Brand Refresh Versus a Rebrand: Which One Do You Need?

This month, we are talking about branding. If you missed our first blog about the foundations of a cohesive brand, make sure to check it out. Now, we are going to dive into something a bit more nuanced … a brand refresh versus a rebrand. At some point in the life of a business, one or the other is necessary. How to choose? 

What is a brand refresh versus a rebrand? 

When clients come to us as an established business, but they have shifted their offerings, we consider rebranding or refreshing the brand. Research into the evolution of their specific business as well as changes among competition begin the process. Ensuring their brand message, promise and pillars align with these new developments is a second step that leads to a revised visual brand. A new logo will often be prescribed, especially if they are hoping to capture a different market segment. A new brand messaging guide as well as a style guide will help them to disseminate information to their team, so they can begin to send out the new, cohesive message to consumers.  

While a rebrand can feel like wiping things clean and starting from scratch, a refresh is more of an invigorating breeze that brings a tad bit of newness to a brand. We won’t overhaul anything, but we may help a client tweak pillars or messaging to ensure everything is streamlined. Sometimes, refreshing also requires a tweak to the original logo, colors or fonts … and sometimes it doesn’t. A refresh takes quite a bit less time than a full rebrand, obviously, but the payoff is big in repositioning the brand and ensuing growth. 

Times, they are a changin’ 

As much as some of our clients would love to hold onto their logo and brand message for dear life, the reality is that we live in a rapidly changing world. Regardless of the industry, you are sure to see change taking place right before your eyes. A rebrand or a refresh helps our clients to keep up with the flow of their industry so they don’t get left behind. Customers may love the security blanket that is predictability, but they also love when a business delivers on its promises. If your brand promises and pillars don’t align with your capacity or business strategy, you will need to revisit the drawing board.  

How do you know when you need a rebrand or refresh?

You may need a REBRAND if: Your core values are now out of line with the values of your target market, your company’s branding is outdated, or your brand messaging and logo provide no competitive edge. 

You may need a REFRESH if: You want to maintain your core brand messaging and pillars, but you want to enter into new markets or attract new audiences. You may also want to update your messaging and logo or need support to remain a recognizable brand in today’s world.  

We are here to support you!

Check out our website for more information about what we do, including client case studies in branding. Then, head over to our Entrepreneurial Path page to see if you need to launch, refresh or expand your brand. And follow us on social for more marketing fun! 

So, What’s the Deal With Branding?

If you think that branding is all about pretty colors and cool logos, this blog is for you. The importance of strategic branding gets lost in the dazzle of starting a new business, but it is one of the key components to ensuring successful communication with your target market. And without customers, well, you can pretty much call your business dead on arrival. 

Branding is everything 

A strong brand is built around a coherent and consistent message. This will be captured through your brand message and promise as well as your pillars and will be heard by your consumers through everything you do, including services, products, marketing campaigns, social media interactions and more. The three components of a strong brand include: 

Brand message: The way your brand communicates its unique value and personality through both verbal and nonverbal messaging. It is the reason why your brand has a relationship to its consumers. 

Brand promise: This is the unique value or experience a consumer can expect to receive every time they interact with your brand. 

Brand pillars: These combine your message and promise to create the foundation on which your brand is built.  

We call them “pillars” for a reason 

Your brand’s pillars act as a support for your brand message and promise, therefore guiding all of your decisions. When you aren’t sure what to say, for example, all you need to do is consult your pillars, which are everything that make your brand tick. And when you are trying to align your customer service with your values, consult those pillars to make sure you are delivering! 

Perhaps you are beginning to see why establishing a cohesive message is important before creating that show-stopping logo? Because everything, even your logo, will need to report to your brand’s message and the pillars on which you have built your business. And, best of all, your brand’s message will tell your consumers why they should choose your business over others. (All the more reason to make it a strategic one, you see.) 

So, how do we find your brand message, promise and pillars?

Here at P&A, we believe in a hefty amount of research. We offer our clients a full spectrum of strategic marketing practices that will help them to build the brand message, promise and pillars they need to create a cohesive message. We collaboratively deep dive with clients to define the target persona of customers — not just a label or one-liner, but specifically identifying their lives, from hobbies to social media habits to daily routines. We meet clients where they are on this entrepreneurial path and help build the scaffolding that will support the growth of their business.  

Once we have a clear understanding of a client’s messaging, we create a Brand Message Guide, a document for internal reference that is to be the starting point for everything, from graphics to news releases. With marketing support staff working from the same guide, it creates a common voice that consumers can begin to see easily when interacting with that brand. And then, yes, logos, colors, fonts, and other visuals are developed to support the brand voice.  

