Let’s talk Branding

Brand strategy   

Your brand has a job to do.

Your brand creates a competitive advantage that differentiates your organization from the competition. At least, that’s what it should do. Handlangers helps you define your brand, inspire your audiences, and drive business results.

Branding

Branding services

Handlangers provides the full range of branding services for clients, delivered by an experienced team of brand strategists.

Just having a Unique Selling Proposition isn’t enough. And the ‘U’ in USP isn’t probably that unique as you think. With more competitors entering your market every day with wildly similar products, the only way to stand out is to show your customer what you stand for. That’s what your brand is all about. We work with our clients to help them define and build out a brand foundation in line with the company’s strategy and unique in the only place that counts: the mind of the customer.

Brand audit/discovery workshop

Effectively position your brand for the future by auditing and assessing where you are now, clarifying your goals, and charting a path to achieve them.

With a brand audit we help you understand the business issues you face so we can co-design an effective strategy for you. This is where we learn how you, your audience, and stakeholders perceive your company. We figure out how perceptions align.

We’ve designed a structured workshop that digs in to build a comprehensive picture of your organization and a deep understanding of who you need to reach, what you need them to do, and how they will benefit. These findings inform your brand strategy, inspiring your team as well as ours.

We need to know your audience before we can build a brand and marketing to inform them. Through research and interviews we will explore your audiences and create buyer personas that identify their background, goals, challenges, common objectives and how your business solves their pain points.

We dive deeper into your brand. A competitive audit and positioning map examines your brand’s value proposition and how it relates to your competition, revealing where opportunities lie. Are all your touchpoints in sync with your brand? Is your brand driving engagement?

Our branding experts will highlight the gap between where you want to be and where your business currently stands. The first step is shaping a strategy to get you there.

During this process we analyze, collect and report:

  • Mission & vision
  • Business strategy & goals
  • Customer experience
  • Key products & services
  • Research & analysis
  • Culture & history
  • Competitor landscape
Want to dive deeper into your brand?

Let’s talk about organizing a workshop.

Brand strategy

Positioning your brand for strategic advantage.

A great brand strategy is the process of understanding where a brand has been, its current market position, and its long-term goals. These findings help us plot a course to achieve future goals based on a deep understanding of how a brand’s products or services solve problems for customers and what moves those customers to make decisions.

A comprehensive brand strategy process begins with a brand audit, in-depth research and workshops. We uncover your brand’s purpose, position, and personality. This allows the creation of a brand from the consumer’s point of view. Understanding your brand internally and externally is the key to unlocking the right tone and style of your brand. In that way, we create a strong foundation, one that grows market performance while building long-term equity.

A successful brand strategy is one that maintains its focus, however the audiences on which it is focused are subject to change. Disruption, changing economics and attitudes can appear seemingly without notice. And while your purpose may not have changed, you may find the need to rethink your expression. Repositioning your brand can often be more powerful and rewarding than it was when you started. A brand refresh can showcase your experience and innovation in a new way, matching the ‘now’ and the future.

In need of a comprehensive brand strategy?

Create a strong foundation for strategic advantage.

Brand architecture

Strategy that puts everything in place.

A brand architecture is the way your brands are organized in your portfolio. An effective brand architecture structures all of your company’s brands so they make sense in relation to each other and allow customers to clearly identify the brands and products they need. Our brand strategists help you make sense of how new or existing brands or products fit into your brand structure.

A clearer brand architecture for your portfolio will make it easier for customers to find the products they want, and easier for you to add new ones. Like a well-designed house, a brand architecture should be welcoming and intuitive. Too often though, when companies have many long-standing brands, their portfolio becomes a maze of names that’s off-putting to potential customers and confusing to internal audiences.

That’s where we come in. Our process includes discussions with stakeholders, an in-depth review of the existing portfolio of brands and those of key competitors, and an assessment of which areas need streamlining or clarifying. Then we develop a range of architectural options for consideration. Once a model is chosen and refined, we’ll develop guidelines for determining when new brands and names are warranted, and if needed, a protocol for how they’ll be developed in the future.

The result is a flexible yet consistent structure for all your brands that clarifies the relationships between them and simplifies the current setup and future efforts.

