea: relaxing, mental, breathing, etc), on the side of the box.
Also, many western consumers associate the Eastern hemisphere with the origins of tea and the use of background patterns, graphic shapes, typographic styles, and iconic figures of the region creates an association with time and place that enhances perceived authenticity.
Yogi Tea implements very Indian visuals and fonts, with henna-like leaf designs and an earthy color palette. One of Yogi Tea’s strongest ‘trade dress’ features is the fact that it distinctively offers lines of teas to help with health issues and enhanced living. Yogi Tea claims to cover the consumer from relief to the common cold to a fasting aid to clearing sinuses to providing an energy boost. It is a noteworthy example of what appears to be authentic efforts at selling tea in a culturally/economically/environmentally respectful way as a remedy.
At the other end of the drink spectrum are energy drinks, which are not for grandparents. They’re often geared towards a thrill-seeking, hyperactive youth culture whose primary mission is to get a little push legally. While the majority of energy drinks have youthful graphics and visual themes, there is opportunity to reach a wider group of consumers wanting an alternative to coffee.
R.Bird, Brand Consultants in Packaging Design and Branding, have a website showcasing their work in the past years. Their book Patterns is a categorical observation of design and provides insight into the reasons behind packaging and the effects on consumer spending.
Boone, L. E. (2008). Contemporary Marketing (13th ed.). Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western.
Diprose, C. (2007). Internet Marketing and the Psychology of Color. Retrieved: May 22, 2009 from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/internet-marketing-and-the-psychology-of-color.html.
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