For staff at the event and exhibition company, however, it wasn’t kicking a bad habit or losing those few extra pounds: “The new year gives us a great clean canvas on which to start out – yet statistically 30% of us will have already failed our new year’s resolutions by mid January”.
Envisage Brand Experiences was resolved not to be among that 30% when it came to looking at its own great clean canvas. The company in Staffordshire had been building up to a big rebranding, of which that website page was to become one manifestation – sans-serif text, white space, smart imagery – that had to cohere and endure longer than all those traditional flaky new-year resolutions.
The challenge
Late last year creative director Chris Cotterill drew together a team to look at the rebranding. The former Envisage branding had been in place for 10 years and had become a company hallmark at trade shows all over the world, says marketing and graphics assistant Rick Hewitt.
“But in a fast developing industry as events and exhibitions nothing stays still for long,” Hewitt explains.
“The combination of ever-evolving technology with the increasing demands of clients means companies like ours have to shed their skin to keep up with the industry.”
Envisage Brand Experiences has been in business 40 years and works on a wide range of events and interior projects that include exhibition stands, museum and visitor centres and retail environments for global names such as Samsung, Wedgwood, Pirelli and Johnson & Johnson.
A 2,200m2 factory and storage block enables 2D and 3D designers to work closely with production teams in areas for carpentry and joinery, spraying, metalwork and, of course, printing to ensure the 40 or so staff can offer a range of in-house services, from concept to completion.
Much of that change and evolution at the Stoke-on-Trent business centred around digital print and recent years have seen Envisage Brand Experiences spend around £150,000 on equipment such as HP kit and a Mimaki flatbed machine. In so doing it brought much outsourced large-format work in house and enabled the print team to work on more substrates such as perspex, says Hewitt.
“You may start your business with a strong strategy, but what happens when things change and your brand no longer reflects the message you want or need it to? There are all sorts of reasons why your business might need a rebranding, but a true rebrand that not only refreshens but brings the company into the present day means much more than just a new logo, name and website redesign. It’s a complicated process.”
The method
So the company invited a number of branding and design agencies to pitch for the job of overhauling the corporate look of Envisage. It settled on Manchester-based Glorious Creative to work with the company to put in place a brand vision, mission, positioning and strategy.
Working together with Glorious Creative, the new Envisage brand was in “quiet development” for over six months before its unveiling at a launch event that took place on 1 July, says Hewitt. One of the most worrying things for a business rebranding can be the potential loss of its customers, so retaining not only business but brand loyalty and brand authority is a must, he adds.
For this reason the Envisage team charged with spearheading the exercise worked almost hand-in-hand with Glorious Creative and were in constant dialogue for around six months. This was to ensure that when the old logo, which incorporated ‘thought bubbles’ was replaced, what took its place also stimulated complimentary thought bubbles from customers old and new.
The new look includes a refreshed, pared-down palette, the dominating colour being ‘fever red’, meant to reflect the confident ethos of the business. The main typographical difference was the introduction of an exclamation mark, turning Envisage Brand Experiences into ‘Env!sage Brand Experiences’. Hewitt says informing customers of the change was as important as marketing it.
“Ensuring they’re kept informed early and consistently is important, so they don’t get a surprise when they discover the changes implemented. Keeping customers in the loop about rebrand exercise is also a good excuse to contact past customers.
“We began to build awareness shortly before the launch through a teaser campaign changing social media icons to the single exclamation mark and featuring elements of the new branding in our sponsorship and participation in a local half marathon where we had 40 runners. We also ran press releases, a newsletter emailing and a launch event all geared towards the rebrand.”
The result
That launch coincided with the company’s 40th anniversary and was marked by morning and afternoon open-day events. In the morning new and existing clients and suppliers were given a guided tour of the studios, while the afternoon was more of a social bash with barbeque for staff and friends of the company “to say thank you and to look to the future”.
The exercise cost £35,000, which went on the rebranding work from Glorious Creative and updating the company website, which was undertaken by Zumm Creative. But it wasn’t just the brand that saw changes. Further investments were made to bolster the fleet of vehicles, recruit more staff and refurbish areas of the premises, such as the canteen and graphics studios.
“These changes have not only improved the quality of end product available to clients, but have been brought about as a result of ISO accreditations and working closely with staff to improve personal wellbeing and optimise functionality of the company.”
Quantifying the value of a rebrand in terms of sales and turnover is tricky, but Hewitt says both customers and suppliers have raved about the changes, using social media to post positive feedback. Meanwhile Envisage keeps winning awards.
“As far as results go we have seen increased traffic to the website and a drop in bounce rates despite an obvious drop in Google rankings, and an increase in enquiries. Other than that it is still early days in the wake of the new branding.”
However, last week it scooped a best small business award in Staffordshire from the local chambers of commerce while the company is in the running for a couple of excellence awards from the Association of Event Organisers.
“The rebrand has made us re-examine our position in the market and the vision of where we are going. It was not always an easy process and took lots of lot of hard work,” says Hewitt. “But all in all, after seeing such positive results already, I don’t think there is anything we would do much differently.”
On the company’s new-look website, the creative minds at Envisage came up with this post: “When did you last think of your brand as a living, breathing thing? When did you last give it a makeover or a new outfit? Thing is, a brand, like a child, needs to be nurtured in order to grow and develop; it needs boundaries and guidelines to forge strong bonds with its environment.”
Hewitt concludes: “There are probably many reasons for undergoing a rebrand and the results can differ. But to successfully rebrand, a business must be completely certain why it’s rebranding, what needs changing and then work hard to make the transition smooth for staff and customers.”
VITAL STATISTICS
Envisage Brand Experiences
Location Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
Inspection host Marketing and graphics assistant Rick Hewitt
Size Turnover: £2.8m; Staff: more than 40
Established 1976
Products Graphics, acrylic displays, textured wallpaper drops and show stand banners and interior signage for clients including Wedgwood, Michelin and Samsung
Kit HP Latex 360, Mimaki JFX200-2513, Roland SolJet Pro XJ-740 and a Graphtec cutting machine
Inspection focus Implementing a rebrand
TOP TIPS
Involve everyone Consult your customers, employees and even suppliers in the market research process to ensure everyone connects with the new name, look and message
Employ an expert and get a professional job Often staff members are too close to the brand to be objective; getting an expert’s unbiased opinion early on will be valuable moving forward
Keep staff informed Communicating the brand’s new approach, vision and positioning to staff is crucial to align them towards the new common goal and purpose
Think about your audience Identify your existing audience, who already appreciate your brand, as well as ways in which you can reach out to new audiences
If it ain’t broke... Don’t mend it: a rebrand doesn’t have to be a total overhaul: change only what is necessary