How do I know if I’m in need of a brand/naming architecture?

Is your product portfolio messy and confusing? Is it hard for customers to find and buy the right products? Is it unclear where new products will live within the portfolio? Does it feel like the products in your portfolio come from different companies and represent different brands? If you can answer yes to any of these questions, your company might be a good candidate for a brand architecture project.

How do brands/products fit in your brand structure?

Develop a consistent structure for all your brands.

Brand identity

We define and connect your brand’s visual and experiential touchpoints to create unforgettable experiences and drive business results.

There’s nothing more exciting than seeing a brand come to life through design.
A brand identity is more than just a logo. It’s the expression of your brand, the consistent touchstone your customers experience no matter where they are in the sales cycle, and the promise your employees deliver to them. While brand naming constitutes the verbal portion of a brand, the visual elements provide supporting context that strengthen the brand name and increase authority.

Our design team will develop a comprehensive visual identity system to reflect the brand’s strategic objectives, distinguish the brand among others, and bring the brand concept to life.

From graphic design to UX and experiential design services, Handlangers brings a multi-disciplinary design approach to harmonize every element of your brand and present a complete picture to the world. We create brand identities as design systems that include patterns, icons, user interface elements and illustrations. We arrange these blocks to build all of the applications of your brand, from web design and digital to print and video, from social marketing to ad campaigns.

Do you know who you are?

Define and connect your brand’s visual and experiential touchpoints.

Brand naming

We create company-, product- and service names for established firms, startups, and flashing brands.

When we develop names for our clients, we make sure that the name always supports the brand positioning. The discussion of the names we present during the course of a project leads to a continual refinement of the brand positioning, as we hone in on the perfect fit between name and positioning. Good names arise out of solid strategic understanding of a brand’s positioning, competitors, opportunities for differentiation, and existing product families and naming styles.

As each naming project is unique, there are many variables that we can address before beginning.
For that reason, Handlangers developed a very straightforward brand naming process:

  • Positioning: The more specific and nuanced your positioning is, the more effective the name will be. Our intake meetings ensure immersive understanding of your business objectives.
  • Competition: Next step, a thorough competitive analysis, in which we quantify the tone, strength and messaging of competitive names. Essential for refining brand positioning. It tells you exactly where you need to be.
  • Creative: Name development begins by applying the positioning strategy and competitive analysis results to determine all of the things your new name needs. During name development, we create a staggering number of candidates, covering every viable name message, construction, and tonality.
  • Screening: We’ll tackle preliminary trademark screening, obstructions, domain name claiming.
How to name your company?

Our extensive company naming experience covers startups, new businesses, mergers, spin-offs, and companies reinventing themselves. When the entire identity of a company is being determined, its very existence may be on the line. The stakes are high.

Creating a company name can be emotional and highly personal. Generating consensus is often harder. Company names must work across geographies and languages, survive changing business models, and align with -or establish- a company culture. We work closely with our clients to ensure our process responds to their needs and results in effective name candidates.

What makes a good company name?

There are many qualities that characterize a good company name. In general, a good company name is one that is flexible enough to allow for expansion into other business spaces and shifts in product focus, and that doesn’t pigeonhole a business or impede its ability to grow. In addition, a good company name often provides a springboard for storytelling about the company, how it positions itself in the market, and why it’s unique. A good company name should also be easily pronounceable by speakers of different languages, particularly if the company does business in different international markets. And, while there are many extremely successful company names over 10 letters in length, it’s generally better to keep it short.

And how about product and service naming?

Many of the principles outlined for company naming are true for generating product names too.
Product and service naming encompasses a range of naming initiatives. Beyond individual products and services, you may need to name an ingredient brand, a family brand, a new platform, a suite,… We understand that every initiative is unique, every market distinct, and every naming objective different.

Are you hoping to define a new category or simply distinguish your offering from competitors’?
Is it important to tie the new name to your portfolio, or does it need to stand apart?
Should the new name communicate a key brand message or create brand intrigue with an abstract concept?
Whatever your objectives, we’ll ensure we’re on the same page and deliver names that address your specific goals.

What makes a good name?

Enter the brand naming process.