Symmetry in designed graphics and visual arts, objects, buildings or landscapes (e.g., gardens), usually connotes order and stability. A symmetric layout is pleasing to the eye, instilling comfort and confidence. The combination of symmetry and balance creates harmony. Yet, sometimes marketers and designers may want to evoke other brand associations and feelings, such as implying that a brand is exciting. Thereby, it is rather an asymmetric design that can induce a perception that a brand has an exciting personality, as demonstrated in research by Aditi Bajaj and Samuel Bond (2018 [1]).

Symmetry is most often regarded as a driver of perceived beauty; it invokes a sense of perfection. Symmetry is also associated with reduced complexity, that is, by entailing less information to process in an imagery. The reason is that mirror (reflective) symmetry involves the “flipping” of a figure across a central axis to produce two identical halves (i.e., when a viewer “flips” one side of the figure over the other side across the axis, the former will completely overlap the latter). People show preference or liking for aesthetic stimuli, for instance as they tend to prefer symmetric configurations. It has much to do with the greater ease of processing and remembering the spatial structure of the image (e.g., dot configurations). This advantage has been attributed to the fluency principle, relating in this case to the greater ease (fluency) of processing symmetric patterns that contain less information compared with asymmetric ones. [1,2]. Aesthetics and fluency elevate pleasure.

However, Bajaj and Bond argue that marketers should look beyond the benefits arising from consumers’ perception of the beauty of their visual brand elements (e.g., logos and other pictorial images). Marketers have to consider and aim at eliciting further types of brand associations from visual images; the researchers focus on associations concerned with brand personality. They contend, at the outset of their studies, that exposure to visually asymmetric brand elements increase the perception of a brand as exciting. Conceptually, the authors suggest that the perception and attitude towards the visual design of brand imagery can “spill over” to perceptions of the brand’s personality.

The researchers concentrate on “excitement”, one of the trait dimensions in the seminal five-factor model of brand personality developed by Jennifer Aaker (1997 [3]). The five trait dimensions include sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness. Trait factors of brand personality partially parallel factors of human personality (cf. the “Big Five” model): brand sincerity pairs with human agreeableness, brand competence with human conscientiousness (responsibility), and brand excitement relates to human extroversion, expressing sociability, energy and activity (sophistication and ruggedness are distinct to brands). Aaker identified four facets of excitement: daring, spirited, imaginative, and up-to-date. In their studies, Bajaj and Bond chose to represent and measure ‘excitement’ with two trait-items from the ‘daring’ facet: ‘daring’ and ‘exciting’, which seem the more relevant in the context of their research.

It is fair to ask why Bajaj and Bond concentrate on just one of the trait dimensions. On their motivation to concentrate on excitement they reason: “Firms often target exciting personalities when pursuing a younger demographic, repositioning for increased cultural vitality, or seeking differentiation against incumbents” (p. 80). They suggest some exemplars of exciting brands: BMW, GoPro (cameras), Red Bull, and Vice News. The researchers find additional encouragement to take this course in the findings of Aaker [3], that brand excitement captures a substantial part of variability in customer perceptions, and a small body of prior studies already carried out on the interplay between design elements, brand excitement, and customer response. Nevertheless, in their first (pilot) study, Bajaj and Bond evaluated brand logos on the full set of brand personality dimensions in correspondence to a set of design factors in addition to symmetry (e.g., repetition, elaborate, parallel, Golden ratio, round).

In practice, participants in that study were asked to express in ratings how they would describe the personality of a fictional brand on the five dimensions, based solely on the visual appearance of a logo. A total of 50 logos in black-and-white were evaluated, divided into two sets of 25 logos each (respondents were assigned randomly to one of the sets). During analysis Bajaj and Bond added the design descriptors of logo icons (not associated with any familiar real brand). They found that for all brand personality dimensions, specific design characteristics were associated (positively or negatively) with brand perceptions. Particularly, the focal personality dimension ‘Exciting’ is negatively associated with symmetry (as expected, hence corresponding to asymmetry) and parallelism, and is positively associated with elaborate design (richness of elements) and the Golden ratio (proportions of horizontal and vertical dimensions). It may be added that symmetry was positively associated with one of the other dimensions, ascribing to a sophisticated brand.

