3. Brand Stories, Communication and role of Design Thinking
The word brand has become very popular in recent years. Everyone talks about brands they like. Why these brands are
becoming popular? Wally Olins in one of the guest lectures gave a simple answer to that; according to him brands are the
cultures people want to belong. People get emotionally attached to the stories related to these brands which in-turn
makes them brand loyal. Laurence Vincent said in his book, ‘Legendary brands’, that a brand becomes legendary only if it
can communicate its stories successfully to its consumers.
My research starts from here. So far it’s clear that every brand needs a story and it has to be told nicely to the consumers.
But does it happen with every brand all the time? Through much literature review I got to know about many successful
stories of great brands like macho image of Harley Davidson, Kodak moments, McDonald’s I’m loving it etc. There are
innumerable popular brand stories in the market, but the salient fact prevailed on surface with few case studies that,
there are as many negative brand stories as positive. KFC stuck in PETA chicken cruelty allegations for over a decade now
and still losing valuable consumers worldwide because of that. There are many stories like this where brands have paid
hefty amount to recover goodwill from stories against them. Very often many brands get trapped in negative stories.
Taking in consideration of few more in-depth case studies the way to come over negative story is to tell consumers the
better, believable and favourable brand stories. So how brands can create favourable stories and how these stories could
be effectively communicated to the consumers? There are many communication models which explain how a message
could be delivered utmost successfully. But none of them are appropriate for brands stories. Even though Brands
communicate through mass media models designed for mass communication could not be applied to brand stories
because brand stories never say generalised message rather they always communicate with the consumer on inter-
personal level. Even most popular inter-personal Shannon-Weaver communication model could not be applied as it is for
brand stories because it doesn’t cover the risks of mass media as a medium. Basically there is no communication model
which could be utilised by brands to create fruitful favourable stories.
In second stage of research with the tools like comparative case studies, story boarding, expert opinions, consumer
surveys and focus group a set of management strategies were proposed to help brands to overcome negative stories
through design process.
~Ashima Amar

6. Personal project
Artwork on how Starbucks could get into Indian market.

11. Leonardo-da-Vinci : Scientist and artist.
Amaze me.
Hindu Prayer. My strength.
London, here I am.
Jamini Roy : Indian contemporary artist.
Colours I relate to.
A rule still true; to my knowledge.
Branding strategy, I am interested in.
- Ashima Amar

12. Every colour
in between
white and
black lives in
Thank you! harmony. All
you need to
look for a
ashima.amar@gmail.com balance.