A branding process is key in establishing and developing a brand. Branding is there to differentiate and elevate your business. It’s there to reflect the true values the company is bringing to the market. Without it, establishing meaningful connections with your audience is hard, if not impossible.
Our branding process involves going to the heart and to the edges of a brand. We find what the brand should stand for, and what it should stand against. We discover the true purpose, pinpointing a unique positioning and establishing a personality that is reflective of the brands values. By following our branding process we will help you achieve this.
Our branding process
Our branding process involves 6 phases: Discovery / Strategy / Naming & messaging / Design / Guidelines / Roll-out.
1. Brand discovery
Research
The first step involves our team getting to know your business, your industry, your competition and your customers. We will analyse your existing branding if you have one, look at your competitors and pull out what can be exploited as part of the brand positioning.
Workshop
We host brand workshops where we facilitate a set of exercises to extract the core beliefs and values of the business. The workshop will help guide you to pinpoint unique attributes about your brand, a brand that best reflects your vision and values, and to determine the appropriate strategy to move forward. The findings of the workshop will be distilled into the strategy report.
Interviews
We also carry out telephone interviews or meetings with a key stakeholder(s) to get an insider’s view on the workshop findings.
Brand dig
If brand strategy is not required, we offer a lighter ‘brand dig’, consisting of a questionnaire and a set of worksheets. The results will be analysed and compiled in a document that forms part of the creative brief for the design development.
2. Brand strategy
Strategy report
Once the discovery phase is complete, our team will develop a brand strategy that is unique to you. We will create a report compiling the insights from the research undertaken and key strategic brand recommendations from these findings.
3. Naming & messaging
Naming/tagline
After the strategy has been completed, we work on naming and tagline concepts if required. The name for your brand should conceptually represent and accurately translate the values of your business. The tagline concepts should succinctly sum up what the brand represents or offers.
Messaging
Based on the brand strategy we will create a vision and mission statement, core value statements and TOV (tone of voice) guidelines, all inspired by the strategic framework findings.
4. Design
Logo design and development
Once we’ve developed the brand strategy or conducted a brand dig, our designers will move onto interpreting the brand characteristics in a visual way. A series of logo concepts will be explored, including brandmark and wordmark or combination logo design concepts. Once we have signed off on a single concept, we will develop and refine the logo, shown in different contextual applications. The final logo will be produced in various formats (stacked and landscape, separate brandmark if applicable), saved in formats for both print and digital, in colour, black and white versions.
Visual identity directions
Once the logo has been signed off we will move onto creating visual identity concepts. We will explore different visual identity directions, suggesting recommendations on colour palettes, font usage, graphic elements, icons and/or imagery. It can be extensive, or covering the basics like colour and font usage. The visual identity concepts will be shown in mockups/ in context visuals using typical applications appropriate to the brand, to demonstrate the use of all elements working together. A single direction will be chosen and further fine-tuned if needed.
6. Guidelines
Brand guidelines
Brand guidelines can be a mini guide — covering the essentials, or an in-depth handbook — showing a comprehensive guide to logo and brand use. Brand guidelines are created to show how to properly express your brand, maintain brand strengths and ensure consistency. The guidelines will outline how best to use the elements together across online and offline applications, showing best practices and uses, for elements such as logo, font usage and specifications, colour palette with relevant values, imagery/graphic style and usage, brand values and tone of voice.
7. Roll-out
Implementations
Putting the brand into action is an exciting process; the rollout can be limited or extensive depending on your circumstances. Some items to consider up front are business cards, stationery, signage, vehicles, uniforms, website, social media and print collateral such as brochures.
We offer different options when it comes to branding, but our process follows similar steps. Are you looking to create a corporate identity or rebranding a product or service? Get in touch today and we’ll be happy to chat through our process and options.
Check out our other articles if you want to learn more about what branding is, if you need brand strategy and how to choose the right branding agency.
