A Practical Guide to the Brand Development Process

There’s much more to a brand than the logo. Brand strategy should encompass every interaction and impression that your business makes. With each person reported as being exposed to an hour and a half of advertising each day, clarity, consistency, and relevance are key.

De Bono Marketing Communications promises full support, with a range of brand strategy services including positioning, visual identity, tone-of-voice setting, and campaign development. 

Read on as we explore the importance of these services, making reference to the Automate UK rebrand.

What Is The Brand Development Process?

The brand development process involves the shaping of a business’s identity, perception, and experience across all touchpoints. It covers everything, from research and positioning through to identity, messaging, and ongoing management. The focus is on building a suitably distinctive presence that improves brand perception and makes for lasting loyalty.

Drawing on specialist expertise, we can help you with everything from brand architecture to positioning and storytelling strategy. 

You can count on our support in the shaping of a consistent experience, building a brand that reflects your values and customer promises. Going beyond recognition, you can expect more engagement and trust.

The Foundation: Understanding Your Audience

It’s vital to have a deep understanding of your customers for effective branding. There should be some consideration of the characteristics, demands, and frustrations of people who come into regular contact with your business.

Market research can help you home in on specific segments, including those most likely to engage with your brand and buy your products. The creation of detailed customer personas may make a particular difference in the development of focused strategies for effective promotion.

The value of audience research is reflected in our ongoing work with Automate UK. Working in close collaboration, we helped to clarify their target market and best means of showing up in the automation space. This led to the development of a clear brand positioning and messaging framework, with a focus on Automate UK’s value.

Stage 1: Brand Research

Along with the target market, research should also focus on factors such as the industry, competitors, and business goals. It can be used in the development of distinguishing strategies, feeding into the setting of measurable goals and success indicators to keep your marketing on track.

Returning to the Automate UK example, such research helped to identify the issue of a brand identity that no longer reflected the organisation’s industry-leading role. From here, we identified the opportunity for a stronger, future-focused position.

Stage 2: Brand Positioning

With research as the foundation, work can begin on the definition of your positioning. This may take the form of a short yet impactful statement that highlights your brand value and unique offerings.

In the case of Automate UK, we crafted a clear brand positioning and messaging framework focusing on the unique value of the brand. This could be used in setting a new direction, putting automation at the heart of UK manufacturing.

Stage 3: Logo and Brand Identity

Moving from strategy to visual and verbal expression, the next step will involve the creation of on-brand logo concepts, colour palettes, typography, and overall identity. These elements should make the desired impression, connecting with your audience and separating your brand from the rest. Cohesion and consistency will be vital, with the creation of assets based on your vision and intended impact.

This was the case for Automate UK, as the rebrand included a new name, logo, and visual identity to more clearly represent the future-focused role, while maintaining credibility with established stakeholders. 

Stage 4: Brand Activation

At this exciting stage, we combine the full range of elements and bring your brand to life. Work might include the implementation of launch campaigns, web designs, content updates, and internal brand roll-outs. Everything should work together to build awareness and connection.

The activation of Automate UK involved the setting of a communication strategy, announcing the rebrand to internal and external stakeholders. Generating a buzz through a tailored social media strategy, content calendar, and compelling visuals, we achieved these outstanding results:

• 604% increase in website impressions within the second month of the rebrand launch

• 40% average increase in click rates on key channels from relevant audiences

• Greatly improved search engine rankings, with Automate UK showing up on the first page of Google search results for +600 more targeted keywords and search terms

Stage 5: Brand Management and Evolution

There’s plenty of work to be done beyond the initial activation, with ongoing management vital for continued relevancy, consistency, and competitiveness. Brand performance metrics must be monitored, with messaging refined, and consistency maintained across marketing channels. There should be some consideration of brand awareness, conversions, and loyalty. Brand flexibility is key in rapidly changing markets.

This has been the case with our continued support of Automate UK. Collaborating from the inception through to post-launch, we’ve committed to going the extra mile, with efficiency and effectiveness in marketing the leading trade association.

Keeping Rebranding on the Table

Of course, there may come a time when your brand no longer reflects who you are, what you do, or the direction that you’re headed. At this point, it’s best to pause and reflect on the required brand change. 

It might be a matter of making subtle tweaks to elements such as the colour palette, logo font, or tone of voice. Otherwise, it might be time for a comprehensive change of identity and positioning.

A full rebrand was the best choice for Automate UK, with a focus on redefining the brand identity and strengthening the market positioning to represent the members and wider industry. Given strategic planning, even subtle changes can make a big difference.

Building a Brand with De Bono Marketing Communications

From research and positioning to activation and long-term management, brand development is a structured yet creative process with game-changing potential. 

As reflected in the Automate UK example, the research-led and storytelling-driven approach can help in the shaping of brands that are clear, consistent, and impactful.

Get in touch for advice and guidance on brand development, rebranding, or brand management.