• It is noted by the researchers, however, that those results have to be regarded with caution because of modest correlations between personality dimensions, a phenomenon familiar from prior research.

In the second, central study, the researchers successfully substantiate their main hypothesis about the linkage between symmetry and brand excitement. In this study participants viewed and responded to 12 black & white logos (from the pilot study), consisting of six pairs of logo icons that differ on symmetry versus asymmetry while being similar on other design characteristics. Firstly, they found support to the aesthetic aspect, that is, that symmetric images of logos are liked better on average than asymmetric ones. Mainly, they found support that brands associated with asymmetric logos were perceived as more exciting than brands with symmetric logos. Therefore, asymmetric logos may not be as likeable as symmetric ones, but this property offers the owning brand another kind of benefit, where an excitement fits the brand’s identity.

• Additionally, the researchers found evidence that asymmetric logos are evaluated as somewhat more complex than symmetric ones. However, it was not found that this aspect of symmetric / asymmetric designs had an impact with respect to perceiving a brand as more or less exciting.

Bajaj and Bond propose furthermore a process that may be underlying the linkage of asymmetry in visual design to an exciting brand personality. They postulate that subjective arousal mediates between the exposure to an asymmetric image and evoking the perception of an exciting brand. In other words, the stimulus initially evokes arousal in the viewer, which produces the perception that a brand is exciting. Subjective arousal is defined as a “perceptual experience of energy mobilization” in the individual when exposed to the environmental stimulus. In the first part of this process, they posit (based on previous research) that the irregular arrangement of elements in an asymmetric configuration raises uncertainty about other elements of the image (stimulus), which in turn causes arousal in attempt to resolve the uncertainty. In the second part of the process, they propose that the consumers attribute the subjective arousal to the brand, as being its source or cause, thereby perceiving the brand as more exciting. This way, it is claimed, response to the visual stimulus can “spill over” into perceptions of brand attributes.

The statistical tests by the researchers provide incomplete support for their mediation proposition. Still, they did find that arousal was higher for asymmetric logos than for symmetric logos. It is concluded that consistent with their hypothesis, “these results suggest that the association of symmetry and perceptions of brand excitement was driven in part by subjective arousal” (p. 84), giving ground to the idea of “spillover” from asymmetric design, by inducing arousal, to perception of the brand itself as exciting.

• Subjective arousal was measured with four semantic differential scale items (on a 9-point scale): relaxed/stimulated, frenzied/sluggish, dull/jittery, and unaroused/aroused.

In the next stage of their research, Bajaj and Bond aimed to examine: (1) the application of the linkage to another type of imagery associated with brands, (2) when set in an actual product category (perfumes / fragrances), and (3) how it fairs with positioning of the target brand (Studies 3 & 4). These studies are interesting and creative in their conception, and the findings are revealing about how and when asymmetric design can be helpful and effective.

The visual design stimuli were images of real-world paintings in colour by Western artists (apparently from the late 19th century – early 20th century period). The researchers selected 14 paintings in seven pairs so that paintings in each pair would be on a common subject, from the same artist, represented the same style, and included the same predominant colours, yet one of the paintings in a pair presented a symmetric layout and the other an asymmetric layout (e.g., natural scenes, gardens or woods, and abstract art style).

In the third study, participants were instructed that they were assigned to help the marketing department to select visual imagery (i.e., from the art collection described above) that would fit a new brand of exciting fragrances or calming fragrances (i.e., the brand positioning). Exciting fragrances were described as designed to create a playful and intriguing aroma, to help invigorate the body and mind, whereas the calming fragrances were described as designed to create a relaxing and soothing aroma, to help sooth tensions of body and mind. Types of scents were also suggested (e.g., jasmine and cedar, lavender and pine, respectively). Positioning played a key role in assessing which painting images were more fit or appropriate for a brand, and the effect of symmetry was contingent on the brand positioning assigned: symmetric images were assessed as more appropriate when the brand of fragrances was meant to be calming, whereas the asymmetric images were assessed as more appropriate when the brand was meant to offer exciting fragrances.

