Marketing by Design: The Influence of Perceptual Structure on Brand Performance

Abstract

Visual marketing communications consist of two components: (1) semantic content (e.g., headings, images, copy) that communicates a brand’s positioning, benefits, and personality and (2) visual design (e.g., font selection, image size, the organization of the content) that encourages inferences about brand claims. We investigate how visual design can be used to encourage inferences that support brand claims and improve brand performance. We find that brands with a utilitarian positioning perform better when the visual design of their marketing communications encourages structured perceptions, whereas brands with a hedonic positioning perform better when the visual design of their marketing communications encourages unstructured perceptions. In both cases, (un)structured perceptions encourage inferences that reinforce brand claims and, consequently, improve brand performance. This research offers actionable insights into how marketing communication specialists can coordinate logo design, product design, package design, visual merchandising, and retail environments to reinforce brand claims.

Keywords: visual design, marketing communications, logos, package design, branding, retail architecture