Your visual identity — the logo, color palette and other graphic elements — is the most tangible part of your brand, and its power lies in its ability to communicate more than words can say. Moreover, your brand promises a vision of the value you bring to your audience. To be credible, a solidly constructed brand will focus on the real characteristics and authentic qualities of your product or service offering.

The consistent use of the same visual elements will distinguish you from your competitors and create a common experience for your target market. Good brands build awareness and recognition over time; the best brands evolve, gaining new attributes and adapting to the ever-changing world in which we live.

Goal Setting

Every company has competition within their market. They are all fighting for the attention of a finite audience with whom they are trying to connect, inform and engage. A strong brand can rise above the background noise and successfully communicate why it is the best solution.

At Circadian, we ask a lot of questions up front to guarantee the success of each new project. These questions deal with both external issues, such as how the brand connects with the outside audience, and internal ones, like how your employees interpret and embody the brand.

Though every client is unique, our approach for achieving these objectives remains virtually the same. We begin by gaining a thorough understanding of our clients, their culture, industry, competition and, above all, their audience. We do this because we cannot develop a brand identity that achieves our client’s goals if we don’t understand exactly where they’re coming from and where they want to go. Creating clear objectives at the outset of a project will improve everyone’s ability to determine what qualifies as a successful final mark.

Execution

Based on the answers to these questions, as well as the brand’s mission statement, positioning and messaging, we start to generate concepts. Before presenting a selection of the best and most viable solutions to our client, we evaluate and refine the various ideas internally. The most promising concepts are then reviewed with the client, and the chosen direction is honed carefully to ensure that the execution is flawless. Once all parties are happy with the implementation, we will lock in the identity by generating final artwork and a guidelines document. These guidelines ensure that the brand identity will be consistently presented to the audience, which in turn will assure that it is quickly recognized and embraced.

The complete process can run anywhere from a couple weeks to a few months, depending on the size of the company, the number of products and the amount of upfront research and planning required.

Success

Distilling the essence of our client’s brand, positioning and culture into a quickly readable visual form may seem like magic. In reality, it results from a thorough understanding of their business and the careful application of communications principles. And, of course, a healthy amount of creativity is always important.

A new brand identity can firmly establish your company, product or service as a serious competitor in the market. Updating your identity is also a great way to steer your brand in a new direction or redefine it completely in the eyes of your audience.

Good branding provides a company with a sense of ownership and pride. It is something for employees to rally around and gain a sense of strength, unity and purpose. For the launch of a new brand identity, some companies choose a gradual, piece-by-piece rollout of their new communications materials. Others go for the “big splash” and hold off until everything has been completed before making their public debut.

However you roll it out, embracing a new or updated brand identity is a great way to establish the foundation of real success.

Contact us to discuss how Circadian can help create a new or refresh your existing brand.