• Images with symmetric configurations were not favoured significantly more than the images with asymmetric configurations.
• Evidence was found again for a mediating role of subjective arousal when assessing which images would be appropriate for a calming brand versus an exciting brand of fragrances.

Subsequently, the fourth study focused on consumer choice of brands. In this study, the artwork images were arranged in pairs of symmetric and asymmetric configurations (seven pairs as described above), and participants were asked to choose a perfume in each pair (a bottle and a box displayed, carrying the brand imagery). The participants were told they would be buying the perfume “as a gift for a woman in your life”, divided between those who would be looking for “playful and exciting perfumes” and those who were not given positioning information for their task. The brand names assigned were fictional.

However, Bajaj and Bond added in some of the choice tasks descriptive text information to the products: when text was added, in the ‘exciting’ task it provided specific sensory descriptions (e.g., ‘adventure and vitality’, ‘vibrant spirit’, ‘inspiring scent’), but in the no-positioning task, text provided more general and ‘neutral’ sensory descriptions. At first, it does not seem clear why the researchers would need to add the descriptive verbal information besides the positioning, but the findings demonstrated how this factor was meaningful to consumer choice.

As would be expected, participants chose brands with symmetric images more often when no positioning was provided. In this condition, the text information attached to products was not effectual. Yet, when looking for exciting perfume brands, the text attached did have a significant and important role: When descriptive text was missing, brands with asymmetric images were those chosen more often (more than in the no-positioning condition) — meaning that consumers are relying on the visual images; but, when descriptive text was attached, the brands with symmetric images were chosen as frequently as when no positioning was suggested — meaning that the ‘advantage’ of the asymmetric design was diminished.

This result can be explained by the tendency of consumers to prefer information they can make inferences from and rely on more confidently (i.e., more diagnostic, explicit, predictive), as expected by the authors. This principle has been associated, for example, with the distinction between intrinsic product cues (e.g., physical) and extrinsic cues (e.g., brand name, price, brand endorser). In this case, the content of verbal descriptions seems to have been considered more explicit and useful than the visual imagery when a particular objective is set for choosing a brand (e.g., exciting). Therefore, the asymmetric design of images can support the perception of an exciting brand, but it could be more effective when not competing with other cues that may be regarded as more predictive about the product or brand.

Symmetry in design of visual brand elements can make a contribution beyond aesthetic appeal. Bajaj and Bond illuminate how symmetry can be utilised in association with brand personality. Specifically, they show how, inversely, asymmetry in visual images can be helpful in connoting an exciting brand. It is important to note, nonetheless, that visual asymmetry is more implicit as a cue in connoting brand ‘excitement’, which may depend on interpretation of the visual image by the viewer, and evocation of arousal in response to this visual characteristic, before it is transferred (‘spills over’) to the brand’s attributes. Hence, utilising brand imagery could be more effective if presented without ‘assistance’ of verbal informational cues (e.g., on packaging, in advertisements).

Ron Ventura, Ph.D. (Marketing)

Notes:

[1] Beyond Beauty: Design Symmetry and Brand Personality; Aditi Bajaj and Samuel D. Bond, 2018; Journal of Consumer Psychology, 28 (1), pp. 77-98. (Published online October 2017, images used in this research are included in appendices of the article.)

[2] Visual Aesthetics and Human Preference; Stephen E. Palmer, Karen B. Schloss, and Jonathan Sammartino, 2013; Annual Review of Psychology, 64, pp. 77-107.

[3] Dimensions of Brand Personality; Jennifer L. Aaker, 1997; Journal of Marketing Research, 34 (3), pp. 347-356.