Introduction
Whether you’re starting out a new business with no brand at all or whether your brand needs updating, there are many reasons why you should use a branding agency for your next project. Even the most timeless of brands deserve an update especially alongside new product ranges, repositioning and other factors discussed in this article.
Occasions to update your brand
New Product / Service Ranges
If your company is launching a new product or venturing into a new market. Your brand should also reflect your new target audience. If your brand is built from what the CEO likes (especially if they are not the exact customer profile of your business) it likely won’t coincide with your target audience. The best brands adapt positioning and design to their newest ventures whether that be improving product quality, producing a vegan range or even expanding to unisex rather than marketing to a singular gender.
Brand is Outdated
Brands have become slicker, smarter and more clever in their delivery, particularly with logos. There is a reason why brands like Starbuck, McDonald’s and Nike have evolved to more and more minimalist logos. As they have grown in recognition and awareness these brands have been able to reduce the clutter to make their logos recognisable, distinguishable from close and afar. Your brand should keep up with the times because your target audience is.
Brand Repositioning
Your brand can reposition in a number of ways. A few examples are; product quality, price, physical location, customer service levels, technology/innovation levels, market leader status to market follower status, modernization levels, sustainability positioning (and many more!). Use branding to your advantage to bring your brand closer to your target audience.
Out of Date Brand Guidelines
Is your company losing its branding? This could be different colors, imagery styles and editing styles being adapted over long periods of time (possibly for the better) possibly for the worse. You should maintain a tight grasp on your branded design, especially if your company has undertaken research to make it appeal to the market. An agency can help update or produce brand guidelines.
Why you should use an agency
Simply put, they’re experts
Branding agencies, especially higher quality, experienced (but unfortunately more pricey) have decades of experience to help your business. They know how to research, penetrate and rebrand for your new market positioning. Not only that, they act as a temporary stop-gap measure to save you from employing staff for temporary projects or disrupting your current internal process. Agencies take a weight off your company’s shoulders whilst providing guaranteed expertise for far less than taking on a new temporary team of employees.
They’ve worked with brands like yours
Chances are, with decades of experience, agencies will have worked with brands similar to yours in at least 1 of the core objectives you’re looking to achieve. If not, it’s easy to shop around with many branding agencies having portfolios and case studies available. Taking inspiration from their projects and an introductory call may help align the direction of your branding project to a sensible path.
Providing tried and tested processes
With experience comes processes. Processes avoid costly mistakes in what could already be an expensive project. Following a tried and tested process from an agency allows you to avoid costly mistakes, increase efficiency and most likely reduce the delivery time (even more so when you consider the speed of hiring an agency compared to an in-house hire).
Outside perspective
Often, especially in companies with a strong culture, it’s difficult to gain perspective from within the business. This is crucial to seeing your company from your customers’ perspective. Not only does an outside source provide perspective but an agency can conduct research and use their own experience to help take the visors of company culture off. The way it has always been done may not necessarily be the correct way, especially on a branding venture. If you’re looking for perspective, it may be worth enquiring with a branding agency in Northampton.
