Brand strategy

The first thing you need when building a brand is vision. Once your vision is clear, everything else falls into place.

We begin with an audit to understand your business and to identify the issues, challenges and opportunities in front of it. It establishes the basics: who you are talking to, what you are offering and how you want to be perceived. With those clearly articulated, you have the foundations for how you look and how you talk, and a clear direction for future marketing, products and services.

Behind every brand is an identity system with clear guidelines for its visual elements and how they work together: your logo, typography, colour palette, photography, illustration and graphic elements. Together they should prompt instant recognition.

A structured identity system also makes it easy to organise information the same way over time and across many different media.

Just as your visual elements are clearly defined, so are your words. What you talk about, and how you express it, needs to be in line with your vision.

Your brand promise, what you stand for and what you do determine your messages. Your tone of voice determines how you say them. When these work together you can write copy that is distinctive to your brand and relevant to your audience.

• Vision. Clarity and purpose that keep the business on track, with short and long-term goals.
• Positioning. What makes you distinctive, so you own a place in your customers’ minds.
• Identity. A visual identity that sells your brand when you are not there to do it.
• Consistency. The same look and tone of voice across all media, which builds trust and familiarity.
• Promise. Deliver on what you promise, and never over-promise.
• Connection. A brand that resonates with customers in the context of their own lives.
• Alignment. Brand values carried through the whole business, from your staff to your packaging to the way you answer the phone.
• Evolution. The ability to adapt as your customers’ needs and expectations change.