Consumers trust brands with consistent messaging 

With today’s throngs of new businesses, marketing, campaigns, scams and more, consumers are weary of anything that seems confusing. In fact, they want ease and some predictability. By doing the research and then creating a cohesive message, promise and pillars for your brand, you will be able to relate better to your target market and they will, in turn, become important long-term customers! 

From our new Entrepreneurial Path to our Biz Squad, we are here to help ensure the success of your brand (and answer all of your burning questions)! Contact us to find out more.  

5 Tools for DIY Video Marketing

Your Biz Squad Professional: Carolyn Case

You don’t have to be a professional in videography to create fun, enticing and engaging videos for your business or organization. Telling your story through videography is crucial in the social media realm today. There are many tools that most of us already have access to that can help to create compelling videos. Here are five tools that will help you on your video journey:

Smart Phone

Most of us have access to a smart phone on a regular basis and most smart phones have incredible cameras and video capabilities today. You can use your phone to shoot amazing videos and download many different apps to aid in editing and coloring your footage.

Tripod or Stabilizer

You will need a tripod or stabilizer for your phone or video camera so that your footage will be usable and not too shaky and blurry. You can purchase small tripods specifically for smart phones or use objects around you to stabilize your phone as you shoot.

Wireless Microphone

Find a wireless microphone that will work with your smart phone or video camera. This will usually take form in something small and inconspicuous that will attach to the person speaking in the video and the other part will be plugged into the phone or camera. It is important to have clear, usable and understandable audio in your videos.

Ring Light or Light Panel

Have a ring light or light panel to help your subject look soft and beautiful as is appropriate for your subject matter. This will help to avoid intense shadows and underlit subjects or spaces.

Editing Software/App

Download a video editing software or app to use to create beautiful videos. You can download Adobe Premiere pro both on mobile or as a desktop app, or utilize other apps such as Capcut, Final Cut Pro, and Splice.

Carolyn Case is a multimedia production professional and owner of Media 37 Indy with over 15 years of professional experience. Media 37 Indy is a full-service media house that seeks to serve the needs of small businesses, entrepreneurs, non-profits, and companies throughout Central Indiana. Media 37 Indy offers a variety of videography, photography, editing, and multimedia marketing services. Learn more at media37indy.com.

5 Things to Know About Video for Business (With a Professional)

Your Biz Squad Professional: Carolyn Case

You are ready to hire a videographer to help grow your business or organization. You are excited about all the opportunities that may spring from this investment. So, what steps can you take to make the most of your time working with a videographer to market your business? And what can you expect? Check out these five things to know about video for your business: before, during and after the process!

Know Your “Why”

Before the videographer and/or crew make their first appearance, it is important to know your business “why:” Why do you do what you do, why do you provide these goods or services, why is this important to you? An experienced videographer wants to guide you through the process of telling your story and having some thoughts and notes prepared before any shoots begin is a great way to kick things off in an organized and prepared, professional manner.

Storyboard or Shot List

Work with your videography team to create a storyboard or shot list for the story you want to tell with your video project. Creating a shot list of the visuals that would appeal to you in your video and story will help guide the videography team to create desired outcomes in the final product.

Talk & Trust

On the day(s) of your video shoot, communicate your opinions to the videography team and don’t be afraid to let them know if there is something you are not happy with or that you would like to change. At the same time, you hired a professional who you believe will provide you with the services you desired, so try to trust the process and the professional as much as possible.

Video Delivery Formats

Request that final video products be delivered to you in the formats that you need. Do you want your video products to be for your website, for television, for social media? All of these platforms require a different format, size, dimensions, and files sizes, so make sure that you request your final video products be delivered to you in the format(s) that meet your needs. Be sure to let your videography team know up front which platforms you plan to use the videos on so they can shoot them accordingly.

Make the Most of Your Investment

Share your final videos everywhere and make the most of your investment. Let the videos help to tell your story and establish your brand or mission. If you would like to have some of the raw footage from the shoot to use for social media reels or stories, be sure to ask your videographer for those clips and for permission to use them. 

 

Carolyn Case is a multimedia production professional and owner of Media 37 Indy with over 15 years of professional experience. Media 37 Indy is a full-service media house that seeks to serve the needs of small businesses, entrepreneurs, non-profits, and companies throughout Central Indiana. Media 37 Indy offers a variety of videography, photography, editing, and multimedia marketing services. Learn more at media37indy.com.

Why LinkedIn?

Maybe you are new to social media and are trying to set up a profile on every platform. Maybe you have been living under the same rock as everybody else and you didn’t realize the importance of LinkedIn until now. No matter your reasoning, we are glad you are curious about this insanely vital piece of the social media marketing puzzle. Read on to find out why Linked In is important AND how to make the most of your experience. 

