Branding Digital Life with Jose Barrera (Jio)
Branding is one of the most important aspects of a company as it makes the brand memorable and reliable for the consumers. It builds familiarity with a brand by providing impactful and consistent brand experiences to its customers. To achieve this goal, designers must learn impactful branding practices. But how can designers adopt such impactful brand practices to engage with the maximum number of their customers?
To seek answers for such queries, in the 43rd episode, we interact with Jose Barrera, Head of Brand Design, Jio. He recently launched the Jio BrandLab, where his team is developing the platform for Jio’s biggest brands. Let’s know more about his journey and experiences in the latest episode of the “Avantika Designeering Series Podcast”, “Branding Digital Life.”
Rohit Lalwani: Jose, I had a few questions in my mind and I wish to ask one of them. What is your design philosophy behind building such powerful brands over the years?
Jose: We have a strong brand strategic platform and this works as the backbone for every brand we create in Jio BrandLab. There are also Jio’s Design Principles that help us to ensure that every product and service is going to resonate with our customers.
But one of the most important things, when we create brands is to be sure that we are making them as future-proof as possible. Well, it is actually kind of wishful thinking, right? Because no brand is 100% future-proof. Now we have roles like Futurist and things like that. You will find LinkedIn full of this new stuff, but the truth is that no one can fully anticipate the future. One of the hard lessons this pandemic is showing us is that you can prepare for many things, but you cannot prepare for all. This applies to everything from nature to man-made. We are all in the hands of chance.
When an asteroid hit the Earth, three-quarters of all plant and animal life were lost. The species that survived were those with the strongest ability to adapt. The same applies to brands. I believe that if a brand can adapt and if a brand knows its customers, care for them while creating value for them then even if their ecosystem suddenly changes, even if the customer moves, then most probably he is going to take the brand with him or her. The brand needs to be ready to evolve, to adapt to this new world, into this new journey of the customer.
Now it’s important to say that among this fluidity of the brand, you have to stay true to yourself. The change must be believable, the change must be reasonable. When we talk about fluid brands that can quickly adapt, there are still borders that cannot be crossed because even liquids are subjected to laws. Yes, full personalization is the future of brands, but you have to protect your equities. Branding is not advertising. Branding is not marketing. This is my eternal fight and it’s an everyday fight.
Branding does not follow trends. You can grow and mature of course, you can change your looks, but you have to stay true to yourself.
You cannot change everything or it is going to scare the consumer. The consumer will no longer be able to recognize you. You have to adapt in a smart way.
Rohit Lalwani: While we are talking about the future five years from now, could you give us a glimpse of the future of graphic and communication design as the changing technology is not being less visual but is more about the whole experience?
Jose: I do agree, but not in the sense that visual communication is being reduced but complemented. We know that symbols can be both tangible and intangible. A brand is a super symbol that is made by the sum of many symbols.
In the past, the most relevant symbols in brand communication were the visual symbols, like the logo, colour, typeface, and then in a smaller role, but one that is growing exponentially since the nineties are the auditory symbols, mostly in the form of jingles but also in UI sounds and Sound Logos. We will keep expanding this sensorial experience as technology keeps evolving. Sound Branding is now an essential part of the automotive and telecom businesses and Aroma Branding is growing strong in retail and hospitality. We could say now the same about a taste or a texture. Imagine when you are going to be able to feel a texture on the screen of a smartphone or to smell or taste something that is across the world.
It is imperative for every designer to be proactive and stay informed.
We have to read specialized blogs, publications, watch global creative and technology events, attend them and listen to an expert podcast like yours and keep ourselves relevant because in many ways, as technology advances, competition is only going to get tougher. I would like to give a very quick example of what might happen if we do not grow fast or if we do not stay relevant. Let us have a look at what the technological advances did to the professional photography community. Specifically, the Photojournalist. He/She is gone. Back then in college, we used to have a whole semester to learn how to process film photos but now you just need a good smartphone to get professional great images. As there are no limitations on the number of shots, and you can both preview and edit any of the thousand photos on the same device, the possibility of anyone shooting a beautiful picture is very high. It is of no surprise that most newspapers fired the entire photography department citing new technologies as the main reason.
The first commercial camera phone was released in 1999, but from 2000 to 2012, the ranks of photographers and videographers in media houses were trimmed by half. This is scary right? Technological advancements present these challenges since the Industrial Revolution. We have to adapt and evolve and keep technology working for us, not the other way.
Rohit Lalwani: Talking about the future, I come to my last question, at Avantika University we have coined the term ‘Designeering’ which is a unique blend of design and engineering. I wish to ask, do you think these concepts can converge and meet on the same line? The education that we are providing today for training the future talent do you find this term relevant and sensible?
Jose: Design is already an intrinsic part of engineering. There cannot be engineering without designing.
The problem from the design part is that the designer rarely sees herself or himself related to an engineer.
For many disciplines of graphic design, that might be true, for example, an illustrator. But at least for brand designers, we are a different breed and we are certainly not artists. An engineer design, builds and maintains, and the same can be said about the brand designer, we design brands, we build them and then we maintain them. The third one probably is the one that companies miss the most, they normally hire a brand designer to design and build a brand but they rarely go to this third stage, the maintenance stage. So that is why many identity programs get diluted with time and consistency is lost.
From my very personal point of view, I believe that I am closer to an engineer than to an artist. I use science to solve problems; I solve very specific problems that are not meant to make me more recognizable or to satisfy an internal urge. My goal in life is to create value for my clients and for that, I use processes, science, mathematics, sociology, administration, finance, I use design certainly, but not only that. So ‘Designeering’ is a fantastic concept, I love it.
Mr Jose has further laid out his insights about Branding and Design. To know more about the same, check out our latest podcast episode. For more details, visit our profile.
