The decision to rebrand is filled with exciting opportunities for a business and allows you to take a fresh look at the image you present to your customers and prospects. Our business has grown rapidly in recent years and as we were about to launch a dotcom website to reflect our increasingly international activities and new online tools, the timing felt right to give our image an overhaul.
New platforms
Our old logo – our second incarnation – had been with us for 13 years. It had served us well and we had no real complaint with it. It had been designed in the pre-digital, pre-social media age with the simple aim of looking great in print. We needed to create a logo that would work well across all platforms; online, in print, at events, on literature, email footers and video – anywhere we are visible to our customers and potential customers. It also needed to be easily adaptable for every channel and also to perform well in traditional settings, while successfully standing alone as a recognisable icon on our app and on social media.
Brainstorming
We gathered a small group together and set about brainstorming our new look and feel. In a very small business, however, it’s useful to get the thoughts of clients or some impartial contacts – people with good ideas who you trust to give an honest opinion and not just agree with you.
Our previous branding was well known. So, fairly early on, we decided against making too dramatic a change. This can actually be more difficult than starting from scratch as it’s a challenge to keep your brand followers with you while introducing something new.
From the outset, we established which elements we wanted to protect and which we could evolve. We agreed to create something that wouldn’t date quickly as we didn’t want to have to repeat the exercise anytime soon. This creative phase was fun as we played around with ideas, colours, textures and shapes before agreeing our final look.
Meticulous planning
We knew our branding appeared in lots of different places, but it was only when we started to add up all our touch points that we identified more than 500 separate logo locations. To rebrand successfully, we needed a list - a very long list with each job identified and assigned actions and a timeline. At this point, the task ahead of us seemed daunting; especially with a roll out date in the diary. Some changes were a quick fix – changing one logo for another, but with the look and feel of our entire marketing collateral changing, we had to be realistic and accept that we couldn’t refresh everything all at once.
Prioritising
Unless you have unlimited funds available and don’t mind wasting lots of materials; which in most cases is highly unlikely, a phased introduction makes most sense. We introduced priority levels from “must do now” through to “use up existing stocks then re-print in new style”. This helped us to plan our activities – and reduced stress. We also produced a style guide as we went along to keep us on track going forward.
Ahead of our go live date, we made the necessary changes to our office environment, which added a few gratifying ticks to the list. Next up was getting our shop front ready; our hi-vis areas, particularly our website and social media platforms. From there, we started working through our general printed materials – flyers, brochures, pop-up stands, business cards – followed by the same exercise for the more targeted materials we use for particular sectors.
When the big day came and we pressed the button that would introduce our new branding to the wider world, there was much trepidation and anticipation. We had prepared tailored press releases to send to those we thought may be interested and used social media and e-newsletters to spread the word. It’s still early days, but feedback has been really positive. It has been a resource heavy exercise on many levels but well worth the effort; equipping us for the changing times we all now live and work in.
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Hannah Stringer is head of marketing for telephone answering specialist Moneypenny
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