Best practice for starting your branding project

When Reform is at the beginning stages of creating a new brand or evolving an existing brand we like to get everyone involved in the business. We feel it is important for all staff, not just the board of directors or the owner, to feel involved in the branding process. This helps them to buy into the new brand and understand why it is being done.

A rebrand can breath new life into an organisation and get people excited about the brand again.

Engaging your staff can be done in a couple ways:

A Creative Workshop. Invite everyone into a room with various magazines or other printed material and ask everyone to create a mood board, through images and text, which they feel best represents the organisation, its target audience and brand culture.

Internal Meetings. Hold meetings with groups or individuals and ask the following questions:

1. Who are your customers?
2. Who are your competitors?
3. What problem does my company solve? Does anybody care?
4. What is my value proposition? Is it distinctive? Is it relevant to my customers?
5. When people think about our services, what are the feelings and associations you want them to have? Are they unique? Can we ‘own’ them?
6. What are the functional benefits that we deliver to our customers?
7. What are the emotional benefits that only we deliver to our customers?
8. What kind of personality does the brand have?
9. How would you describe your brand to a friend?
10. How would you describe its style?
11. Where would your brand hang out?
12. What kind of car would your brand be?
13. What animal would represent your brand?
14. How does your brand’s image fall between these opposing characteristics?
    • Masculine/Feminine
    • Simple/Intricate
    • Grey/Colourful
    • Conservative/Extravagant
    • Approachable/Authoritative
    • Necessity/Luxury
    • Fun/Serious
    • Professional/Casual
    • Modern/Classic
    • Sporty/Elegant
    • Extreme/Safe
15. What words would you use to describe your brand’s image?
16. What words would you not want used to describe your brand’s image?
17. What attributes and/or emotions do you want associated with your brand?
18. What attributes and/or emotions would you not want associated with your brand?

Reform can facilitate any of these two options if required. We feel that any of these two processes produces a more accurate and solid brief for the branding process to start.

Why not drop us a line today on 0161 766 2914 or email paul@reformcreative.co.uk

Here is another blog on branding you may find of interest: History of Branding