Light and corporate identity: Using lighting for corporate communication

Abstract

The central focus of this study is to investigate what potential exists for brand communication in the lighting of retail outlets. Lighting not only facilitates the visual task, helping to present the merchandise and contributing to the feeling of well-being, but can also augment the communication of a brand’s appearance. For this study, computer visualisations of retail outlets with different lighting variations are evaluated in terms of light, spatial setting and brand impression by regional and international groups using the semantic differential technique. A comparison between rooms with and without luminaires yet with the same lighting effect demonstrates the effect of luminaires as design objects. From the results it can be deduced that light can be used for brand communication in order to define the image of a company more clearly.