Branding | Creative Agency London

Category: Branding

Top 5 Trends That Will Impact Brands In 2020 And Beyond

As brands strive to connect better with their customers and clients, technology is their primary resource for achieving their goal. The digital tech continues to bridge the bridges between companies and their consumers, and this takes place online. And while that plays out, B2B and B2C brands are still pushing to gain more recognition and a higher market share.

Branding Impact

Today’s market uniquely views brands as an eclectic blend of utility, technology with a dash of psychology. The result is better recognition making a brand stand out from the crowd. But there is a significant emphasis on the use of technology in building brand awareness. In 2020, five trends will that will see businesses leveraging technology to even the playing field; the five will be:

• Customization will alter expectations

• Service delivery will define brands.

• AI (Artificial Intelligence) and machine learning will impact brand awareness and trust.

• Speed will be an essential element.

• Clear strategies will be necessary for addressing environmental concerns.

1. Customization Will Alter Expectations

Infosys did a survey that suggested 86% of consumers confirmed that customization was an influencing factor in their purchasing decision. Customers have growing expectations for unique service experiences when it comes to product awareness and delivery. As such, customization has taken center stage and is now more accessible to a broader market.

Brands will have to look beyond demographic if they want to capture the interests of today’s highly sophisticated consumers. They must turn to the personalization of their product/service delivery. Brands need to come up with experiential marketing strategies that are based on customer data integration. That way, they will in a better position to know, manage, and leverage customer expectations. A brand that can adjust to the needs of the market will be able to stir its growth effectively, now and in the years to come.

2. Service Deliver Will Define Brands

Brands will strive to commoditize their products, but they all will focus on their service delivery to help them stand out from the crowd. With technology changing how products are developed, the time to market something will have increased. That means competition will be stiff as the different parties invest in improving their design and strategies in a bid to capture a bigger market share.

To avoid this and ensure you are among the top players or leading the pack, you should ensure that there is consistency in your product/service delivery. Your product development should be informed by and at per with production demands, coupled with a focus on customer satisfaction. It is a tactic that may require reviewing and readjusting your expectations, doing staff training, and ensuring everything align with the primary objective of achieving brand success.

3. AI (Artificial Intelligence) And Machine Learning Will Impact Brand Awareness & Trust

A survey by Gartner’s CIO, 3,000 CIOs in 89 countries, claimed that Artificial Intelligence was the most disruptive thing in the way companies and organizations do business and interact with their clients and customers.

Brands such as McDonald’s have recognized the impact AI has and put in measures to include it in their brand strategies. Advancement in AI technology and machine learning are changing how people interact with different appliances, devices, and even wearable tech. Voice-automated gadgets are among the latest technologies that are pushing the envelope in as far as product evolution is concerned. Take the example of Amazon, which released dozens of wearable tech and even stock companies that are advocating for the use of such devices.

But embrace this new way of brand marketing should be done with caution since these innovations could impact consumers negatively as people lose their jobs to the smart machines. Nonetheless, companies and organizations need to leverage machine learning to know more about their customers and clients without flaunting the tech in a manner that irritates their target markets.

For instance, brands can leverage social-listening tools to gather relevant and useful information about their competitors and target audience. Machine learning can include natural language processing tools that will see such devices extract semantic meaning from social media posts. It, therefore, allows them to have a better, faster, and more relevant response to their consumers’ needs.

4. Speed Will Be An Essential Element

Consumers will always expect instant gratification and to be kept up to date; therefore, speed will be a resource that gives brands a competitive edge. Companies and organizations that fail to adopt this face the risk of losing their market share.

How fast your brand anticipates and responds to customers and clients is crucial to its growth and success in a competitive market space. You must be quick and smart in how you do things, and this also applies to how you leverage tech to create unrivaled opportunities that your target audience is willing to embrace.

You will face constant challenges that push you to keep up with the trends mentioned above. Keep in mind that you will have to differentiate between personalization and better service delivery. But even then, keeping up with the changing technology and the expectations of your customers or clients is something that will require a great deal of discipline. It also will require you to leverage the smarter, faster, and more responsive tech.

5. Clear Strategies Will Be Necessary In Addressing Environmental Concerns

With a growing push for environmentally friendly decisions and the increased awareness of climate change, brands are keen on how socially conscious employees, customers, and clients perceive them and their role in promoting a better and cleaner planet.

Recently, there has been a consensus among the Business Roundtable CEOs that companies should demonstrate a commitment to all stakeholders who also include the suppliers, employees, communities, and the environment. Businesses need to come up with sustainability strategies that also demonstrate better stewardship of natural resources.

