The Importance of Brand Development

4/7/2007

What your brand is and how you build it directly affects the way your business grows, and at Red Tiger we know that having a successful brand often leads to having a successful company (as long as everything else plays its part correctly of course).

Branding is just one of the many solutions we offer, and we thought that it’s high-time we share some crucial information with the business community, absolutely free of charge. We hope that this guide will help you in growing your brand and your business, and would love to hear your feedback and any stories you may have. Just drop us a line.

There are several key stages to your brand development:

We’ll go through each stage in this order, just remember to stop and let your brain catch-up and the knowledge sink-in once you reach the end of a stage. 

The birth of your brand starts here. This is your first crunch-point, a milestone in your business’s history and an altogether key stage in how you act and market yourself from this point. 

When it comes to the first stage in a brand’s development, many people seem to believe it’s the design of the logo itself but this isn’t all together true; and we’ve seen people waste money on having logos developed way before they’ve even thought about their expectations or their requirements.

As with any marketing activity you’ll do, you should be thinking about your targets foremost. Make yourself a coffee, tea or cocktail and sit with your management personnel (or just yourself if you’re a one-person-business), ensuring you take a pen and some paper with you. The likelihood is that by this point you would have developed a Business Plan, so bring that along too.

Now it’s time to set your targets for your brand. Ask yourself these basic questions:

1. How do you want people to perceive your business?
2. What are your competitors brands like? What are they’re strengths/weaknesses?
3. Take a close look at your industry-leaders’ brands, what do they have in common? A minimal style with soft colours? Strong colours and heavy illustrations with bold lines?
4. What market league do you want to be in? Do you aim to deal with the Micro’s and the SME’s, or do you want to be swimming with the big fish?
5. What colours would suit you and your business, and what symbols or icons?

By answering these questions, you should be starting to deduce exactly what it is you’re looking to achieve in business, and that reflects directly back your brand. You see, your brand isn’t just about a modern piece of artwork on your t-shirts, it’s about how people perceive your business and your visibility in marketing activities; and it goes without saying that this directly impacts your cashflow. Think about that for a moment. Okay ready? We’ll move on.

Okay it’s time to move forward and put out a tender for design/marketing firms to propose their ideas about designing your brand.

Keep your tender to the point, and don’t offer any sensitive information or development plans just yet. You’ll need to write about an A4 page of information detailing what the design company will need to undertake; use these headings as a guide: 

§         Project Overview

§         About Us

§         Aims & Objectives

§         Our Expectations

§         Timescales

§         Budget

These are all self-explanatory, so just remember to stick to the point, don’t babble on and make sure you clearly communicate your aims. Oh and a little trick, always undercut your budget. You should be expecting to pay around £400.00 for a company to undertake your project (and that should include all the advice they give you and about 3 different concepts with 2 stages of revisions to the final design – more about this later), so if you’re budget is £400.00, put it in the tender as £300.00. Remember, it’s always better to look like you’re giving them more money than you expected, it’ll keep them happy.

Involving the Professionals

This is the part where we become unpopular with a majority of designers; of all the hordes of web design firms across the globe, most of them are now offering logo design. So although it’s tempting to just have your brand done by the same people doing your website, etcetera etcetera, it’s not always the best idea. It’s a fair assumption to make that most of these newly found logo design services are just that; Logo Design.

You and your brand are really precious things, so don’t put them in the hands of just anyone with a computer and a bit of software. Choosing the right design or marketing firm to take on your brand design is a vital part of the whole process; you’ll need to find someone who’s a professional, works to certain standards, meets certain expectations and most of all, has the proof to back-up what they’re offering to you.

Vital points to look out for when enlisting a company for your branding project:

• They’ve been around at least a couple of years and have enough work to prove it. Check out their portfolio, don’t be afraid to do some digging and get in touch with their clients. Remember – professionals won’t mind you doing this, in fact they’ll encourage it.
• Everything they’re discussing is in Plain-English, and if it’s not, they can explain it effectively when you query it.
• If they really care about your success, they’ll challenge almost all of your ideas just to be 100% about everything. Crucial parts of your logo, such as colours, play an important part in forming your company’s profile; the firm should be examining this and comparing it with your targets and expectations.

