Custom «Technology Design Brief» Essay Paper Sample

Abstract

Corporate image is becoming easy to imitate day by day thus the companies get involved to invest on the soft points like branding (Åsa Wallström, Ted karlsson & Esmail Salehi Sangari, 2008). This gives a company a competitive advantage over the competitors which is not possible to imitate. Thus the overall purpose of this design package is to investigate that how and why a company creates its corporate identity and image.

To evaluate the design brief, this research proposal for Diamond School of Business as a case company. A theoretical framework has been synthesized, based upon the different models and theories regarding the corporate brand building.

The Master Design Company

"Diamond School of Business"

Project Overview

The Diamond School of Business is a provided the Master Design Company a design brief of the newly started evening business courses in English language. Diamond School of Business wanted emphasised on their new corporate logo and colours throughout the brochure, stationary and business cards. The also wanted the design theme of the brochure to reflect what their clients always wants, as a result the Master Design Company conducted a research and came up with a design package for the Diamond School of Business.

Projects proposal

Building corporate image and identity is the most important consideration starting business. Most successful business have survived the changing trends in the markets by creating a corporate identity that builds and image that is associated to the business or organizations products and services.  Just to ascertain how important corporate identity is, look at the trade names and patent wars. However, creating that identity is one thing and communicating the ideas.

Need assessment

There is need to prominent display of the official corporate logo on the front page and the back page of the brochure, and anywhere else deemed appropriate.

Corporate colours (Pantone 258 and Pantone 126) will be dominant in the design theme of the brochure.

Corporate branding is recognized as one of the most well-known drivers of added value for all stakeholders of Diamond School of Business. A high-performance system of communication is required for a successful corporate branding process where all messages are coordinated, aligned and integrated in a logical manner; it also requires a healthy organizational culture to stimulate employees to align their behavior with the objective of corporate organization. The core competencies of the organization are important to successfully place the corporate brand in the minds of its stakeholders (ibid). It is required a core processes and common operational systems to coordinate all communication functions in conjunction with the brand positioning (ibid). One study showed that, there are considerable barriers in the successful integration of corporate identity and marketing communication (ibid). The online communication has a unique characteristic and appeals to the target audience so it should also be an essential part of the communication strategy with a committed team to manage it.

Evaluating effectiveness

Brand identity consists of five components that are core identity, extended identity, brand association, functional benefits and emotional benefits according to (Aaker, 1996). The above table describes the brand identity in detail and its components that contributes to the identity.

Core identity: Associations that represent the fundamental beliefs and values of the corporate brand Identification and description of the associations (product, personality, organization, and symbol) that represent the fundamental beliefs and values of the corporate brand

Extended Identity: Associations that add completeness to the corporate brand and that are not part of the core identity. Identification and description of the associations (product, personality, organization) that add completeness to the corporate brand and that are not part of the core identity.

Brand Association: Corporate brand associations that are based on either product, personality, organizational or symbol related attributes

Respondents%u201F description of the product, personality, organizational, or symbol related associations that the firm uses to describe the corporate brand identity

Functional Benefits: Functional benefits delivered by the corporate brand that provide value to the customer description of the functional benefits delivered by the corporate brand that provides value to the customer (value = aggregated benefits of the brand)

Emotional Benefits: Emotional benefits delivered by the corporate brand that provide value to the customer description of the emotional benefits delivered by the corporate brand that provide value to the customer (value = aggregated benefits of the brand)

Project justification

 (Dowling, 2001), states the prime roles of identity are to trigger recognition of the organization, create awareness and stimulate an already stored image of the organization. According to Schmitt and Simonson (1997) increased loyalty, productivity, cost savings, premium pricing, protection from competition and the ability to cut through information clutter are the tangible benefits of identity. Image is seen as a reflection of corporate identity. Image, according to many researchers is described as being in the eye of the beholder, i.e. it is in people's minds. Dowling (2001) defines image as "the set of meanings by which an object is known and through which people describe, remember and relate to it". That is the result of a parson's beliefs, ideas, feelings and impressions about an object." Marken (1994/95) describes image as the perceived sum of the whole organization, its plans and objectives. It encompasses services, products, communications activities, management style and actions around the world.

Dowling (2001) explains that a good corporate identity can affect corporate image in two ways. People recognize the organization and make the association between the organization and its identity. According to Dowling (2001), corporate image has a cognitive or logical feature and an emotional feature. These logical and cognitive features together shape in general corporate image. According to (Balmer and Gray, 1999) good corporate image can be achieved by the advertising of the corporate identity through a corporate strategy based on primary communication highlighting the product / service performance. An understanding of all stakeholders

Project development

The design theme:

1.    Show the quality of the campus through the use of candid student/faculty photos.

2.    Use of warm colours in clean, organised design - very easy for reader to follow

3.    Design should combine friendliness with a serious, high-technology focus

Brochures

The Master Design Company felt the design of the brochure should meet  the following specifications:

1.    11 x 8.5 inches (when unfolded)

2.    Tri-fold (folded size: 2.83 x 8.5 inches)

3.    180gram High gloss paper

4.    Full CMYK (this stands for the full colour process Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black)

5.    Full Bleed (this means the images or colours will meet the edge of the page)

These will be very important as the size for the school brochures need to be fairly small. Since most of the will be given to visitors or the general public it will be good to make the brochures small and fit in a hand bag.

