5 Tips For Successful Rebranding & Website Development
After reading this title, how many of you think of the classic rom-com starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey from 17 years ago? It was the beginning of my career as a marketer and the movie aptly titled, was about how to lose a guy in 10 days with characters that worked in the world of advertising, funnily enough.
Fast forward to today, after leading rebrands or launching sub-brands and digital experiences at Fortune 100 companies where it took anywhere from nine months to two years, I wanted to challenge our team at Tikka to rebrand and launch a website for a small company in 10 days. Most of you are thinking how is this possible. Well, we leveraged best practices learned from larger brands and adapted them for smaller companies looking for quick and efficient ways to achieve their goals.
Here are some of these best practices for a small-mid-sized company or for large companies looking to launch sub-brands:
Identify and maintain a small group of decision-maker(s). The “newer” approach to making decisions is an all-inclusive strategy to engage different people across a company for input, participation or feedback (align them with the new direction). This has proven impractical if you equate time spent to bring everyone on board with the process versus thoughtfully rolling out an agreed upon approach. Trying to engage dozens of internal stakeholders can take as much as six months to a year! If you can isolate your decision-maker and influencers and maintain this ‘steering’ group throughout the process, you’ll get to market more quickly and positively impact the business.
Take direction from a specific and clear brief. It is essential that both parties involved – client and branding agency are aligned on the goals (both qualitative and quantitative), as well as subjective preferences (i.e. colors, look/feel) before exploring a rebrand. Often, the brief is glossed over and seeing this from first-hand experience, it can lead to belabored timelines and lack of agreement on progress and next steps. So, take your time, get the brief in order and closely reviewed by the leadership team! Also, a side note, get to know your client as most founders and owners of companies have a unique personality and character that should shine through the branding.
Project timeline and manage expectations accurately. No one wants to derail a project and it’s important to stick to a timeline. Agencies and brands must manage expectations and communicate when to expect a deliverable and when either party may need feedback. As the agency delivering the product, if you have questions as you explore or want to share output off-schedule, then work in an agile fashion and do what needs to be done. This has especially worked well for the team at Tikka. We meet the client’s needs quickly which in turn keeps the entire project moving forward. Taking the brief and going into a black box only to come back days later with a product that didn’t meet the mark, isn’t the best approach.
Offer what the clients wants AND what you’d recommend. It’s important we always serve our clients with what they have asked for specifically. If you asked for a dish to be made spicy, then you expect it spicy, right? However, if you feel the client can achieve so much more by considering a different approach, then it behooves us as the branding expert to provide options.
Apply a collaborative approach to brand voice for content. Working closely with the client on progressive development of the brand content will streamline the back and forth and lead to a better user experience.
Case Study: The Law Firm of Liou & Maisonet
We know this is all talk, so here’s an example hot off the press from a client we rebranded and launched a website for a boutique law firm within 10 days!
Company: The Law Firm of Liou & Maisonet
Industry: Legal / Law Practice
Client Goal: 15+ year old boutique family law practice has been successful in growing their client base within NYC by being smart, accessible and affordable. However, with more clients coming through digital or online referrals, they felt they needed a better website to represent the firm and attract more clients. They also wanted to present themselves as a more modern digital-forward firm, but still reflect the notion of accessible and cost efficient.
In our kick-off meeting, we shared examples of other law firms who have beautiful website experiences and strong branding. Drawn to these examples, the client requested we also take the opportunity to enhance and reimagine their logo. We firmly believe a company’s mark can dictate a brand’s look, feel, voice if designed appropriately. Here’s how the brand was revamped from logo, image direction, font, voice, look/feel and overall user experience.
ORIGINAL LOGO
NEW LOGO
LIOU & MAISONET ORIGINAL WEBSITE
NEW REBRANDED WEBSITE
Focus Areas:
Chatbot
Contact form
Streamlined language for ease of read
Built-in SEO
Marketing automated messaging for contacts and inquiries
“I am truly grateful to Kirti and the team at Tikka Solutions. Kirti was attentive to my concerns and had a keen understanding on how to effectively revamp our website and brand. From my first meeting with Kirti, she outlined the process, and her team was able to complete everything seamlessly and within our budget in less than 2 weeks. Taking the extra step, Kirti also took the time to show me how to easily manage my site, so that I would not have to rely on developers and incur additional costs going forward. Thanks to Tikka, we now have an outstanding professional website that embodies who we are as a law firm.”
– Leta Liou, Partner at The Law Firm of Liou & Maisonet
In nutshell, if all parties are aligned and there is both an integrated agile and structured process to partnering, we can deliver a good product that achieves the client’s needs while also ensuring we have directed them to the best possible solution.
At Tikka, we specialize in branding, content, digital and helping businesses develop through a strategic marketing lens. Let us help you WIN your brand equity back in 10 days!