Hakuhodo’s three expert teams designing the future
We make full of use the latest knowledge and methods. Considering the future, we develop products, services and corporate brands with an alluring ‘Rashisa’.
"A brand is about luxurious product – irrelevant for the companies that handle other items." This is what most of the people thought, until just a little while ago..
Now these days, that kind of misconception has all but disappeared, and a brand is identified as everything that has value to customers and to the society - anything that is tangible things (products), services, spaces, people, and towns. The idea that a wide variety of elements can be defined as a brand has become pervasive.
However, a brand as a image, and the misunderstanding that branding means merely improving or manipulating that image is even now, we believe, deeply ingrained.
Certainly, there are instances where, at least temporarily, branding is treated as practically synonymous with an image strategy. Nowadays, however, even if attempts to create a mere surface image are treated as branding, the term is barely applicable. On the contrary: When an image that is only skin-deep - similar to applying makeup or dressing up in pretty clothing - subsequently diverges from reality, the customers' expectations are betrayed, and such an approach may deeply damage the brand's value.
We define a BRAND as,
an alluring personality or ‘Rashisa’ (a term to descirve sole uniqueness) to the society
And we consider "BRANDING" to be, "making full use of every available method to design and create a alluring personality (Rashisa) to the society.”
Now, then, how do we create a brand - "a alluring personality or Rashisa to the society -? Methods varies depending on the characteristics and circumstances of the business and the products. However, no matter how they are designed or created, we belive a brand requires three components.
The work that builds the organic structure (the ecosystem) that consists of these three components - Sprit, Style and Society - will be extremely important to branding in the future.
We believe that beginning with an analysis of how much to emphasize each component in a company or a products is a good start point.
Hakuhodo Brand Design offers a one-stop service for integrated brand building solutions encompassing everything from strategy to output. Staff members with diverse backgrounds including consulting, marketing, design, copywriting, architecture, and organizational development implement optimal solutions for every unique branding challenge. We also provide consulting and execution support for global business expansion for Japanese clients and more.