Insights
The challenge to Make Tomorrow is a huge one, and requires us all to keep an open mind and a drive for knowledge and experience. We draw influence from everywhere all the time. Here’s a taste of what we’re thinking about.
More than logos, colours and fonts.
‘It’s a connection portal and a decision making system, not an aesthetic.’
Many people think a brand is a logo, colours and typeface.
It’s so much more than that.
There’s not enough space here to explain how this applies to your organisation so get in touch for an obligation-free chat.
It starts with a conversation, who knows where it might lead…
When is the right time to invest in your brand?
Here's six key triggers to consider:
01—You need to create impact
You are unknown or invisible in a crowded market
02—There’s been a shift in the market
There's been a significant cultural, political or technology change, meaning what worked before no longer does.
03—You need more focus & clarity
The message is messy or unclear to customers and/or your team.
04—Relevance
Your business or product has changed significantly due to expansion, pivot or M&A.
05—Limitations
Your current brand isnot scalable.
06—Reputation Repair
Damage limitation, reset, reinvent.
If any of this sounds painfully familiar, get in touch. It starts with a conversation that costs you nothing. Who knows where it leads...
Real depth is intuitively known & felt
You know when something rings true. You read the signs, engage your ‘spidey senses’. You can smell BS a mile away, right?
So can your customers. Just like you, they’re looking for the real deal. The slightest whiff of insincerity, cheap perfume, lazy shortcuts or dodgy data and its over. The details matter.
You can’t force anyone to love you, but you can show them your best, most authentic side, the one that operates in service to others. Getting this part right builds the relationships and commitments that last.
Respect the human who's picking up what you’re putting down.
Clarity upstream
Your business is moving fast. The goalposts are changing. The external noise is deafening.
You’ve got versions of versions of decks, a website of hacks, patches and workarounds, and when someone says ‘what shall we present next week’ or ‘what are we posting this month’ it’s feels like either sifting through a mountain of files for that specific reference or starting from scratch.
How is that working out? Always on the back foot, scrambling: “We’re moving fast and breaking things”, “It’s just a temporary fix”, “This will be fine for now”, “We’ll do this properly later".
So now it’s ‘later’.
This isn’t just a file management issue, (though god knows you want to get on top of that). This is about intentionality, clarity and focus.
If you want to make life easier it pays to get clarity on your core identity. Define who you are, where you’re going and why. Simplify the idea and the message. Build a verbal and visual language that speaks to the best, truest version of yourselves and what you want to mean to your audience.
Take some time, clear the decks, reset. Lock it down. Stick with it.
Because the chaos and noise never goes away. And your products and services will always be on the move, shifting and evolving.
But now you have a solid foundation, a set DNA, a North Star, deep roots… choose your favourite metaphor.
Creating clarity and focus upstream will make implementation and conversion downstream a whooooooole lot smoother.
HOW to talk about your brand.
Your brand is a complex ecosystem of awareness and feelings in the mind of your audience.
Many people struggle to talk about brands because they are abstract and come with a smorgasbord of jargon and mumbo-jumbo.
When analysing your current brand don’t talk about it in terms of whether you like it or don’t like it. 'Liking' or 'not liking' is subjective and emotional and can change from one day to the next.
'Working' or 'not-working' takes a higher viewpoint and includes context and relative positioning.
Brands are hard to judge and measure. How do you know if it’s working well or not? We conduct brand audits as part of a clear and logical preliminary process, looking at the effectiveness of your existing applications and where there might be gaps and opportunities.
This is how you begin to get a more objective view and avoid reacting emotionally and swinging back and forth from one day to the next.
Interested in a brand audit for your organisation? Get in touch.
Fractional Brand & Design service.
You know you need to create clarity and connection with your audience but it’s all so hard!
I’ve noticed that there’s a genuine demand for growing businesses that need to step up their brand messaging and communications output but don’t want the additional internal headcount or overblown fees of an external agency.
A good solution for this is a Fractional Brand and Design service - Let’s call it FB&D
This way you can have:
+ Strategic brand advice
+ Auditing of current assets and executions
+ Audience and competitive analysis
+ Creative consultation & workshopping
+ Quality design execution
+ Go-to-market messaging and creative
+ Mentoring and collaboration with internal teams
With the benefits of:
+ Lower-level commitment
+ High level service and efficiency
+ Experienced professional help
All for a fraction of the cost of new hires or bloated agencies. It’s a lean, cost-efficient and professional way to solve comms challenges.
And easier, did I mention that? A much easier way to build clarity & connection with your audience
Meaningful connections.
When every market is about to be flooded with auto-generated generic brand slop, the organisations that cut through will build deeper human connections that align with their cultural context, business vision and identity.
Made by smart humans, with expertise in creating clarity from complexity shaping relevant and culturally sensitive messages, delivered with craft and nuance.
Not just a glossy veneer or ‘eye-candy’.
Four Pillars
Common myths and misconceptions around sustainable business attitudes and communication. Presenting sustainability credentials is a curly one as there's a lot of confusing ideas and language out there.
We're all about clarity and simplicity so here's hoping this helps.
Moral Licensing
‘I bought an EV so I’ve done my bit.’
Known as a 'moral license' for consumers to ignore other green products. Second in our series of myth and jargon-busters in sustainable business.
Sustainability
doesn’t sell
Brands that lead with sweeping 'green' claims will not just struggle for credibility but discover that it won't sell product.
Messaging around social and environmental impact is important and can be a powerful persuader but don't overestimate its influence on the behaviour of consumers.
This article in the Harvard Business Review sheds some fascinating light on consumer behaviour regarding sustainability marketing and consumer appetites: https://lnkd.in/gZiK3fQQ
My feeling is that it also commoditises sensitive social and environmental benefits, making important long-term issues vulnerable to saturation and transitory market trends.
What do you think?
Embrace Change
Change is hard, but essential.
Persuading people to behave more sustainably is like turning the Titanic. Old habits die hard. Bombarding them with facts and distopian futures is frankly a bit of a downer and not the path to successful conversion at scale.
People are sensitive, often defensive and essentially self-interested, so building a compelling ‘sticky’ story with positive, achievable benefits is more likely to engage emotional buy-in, inspire small actions and gather momentum.
What makes a sticky story? Something that is simple to explain and share, is based in human experience, is unique, believable, visually appealing and taps into an emotional nerve. Did I mention visually appealing, this is super-important!
We can help find your sticky brand story.
More than
a logo
Brands are complex beasts but here's some thoughts that help make sense of it all:
—A brand is more than just a logo. It’s the relationship your business has with your customer.
—A brand is a gut feeling about a product, service or company – Marty Neumeier
—Customers may forget what you said, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel – Maya Angelou
—Branding creates meaning. Meaning creates engagement. Engagement drives performance. That’s why branding belongs in the boardroom, not only the marketing department. – Richard Sauerman
Nurture the narrative
Nurture your brand narrative.
Or else lose control over how your brand is perceived.
Ultimately it's not you who decides what your brand is, it's your audience.
But if you have the right strategy in place, stand for something people care about, speak truth and show a bit of x-factor magic, that's a winning formula!