Branding Requirements

Definition

Branding Requirement

the user-oriented quality requirement that specifies a minimum required amount of the quality factor branding

Objectives

The typical objectives of a branding requirement are to:

• Ensure that the application or component reinforces the brand identity including what the customer organization’s business enterprise:
  • Is (e.g., a competent and successful organization),
  • Does (e.g., run the premier online office supply exchange), and
  • Does for its users (e.g., empowers users to easily buy and resell the enterprise’s products and services).
• Ensure that the application or component uses (where appropriate) the correct:
  • Logo including colors, size, and location.
  • Trademark, salesmark, or tag line including colors, size, and location.
  • Brand typography including font face, colors, size, and location.
  • Sounds and jingles.
• Ensure that the core beliefs and values, tone, voice, look, and feel of the application or component bring out the correct perceptions and emotional associations (e.g., success, credibility, quality, reliability, trust) in the minds of both external and internal stakeholders.
• Ensure that the application or component improves corporate recognition and its reputation.

Measurements

Branding requirements are typically specified in terms of the following measurements:

• TBD.

Examples

The following are typical examples of branding requirements:

• “Each user interface (e.g., webpage, report, hardware device) that is accessible by external roles shall include the appropriate standard:
  • Logo including colors, size, and location.
  • Trademark, salesmark, or tag line including colors, size, and location.
  • Brand typography including font face, colors, size, and location.”
• “The application’ user interface shall conform to the established look and feel of the other applications of the business enterprise.”
• “The application user interface shall have an artistic appearance.”
• “The application user interface shall have an authoratative appearance.”
• “The application user interface shall have a conservative appearance.”
• “The application user interface shall have a cutting-edge, innovative, state-of-the-art appearance.”
• “The application user interface shall have an exciting, colorful, and interactive appearance that is attractive to children between the ages of six and ten years old.”
• “The application user interface shall have an exciting youthful appearance that is attractive to a teenage and young adult audience.”
• “The application user interface shall have an expensive luxury appearance.”
• “The application user interface shall have an inviting approachable appearance.”
• “The application user interface shall have a professional executive appearance.”
• “The application user interface shall have a sophisticated appearance.”

Guidelines

The following guidelines have been found to be useful when producing branding requirements:

• The scope of a branding requirement can be:
  • A business enterprise
  • An application
  • A component
  • A center
• Branding requirements can be identified and specified in term of the following:
  
  

  Component of Requirement	Possibile Values
  TBD	TBD

  
  
• Different media (e.g., webpage, paper report, hardware device) may require their own versions of colors (e.g., browser-safe colors) and font sizes.
• Specify the intended spirit of the appearance rather than the actual appearance, which would be a design constraint.
• Branding requirements should be based on the organizational digital brand description document which in turn is based on the results of user analysis and the application’s target audience of users. For example:
  • A banking or financial application should probably have an authoratative conservative appearance.
  • An electronic snowboard or skateboard store should probably have an exciting, youthful, atheletic, risk-taking appearance.
• Branding requirements are also related to personalization requirements. Branding requirements are aimed at a target set of users, whereas personalization requirements are aimed at individual users.
• Branding requirements are most important when dealing with applications targeted for specific subsets of the general public (e.g., eCommerce applications).