When is it time to build a new brand strategy?
Usually it happens when companies merge or acquire one another. Or when a small company or organization that is poised for growth decides it needs to create a bigger presence in the marketplace.
Sometimes it happens when you decide you need a new logo.
A few years ago, I was approached by a potential client who wanted to develop a new brand strategy. "We need a new logo," the president and CEO told me. "And we need it now."
Brand Strategy is More Than Just a Logo
While it's not unheard of to design a new logo within a two to three-month timeframe, it's nearly impossible. And it's the wrong way to go about it if you want to create a new brand strategy that works.
Because a brand is not a logo. It's not an identity package. And it's not a product.
A brand is a person's gut feeling about a product, service, or organization. It's who you are and what you stand for -- all of which is communicated by your logo, marketing materials, products, and more.
A new logo is a by-product of a thoughtful, deliberate brand strategy development process. It's the icing on the cake after you've mixed all the ingredients and baked it.
3 Phases of Building a Brand Strategy
Here are the three phases of building a new brand strategy:
- Brand platform development: Includes information-gathering, research, analysis, feedback, and recommendations. The goal is to create a brand platform document that establishes the company/organization's market positioning, key attributes, and target audiences.
- Brand identity development: Includes a creative brief, design concepts, design refinements, and a final logo and artwork/templates. Could also include a new website.
- Brand roll-out: Includes elevator speech, news releases, internal presentations, and a long-term marketing plan.
A typical time frame to do all this is 9-12 months, depending on the complexity of the organization and the review and approval process.
Sure, you could start revamping your brand by designing a new logo. But that's not branding. Or strategy.
It's just design.
Building a successful brand strategy that will help grow and sustain your business ends with design. It starts with discovery.
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