When to start the branding process?

The branding process goes hand in hand with stating a business. The questions asked and used during this process can help you in the long term. But the branding process does not always start there. Below are other reasons to start the branding process.

New company, new product

- I’m starting a new business. I need a business card and a website.

- We’ve developed a new product and it needs a name and a logo yesterday.

- We’re going public in the fall.

- We need to raise venture capital, even though we do not have our first customer.

Name change

- Our name no longer fits who we are and the businesses we are in.

- We need to change our name because of a trademark conflict.

- Our name has negative connotations in the new markets we are serving.

- Our name misleads customers.

In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different. - Coco Chanel, House of Chanel

Revitalise a brand

- We want to reposition and renew the global brand.

- We’re no longer in the business we were in when we founded our company.

We need to communicate more clearly about who we are

- We’re going global—we need help to enter new world markets.

No one knows who we are

- We want to appeal to a new and more affluent market.

If your brand suddenly didn’t exist, would anyone miss it? A really good brand leaves a big gap. - Juan Pablo Ramírez, Brand Strategist, Saffron Brand Consultants

Revitalise a brand identity

- We are a great company with cutting-edge products. We look behind the times.

- Our identity does not position us shoulder to shoulder with our competitors.

- We have 80 divisions and inconsistent nomenclature.

- We love our symbol—it is known by our market. The problem is you cannot read our logotype.

We lack visual consistency

- We need a new brand architecture to deal with acquisitions.

- Our packaging is not distinctive.

- Our competitors look better than we do, and their sales are going up.

- All of our marketing looks like it comes from different companies.

- Every division does its own thing when marketing. This is inefficient, frustrating, and not cost-effective.

So, to wrap it up.

Building, protecting, and enhancing the brand requires desire and a disciplined approach to insure its integrity and relevance.

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