Reinvigorating the SAP Brand
Published April 2000
Disclaimer: Please note that this article was written in 2000. Therefore, statements in the articles, particularly those regarding SAP's products, product strategy, branding stratey, and organizational structure, are no longer valid.
Abstract
As SAP products are evolving to reflect our company-wide initiative of enhanced usability, so too our brand strategy has evolved. It is important that the SAP brand identity reflects our new outlook, in order to both convey our brand message to our outside audience of customers and business partners, and to support our initiative internally at SAP.
SAP Brand Mission Statement
"SAP helps to make work become a more personally enjoyable and rewarding experience."
This mission statement serves as the foundation of our brand-building campaign. Separate from SAP's business vision statement, our mission reflects the spirit of SAP and describes how we want customers to perceive our company. This statement acts as a gauge by which we measure everything we do – how we develop our products, how we communicate with the world, how we present ourselves in our marketing materials, even how we answer the phone.The SAP mission statement was developed by our management and branding teams. Involving key decision makers in the brand-building process ensured that the mission would be respected and reinforced consistently throughout our organization. Only if the strategy had the proper support could it set the agenda for the company's development, design and communications.
SAP Brand Values and Brand Personality
The other cornerstones of the SAP brand are what we refer to as our "brand values" and "brand personality."SAP Brand Values:
- Global culture
- Respect for the individual
- Integrity - Partnership
- Progressiveness
SAP Brand Personality:
- Enjoyable
- Friendly and approachable
- Honest and responsive
- Listening and responding
- Constantly improving
Our brand values are the qualities that define and differentiate the SAP experience. The SAP brand personality is comprised of human characteristics associated with SAP. Our goal, to create a brand that people connect with on an emotional level, requires that we create and reinforce an identifiable charisma for the SAP brand. Thus, we enable customers to view our company not just as an institution, but rather as a living entity worthy of their feelings of loyalty, respect and satisfaction.
How the SAP Brand Strategy Translates into Design
The evolution of both the visual face of SAP and our interface design have been based on our mission, brand values and brand personality. By first articulating these organizational guidelines and thus establishing goals, we've been able to generate a stronger and more intelligent brand strategy.
SAP's corporate signature is the visual representation of SAP and stands for the company's traditional values. As EnjoySAP was initiated, we recognized the need to re-evaluate our existing logo to ensure it coincided with our mission and brand values. We realized the SAP logo held considerable equity and recognition and therefore did not want to deviate too dramatically from its original statement. Minor updates, however, allowed us to incorporate more of our brand values. Our objective: to take what was good and make it better.
We increased the presence of the SAP logotype inside the blue square, thus implying increased stature of the brand. We also added "smile" to the logo, through a new curved crossbar in the letter "A," reinforcing the friendly, approachable personality of SAP.
The presentation of the SAP brand requires consistency in order for SAP to present a stronger, more unified brand image. By setting identifiable visual clues, SAP helps users to familiarize themselves with the software and to develop performance and functional expectations - all of which lead to a more enjoyable product experience.
The presence of the SAP logo in the same screen location and presented throughout all SAP software is a foundation to visually remind users they are using SAP software.
The blue bar, always placed at the very top of the application window, visually differentiates SAP software from other applications on the user's desktop.
Branding the Complete Experience
Successful branding encompasses much more than the corporate logo, however. Millions of details influence the users' total brand experience. We brought further consistency to the entire SAP presentation through the unification of all design elements, in order to convey a consistent, powerful brand message.
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Another differentiating characteristic of SAP software is its sophisticated and customizable color palette, comprised of colors that are easily viewed over extended periods of time. |
| At every opportunity and in all SAP applications, we leverage the 45º angle from the logoform to other design elements, in order to subtly reinforce the brand. |  |
The branding strategy also extends to the functionality of the interface. Here, we balance 2-D forms with 3-D forms to serve as both a sophisticated visual effect and a visually intuitive indication of various control surface capabilities. All clickable elements have 3-D qualities, while the input and output fields remain 2-D for simplified reading.
Distinctly SAP, many controls are designed to express analog qualities. These controls include ease-in/ease-out effects for animations (pull downs and slide-out panels), animated alert signals, transparency effects, drop shadows and sounds. In addition to serving as a method of branding, analog controls create a more emotionally valuable product experience.
Conclusion
The true value of branding goes much deeper than improving brand awareness (although that in itself is no small accomplishment). SAP's brand strategy has strengthened the ties between users and the software, while uniting the company internally in a mission everyone can support. The SAP brand sets the stage for the development of a community of users who respond to SAP's core values and personality, thus enabling them to find greater satisfaction in their software and their work.
