Companies tell their stories through branding, which means people have to see, hear and engage with the brand for it to be successful. The culmination of all the strategy sessions, team interviews, copywriting edits and design reviews is consistently telling a brand story to the public. That process is brand implementation.
Implementing a brand begins in the early stages of the branding process. From the very beginning, the focus should be on who the brand should resonate with and how it will be communicated to those people. From there, rolling out a new brand successfully requires planning, organization and communication. We’ve broken it down into these steps.
The first step in any branding project starts with goals. Marketers and company stakeholders need to know what they want the new brand to accomplish. Having the right goals in mind will determine the best strategy for implementation. These goals should include where the company wants to go and how it wants to be perceived in the future.
Implementing a brand doesn’t happen overnight. First, everyone involved in the project needs to have a full understanding of the process and what’s involved. Often, brands will look at big events or company milestones happening in the coming months to see what fits within the brand implementation strategy.
But companies should be wary of rushing the process. It’s tempting to launch a new brand along with a big company milestone, and for good reason. But for many businesses, a brand launch only happens every decade or more, so taking the time to get everything right is important.
Implementing a brand doesn’t happen overnight. First, everyone involved in the project needs to have a full understanding of the process and what’s involved. Often, brands will look at big events or company milestones happening in the coming months to see what fits within the brand implementation strategy. But companies should be wary of rushing the process. It’s tempting to launch a new brand along with a big company milestone, and for good reason. But for many businesses, a brand launch only happens every decade or more, so taking the time to get everything right is important.
Successful brand implementation focuses on people. How a new brand is shared will determine if it’s received well or falls flat. Creating a plan for who will know about a company’s new branding can prevent brand confusion and mishaps.
Communication about a new brand should always start with internal teams. A core team, often consisting of C-suite members, the leadership team or department heads can serve as guides and ambassadors of the new brand. Getting these influencers to support and enforce the company’s new identity will greatly increase entire team buy-in as well as the consistency of brand implementation once it goes public.
Once a core team is on-board and the new brand identity is ready to launch, it’s time to communicate it to the entire company. Successfully doing so will create a buzz among employees that will build momentum for the new brand once it’s ready to be revealed to the public.
Sharing the new branding with people outside the organization is usually the most exhilarating point in the branding process.
This is where taking an inventory of brand assets really helps—planning exactly how and when to roll out the new brand. Teams should create a detailed plan for when each asset will be updated before the launch to help consistently share the new branding with external audiences.
A big mistake companies make is only adapting some of the assets while leaving others for a future date. This only confuses customers by telling them two competing stories—the old and outdated story that no longer reflects the company, and the new story that shares the company’s vision for the future. Customers shouldn’t have to guess which company they’re interacting with when viewing brand assets.
Part of every successful brand implementation campaign is measuring the effectiveness of the new brand. Key performance indicators, or KPIs, can show the success of both the implementation strategy and the new brand itself.
Choosing the right KPIs to measure the success of a new brand depends on goals and can vary greatly from brand to brand. They usually include customer engagement, positive feedback, social media shares, new customers and other forms of interaction with the new identity.
Measuring the success of the brand implementation is a lot more straightforward, and involves asking just a few questions:
Answering “yes” to all of these questions means it’s time to celebrate a successful brand implementation.
We understand that launching your new brand is about more than just color palettes and logos.
A new brand loses its value if customers never see it or are confused by it. That’s why our team won’t spend time getting to know your brand, interviewing your team and designing a new brand identity only to leave you to implement it yourself.
Instead, our branding program focuses on helping clients tell their brand story in a way that builds brand image and inspires loyalty among new and returning customers.
Explore more branding topics below – and if you’d like to talk about how Atomicdust can build an iconic brand for your business, visit our branding services.
(It’s pretty much all we talk about anyway.)
Question about branding? Want to discuss a project?
Fill out the form below, call us at (314) 241-2866, or click here to email Senior Account Manager Erika Cruse.