The Brand Crash Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Brand Crash - Essay Example As part of this swing toward making everything an aspect of the brand, companies were beginning to recognize the power of the building to promote the brand itself. One of the companies to key into this idea early was The Body Shop, which expanded by as many as 50 stores per year beginning in 1988, even during the years of the recession. â€Å"Most baffling of all to Wall Street, it pulled off the expansion without spending a dime on advertising. Who needed billboards and magazine ads when retail outlets were three-dimensional advertisements for an ethical and ecological approach to cosmetics? The Body Shop was all brand† (Klein, 2000, p. 20). However, there has often been difficulty in getting business executives typically focused on the ‘bottom line’ to understand the significant assets architecture and design can be in developing the corporate brand, which, in turn, works to establish the company’s ultimate success. â€Å"While statistical analysis and e conometric techniques have been used to evaluate the trade-offs between alternatives, features, and prices for products, there has not been a tool to inform the design process of architecture, environmental graphic design, and the built environment. However, the ‘fixed assets’ of built environments, especially those of retail and consumer service sectors, are integrally linked to brand identity and equity† (Taylor, 2004). Investigating the roles of the architect and designer in relation to architecture and design to both promote the brand and foster cultural interaction with the public reveals various ways in which postmodernism reflects a cultural response to social and technological change.