If you don’t know the magic of LinkedIn yet, start here

Why is this social platform so useful for businesses? Our clients ask us this question a lot. The scoop is that LinkedIn has always been much more than just an online social media platform. It is a professional online hub for members to connect with each other, network and show off their talents.  

Think of how many businesses luncheons or dinners you have attended just to network with a couple of people. This platform magnifies that principal. (We still recommend you take those lunches or dinners and network face-to-face if for nothing else but the delicious meal and human connection.) 

Use LinkedIn to establish your professional online presence  

Whether you are trying to create a great first impression for future business or a recruiter, LinkedIn can help you design a digital portfolio to put your best foot forward. Instead of a traditional resume or website content showing your future employers or customers what you are doing, this platform allows you to showcase samples of projects, presentations, articles and more. And it will reach a ton of folks too!  

Rub elbows with the best of them

Easy and fun networking opportunities are just another reason to make sure you are all set up to use LinkedIn. For businesses, networking online can mean connecting with others in the industry and sharing insights and ideas no matter where you are in the world. Online brainstorm sessions can result in wonderfully creative ideas that help you to develop new content and more. You may even find yourself celebrating mutual successes with competitors.  

Take the chance to also build relationships with those you admire both within your industry and outside your vocation peers. LinkedIn makes it easy to be intentional about who you connect with through categorized groups, discussion boards and more. Establish genuine connections this way and engage in authentic interactions that will help to propel your business forward.  

Build your credibility 

Because it has always been a professional platform, LinkedIn is a great place to build your credibility and establish you as a subject matter expert in your field. To accomplish this, you will need more than just a bunch of random posts. Make sure you are engaging with the community, responding thoughtfully to comments on your page and others and building real connections that will help others to trust your brand’s voice.  

Although it is important to meet your target market where they are, be that Tik Tok, Facebook, Instagram, etc., LinkedIn is a great platform to grow your credibility, speak to others in your industry, gain new knowledge and even get the word out about your brand. Stay tuned for more LinkedIn fun here on our blog as well as social this month! 

 

How to Successfully Grow and Engage Your LinkedIn Followers

We recently reviewed why LinkedIn is going to be an important platform for you in building your brand as a subject matter expert. So, how to increase engagement? Growing your followers is one thing, and keeping them engaged is another. You will need to focus on BOTH in order to be successful. No worries, we have a no-frills guide and some pretty exact recommendations for you! 

Start with the LinkedIn basics

When it comes to social media, what can seem like a crazy “how in the world are they doing this” world is actually quite predictable. In fact, it is known that once you reach a certain number of followers, and for LinkedIn that magic number seems to be 150, you will see exponential growth. Why? Because the more followers who engage with your content the more potential followers SEE what you are posting.  

Here are some basic ways you can start to grow your LinkedIn following today: 

  • Post the LinkedIn “Follow” button to your company’s website 
  • Provide a link to your company’s LinkedIn page in all of your marketing materials 
  • Start posting content daily or create a monthly content calendar that you schedule ahead of time 
  • Reshare any @mentions you receive to promote credibility 
  • Join industry groups and start commenting, discussing and becoming an active community member 
  • Find other companies or people and start following them or engaging with their content 

Then engage the followers you have

Engagement is the key to having a successful LinkedIn page. After all, it is called “social” media because it is where people love to connect, discuss, learn and network. Once you start posting engaging content, your followers will become more active with your brand and your page. Then, you will have what is the most sacred thing of all in the social media sphere: attention.  

We already stated above that posting daily is important. That content must be engaging to keep your followers attention. Here are some ideas: 

Use custom videos and graphics to grab attention 

One of the things we love to offer our clients is creativity. Custom graphics are a huge point in determining whether someone finds your page attractive. If they have seen a graphic a million times somewhere else (and believe us, there are so many copycats out there) they will most likely disengage from your content. Whether you call P&A for graphic design or do your own thing, just make sure you are bringing something unique to the table. 

Use the 3-2-1 model 

This is an easy formula when you are trying to post engaging content for your followers. Every week, try to post 3 pieces of industry-related content, 2 pieces of content that makes your employees and community feel good, and just 1 piece related to your products and services. If you have any mentions or reshares, make sure to give them a shout out. You can also use hashtags and tag other members for even more engagement. 

Spark conversations 

Pose a question to your community. Engage them with a discussion. Host a raffle. Whatever floats your boat, come up with something that will have your followers doing more than clicking “like.” When you take the time to create thoughtful and meaningful dialogue in your online community, you are more likely to get thoughtful responses from your followers. 

LinkedIn is more than just a social media platform. It is a chance to connect deeply with other professionals and people within the community who want to engage with your product or service. Contact us if you need help getting started!