All in all, you’ll need to find someone you can build a good working relationship with, can place your trust in and of course, will deliver on-time and on-budget.

Creative businesses can be a strange bunch at times, but the usual rules apply – if you don’t trust someone to deliver on the job, then don’t trust them with your project or your money.

So you’ve chosen your design/marketing firm for your branding project, probably paid a deposit and given them a formal tender. If they’re really good, they would’ve come to see you and gone through everything, it’s a fantastic extra, but not vital.

Typically you should expect to work through the following stages with them:

1. You accept the project formerly (make sure you’re bound with them legally, i.e. signed Terms of Business / Project Go-Ahead).
2. After a few days, you should be receiving your initial concepts. They should be different, and well-thought out. If they all look the same, demand alternates be done. You’re paying after all.
3. Providing both parties are reasonable, and your designer full understands your objectives, you should never get to a stage where you cannot agree on a design. So, with that in mind, pick the design that grabs your attention or speak with the designer and get another concept.
4. Sit down with the pen and paper again (did we mention the cocktail? Sorry, the coffee) and your favourite logo design. Decipher its strengths and its weaknesses, take a step back and take a fresh, clean, unbiased view. Show friends and family, get their honest opinions (explicitly ask for HONEST opinions, please can be too nice most of the time). Look at the symbols used, its workability in your stationery and marketing activities – how viable is it for clothing, vehicles, signage? Make a list of revisions based on your findings and tie them up with your objectives.
5. Submit the revisions to your designer.
6. Within a day or two, you should receive the revised logo. Do exactly the same as what you did in point 4, sit down and pull it apart. Get peoples opinions. If you’re happy, declare the project closure to the designer, or submit another set of revisions.

 

Ensure you only submit two or three sets of revisions, don’t ask the designer to change things in dribs and drabs. It’s better all round on everyone’s time and patience.

Remember - don’t get lost in the creativity and pleasures of the eye, your brand still needs to deliver on it’s, or rather, YOUR targets and promises. The firm you’ve chosen to undertake your project should be thinking about this throughout.

Now that you have an agreed design, you’ll need to sign-off the project with your designer (which usually involves your signature and a Project Closure Statement).

Make sure they deliver your logo in both professional formats for further professional work (just get them to agree by email that they’re industry standard formats) and a usable format for your own day-to-day documentation (usually high resolution TIFF or JPEG).

That’s it, Stage One over. Trusting all went well, you’ve now built up a good relationship with a professional design/marketing business and most importantly, had your logo designed in accordance with your aims, objectives and expectations. Want a professional opinion? Throw us your logo and an email through www.redtigermarketing.com – we’d be happy to have a chat with you.

The next stage is ‘Impact’ – where you use your brand across your business and marketing activities.

So your brand has been designed and it’s all ready to do its job. So how do you take this onto the next step and make the impact on your business? Read on and suck up the knowledge…

First things first, you need to look at what your business is doing at the moment to promote your brand, or if you’re a start-up, you need to look at what you WILL be doing.

Try to remember what Branding is about – it’s exposure, exposure, exposure! That means, everywhere you can get your business exposure (the word ‘tastefully’ comes into play here) the better, and naturally that means showing off your logo. Think about such ideal exposure grounds as stationery, websites, signage, clothing, literature, advertising, emails, faxes, vehicles, job advertisements and sponsorships (did we mention Red Tiger can do all this for you?). Sit down with your pen and paper and note down everything that you’ll need to add your brand to.

Once you’ve finished the list and double-checked it, you have your ‘Scope’. This enables you to clearly outline exactly what exposure areas you need to address. Depending on your budget, you may want to brand some areas now and the rest over a period of time – this isn’t good on your profile, but it’s good on the wallet if you happen to be in that position.

As long as everything’s gone to plan, you should now have a good relationship with a marketing agency or at the very least a branding designer/consultant. Do they have the capabilities to carry out all or any of your Brand Impact projects? Ask them and see how they can help.

If they can’t, or only in a few areas, ask them to recommend suppliers for the rest. Usually an agency (marketing or simply design) should have a network of contacts to be able to help you; if they don’t, find the useful people yourself. These obvious rules apply when questing for your needs:

§         Ensure they have a solid background in the field you need them to perform in.

