Rebranding the Brand Specialists (Part III): Launching a new identity

When we last left off in April, I described phase 2 of our rebranding process: how we redesigned our logo and website. Since then, I have learned many new things in the rebranding process; here are three that stood out:

1. We are our worst client
2. Decision makers don’t always see eye-to-eye
3. It’s easy to lose sight of your goals when caught up in the day-to-day activities of running a business

I’m only half joking when I say we’re our worst client. What I mean by that is that I saw a lot of delays in the project that I would never have allowed on my client’s behalf, but that I lost sight of for our own company. For our rebranding, everything was hinging on the launch of the new website. We did not want to reveal our new look until it was ready online and off. By early summer the logo was final and we had boxes of stationery printed, ready to use. Our smart looking new business cards with cutting edge QR codes we’re on standby until the new logo was unveiled online. We were all itching to hand them out, but we had a lot of projects to deal with and the website always fell by the wayside. Don’t get me wrong – the IDG team was on top of things 100%, but I (as marketing director) could feel the bottle-neck. With paying clients to take care of, making design decisions and preparing the copy for the website always seem to fall to the bottom of my list. I should have planned for it and adjusted my expectations accordingly. That was a huge lesson for me and one that has affected the way we now do project planning for our clients as well. We leave more time between milestones now to allow for more reflection and modifications. I learned that it’s better to set a later launch date than put too much pressure on yourself, or your team, and feel frustrated or disappointed.

I also learned that our company’s three decision makers all had different opinions on what certain parts of the site should do. For business development and marketing purposes, I wanted a good amount of text to exhibit our expertise and knowledge in our field (and more key words lead to better search engine positioning). The creative director wanted less text so the design would be clean and uncluttered.  The art director wanted our portfolio section to balance equally (text and images). In the end, we sought council from our web developer who helped us reach a happy medium: a clever pop up area for those who wanted to read more, while maintaining an uncluttered look.

Our launch date was pushed back at least four times. We had hoped to get it done by the spring, but that didn’t happen because we were too busy with our clients’ projects. We were hoping to have it done by June, but the content wasn’t ready (my bad). We realized there was no point in rushing to get it finished in July as most people are away on holiday so not enough people would notice our grand inauguration. August was out of the question due to a combination of the same reasons we didn’t launch in May, June and July (too busy, content written but discovered we were missing more, staff on holiday, etc).

Here we are in September, in Back-to-School and Back-to-Business mode. As we launch our new image, new website and new blog, I take away a few important lessons that other directors, business owners or project leaders could benefit from:

1. Talk things out with your entire team, someone always has a solution or an idea you couldn’t come up with alone
2. Cut yourself some slack: acknowledge your workload and plan accordingly
3. Plan for the unexpected: accept that even the best laid plans can change course when you’re deep into the process
4. Under promise and over deliver, even for your own projects
5. Never lose sight of your goals, keep your eye on the prize
6. Praise your colleagues and celebrate your accomplishments, it paves the way for future successes.

Stay tuned for the fourth and final rebranding installment “Post-launch feedback”. Leave us a comment, send us an email or give us a call if you have insights to share about your own rebranding challenges!