A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME.

Brand marks are not new, they've been around forever. The Cross, The Crescent, The Swastika, they are all brand marks; instantly recognisable they communicate their messages without need of words. Every country has it's own flag, counties, towns, and families have their own coats of arms. Charities and other organisations use acronyms to identify themselves. But there were brand marks long before these. The Knights Of Old had their coats of arms emblazoned on their shields to distinguish them in battle, or to let the damsel in distress know who was rescuing her. Many of the designs almost amount to a genealogical history of the family. Before that The Roman Eagle was feared across the known world. The early cowboy films had the baddies wearing black hats and the goodies white. In melodrama beware the man who swishes his black opera cape, particularly if it's foggy! All are brand marks of one sort or another.

Wherever you look brand marks attract your attention. Their creation has become a very skilled and creative business. Some new brand marks are reported to have cost a king's ransom to create. Typefaces are created and patented so that it can only be used for the single purpose of it's creation. The colour of the type, the background and any other item illustrated near it will have been the subject of intense scrutiny, as will the size of the message. Whether it is to be static or mobile and where it is to be seen will be the result of many discussions. The surfaces on which the brand mark is to appear will debated in depth, it's appearance will vary depending on the material used, those variances will be taken into account. How and where the brand mark is seen will have a significant effect on how it is remembered and will be crucial to the success or failure of the product or service the brand is meant to represent. Every detail is of paramount importance if the mark is to be effective.

The meanings of the words used in a brand statement will be obvious, the simpler the better. But what about colours? That's not so simple. Each colour has a different message and will associate with subjects sympathetic to it's import. Blue, Green, Turquoise, and Silver are all calming colours. Perhaps that's why they are so widely used in the medical profession. Colours that excite like Red, Pink, Yellow, Gold and Orange will be used to create very different moods and images for the items they represent, whilst colours like Brown, Beige, and Ivory tend to be used as neutral colours. Books have been written on the history, meanings, substance and use of colour, a good site to look at if you want more information on the subject is www.About.com there Jacci Howard Bear has written a really informative analysis of the use of colour in all sorts of applications.

Everyone has their own favourite brand of everything. Quite how we arrive at the decision to use one product or another is still not clear, particularly when you think of products that are basically the same and produced to the same British Standards Formula, I'm thinking here specifically of petrol and oil products. They simply can't be that different but I am convinced my car runs best on BP. Why? Frankly I've no idea! The same must be true of many of the items on the shelves in the supermarkets. Many of the "Own Label" brands are made by the very same companies that market their own, more costly, branded products, yet many will say they taste the same. Well on the basis that they come from the same manufacturer they should, shouldn't they? Those manufacturers who market only their own products, like Kelloggs for instance, make a real business out of saying so. Thus enhancing their own brand marks.

So would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? Yes I suppose it would but the brand mark given to that flower is "The Rose" and it has over the years developed not just a lovely scent but all sorts of other meanings too, with the rose the colour says as much as the perfume.