The human aspect of Brand Identity

The article of Pubblicità Italia dedicated to Univisual's approach to brand, focused on exalting the characteristics of human being and evoke virtues and personality, with constant coherence.

“Conceiving the brand not only as communication asset but above all, as concrete asset of the business strategy”.

This simple sentence encloses the entire philosophy of Univisual, company specialized in branding strategy and designing identity systems, known in Italy for having realized important projects - i.e. harmonization of Bancomat trademarks, transformation of Salmoiraghi & Viganò sign in a brand, re-positioning of Grandi Navi Veloci and the brand identity of Pampers BabyDry – and to offer consulting services for Organizations like Bayer, Casa Modena, Municipality of Milan, BPM Group, Imetec, Unicredit.

Gaetano Grizzanti, CEO and founder of Univisual explains the meaning of brand in this particular vision, who achieves 30 years of experience in 2016:

«Times have changed, not only in economic but also in social terms and, as any other evolving 'species', the brand must also adapt to the new reality, becoming an entity more connected to people's lives, using a language not only linked to merely commercial aspects, but more in tune with the consumer».

Univisual’s approach translates into a sharing process of the critical factors inborn in an evolving project and in transferring know-how to the top management of companies, with the common goal to "turn the trademark into a brand" and create value for stakeholders. It is essential to share the new branding paradigms with the client, continues Grizzanti:

«As if it was an individual, the brand must have its own ‘way of being’ beyond the product/service that it represents, its own credo implemented to rule the ‘mental territory’ of people that, obviously, boast their own culture, memory, a past made of experiences”. “Therefore, it is important to ‘live’ the brand as it had all the characteristics of a human being and – re-asserts the Brand Strategy Director of Univisual – exalt virtues and personality, with constant coherence, without never betraying the values in order not to off-set the consumer, who buys a product not only for its function and performances».

«The Brand Identity is well-defined discipline, I would dare to say, like psychoanalysis or psychology: it is indeed the irrational aspect of the human mind that drives us to make a decision and, after it's done, we unconsciously justify it with logic reasoning. We must say that today, there are not too many brands with a clear character, a fact that proves how the subject is scarcely understood - continues Grizzanti – and for this reason, companies struggle to attain their development goals by focusing on the brand».

Therefore the question is, “how many trademarks can be ‘called’ brands”:

«Being a brand does not mean to be famous, but to be able to have a role in society and a place in people's mind, beyond market aspects, in order to avoid the price war and homologation. Univisual helps companies to detach, in terms of ‘meaning’, the trademark from the product/ service, starting a brand development process from its existence, therefore able to assign that sought-for added value».

The above concepts are expressed by Grizzanti in his famous Italian book ‘Brand Identikit’ (author’s note: published by Fausto Lupetti) - a best seller that is currently at its second edition - specifying how his technical approach is not theoretical but extremely pragmatic and result-oriented:

«Univisual is a not an agency but a professional Office, expert in cross-skills on brand and trademark, there are no 'accounts' or 'creatives', but a team that operates with a methodology consolidated by hundreds of projects executed hand-in-hand with the customers' Top Management. Analysis and strategy, naming and design activities, from legal advisory to training: practices that make up a calibrated offer to formulate interventions which are not based on the customer's 'requests' but on the opportunities and goals to attain».