That is why more and more brands are recognizing the need to hire environmental awareness officers that will champion sustainable thinking in various aspects of operations in the organization. This will include the production, packaging, and delivery of their products. Therefore, your branding must send out a positive and clear message regarding embracing the need to make eco-friendly decisions. It also must live up to that image.

A Few Extra Insights

Hopefully, the information given above will help stir your brand in the right direction in 2020 and beyond. Get in touch with us at vebu if you need help with your branding or desire to learn more about the impact technology has on branding.

Is there an entrepreneur in you?

We’ve all been there. Staring into the distance thinking if only we had that great idea we’d be out the door in a flash.

Goodbye to the PAYE salary!

But for many it may not necessarily be a lack of ideas but just the confidence to just do it.

We spoke to Cyclo Technology founder Dominic Cotton about how he went from employee to entrepreneur.

Vebu hopes this will inspire those in full time jobs to get out there and follow your dreams

Rebranding: Why it is important and how to get it right

Just like old paint, brands also fade away with time. It reaches a point when something that was once cool becomes ordinary. This is because its vibrancy diminishes and its appealing looks become normal. The only way to resurrect such business or company is through rebranding. So what is to rebrand a business? According to Amy Aitman, to rebrand a business means to reshape your company or remodel it. When speaking of remodelling, I am not just referring to the brand. I am also talking about the logo and the website among many other things that make up a company. Anyone who has done marketing will tell you that remodelling your business is a great way of refreshing your overall look. It is a way of sending a message to your clients and informing them that you are still soaring high.

Refreshing your company’s look is only one reason for you to consider remodelling, the other reason is when two companies are merging. Not unless one company is being absorbed by the other, remodeling should be a factor to be considered. This is because both of you have a different reputation, and over the years, you have been doing things differently. By remodelling, you will be putting individualism aside and starting a whole new company that is new and vibrant. Despite sounding like an easy thing, remodelling can be both tough and challenging. The fear that the new look might not be better than the old look is enough to stress you out. That is why you see some businesses improving on their old look. This usually prevents the complete assassination of their signature design.

Why is business rebrandinf important?

Now that you have a clear understanding of rebranding as a whole. Let’s expound further and have a look at the importance of transforming your whole company’s outlook.

Remodelling helps to usher in new leadership
Remodelling due to change of leadership is often realised in private companies. In many cases, you will find that by remodelling, you can send a message that this company has shifted its focus and it’s going to be better under new leadership. We have seen so many companies that have remodelled due to change in leadership, and most of them have ended up being very successful.

In most cases, when you hear a company is planning to remodel due to new leadership, there is usually a common reason why. In most cases, the CEO or owner is new to the company. It is very hard to find an existing employee remodelling a business just because he or she is the owner. So instead of printing on billboards that the company has a new owner. You can rebrand and let it speak for itself.

It usually breaks the business monotony.

There is nothing bad like losing potential clients just because they can no longer stand your monotony. Companies with reasonable marketing team tend to rebrand as soon as they realise this. It might end up being costly, but the sacrifice is usually worth it in the long run. Through remodelling, you get to lure in new clients says blue frog dynamic marketing website. Within some time you will find the new look attracting a huge number of clients more than you used to.

A company that has been rebranded to kill monotony often comes out stronger than it used to be. The new look will cause a huge market tremor, and at the end of the day you will end up having an easy time convincing leads to join you in your new journey. Just remember to come up with a much better look than the previous one.

To remain competitive

Branding is a huge way to advertise your company in style. Once you realise that you have started slipping off, start thinking of remodelling. That is the only way you will be able to remain competitive. If you don’t do it sooner, your chances of coming back to the top will be getting slimmer as days go by. at vebu.co.uk we believe that a rebrand is essential for any business to keep abreast with competitors.

In case you have one competitor, and they rebrand before you do, the chances are that you will end up losing most of your business to them. By remodelling, you are sending competitive signals to your customers. In most cases, the signal is usually to say you are stronger than them. Remodelling always has a way of making your brand superior to the competitors. That is why you will see people remodelling their brands after some years; it always makes them remain competitive.

Through remodelling, you can clarify your intentions
Several people tend to use remodelling as a way to make their objectives clear to the market. This often affects people who started their businesses with a specific name without knowing it would be misinterpreted later on. So to clarify the kind of goods or services they are offering, they rebrand the name and make it more specific or straight forward. You will find remodelling working perfectly as opposed to other methods.

This indicates that remodelling can also be the changing of a business name to help sell a specific story that no other method has managed to sell. It is, however, important to do this type of remodelling while the business is still young. That way, it will not end up confusing your loyal clients. If you do it after the company has matured, the chances are that people will misinterpret the message, and that may affect you significantly.

