Jamie Talks Design & Rebranding - Future View Podcast

Worried your brand is falling behind, but you're not sure?

Here's a quick checklist to find out.

1. You created your brand on a Commodore 64 - okay, that may be too far back, but you get the idea - your graphics are outdated.
2. Your website still thinks it rules the playground, hates change, and refuses to play nice with mobile devices - in other words; it isn't responsive.
3. You have trouble uploading your logo to any social media sites while making it look good - can't they make that square any bigger? Honestly.
4. Your messaging says one thing while your business is doing another - basically, your business has evolved, but the story you're telling hasn't.
5. You're losing customers because you can't tell them "at the speed of light" what you do - yes, that's how fast you need to capture someone's attention.

If you answered yes to any of the above, don't worry. We won't judge, but you're probably ready for a brand refresh. Not a complete overhaul, just an update. Because design trends change, technology keeps improving, and buyers are getting savvier and smarter. And brands, yours included, need to stay ahead of it all or at least keep up.

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Every Brand Needs Refreshing.

For some, depending on the nature of their business, it could be quite often. Just look at Google. They seem to be doing it every day! We're not suggesting you go that extreme, but you could take a cue from MasterCard's subtle but recognizable brand mark evolution from 1966 to 2019.

Not all of Mastercard's re-brands were successful, but we won't talk about those because, in 2019, Mastercard did get it right. They didn't change their brand or what it stood for. They simply made it better by adapting their brand mark or logo to meet current trends.

In a bold move, they removed their name in printed form, letting their iconic overlapping red and yellow circles do the talking. They now have a "flexible modern design that works seamlessly across the digital landscape." When explaining the decision, Raja Rajamanar, Mastercard's chief marketing and communication officer, said: "Reinvention in the digital age calls for modern simplicity." Bam. Instant relevance.

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That's What KHULA Does.

We're Brand Refresh Specialists.

KHULA helps brands stay true to who they are while giving them a new and improved image. In a nutshell, we help brands that feel tired, worn out, and a bit irrelevant get the revamp they need to keep growing their business. While updating your brand might seem daunting and overwhelming, we assure you it's not.

It's one of the most important things you could do for your business. Plus, it feels incredibly satisfying once you have a new website with on-point branding that represents who you are and what you do.

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For A Successful Brand Refresh, You Need Expertise In Branding, Marketing, And Design.

Not everyone is at Mastercard's revamp level, but the foundational elements of the process for most businesses, big and small, are the same. A good brand refresh usually includes the following:

Brand Audit: This is a thorough analysis of an existing brand that uncovers its market position, target audience, competitors, and overall brand perception.

Research and Insights: Gathering market research, consumer insights, and industry trends informs the brand refresh strategy.

Strategy Development: To develop a comprehensive brand refresh strategy that aligns with the company's goals, it may require refining brand positioning, defining the brand personality, and establishing the brand's unique value proposition.

Visual Identity: Often seen as the "fun stuff", designers and creative teams collaborate to update or refine the visual elements of the brand, such as the logo, colour palette, typography, and overall brand aesthetics.

Messaging and Communication: Refreshing a brand isn't just about updating visual elements; it also includes updating messaging by crafting or refining brand messages, taglines, and brand voice to ensure consistency and resonance with the target audience.

Implementation Guidance: This involves implementing the brand refresh across various touchpoints, including marketing materials, website, packaging, and other brand collateral.

Stakeholder Engagement: Strong collaboration with internal teams and stakeholders must be established to ensure a smooth transition and alignment throughout the entire brand refresh process.

Brand Guidelines: Brand guidelines or style guides are created to provide instructions and standards for maintaining the refreshed brand identity across different platforms and communications.

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When It All Comes Together, Brand Image Is Improved, The Target Audience Is Reached, And Business Objectives Are Achieved.

We'd say that's a pretty stellar outcome.

If your brand is losing its shine and starting to feel left behind, we can help.

We'd love to walk you through our brand refresh process and make your brand come alive again.

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Want to explore some of our award-winning brand refreshes? Check them out here!

International money transfers are notoriously time-consuming and complicated, not to mention expensive. Fintech, TransferWise, was founded to make international money transfers easier for everyone. It’s built as a non-banking platform capable of replacing international banking — and today used by more than 10 global banking institutions. 

Ten years in, the founders decided it was time to change the TransferWise brand. The name change and wider rebrand were needed to better represent the audience the company served — people and businesses living multi-currency lives who need their money to be borderless. 

At Khula Design Studio, we’re in the business of brand refreshes and we’re also a Wise customer. That’s why we’re fascinated by their recent brand transformation — what they did, why they did it, and how other businesses can learn from their success. 

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From TransferWise to Wise

What’s in a name? Quite a lot as it happens. 

