Branding and Design Thinking

Hi all! This is Jillian, Design Intern here at Punchmark, and this Design Talk will focus on branding and design thinking.

The jewelry industry has a long standing history of representing luxury, refined taste, and minimalism. A brand is more than how a website looks. It is a company’s reputation and personality. It represents what they want to accomplish and put out to the public. 

In the early stages of a company, there is the brainstorming, mind-mapping phase. A lot of research goes into this step, such as “why’s” and “what’s”. For example, WHY does a company sell what they sell, WHAT exactly do they want to sell. It can be exhaustive, but is entirely necessary. In order to know how to brand a company, it’s vital to know as much about the industry encompassing the company as possible.

From there, the focus should be on the user. What does the user want from a service? What are their points of frustrations driving them to and from shopping at a particular company? The product is in the game to appeal to the user and give them that fairytale ring / engagement / happily-ever-after. 

Once the brainstorming stage is done, the focus turns to the product. What color and mood speak to your particular company? When you think of your product, what imagery follows? What emotions does your company want to evoke? What are the competing jewelry companies selling as their brand and how does your company differentiate from the rest? What does your company specialize in and  how can it capitalize on that? At the end of the day, the jewelry industry is a niche market and it’s important to establish a distinct feature as part of the brand.