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Architecture as brand: store design and brand identity

The research’s originality lies in its interdisciplinary approach to retail design and methodology, examining commercial architecture’s role in communicating visual identity. It focuses on the previously unresearched architecture of food superstores, drawing from unique archival material held by leading retailers in the UK. The retailers subsequently disbanded their archives making this paper a timely contribution to retail design knowledge.

In this co-authored paper I undertook the primary and secondary research of architecture, brand and identity. The research demonstrates how distinctive buildings were re-used and ‘signature’ architects employed by retailers from the 1980s, in their locational and brand strategies. In each case the complex relationship between retailer, architect, local authority, media and public opinion is shown to influence the design process and the visual identity of the building. Even so, architecture is not well understood in the retail industry as a medium for communicating a consistent brand identity and ‘building as brand’ presents opportunities to create a distinctive brand style. The building, its location and history can provide points of differentiation and contribute to brand awareness and reputation, in particular in the context of urban regeneration. The research proposes a new hierarchy for the use of heritage and historical memory in the re-use of buildings and their locations.

The paper was previously peer-reviewed as, ‘Architecture as brand: store design and brand identity’ at the Academy of Marketing’s international branding conference, (Cambridge University, 2009). A further peer-reviewed version was “Architecture and the Marketing of Shopping Destinations” presented at the Academy of Marketing’s conference, (Leeds Metropolitan University, 2009). The conceptualisation of retail architecture as space and place was pursued in the interdisciplinary Workshop on Architecture and Social Architecture, (European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management Brussels, 2010) and in a peer-reviewed paper for Fashion Marketing research, Antwerp 2013.