Specialist brand, design and digital services

Brand development is the process of creating or improving a brand. It’s about redefining your customers’ knowledge and opinions of you and their attitude towards you and providing the information that tells them what to expect.

Brand development starts with researching the landscape: the market, your audience and what makes you different from your competitors. This prepares the foundation for a brand strategy that will define your brand positioning.

A brand runs far deeper than your logo. Your brand isn’t just your visual language; it’s also your tone of voice, your personality and style, your attitude and beliefs, and your purpose. When a brand encompasses all of this and considers every touchpoint and element of communication, powerful things can happen.

Brand identity is often described as the clothes your organisation wears. It’s the visual elements of your brand, such as your logo and colour palette. It’s what makes you instantly recognisable and how your audience connects you with your service or cause.

Brand management is the discipline of being consistent across your brand. With good brand management, your brand positioning stays true to your foundations and strategy. It is aligned in every channel and communication point. Continuous brand management is important for getting the most out of your investment in brand development.

When creating a design brief, be clear when you tell us about your organisation and your marketing challenge. Explain where you’ve been, where you are, and where you plan to be. Describe your audience and be open about your aspirations and targets. Tell us about your competitive landscape: which organisations work in a similar area, and which ones work with you or against you? If there’s anything you particularly want – or don’t want – for your project, let us know. If there are any guidelines or specific requirements in place, share them.

What do you want to achieve with your project?

How do you want people to react or respond?

Would you be open to some different approaches?

Are you happy to be challenged and consider solutions and platforms that you haven’t tried before, or are you very set in terms of the channels you’re comfortable using?

Provide a clear budget, timescale and process outline. Who will make decisions, give feedback and ultimately approve the project? Is there a small marketing team, or do the heads of other departments and other people in the wider organisation need to be included? Does your project need approval from a trustee or the board? Being clear about these things gives us a definite structure and allows us to set key milestones on what can be a tricky journey.

If you like, we can help you create your brief. By working with a design agency that has relevant experience, you can benefit from creative thinking and investigative research techniques to open up the remit and opportunity of the brief from the outset.