Guest article: Richard Silbermann, Brand Remedy
A rebrand is more than just a new logo; it’s a carefully considered declaration of who your professional services firm is today and where it’s headed tomorrow. Whether you’re entering a new market, merging with another company, or simply feeling that your current identity no longer reflects your value, a successful rebrand requires meticulous planning.
Here is our roadmap to guide your firm through a smooth and impactful transition.
Discovery and strategy
Before you even think about a new visual identity or write a single line of copy, you need a clear, reason for the rebrand. This research phase is about defining the strategic core of the project.
An experienced branding agency can help you plan and facilitate this critical discovery phase.
Define the ‘why’
What is the primary reason for the rebrand? It might be outdated perception, expansion into new practice areas, a merger or a need to attract a different audience.
How will the new brand help achieve core business goals? For instance, do you aim to increase your average client value, improve recruitment, and/or differentiate from a key competitor?
Conduct a brand audit
– Internal: Interview partners, senior leaders, and staff across all levels. What do they believe the firm stands for? What is the firm’s true culture?
– External: Survey and interview clients, prospects, and industry influencers. How do they view your firm’s expertise, reliability, and value proposition? This often reveals the most significant gaps between internal and external perception.
– Competitor benchmarking: Look at your top competitors. Seek out points of differentiation.
Define your core brand DNA
– Vision: What does your firm aspire to achieve for its clients and the world?
– Mission: What do you do, for whom, and why?
– Values: The guiding principles that dictate your actions.
– Unique Value Proposition: The single, most compelling reason a client should choose you over anyone else.
Creative execution
With a clear strategy in hand, your creative agency can now translate your firm’s DNA into tangible assets.
Develop the verbal identity
For professional services, voice and messaging are as important as visuals.
– Tone of voice: Define the personality. Is it authoritative and traditional, or modern and challenger?
– Key messaging: Create clear, consistent statements about your services that resonate. Develop a standardised way to talk about the firm for all partners and staff.
– Naming (if applicable): If you are changing the firm’s name, ensure it is legally clear, easy to say, and relevant to your new identity.
Design the visual identity
– Logo and typography: Create a mark that is timeless, scalable, and appropriate for the gravitas of a professional firm. Select fonts that are legible and reflect your defined tone.
– Colour palette: Use colours strategically. Some colours are often associated with trust and stability, but consider a secondary palette to add distinction and warmth.
– Imagery style: Define the type of photography or illustration you will use. Move beyond generic stock photos to images that reflect your people, culture, and high-level strategy.
Internal rollout
A rebrand fails if your own people aren’t your biggest advocates. In professional services, the people are the brand.
Education and alignment
– Internal launch: Host an event (virtual or in-person) to unveil the new brand to the entire team. Explain the ‘why’ from Phase 1. Show them how the new brand makes their job easier and more impactful.
– Brand guidelines: Provide comprehensive guidelines covering everything from how to use the logo to the approved tone of voice for emails and proposals.
– Asset distribution: Ensure every employee has easy access to new templates for proposals, presentations, email signatures, and letterheads
System and technology updates
– Align the website, social media channels, email systems, and intranet to the new brand.
– Change all physical and digital templates. This includes proposal documents, invoices, business cards, and stationery.
External launch and activation
This is the moment to share your firm’s transformation with the world.
Develop a communications strategy
– Plan for an initial announcement, followed by sustained communication that explains how the rebrand benefits the client.
– Engage industry publications and local business journals to share your news, framing it around significant business change.
Client and partner outreach
– Senior leaders should personally reach out to top-tier clients and referral partners. A simple, personal email or call is much more impactful than a mass blast.
– Use the new brand in action immediately. Send a proposal or a piece of thought leadership that clearly demonstrates the new identity and value proposition.
Measurement and maintenance
A brand is a living asset. Your work isn’t over once the assets are launched.
Monitor and adjust
– Pay attention to how the market and your clients respond. Are there areas where the execution missed the mark?
Enforce consistency
– Appoint a small internal team or a dedicated leader to serve as the ‘Brand Champion’ to ensure all communications and assets remain aligned with the new guidelines. Consistency is the bedrock of trust.
– Consider retaining the creative agency that developed the new visual identity to ensure consistent application of the new branding across all channels.
By treating your rebrand as a strategic business initiative, not just a design project, your firm can successfully navigate this transformation, emerge with a refreshed identity, and lay the groundwork for future success.
Richard is Creative Director and owner of Brand Remedy and one of the pioneers of branding in professional services. His sector experience includes legal, accountancy, wealth management, financial services, real estate and public sector.