BRANDING & BRAND CREATION
Your brand is the emotional element of your product. It is the thing that helps your product appeal to your particular consumer; it gives your product character. It is also what sets you apart from your competitors in your marketplace. This becomes particularly important if you don’t really have a product difference that you can shout about.
The process of branding helps you work out how you want your product to sit within a particular category. It fleshes out your brand’s story, its character, whether it meets an as yet unfulfilled emotional need; it drives what your brand looks like, whether it follows the crowd or behaves as a challenger in the category.
Creating a brand can often be more straightforward than re-positioning an existing brand, as you can start from scratch. Re-positioning involves a careful analysis of what is working and what needs changing. Consumer insight is invaluable in both instances; the more you know about your consumer needs and wants the better you can tailor your brand to meet them.
Having a strong brand gives you all sorts of leverage: it can create a persuasive argument with the trade when negotiating a listing; it reassures investors; it adds value to the balance sheet.
Who is this for?
Anyone who believes their current branding could work harder for them. This could be because:
- the category has evolved and your brand is now looking out of date. Read a case study.
- you may be the category leader and so have been much mimicked by other brands or supermarket brands, meaning you are no longer distinctive nor recognised. Read a case study.
- feedback that tells you your branding is no longer appealing (this could be from the trade, anecdotal or from consumer research). Read a case study.
- the current branding was a “quick fix” and a proper job now needs doing. Read a case study.
- your product has been improved and you need to amend the packaging which provides an opportunity to update the branding too. Read a case study.
OR
- you have spotted an opportunity in a marketplace to meet an unmet consumer need that a new brand could meet. Read a case study.
- you have developed a new product that now needs branding. Read a case study.
Benefits of working with Reach?
Because our specialism is in packaging, when we tackle a branding project it is with a packaging hat on (rather than an advertising or marketing one). This creates a grounded brand platform that is most appropriate for your packaging, as this after all is the beating heart of your brand; advertising or marketing agencies tend to create brand platforms that need several iterations across different media to bring them to life.
And because we have so much respect for our clients, we involve you in the crucial decision making that leads to the creation of your brand. We believe in creating brand identities that are:
- true to the brand
- appropriate for the marketplace
- AND take account of your thinking
They are always distinctive, relevant and engage your consumer.
How the process works
- Conversation. We’ll start with a conversation that checks that we can help you with the particular challenge you are facing for roughly the budget you have.
- Face to Face. This will be followed by a face to face (or video conference) meeting where you will give us an overview briefing and we can give you an idea of what we’re like to work with by showing you case studies that demonstrate how we have successfully tackled similar challenges before. We’ll also agree the full scope of the project.
- Outline costs. All being well, and if we both believe the chemistry is right, we will follow up this meeting with a topline costing that outlines the process, costs and timing. And if that is acceptable to you, we can then kick the project off by providing you with a detailed proposal for your sign off.
- Briefing. Our first project meeting will be an in-depth briefing where we’ll help you download all your knowledge (we’ll give you a questionnaire before this meeting to help you gather your thoughts and information).
- Workshop. The next step will be a workshop with the full Reach team (Caroline Hagen, the lead designer and the account director) and here we will create the foundations of success for your new brand design.
