Space is the brand's worldview and media

 Jooyun Kim's 

Spacebranding vol.41

"Space branding is controlling everything that is seen in the world to be ideal for a company or brand."

<Lotte World Character Lotty's apartment>

What does Lotty, a 32-year-old employee, do after work? It is the story of Lotte World's character Lotty. In August 2021, "Lotty's Apartment" was created as a pop-up store on the streets of Seongsu-dong. The goal is to announce the rebranded character Lotty. It was intended to experience the newly created Lotty's worldview through space.

Lotty's Apartment by Project Rent ©Jooyun Kim

Although it was August, when it was difficult to move due to the rainy season and the heat wave, more than 1,000 people a week visited the small apartment on the street. The space consists of a living room and a home office, and various props for the Lotty, such as pouches and household items, were made.

Lotty's Apartment by Project Rent ©Jooyun Kim

Of course, I was able to buy granola, coffee, and craft beer that Lotty would enjoy. Choi Won-seok, CEO of Project Rent, who was in charge of space composition and operation, said, "We created a space with a story that can bring back memories of Lottie who stayed in the past to his daily life." 

Lotty's Apartment by Project Rent ©Jooyun Kim

<Space is the trend = Space is media>

Space is a trend these days. Generation MZ pursues fun. They are free to think and dislike interference in personal life. They also like new, interesting, authentic spatial experiences. If there is an 'Instagrammable Space' with a story worth posting on social media, they will go there.

According to the global trend information site WGSN, 'travel' and 'experience' are 'luxury' for the MZ generation. Jaime Hayon of Spain, who is called a genius designer, says, "The best luxury is to feel and experience the story." They enjoy spatial play that satisfies 'authenticity', 'connection' and 'personalisation'. They also want to show off their experience.

Travel, exhibitions, and viewing of performances have become a social megatrend. People now place a higher value on intangible 'experience' and experience consumption rather than tangible consumption. This is because objects have the stress of direct comparison, but the experience becomes entirely my own possession. When you accidentally come across an interesting space through a magazine, broadcast, or your friend's SNS, your 'desire' to visit is expressed.

This is because there is a limit to experiencing the space through photography. Space is fully experienced only by the experience of moving in space. The "impression" experienced by oneself is shared on social media, and the experienced image becomes a stimulus for desire again to friends and others. Eventually, space becomes the media.

<A space brander is a 'business artist'>

Mizuno Manabu says: A brand is about controlling the way it looks. It controls everything seen in the world to be ideal for businesses. This is what ‘creating a brand’ is.”1) The word 'control' is important here. Space branding requires good control, such as driving a car to a target location.

First, it is necessary to clarify the goal of the brand, second, to determine the method or design as a suitable route toward the goal, and third, to drive and control it carefully until the method or design reaches the goal of branding. As a control target for space branding, all situations such as employees, space, and furniture are involved along with outputs such as advertisements and homepages.

Most companies that show brand power have a design perspective as the core of their business strategy. Who should be the branding control in it? We need a "person who can control the way they look. These space brands are located in the middle world of artists and managers. It can be said to be a 'business artist' that combines the ideal wishes of a company and business activities.2)

<Space Branding, Who? ‘Lifestyle’ Producer_ CBxO Chief Brand Experience Officer>

A space brander requires a balance of two based on aesthetics. The first is future-oriented thinking and confidence in progress, and the second is the desire and sense for vestibularity.3) If the CEO has a great sense of brand, of course, a CEO like Steve Jobs should take over the control.

Companies with an excellent creative sense of CEO become an organizational culture that is easy to spread aesthetics evenly within the organization and create strong brands. That's the first and most desirable way. If that's not the case, the second way is to have someone at the side of the CEO to help you make decisions or guide you. Hiring or inviting experienced professionals to help.

What is important here is not in the form of receiving advice once or twice, but as a controller, it is necessary to have long-term authority and responsibility. Finally, the third way is to set up a dedicated team for in-house creative under the CEO's direct control. What is important in this way is that the organization or person involved in branding should be directly next to the manager.4)

The best of the three ways of controllers is the first and then the second. The third method is one that many companies are already carrying out. If you doubt the performance of the third method, you will have no choice but to choose the second method. Mizuno Manabu advises the position of the expert if a company chooses the second method.

In order to accurately reflect the purpose and cause of the company, managers and experts should be in a position of equal relationship.5) A relationship that is as distant as the relationship between Steve Jobs and  Jonathan Paul Ive. Either way, the CEO has to take control, and he has no choice but to take it. Design management strategist Roberto Bercanti describes three key roles of a CEO.6)

First, design discourse on core values and meanings, the role of setting a vision, and triggering a project.

Second, participate in direct management and asset formation through active exchanges and collaboration between talented interpreters and designers.

Third, responsibility and role in the choice of derived solutions.

Either way, the expert in space branding should be a person with the ability of an "interpreter," says Roberto Veranti, a management strategist in Milan, Italy. A space brander, whether as an individual or a team, must first have knowledge of how people give meaning to things and, secondly, know how to use its attractive force to captivate others.7)

In the case of the Italian household goods brand Alessialesi, the interpreter is the CEO Alberto Alessi himself. Alberto Alessi, who runs a designer-free design company, asked 11 architects and designers to study communication methods and topics that could inform Alessi products of symbolic and emotional meaning for three years with the company's motto of "Italian Art Everyday." The Alessi 9093, a singing kettle that sells more than 100,000 pieces a year, was created as a result of the research of architect Michael Graves.8)

<5 Summaries>

"Space is the content and media of the brand worldview."

"Space branding is about controlling everything seen in the world to be ideal for a company or brand."

"Space Brander is a 'business artist' that combines the company's ideal aspirations and business activities."

"Space Brands require an aesthetic eye as well as two balances. The first is future-oriented thinking and confidence in progress, and the second is the desire and sense of sanity."

"Space Brands must first have knowledge of how people give meaning to things, and secondly, know the attractive way of power to capture the other person."

1) Manabu Mizuno, From Sell, to Sell, 誠文堂新光社, 2016, pp.30-31

2) Gian Luigi Longinotti-Buitoni , Selling Dreams:How to Make Any Product Irresistible, Simon & Schuster 1999, pp.284

3) 1) Frank Wagner, The Value of Design, Verlag Hermann Schmidt GmbH & Co. KG, 2015, pp.41

4)  Manabu Mizuno, From Sell, to Sell, 誠文堂新光社, 2016, pp.37, 88-89, 97

5) Manabu Mizuno, From Sell, to Sell, 誠文堂新光社, 2016, pp.124

6) Roberto Verganti, Design Driven Innovation: Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean, Harvard Business Review Press, 2009, pp.373-376

7) Roberto Verganti, Design Driven Innovation: Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean, Harvard Business Review Press, 2009, pp.283

8) Roberto Verganti, Design Driven Innovation: Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean, Harvard Business Review Press, 2009, pp.306