Great brands rarely happen by accident, they require a pragmatic approach to developing and implementing a clearly defined brand strategy that leads to a successful brand identity.
Brand & Positioning Strategy
Critical to the longevity and success of any brand is to first gain a thorough understanding of the organisation, its mission and vision, company culture, competitive advantage, strengths and weaknesses, and marketing strategy.
Great brands create a connection – they know who they are and where they are going. They stand for something and importantly, they have a compelling story to tell. At Axiom we work with you to uncover your brand’s personality and key attributes, defining the brand brief that will guide us creatively in the subsequent stages.
We will establish the brand architecture and the structure in which the brand will be positioned. Is it a product or service brand or will it live under an established ‘umbrella’ brand from which it can leverage for example? We undertake a full physical audit of all existing brand collateral in use, giving us insight to how it looks to ‘do business’ with the brand and what opportunities are there to improve upon the experience.
We will define and understand who we are talking to, as it is vital to create a targeted and relevant message. Analysing your competitors – who does it well, who does it poorly – will assist in identifying both how we can differentiate and where we will need to be positioned.
Knowing and understanding what the brand stands for or believes in is integral. We will work with you to define the brand values that will become the ‘non-negotiables’ that guide the brand into the future. We will also uncover the unique personality attributes of the brand – what are you and how will it feel to ‘do business’ with the brand.
We work with you to discover the competitive advantage, realise the brand essence and create the single unifying idea, or your key ‘point of difference’ that we can then leverage to make your offering different to that of your key competitors and position the brand competitively in the marketplace.
At the end of this process we now know who you are, what you do and why it matters. We know who else does it, who we are talking to and importantly – how we are going to talk to them. We can now begin to apply that knowledge to the more tangible parts of the brand as we commence designing the brand identity.
Brand Naming
It’s often been said ‘ What’s in a name?’
Developing a brand name is one of the most important elements of building a successful brand. A brand name is more than just a word, it is the cornerstone of your brand and it is the beginning of a conversation. It is the most valuable non-visual asset of a brand and the asset that will undoubtably have the longest lifespan!
To ensure you create a brand that will be remembered it must be distinctive, imbued with meaning, relate to what you do as well as reflect what you would like your brand to become.
Our naming process is exhaustive. We commence by first gaining a thorough understanding of who you are, what you do, what you stand for and where you are going. We work with you to distil and define your brand’s personality and vision to create the foundation of your brand strategy.
We then get down to the business of creating literally hundreds of naming ideas, some brilliant, some not so brilliant – we measure each against our brand brief and then select the strongest and most relevant. Once we have the shortlist we rigorously screen the names through trademark, business name registers, domain names, etc to ensure availability, so we can present the final shortlist to you.
Brand Identity
Let the creativity begin!
We now distill all of the insights and ideas from the research phases into it’s visual essence.
At this stage, it is important to note that a company logo and its brand are not the same thing. Brand is not synonymous with a logo. The logo is the most visually recognisable and primary identifying asset of a brand in its simplest form, yet your logo is just an expression of your brand, and it’s only one way of influencing your brand. A logo should represent your brand and the sentiment behind it. Your brand is a sum of all the experiences that a customer has with you, and their interpretation of those experiences.
We develop the logotype and/or symbol, we create the look and feel or if you will – the visual language of the brand: the brands support system of colour, typography, imagery and composition. We will apply the brand concepts to a range of trial applications to demonstrate the concepts viability, scalability and effectiveness across touchpoints, enabling you to see the brand the way a customer will see and interact with the brand.
If you are ready to invent, reposition, renew or ignite you business or brand then you should be ready to talk to us.
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