When it was first founded, the TransferWise name reflected a community of people getting wise to the frustrating, complicated, and expensive business of international money transfers via banks. Escaping hidden fees and exchange rate mark-ups, TransferWise promised a fairer and easier way to move money between borders. 

Today, the company knows it’s about more than money transfers. That’s what their community of millions tells them. Converting money into different currencies is still complicated and dominated by small print and delays, but the Wise community has evolved. They’re very aware of an outdated international banking system, which makes exchanging money more costly and time-consuming than it needs to be.

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They’ve become Wise.

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Looking good in green

Let’s start with the one thing that hasn’t changed. The ‘fast flag’ — which symbolizes money without borders — is still a part of their logo. Every other brand asset has been reworked to better reflect the company’s global community of people and businesses.  

Gone is the dark blue palette and dark themed website. The new brand identity embraces shades of green — the color of money, the color of the natural environment, and also a reflection of the diverse and vibrant community that uses Wise every day. 

The brand now has a cleaner, brighter, and more environmentally friendly look and feel, switching to greens and whites that make it feel more international, and more universal. In the words of their London-based branding agency, Ragged Edge: “Every other part of the visual and verbal system has been painstakingly redesigned with The World’s Money as the guiding principle.”

Tastes change. People move on. New innovations come along. Whichever industry you’re in, whether your small business is online, in-person, or both, giving your brand and website a makeover can help you kickstart a new chapter whilst keeping true to your roots.  

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What is a brand refresh?

A brand refresh is a strategic update to a company’s visual identity and messaging. For many small businesses, it’s a way to stay relevant to their target audience and keep up with the latest trends in their industry. 

On one level, brand identity signals a company’s relevance and position in the market. If their competitors all have fresh new looks, then theirs will look increasingly outdated by comparison. To keep the competitive edge, it’s important to periodically refresh the brand. 

Refreshing your brand is the perfect way to assess and adjust your brand’s visual identity and voice across various touchpoints with customers. It’s a way of re-aligning how you’re perceived to ensure you maintain the right resonance with your target audience. 

To maintain a lasting connection with your audience, your visual identity and messaging needs to grow with them. It’s important to evolve your brand’s look and feel to avoid stagnation, and signal a marked change in direction, vision, or growth.

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Rebranding versus brand refresh 

If a brand refresh is about the evolution of a brand, then rebranding is all about revolution. With a refresh, your brand slowly evolves; with rebranding, you rip up the brand rulebook and start again. 

When a company undergoes rebranding, they significantly change the look and feel of their brand’s identity. Rebranding requires a deep dive into the organization, getting right under the hood to overhaul the company and its positioning, mission, vision, and values.

Watch this short video for a simple explanation of the differences between refreshing and rebranding by Col, from Rock Your Brand.

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Rebranding is generally done for one of two reasons: 

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• Firstly, when a company makes a proactive choice to rebrand, they typically do so in conjunction with a planned change in direction, to engage with a new or wider audience, and set a new strategic path. 

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• Secondly, when businesses take a reactive choice to rebrand, they usually do so to distance the company from negative perceptions or to differentiate it from competitors who may be gaining the competitive edge.

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In contrast, the reason for a brand refresh is usually to modernize existing visual elements, like the company logo, website, brand fonts, colour palette, icons, and imagery. For many small businesses, it can be difficult to decide whether the time is right to refresh and also how to go about doing it. Bringing in a brand consulting specialist is always a good place to start. 

Need help with your decision-making around refreshing your brand? You might be interested in our blog post about knowing the right time for a brand refresh.

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What should a brand refresh include?

An effective brand refresh runs deeper than simply polishing your visuals. For it to make an impact, it needs to be aligned with your wider vision, mission, and core values.

At the same time, you need to ensure that it matches with your customer and employees’ experience of your brand. There’s little point pretending your business is something it’s not. It might be your company brand, but it’s the people who choose to do business with it, and the people who work for it that truly own it.  

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For that reason, a brand refresh is likely to include:

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• A brand audit: A checkup on the health of your brand in the marketplace, evaluating its strengths and weaknesses and how to improve it.

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• Competitor analysis: A study of your competitors will reveal how to differentiate your brand from theirs, including things like brand colour, tagline, value proposition, and website. 

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• Positioning and messaging: A brand needs clear rational messaging which has emotional resonance with your target audience, addressing their pain points, and promoting why you’re uniquely positioned to help.

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• Visual identity: A distinct logo and brand identity gives your business a distinct look and feel and helps to alleviate mixed messaging across different touchpoints, from your website to your social channels.

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• Launch and roll-out: A brand refresh is a big deal. Make sure you communicate it effectively, both internally and externally. Build excitement and make it an event.