It’s a perennial problem for creative and strategic agencies everywhere. We’re always busy honing essence, personality, differentiation and the like for our clients. The challenge can be to recognise when it’s time to look inwards to discover whether our own brand needs an injection of fresh thinking.
We’re delighted, then, to be walking the walk (rather than just talking the talk) with a bold brand refresh unveiled to hit the ground running in 2019. At its heart is a stronger, simplified logo designed to convey the contemporary and confident appeal that is driving our growing reputation – and success in attracting and retaining lovely new clients.
When things aren’t going exactly the way you want them to, you’ve hit a stumbling block or simply stagnated for a bit too long, the answer isn’t to start from scratch. It’s not about slapping a new colour palette over the top of the old one and having a cheap and cheerful logo commissioned. Our brand experts instead recommend taking stock of what you currently have, reviewing your existing situation to examine the gap between where you are now and your aspirational goals. This will enable you to adjust your strategies to build upon your strengths and mitigate against your weaknesses.
A good place to begin is revisiting your brand purpose. Understand why your company was formed in the first place; what need it was trying to address; what it was initially trying to say. Then take a look at what it’s saying and doing now, what it cares about and what role it plays in the wider community. Then do the same exercise again, but for the business you want to be in 5 or so years. What are the differences between where you started and where you are now? What are the differences between where you are now and where you want to be?
The way you need to evolve your brand is in those differences. If you’re communicating something different than you were 5 years ago, but the way you speak about it is identical, it may be time for a refresh tonally. If you’re currently in the middle of the pack, but in 5 years time you want to be at the forefront of innovation, it may be time to update your website to feature the latest AI tech.
One truism is that a brand is never done, it’s continually evolving. Those who stay still in business are in danger of being left behind. It was important therefore to reflect our evolution from marketing consultancy to fully-fledged brand and digital marketing agency. Evolution not revolution was the key. We were keen, for example, to retain certain visual assets that were known and respected by our clients and prospects.
So purple and lime green stays, but a secondary palette of pink and orange has been added to the revised logo and corporate styling to add zest and emphasise the energy and creativity we bring to our work. Our strapline – ‘We don’t do dull’ – is no empty promise.
Another benefit of brand introspection is that it encourages you to confront those many non-urgent tasks across other marketing channels that tend to be shelved until you ‘have time to tackle them’. For us, that was the perfect excuse to take a closer look at our website appearance, performance and experience. We loved the old sites dynamic appearance and how it represented our creativity. But the time had come to evolve that into something aligned with the new brand refresh – more confident in its simplicity and modernity. The project encouraged us into all sorts of fine-tuning, from improving SEO (search engine optimisation) and UX (user experience) across the site to forging brand alignment throughout our messaging and marketing materials. We love the results, and from the feedback we’re getting it’s going down a storm in those ever-so-important client channels.
If you aren’t doing it already, maybe it’s time to take time out and reflect on how your brand sits with your evolving business. Brand perception can and will affect your sales, leads, clients and supplier relationships. But what is your brand messaging, look and feel saying about you right now? Ask your clients, employees, partners, suppliers and other people in your network for their honest opinion. And if you don’t like the answers? Well, you know who to call…
Now let’s end with a word about our refined and refreshed brand purpose. We exist because we believe we can make a difference to your business. We’re always pushing boundaries and providing inspiration for change. Not different for different’ sake. Different because it works. To put us to the test, call 01462 262020 or email hello@focus7int.com.