The 7 Steps to Branding Redesign

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Brian Bennett

STIR | President
Apr 12

Periodically, STIR is brought in to evaluate and recommend how a company can reposition itself for the future. Each circumstance and situation, while vastly different, has a set of commonalities.

This should be a highly collaborative process with the management team of the company or brand that needs the work. We want many stakeholders deeply involved as there needs to be consensus and buy-in across the board.

How long does it take and how much does it cost? That answer is highly variable. These factors are determined by the client company itself and its internal and external needs. We review these steps in detail and discuss with the client the best way to proceed based on their corporate culture. After that, we can project the hours and cost that go into the analysis.

We start with these seven steps to branding redesign when we assess the brand and recommend a new course:

  1. Executive meetings: We will meet with key individuals that drive the direction of the company to create an understanding of what they believe can and should be accomplished.
    • We begin by creating that list and schedule.
  2. Workshop: We will work together in a group to gain broad consensus in the vision and key steps in the process.
    • The discussion guide for this event will be developed and agreed upon in advance.
  3. Marketing plan review:We need to gain an understanding of the components of the current direct marketing plan. We will need to understand the implications to the current business of any recommendations made and determine whether any synergies or efficiencies can be gained.
  4. Messaging audit/evaluation:We will need to have a complete understanding of the content, value direction, and capability of all customer/consumer touchpoints. A brand launch requires comprehensive change. We can also begin a keyword analysis at this point.
    • Website
    • Collateral
    • Design
    • Copy
    • Blog
    • Email
    • SEO/SEM
    • Media marketing spend
  5. Market research:This element may be optional but is advisable for a business that is established.
    • Possible research groups (directional up front)
    • Communications testing (during development prior to launch)
  6. Strategic development presentation:Before we move to detailed planning and execution, we summarize our actionable findings in directional strategic planning documents. This will allow us then to go in and generate specific plans based on our findings. We call this strategic communion because we gain consensus among the key stakeholders.
    • Positioning statement
    • Marketing and messaging objectives
    • Broad strategic objectives (and investment levels)
    • Creative brief
    • Segmented audience personas
  7. Integrated tiered marketing plan:Once we have agreed on what we want to achieve, we can lay out our specific plans for executing our objectives in detail. This will include detailed budgets and proposals. This is the time to assess and plan in an integrated way against all relevant marketing platforms (listed below). We may advise augmentation or shifts in spending patterns or internal efforts based on our revised set of objectives. These plans may be tiered in phases of execution.
    • Media plan (traditional and digital)
    • PR launch plan and ongoing efforts
    • Social media launch plan and content/creative plan
    • Logo/identity recommendations
    • Design updates to all current branded pieces
    • Advertising creative development
    • Inbound marketing efforts
    • SEO
    • SEM

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