§         It’s all about relationships; if you don’t trust them, don’t use them. Simple.

§         Never give all your money up-front and make sure you can contact them with ease.

§         Make sure their work is to standard, don’t work on promises of high-quality.

Oh one shameless plug for you; we do all of the above and so, so much more. In fact, we can’t think of anything to do with Branding Impact that we DON’T do. Enough said.

You’ll need to go through the process with your/each of your suppliers and they’ll all very likely to work differently; don’t get worried though, just remember the basic principles of marketing design work and you’ll be fine;

1. Develop a brief of your requirements; give as much detail as possible.
2. Receive a concept or concepts.
3. Revise concepts where required.
4. Take thinking time (rushing will cost you money in the long run).
5. Sign off, they deliver artwork.

Oh and one CRUCIAL point; make sure whatever they design, they use your brand and/or its colours. You’ll be gob-smacked at how much marketing material we’ve seen where the company logos/colours have just simply been ignored to fit in with the designer’s concepts. Designers fit in with YOU and YOUR BRAND, not the other way around – never, EVER forget this. Read this paragraph again to burn it into your gorgeous mind.

Finding suitable suppliers isn’t always as mellow as all this though and it’s easy for us to just say how well we do things and to come to us, but, well; we do things REALLY well… so just come to us! If only for a little bit of friendly advice!

It goes without saying (but we’ll say it anyway) that you’ll need to take all your branded areas into the physical realm and have them printed/manufactured etc. Your designer(s) will be able to help you with this; usually they outsource the work and manage the project for you. Two things to remember here:-

1. Don’t be afraid to shop around a little if you think something is a little pricey. Just make sure your new quotes will deliver at a high quality and service level. It’s not worth scrimping on a few quid and risk damaging your brand.
2. Proofing – fall in love with the action of ‘Proofing’ work before it goes to print. Yes it may cost a little bit more to get a printed proof (Digital or Lithographic) but what if the job doesn’t turn out as expected? Remember that colours on screen won’t be the same when they’re printed.

It may just be our tiger-spirit but we believe it’s important to grab opportunities when they come along; we’re not talking about giving money to Nigerian princes via email, oh no, we’re talking about brand exposure!

So you’re running an advertisement – make sure your brand is somewhere in the design! How about those shirts you’re wearing, or that literature you’re giving out? Are they branded? What about your quotes or that article that local press are doing about you? You need to think about giving your brand as much exposure as possible – look at every single opportunity you’re presented with to achieve this but ensure nothing is done to damage your brand (avoid tacky brand dropping).

 

Okay, Stage Two is over. Assuming everything went well, you now have effectively built your brand by impacting it across your business. Where people see your business, they see your brand, and more importantly where people see your brand, they see your business. Feels good saying that doesn’t it? Hold on to that feeling, that’s what Branding is all about.

This is the shortest stage to read through, but in principal it can be a fairly drawn-out process. If you get stuck, want a chat or just a professional opinion throw us an email through www.redtigermarketing.com or call us on 0870 365 1279. Happy to help! 

The next stage is ‘Awareness/Building’ – where you take your impacted business and move it forward to build your brand and its awareness.

When a brand reaches ‘Maturity’ it is defined (albeit, by us) that it has primarily served its initial purpose in building the business and reached a level of recognition where the ability to change the logo or indeed, devise a new one, is evident.

Over time brands chop and change, it’s part of its life and your company’s life; but try to make these inevitable changes few and far between so you don’t upset the awareness balance. It’s also worth remembering that these changes need to be concisely planned and implemented; ensure there are genuine reasons behind them too – not because a large client doesn’t like a colour (yes we’ve actually seen it happen).

This situation usually arrives following the solid awareness of your business in the marketplace (which generally means people associate your name with your brand automatically, and vice versa). It may also arrive when your business activities diversify and settle, it may even be your market or target audience has changed, or it’s simply become outdated and isn’t doing your profile any good. You may even find yourself in a position (god-forbid) where your brand represents something negative (i.e. if you’ve suffered bad PR).

