Developing a “people first” brand
You want a brand that communicates a vision that’s more specific, a clear message that wouldn’t easily fall victim to interpretation. Today, we are gonna share our flow of brand development which always start with the most important question.
Who are you?
At first, you might think that you can figure this out in-house or by yourself, I mean you surely know yourselves better than anyone, right? Well our initial crucial step is to spend enough time trying to understand what being “human” really means to you, what it means to your business, your customers and everyone around you, and how to represent it through design.
This is gonna be such an interesting but exciting exercise. The idea behind this process is to help you realize that to really get to know yourself, you need someone else to hold up the mirror. And this is the time to call in the Creative Experts. Our specialists come in to work together with your team to find opportunities and achieve your goals through in-depth research, including technical documentation, technical research, industry analysis, and competitor analysis.
Brand Development
Branding is a set of written and visual tools to express a company’s personality and project a unique vision.
So how long does it take? Some people say you can rebrand in 6–8 weeks. Well from our deep research and discovery process we realized that branding takes a minimum of 5months which ends up to almost a year, inclusive of the actual implementation.
That is lesson one: branding/rebranding takes time.
Not just because it’s so vital to a business. But because you’re asking questions that don’t have easy answers. Scary questions like “Why are we doing this?” and “What do we believe in?” Not the kind of stuff you chat about over a coffee at you local coffee shop{put your favorite coffee shop name here}.
Because if you really want to get to the core of your business, you need to spend time talking with lots of different people, both friends and strangers, about how they perceive you.
Here’s where you turn for some deep conversation.
Crafting a brand message
The best place to start is basically in-house. We get started with employee workshops, 1-on-1 interviews with key stakeholders, and focus groups with customers. And keep asking: What’s your business about? What do you use your products for? What makes you stick around?
By listening to your customers, you realize that people often associate your products with some emotional descriptions, this could be strong emotional verbs or simply regular thoughts or maybe none.
And then you will realize that the same feelings people use to describe the product/services you offer are baked into your company culture.
But what makes your product stand out is the emotional connection it allows your consumers to create with their people. Because when you need to know something, how you express your question is everything.
This approach helped us clarify our company vision:
“Put people at the heart of everything we do” because when you want to really know someone, you listen, you empathize, you open up — and by doing so, others feel safe to do the same.
Brand experience matters.
Brand experience is what creates great memories. And the brands of the future are going to be really simple and quite innovative. We’re dedicated to bringing that to life for companies everywhere. That’s why we put people at the heart of everything we do.
Designing a “people first” identity
You want to create a vibrant brand that is alive and connected to real people, a brand that can relate with the human culture and emotional flow. As such it is very important that we spend some valuable time developing visuals to express what it means to “really know people.”
Expressing your new identity
With your business core revealed, it doesn’t take long to polish the surface. These include a new typeface, colors, and layouts. The idea of layers is applied through collages, photography, animation, colors, illustrations, and words(“the tone”) that are interwoven to represent the highest level of human beings natural interactions.
At this point the finished product is more than just a logo as in the process you also end up with a style guide for your brand, a key document that defines and structures your company’s core brand elements and helps your business to communicate consistent visuals and messaging to your audience across marketing collaterals and campaigns.These aren’t just random designs — details matter.
Building a brand to last
Finally here’s a few things to take home from the Creative Lab Approach:
- Trust your intuition.
A brand is a marketing tool to position your product, but also an emotional way to connect with your audience. Never underestimate your feelings.
2. Involve everyone.
Employees are the ones who bring your brand to life — they’re your most important audience. Make them feel involved and listen to their concerns. Great ideas can come from the most unexpected people.
3. Leave time to implement.
The rebrand you initially deliver is just a bunch of proposals and good intentions. It’s when you start to implement that you see what works, and what doesn’t. Plan properly and allow room for experimentation.
4. Decide and commit.
Rebranding is a big and emotional decision, especially for founders. But a brand is never going to be perfect, so at some point you must commit and go all in.
Will you do all these things right? Probably not. But you try your best to dive deep into your company’s culture to discover your true identity. But most importantly ensure to work with the right partner organization.
