Unilever Love
You may be surprised to hear it – Unilever is my favorite Brand Identity. Its not the style, color, or font that appeals to me. I wouldn't frame it on a wall or decorate my house with it. But that isn't the point. Its solves a strategic business problem for Unilever, providing them with focus & direction.
Their brand is not one you talk about in conversation. Apple, Starbucks, & Coke are house-hold names and find their way into the mainstream much more often. But Unilever isn't trying to become a house-hold name. Rather, they let their individual products do the talking – everything from Hellman's & Slim Fast to Axe & Surf. They are a house of brands (as opposed to a branded house). Their Identity is smart, flexible, unique, covers a wide range of product categories, and leaves room for future product development.
In her book on Designing Brand Identity, Alina Wheeler states that "Unilever leads its brands through a single idea: ‘adding vitality to life'. The vitality theme is used to invent new products that deliver vitality, as well as in the recruitment process to train employees how to pass on stories that underlie this idea. Unilever's ‘U' brandmark is composed of twenty-five individual marks that express the vitality theme in many different ways. The visual identity exists on all Unilever products and is deconstructed imaginatively on a range of applications."
Smart. Intelligent. Purposeful. Strategic. The mark of a great Identity.
1 Comment
"This is a refreshing article on brand identity. As you've said, since we do like to talk about household brands that are easy to grasp and create conversations over, we overlook identities such as Unilever who silently deliver without being intrusive.
Unilever is difficult to appreciate if you're looking at it from an aesthetic perspective because it's nothing fancy or pretty, but when you look at it from brand architecture, unification and strategic planning point of view, it's probably one of the best in the world.
Loved the post!"
- Dwight