Discovering who your brand is
Each brand has a personality that’s unique, tangible and valuable. But, translating that personality into a successful rebrand requires more than assembling a list of “wants.” Instead, it should start with making a list of what your brand has that sets it apart.
It’s important to get data from everywhere you can. Gather opinions from every level of the organization; across meetings, interviews, focus groups, and social media posts. And then, once you’ve collected it, comes the critical part: Sorting it and analyzing it.
Step 1: Examine the data
What did the top decision makers say?
What did they perceive the organization’s values to be?
What did you identify as the strongest archetype?
What does the staff feel are strengths and weaknesses?
How does the general public feel about us.
The answers from our research can be categorized and used to identify brand personality traits such as courage, reliability, vitality or leadership. Step 1 should ultimately determine three to four of these key traits for your brand.
Step 2: Identify the data that overlaps
Okay, now you have a few personality traits. What about all the individual comments and opinions? What do you ignore? What can’t you ignore? Try “word mining” the comments you’ve received by crafting a Venn diagram of the themes you’re hearing. This will help you visually see all the possible logical relations between a finite collection of different sets.
Look for the words and phrases from your different subject groups that overlap so you can gather them into the smallest possible number of groups.
Also, examine the words and phrases that fall outside the overlapping areas, some of these opinions you shouldn’t ignore. If your top leader’s intentions aren’t realized within the rebrand, it will fail. Buy-in from the bottom layer is desirable, but buy-in from the top is essential.
Step 3: Elements that relate to your personality
What fonts, what colors, what shapes/symbols, what compositions evoke the personality traits you’ve identified? Not literally, but figuratively. The goal is to be able to step back and have the majority of people think, “Yes, that looks like us; that looks like it came from here. I see what you’re doing.”
For example, if courage is one of the personality traits, find a symbol that makes a mental connection. Go for the subconscious. Sure, a sword evokes the thought of bravery, but so does a shield. And a shield also conjures thoughts of protection and safety. Those are pretty good traits to project.
Step 4: Develop your narrative
The construction of the visual identity has to flow along with the big idea, and that requires a story.
Your narrative needs to be fully developed — and approved by the leadership — before the new identity is unveiled. Your audience, whether it is internal or external, should never be left guessing. Show the design and then explain it immediately. Every line, every shape, every color has to represent something — and each representation must lead back to your brand personality.
Keep your story energetic, understandable and reflective of your brand’s personality traits while underscoring the purpose of the organization.
Step 5: Bring forward characteristics to the new identity
You may want to have your new brand evoke elements of the existing brand. If that’s your goal, you’ll need to identify a way to bring the most salient characteristic forward into the new identity.
It could be a single color or a word or two from the previous tagline that is part of your earned brand equity, and it could help trigger and transfer that positive equity in the viewer’s mind. Those positive memories and associations with your reputation are helpful and can plant seeds of acceptance for your new identity.
At pivotal moments, rebranding is the most effective way for leaders to signal significant change. Are you at a pivotal moment? Drop us a line, and we'll be in touch.