Photos

The master design company felt that the photos to use for the designs should be provided by Diamond School of Business, which will include, but not limited to the following subject matter:

1.    Candid student shots

2.    Tutors with students

3.    Classrooms, especially art and computer rooms

4.    Campus views

Using student shot will candidly market the school by using the student. Such a move will welcome many other students who associate themselves with the subjects in the shot. Besides images of the tutors and students will most definitely bring about the feeling of hospitality as it will send the message that the faculty is kind enough and interact easily with the students.

Class room will market the services and condition of the classroom environment. This will more certainly market the school appropriately.

Campus views are more likely to attract student to Diamond School of Business. Many people like associating them selves with serene and beautiful views of the environment. In including the beautiful views of the campus in the brochures, stationary and business card many prospective student will be attracted to the school.

Project Realisation

Corporate communication is an essential aspect of communication, which needs to be studied and put to use in all the corporate organization for greater efficiency at work. What does it mean by corporate communication? Corporate communication is a separate task within an organization most tangibly. Corporate communication has close ties to, or contains, organization relations, employee communication, government relations, corporate advertising.

Corporate humanity, business policy, CSR, public relations and media relations. Collectively Corporate communication refers to the processes of communication that are intended for corporate or business purposes. Corporate communication deals with the communication within corporate organization that is internal communication and outside the organization with different entities that is external communication. Different type of mass media can be use for corporate communication purpose. According to (Knox and Maklan, 1998), to effectively position the corporate brand in the minds of its stakeholders the organizational core competencies are important. There should be a core process or common operational systems to coordinate all communication functions in conjunction with the brand positioning (Van Riel, 1995; Knox and Maklan, 1998; Bickerton, 2001). There must also be an understanding of the orientation of the main stakeholder groups to make sure the alignment at each communication interface (Bickerton, 2000).

Printing

1.    Design Master Company will co-ordinate all pre-press production and work directly with the printer.

2.    Design Master Company will provide the printer with, written specifications, mock-ups, colour samples and digital files.

3.    Diamond School of Business will receive colour samples and colour mock-ups at every stage of the project.

4.    Master Design company will ensure that when the design job is completed it will be delivered to Clients A's address for distribution.

Project Management

Analysis and evaluation

The project will be implemented in three phases. The first phase will include a stakeholder mapping. Where upon the stakeholders being identified using the Key Informant approach and then mapping them using the interest influence grid or stakeholder matrix.

After the stakeholder analysis is done a knowledge Attitudes Practices and Behavior survey will be carried out. This will be done by issuing questionnaires and by holding three public forums to determine their Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices and Behaviors. A report will be prepared on the findings.

The second phase will include, sharing the findings with the stakeholders and the public at large. Upon sharing of the findings the team will brainstorm with the stakeholders on the best practices, this will take the form of a workshop with key stakeholders

Action and Time plan

Phase 1

1.    Diamond School of Business will receive first set of mock-ups in 2 weeks

2.    Design meeting will take place in week three

3.    Mock layout and design will be submitted to Diamond School of Business by week 4

Phase 2

4.    Final photographic images to be decided by week 5

5.    Colour printouts will be proof-read, finalised and agreed by week 6

6.    Printers proof will be sent to Diamond School of Business by week 7 for final inspection

Phase 3

7.    Full print run will be completed by week 8

8.    Delivery of printed material will be done by the begging of week 9

Project Evaluation

Designs are very important to the image of the business. However, the business should be able to do fact finding and find out what their clients think about their image or designs. These being a necessity, Diamond School of Business will therefore conduct a monitoring and evaluation. Monitoring will be carried in two levels, one will be mid term monitoring and the other summative. Evaluation report will then be handed one week after the evaluation process has been concluded.

Evaluation process will be carried out after the implementation and actualization of corporate designs for the Diamond School of Business. An external evaluation consultant may be hired for this purpose. Then final report will be in written form and will be given to stakeholders and also disseminated to the public through mass media.

The objective of the first evaluation will be to find out what the customers think about the designs. The major question that will be answered here is whether designs meets it function which is marketing the Diamond School of Business.  And most important, do the customers like the design. This will be through questionnaires the can be given to customers to fill at will as they visit the café. The questionnaire will then be analyzed by qualified and highly experienced evaluates and give a true reflective result of the questionnaire. After getting the design, the management of the Diamond School of Business will then make a decision whether to improve the design change or make a totally new design.

The second evaluation will be done in order to find out whether the design has succeeded in marketing the school appropriately. The evaluation process can be done by reviewing the Schools financial returns and students enrolments.  Another way is to find out if the design as worked well in building a long lasting image uniquely identifies the school.