Design Management Academy 2017 Hong Kong

Track 5.d Contemporary Brand Design: Designing meaningful brand experiences

Shin’ya Nagasawa, Waseda University, Japan
*Ashok Ranchhod, University of Southampton, UK
Kana Sugimoto, Mentor Inc., Japan
Calin Gurau, Montpellier Business School, France
John Ensor, Edinburgh Napier University, UK
* contact:

Brands represent inert information unless they are perceived and experienced by vendors and consumers. A brand is not “just a logo or a package. It is a complex set of visual, verbal, and experiential cues supported by media messages” (Landa, 2006, p. X). The classic brand design literature presents and illustrates best practices in developing the physical, graphical and semiotic aspects of a brand. However, both practitioners and academics outline that brand design is only the starting point of the brand strategy, which has to be completed and complemented by designing and effectively managing meaningful brand experiences (Norton, 2003). The success of the brand depends on a value co-creation process in which the intentions and offerings of producers and vendors encounter, and interact with, the customer experiences of the brand and of the associated product (Ambler et al., 2002; Owren, 2013). A brand experience designed for the customer can therefore be multi-dimensional and not just product led.

Brakus, Schmitt and Zarantonello, (2009, p. 53) conceptualize brand experience as “subjective, internal consumer responses (sensations, feelings, and cognitions) and behavioral responses evoked by brand-related stimuli that are part of a brand’s design and identity, packaging, communications, and environments”. We also posit that brand experiences are directly and significantly influenced by the associated product experience, as the reputation and positioning of the brand depends on customers’ interaction with the product through usage and/or consumption. On the other hand, direct and indirect will shape customers’ perception, attitude and behavior (i.e. loyalty, avoidance or neglect) regarding the brand and the associated products/services (Brakus et al., 2009).

In a business environment saturated by marketing communication, the process of designing and managing meaningful brand/product experiences represents the difference between market success and failure:  “how every point of contact with the brand needs to work together to be meaningful; how all sensory experiences must work in harmony to bring the message to the audience about what the brand is; how to fit the brand with the world of its audience; and how to determine what the audience can consistently expect from it” (Landa, 2006, p. X). This imperative is applicable in all areas of human transactions, encompassing consumer goods and services, industrial offerings, public administration, creative industries, etc.

To investigate and illustrate the importance and the challenge of successfully designing and managing meaningful brand and product experiences, this track calls for original submissions that explore this process, either holistically or partially, or who analyze the impact of this activity on consumers’, vendors’, or employees’ perceptions, attitudes and behaviors. Both quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches are accepted, and diversity in areas of applications is strongly encouraged, in order to build a complex snapshot of these practices and of their implications for market success and competitiveness.


Ambler, T., Bhattacharya C. B., Edell, J., Keller, K. L., Lemon, K. N., & Mittal, V. (2002). Relating brand and customer perspectives on marketing management. Journal of Service Research, 5(1), 13–25. doi:10.1177/1094670502005001003.

Brakus, J. J., Schmitt, B. H., & Zarantonello, L. (2009). Brand experience: What is it? How is it measured? Does it affect loyalty? Journal of Marketing, 73(3), 52–68. doi:10.1509/jmkg.73.3.52.

Landa, R. (2006). Designing Brand Experiences. Thomson Delmar Learning, Clifton Park, NY.

Norton D. W. (2003). Toward meaningful brand experiences. Design Management Review, 14(1), 19–25. doi:10.1111/j.1948-7169.2003.tb00335.x.

Owren, K. (2013). Brand experience – A study on how to design for targeted service brand experiences. [accessed 24 August, 2016].