Rebranding: Your Company Makeover
A rebrand journey is an exciting one: a new lease of life for your company that can catapult you to new opportunity and growth.
If your brand was a person, think of a rebrand as a way of helping someone try to understand and improve themselves from inside out. It’s a process of soul-searching to help them to understand who they really are, but also at looking at how they relate to others in order to improve their personal relationships, as well as changing everything they own that surrounds them.
Research
The initial stage of a rebrand job is the research. This is a fact-finding exercise for an agency in order to get to know a company from within.
This is like the first stage of going to a life coach, where the client talks and the professional listens. It’s a time for the coach to ask the right questions in order to expose the true inner workings of the mind and soul of the client.
The life coach might also assess a client’s wider surroundings. For a company we do the same thing — speaking to the owners, staff and customers in order to understand what everyone’s existing perception of the company is.
Strategy and Concept
The next phase is the brand strategy and core concept development. This is where a life coach comes up with a plan, and possibly consults with other professionals working in different fields, in order to work out the best course of action for the client.
As an agency, this is where we assess what is in place and make a framework. We take all the company attributes, values and characteristics and start to refine them all into a simple, straightforward message. We also see how this message might sound and look through language and mood boards.
Production
Once we have a concept, we can start making it come to life. Here a life coach would give advice on what changes a client should make in their life in order to achieve certain desired things. A life coach might say, “If you want to make more friends: you need to get out more”. As an agency, this is we would look at a company and say:
“If you want more followers: have a more consistent approach to your social media postings”.
“If you want to be seen as an expert in your field: post relevant blog content on the appropriate platforms for your company”.
“If you want to appeal to a higher calibre of client: make sure you look the part and get brand identity that exudes quality”.
To make sure we cover every aspect of a company’s identity — we break this stage down into smaller sections.
Logo Design
This is what is always seen by customers, and is the most visible touch-point they have with a brand. So it’s like a company’s body and face. Read our definition of logo design here.
If you were a person trying to improve your personal image, you might go to the gym, redo your hair, wear different makeup, or shave. For a company there is a lot more we can change, so it would be like choosing a new body all together.
Brand System
This is a flexible system we develop which could be seen as your overall style and how it works together. Are you posh, sporty or scary? Metaphorically, this looks at how your hair would go with your clothes, or how your shoes might match your bag. In brand terms — we would look at how photography, for example, might be represented across your brand in different instances. We would look at what filters or gradients to use, and how these might change (or stay the same) depending on where they were placed across your website, blog or print collateral.
Brand Asset Design
These brand assets are like a wardrobe. They are visual elements that we can add or takeaway in a more flexible way depending on the situation, but they all follow a certain style (the brand system).
Brand Guidelines
This is your style guide which includes advice on which clothes you should wear in which situation, but also advice on how you should speak and behave too. See it like your personal plan than you can refer to in all situations to make sure you are always sticking to the new ‘you’. For a company the brand guidelines outline all uses of logo design, brand fonts, colours, assets and tone of voice.
Website
Your website is like your house — we style the environment where you interact with people the most, making painstakingly sure that it also reflects your new self. The architecture, fixtures and furniture are like the layout, pages and content of your website.
Collateral
In this stage we build the other things in your businesses life — business cards, posters, brochures, or other physical assets. It’s like us creating a customised car, jewellery or other accessories for someone. Every element can be considered, but it depends if that is important to you and what you are trying to represent.
So, to conclude. Branding is not like just giving someone a makeover — it’s like a complete revision of where you are in your life. It’s a deeper look into your soul and relationships: a new body, a new wardrobe, a new house and a new car. Once the overhaul is complete, and is singing to you more as the person you are, you’ll be on track to get where you want to be in order to achieve your goals.
Rog How is co-founder and Managing Director of Polleni branding agency. He studied at the University of Bristol and has worked in radio production for national and international stations in the UK and Australia. Rog has also worked in marketing and audio branding at the BBC alongside agencies such as Fallon and Red Bee. At the BBC Rog led the stakeholder management and radio production of projects such as the Royal Wedding, the Olympics and General Election. Rog co-founded a critically-acclaimed E-Commerce business with his wife Cat How, before selling it to co-found the Pollen Place coworking studios and event space in 2016. Rog co-founded Polleni in 2017 alongside Neil Quinn and Cat How. He is a branding mentor for incubator programs in Lisbon at Beta-i, and speaks regularly at events around Europe. Originally published at polleni.com.
