is-it-time-for-a-rebrand-HEADER

Is it time for a rebrand?

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No matter how much you love your brand, there will come a time when you will need to change things up.

Your target market may grow uninterested, you may develop a questionable reputation, or new competitors may be putting pressure on you forcing you to mix up your business tactics.  

When you are faced with these challenges, there are only two options; you can stay with the branding strategy that got you stuck in this sticky-mess, or you can rebrand your business, turn it into something new and start the process of rebuilding.

Rebranding a business’s goals, message and culture is hard, especially if your brand has market status – is well known or successful.  And although many have tried to grow their brand, most have failed.

To be successful, a brand requires more than just a revamped logo. It demands a vision that inspires customers, investors, and others to transfer what they valued about the old and be continued on with the new. This way loyalty will remain regardless of your new identity.

It’s important to remember when rebranding that you should not to deviate too far from the core values you held and built into your business at the beginning of your journey. Dramatic brand changes could result in your audience losing sight in the business they had previously related to.  So, why do businesses engage in a brand overhaul?

There are a number of reasons why businesses rebrand their brand;

    • Competitors
    • Potential for growth
    • Keep up with the times/ staying relevant
    • The desire to target a new audience
    • Your business is merging with another
  • Damaged reputation

To nail rebranding it all comes down to smart, well-researched angles, savvy marketing and better quality control.

Learn more on how your brand could be the new #watchthisspace

We’ve discovered some businesses who experiment with their branding. In an attempt to find new ways to revive their brands these brands succeeded. We believe their brands have not only continued down the same successful road, but have also been made stronger.

Apple

Apple has possibly one of the best rebranding stories of our era. In the early-to-mid-1990s Apple came dangerously close to bankruptcy. The brand didn’t stand for much, and certainly didn’t stand out, until Steve Jobs took over the company and changed everything from the look to the product and the series of strong marketing and advertising campaigns.  

Burberry

Burberry is a fantastic example of how a brand can change its image with a few simple marketing tweaks. Just a couple decades ago, Burberry was suffering from a bad reputation, being associated as gang wear. In 2001, a new creative director, Christopher Bailey, took over and started introducing new products like swimwear and trench coats that were unaffiliated with previous images of the brand. Celebrity endorsements from Emma Watson and Kate Moss helped cement the new image of Burberry, and now the company is a major luxury brand, touted as a symbol of high class and wealth.

Regardless of the motives, these companies recognised the need to implement a comprehensive rebranding strategy to take their businesses to the next level.

Rebranding isn’t simple, and it can’t be done overnight. Instead, you’ll need to dive deep into your company and your target demographics; why, exactly, is your current brand failing? Is there a way to recover with your current audience, or do you need to target a new audience? What’s the best way to reach this new audience? What are the best marketing channels, ideas, and images to associate with yourself? There’s no right answer to these questions, and the possibilities can be intimidating, but in any case, if your current brand isn’t working—it needs to change.

Is your business interested in engaged in a rebranding strategy? Merryn Bourne Creative will work closely with you to help your brand succeed. For more information, please get in contact with us.

Intuos Creative Stylus

Wacom announces stand alone tablet and new stylus.

Intuos Creative Stylus

 

Here at Fish Tank Creative we’re very excited about the announcement from Wacom for their new stand alone tablets and pressure sensitive stylus for iPad.

The Intuos Creative Stylus for iPad is looking very handy. At an affordable price and offering 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity via Bluetooth, it seems like a great accessory for the iPad. Whilst there are already many stylus pens available for iPads, the ability to have pressure sensitivity when using sketching programs makes this stylus a very appealing choice for anyone working within a creative field.

But what’s really exciting is the announcement of the Cintiq Companion and the Cintiq Companion Hybrid.

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Wacom is releasing two stand alone 13″ tablets. Both will feature full HD displays with touch control, front and rear cameras, Wi-Fi and ship with the Wacom Pro Pen, giving you 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity.

The Companion runs Windows 8 and comes in two versions. The standard version gives you 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, whilst the Pro version comes with 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. The companion is definitely aimed at professional artists and allows for the installation of Adobe Creative Suite programs like Photoshop and Illustrator.

The Companion Hybrid works off Android and functions as a Cintiq tablet when connected to a computer or as an Android tablet when unplugged. It’s still got some fairly impressive technology inside it, running on Android 4.2  and housing an Nvidia Tegra 4 CPU. It comes in both 16GB and 32GB versions.

All three of these would be versatile tools for Fish Tank Creative. Having a tablet with high level sketching functionality would allow us to speed up the creative process when formulating concepts for our clients. It would also open up our ability to edit on the fly, making meetings more dynamic and intuitive. Being able to do some personal sketching whilst hanging out during lunch breaks in the parks and cafes of Chippendale wouldn’t go amiss either.

We’ll definitely be looking into the creative and productive possibilities that these three devices can provide when they release in the next few months.