We are often confronted with an unexpected evolution of our clients’ identities and brands.
As marketing and sales departments rapidly attempt to capture and deepen their presence in markets and company decision makers seize opportunities to expand products and services, so their brands may physically evolve. Not a problem for the designer who did his initial homework and left space for that evolution, but a meaningful change carries an often dramatic impact on all elements of a business.
In products it inevitably impacts on everything which is printed from labeling, to point of sale, signage, van livery, advertising and marketing materials, whether in traditional print media or video. In services it does the same. The ricochet can be costly, time consuming and can often be more damaging to consumer confidence than one would instantly assume, unless handles with kid gloves.
What the consumer accepts about your brand is the sum of all of your efforts to build their familiarity with your offering. A dynamic addition may appear to be the right thing to do in the existing market, but the question arrises, do you have the budget, even when phasing in changes to meet your demand, to amend the visual or verbal message. Most of all, is the change a market driven decision which will be sustained, or is it an aspirational change born out of sluggish sales and often subtle frustrations? At this juncture, return to your core values, opinions in focus groups and how you market. If it still looks inherently necessary then, with no stone unturned, examine the actual changes and their costs and the potential increase in revenue as a result of the market response to this evolution; risk versus reward.
A brand is all encompassing, so is change.