Appearance matters and a strong first impression shouldn’t be underestimated when distinguishing your company from another in the engagement process.
Having a brand that is recognisable, relatable, and relevant to what your business stands for today is really the whole point.
Does your visual identity meet the mark? What are the indicators?
Unfortunately, as time and trends change, naturally a brand can begin to look dated, the logo might be too stylised, or the layout too complex. Perhaps the colours and visual elements across your website don’t align with your presentations or corporate stationery.
A lack of continuity in a brand across assets is a huge indicator that you might need to consider getting a creative expert on hand to assist.
Similarly, clients see your brand for what you offer today – not where you were 5 or 10 years ago. If your visual identify is no longer relevant to the solutions or markets you are targeting, or even presenting too small, or not corporate enough – that’s enough reason for change.
Sentimentality and identity: being more visible, but not unrecognisable
There can be a huge sentimental value attached to corporate branding. Perhaps the owner’s son designed it, or it’s displayed on vehicles, uniforms and buildings and seems too monumental to change – particularly if it has worked up till now.
Skye, Director at Gilligan Group, says,
We can always respect the attachment to a 10-year-old logo design. However, by developing a deep understanding of a business’s journey and foundations, we can also endeavour to retain any preferred or sentimental elements to create a modern-day concept that is far more versatile in application.
Does your brand need a bit of love and attention or a complete makeover?
Renovating your Brand
There are many drivers for a brand refresh – especially where a company is listed and needs to be accepted by shareholders and other in-country stakeholders. Bringing a brand along with the times can be a lot faster, simpler, and less complex than to argue complete change.
Refreshing a brand can be much like renovating a house, you leverage elements of the original structure to keep it recognisable and within budget. The floorplan may be the same, but the enhanced cosmetics bring new balance and make a huge impact to the feeling and experience.
Realising Your New Rebrand
Recognising when a brand is not at its optimum or reflecting the company ethos, solution or personality is a significant moment – but also opens an amazing opportunity.
Rebranding can come at a crucial time in a company’s life such as before listing on the stock exchange, after a merger, a management restructure or new innovation. A rebrand allows for a substantial change to the company’s image. Wiping away old colours, elements and brand iconography to bring in fresh colour, fonts and a new logo or even tagline.
“A brand is more than just a logo, it’s a way of exploring visual communication and building brand perception. Brand exploration and purpose is key in our process. The unique look of a successful rebrand – when used correctly, allows you to build strong brand recognition which in turn allows you to build market share.”
“At Gilligan Group we encourage our clients to commission our style guide solution. This acts as a comprehensive visual identity reference document for both internal and external parties, to maintain and deliver artwork consistently on point for years to come. The guide might explore (but is not limited to) your new typeface, brand colour codes and formatting, samples of the brand in real-life scenarios and fresh templates or collateral designs,” comments Skye.
Why work with an Australian-based design team experienced in corporate branding strategies?
It’s not uncommon for a business to struggle with recognising whether they need a rebrand or refresh. At Gilligan Group, we provide in-house expertise to review and benchmark your brand performance and reputation before recommending the best way forward. In effect, we’re an impartial third party who provides various alternatives to help you understand the benefits of a full brand overhaul or a partial brand refresh. Our process considers your vision, target audience, brand voice, and many other processes BEFORE creating and reaching key milestones including design briefs, competitor analysis, research and a discovery phase.
“In 2022, Gilligan Group has been honoured to work with Podium Minerals on a brand refresh to elevate the PGM developer’s perception as well as Laverton gold producer Linden Gold’s new brand launch in advance of their IPO.
“It is a creative director and/or a design teams’ role to ensure the rebrand process makes sense. With regular touchpoints and check-ins to develop stakeholder buy-in and to show the transformation in alignment with a pre-agreed rebrand roadmap. Our methodology is proven to have market success and mitigate potential for internal resistance,” says Skye.
Ready to take your business’s brand to the next level? Get in touch with us.