To get a grip on reality and the current position of your brand, you’ll need to look at all the aspects involved in why you feel it has matured and why you feel a change may be needed. Look at these areas no matter what your reasons are: 

• What did you originally set out to achieve with your brand, how has it done this and more importantly, what does it need to do now? Perhaps you need to change opinions or combat impressions?
• How have your business activities changed and how does this affect the brand?
• Has your company name changed? What alterations need to be made?
• Has your target audience changed? How does the brand need to adapt to this?

Once you’ve realised what needs to be changed you’ll need to develop a strategy on how to cope with the change effectively. Designing a Rebranding Strategy needs to be done correctly or it can backfire and create a negative impact so always try to get a professional agency involved to develop your strategy and preferably carry it out on your behalf. Naturally we can help you do all of this (and quite a lot more) so don’t hesitate to drop us a line.

If you’re looking to do it yourself, then you’ll need to take lots of things into consideration:

• Define your Scope – what’s branded in your business? Buildings, vehicles, toilet paper?
• Prioritise elements in your Scope – what is most important to be rebranded first? You’ll need to rebrand everything of course, but budgeting and any current marketing strategies may dictate timing of certain pieces of the puzzle (and let’s face it, they usually will).
• Define your Resources (such as you, your staff, marketing agency, design agency etc) then assign them tasks, along with deadlines. Prepare briefs for every resource involved and be as detailed as possible. If you need help on briefing a marketing/design agency then look to the ‘Impact’ chapter of this document.
• Draw up a full Strategy Plan which includes elements, tasks, resources, milestones and possible delays and how to deal with them (we exist to take this kind of stress off of your shoulders by the way).

As soon as you’ve got your Strategy drawn-up, do the age old thing we all like to skip and check it over three times; ensure you’ve got everything right, what needs to be done, when it needs to be done and who’s doing it. The checking part is really essential so make sure you don’t try to get yourself out of doing it!

You’ll need to put the whole thing into action and oversee it from start to finish; you’re likely to incur lots of delays but hopefully you would’ve planned all these through and foreseen them. Deal with them quickly and effectively so you get a maximum impact for your brand.

The Opportunities of a Rebrand

Don’t forget the opportunities open to you when maturing your brand; use effective Public Relations (again, it’s well worth getting professionals involved in this area) and keep everyone informed about your business’s development.

Remember your clients and customers too; keep them notified of your branding changes and remind them how your development is benefiting them. Get their opinions and keep in touch with them regularly, it’ll make your profits sustainable (but that’s another article!).

Creating or maturing a brand are essential parts for your marketing (and in turn, your business) but don’t overlook the power of assessing your brand on an ongoing basis. Depending on what type of industry your in and lots of other various aspects, we’d suggest running a quarterly study on your brand’s position and it’s relevance to your current activities.

You may find that you’ve been hit by bad PR, or your industry has been hit by bad PR, it could be that your activities broaden or narrow, or certain items have different effects down the line. If you need to adapt your brand to suit the conditions of your business or the climate you should avoid making them drastic.

By rebranding you are effectively resetting the hard work your brand has put in, so bear this in mind with any adapting you do; maturing your brand is one thing, but changing it every couple of months is totally different (not a mention a terribly bad idea).

In your study remember to research people’s opinions; both your customers/clients and your suppliers. If you can, get opinions from the Press and Media too as their image of you can be eye-opening most times! These types of studies should be included in branding activities that marketing agencies do for you, so ensure you’re getting a full consultancy service if you do go the professional route. As always, we’re on hand to give you some advice if you need it, just drop us a line – we’d love to hear from you!

That’s it! You gave birth to a little-baby-brand and brought it up through its teenage years to Maturity, now all you need is the constant nurturing to keep it shining and making you look great, and more importantly, recognised!

We hope you found this guide useful, we put hard work into getting it just right and to apply to as many people as possible. Naturally we only offer bespoke services and solutions, so get in touch and find out how we can help you and your business grow into something incredible!

 

Need help with your branding?

Call us…01206 384672

Email us… info@redtigerdesign.com

Visit our website… www.redtigerdesign.com

Pop in or write to us at…

Red Tiger Design
Unit 28
Waldegraves Business Park
West Mersea
Colchester
Essex CO5 8BS

 

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