Rebranding can help clean up a business reputation

Many times you will see businesses get remodelled then the words ‘under new management’ included. Most businesses that do this tend to clean up their name in an effective way. Maybe the previous management didn’t have any code of ethics, or perhaps the group was made of people who are not passionate enough. Either way, according to the entrepreneur, the only way to outgrow the bad reputation is to rebrand.

This way, people will no longer associate the business with its previous reputation. What follows after remodelling is the production of quality goods to convince the customers. Eventually, the company will pick up and become a whole different venture with new strategies. People will end up forgetting that the company had a bad reputation at some point. Remodelling will enable you to start a fresh and help you build a new legacy.

How to get branding right

Contrary to the common expectation, remodelling is not usually successful. There are so many companies that tried to remodel to experience the above benefits but instead ended up failing big time. That is why it is important to remodel the right way. Doing so will go a long way in enabling you to realise your intentions. Below are some of the ways on how to do remodelling right.

Do intensive research and come up with a powerful strategy
The biggest mistake you can ever do is remodelling blindly. Make sure you do proper analysis and come up with a strategy. Don’t rush in doing something just for the sake of it. Try and think about the brand you want to develop, its purpose, and whether it rhymes with your target audience. Forbes also agrees that conducting a survey and analysis is mandatory when changing the brand of your business. Once you have that figured out, start thinking about the personality of the new brand. All those factors should be considered before initialising the remodelling of the company.

Once you have done the research, develop a strategy. That strategy should be followed to the latter. After all, there is no need of coming up with a strategy if you know you won’t adhere to it. Many businesses that have a remodelling failure is due to lack of strategy or due to having one but not sticking to the strategy. You should thus not make the mistake of not sticking to your strategy.

Let your Brand Imitate your business

To avoid consumer confusions, ensure that your brand and your business is one thing. Don’t come up with a brand that doesn’t match what your company is about. Couch and associates website states that poor remodelling of the business can lead to loss of opportunity. This is because there will be confusion among people. The more try to figure out which is which, the more hectic it will be for your business.

The only way to give a clear perspective to your consumers is by developing a brand that conforms to your business. This includes the theme of the business, the name of the business as well as the layout. Ensuring that your brand imitates your business will guarantee the success of your remodelling.

Don’t dwell so much on bug details and forget about the small details.

Once you have your remodelling design ready, take your time to ensure that it is detailed. In most cases, the remodelling idea can be plain, but with the gradual addition of some small designs, you find that the result is one of the best remodelling styles that you never thought of. That is why it is important to pay attention to the small business.

This is where a branding agency comes in. A good agency will be able to internalise your remodelling idea and come up with something much better. This is because they know where to fix small details and where not to. They know how to make your picture bigger and better. With some minute tweaks, they can give you something better and transformative.

Don’t focus on how the idea looks now, but how it will look years later.

This is what I call timelessness. A brand should be built to last. That is why when you are remodelling your business, the term timelessness should constantly ring in your mind. This is yet another section of remodelling that requires a branding agency. An experienced person should be able to help you to come up with a timeless strategy. One that will remain fresh years from now.

If your strategy lacks a sense of time, your remodelling idea will only be able to remain attractive for a short period. After that, your business will go back to maintain that same old look you were trying to avoid. So whenever you are coming up with a strategy, make sure that it is long lasting. A remodelling strategy that can last for more than a decade and still make sense to your clients. A good rebranding agency in London can ensure that.

If you have a look at every detail that I have talked about, my main aim has been to enable you to see the importance of effective business remodelling. That is because most people tend to think that remodelling is as easy as it sounds. That is why they start initialising the process without having the slightest idea on where to begin. This makes them come up with a simple strategy, and within two days, the business is remodelled. One common outcome that is inevitable for anyone who takes that route is a failure. And as you have learned from the above information, it is easy to come up with a remodelling strategy but very hard to implement it.

For you to come up with a successful business remodelling, you need to involve several parties. This includes branding agencies, and even stakeholders says Louisa Mc Grath, author of Lucid Press. That is the only way that you will come up with something complex and great. Without incorporating these people, chances are that you will end up with a very basic brand. Trust me, you might spend more bringing in a specialised team, but if you start calculating its importance, you will find that it is a much smaller price to pay considering what you will end up earning. The last thing you do is to remodel your business only for it to fail right before your eyes. So take the initiative and plan your remodelling strategy before initialising the process. In the long run, you will end up with a strong, appealing, and timeless brand that you never thought of.

If you’re are seriously thinking of rebranding get in touch with our Branding agency