Design Thinking for Branding

Nowadays, organisations recognise the enormous strength of design thinking, as a set of thought processes, to deliver solutions to a plethora of management problems. Design thinking can be applied in many business functions including the organisation’s branding strategies. This chapter discusses the contributions of design thinking to brand management by presenting a conceptual framework which explores the connections of the design thinking process with brand equity and its management. Working together, brand managers and designers need to continuously evaluate the performance of the brand by conducting the brand audit to sustain and improve brand equity. Design thinking can help them successfully pursue the brand audit, through the power and scope of consumer ethnography to achieve empathy. Consumer ethnographic studies can help brand managers and designers identify branding problems and/or opportunities which require their attention. The design thinking process also enables them to develop solutions and determine the most optimum strategies to address these problems and/or to capitalise on these opportunities. It also provides brand managers and designers a human-centred approach to balance brand consistency and brand relevance, and continuously manage and enhance brand equity.