What I learned during a recent redesign/re-branding process
By Fred on December 2nd, 2011
Today we launched a fairly big rebranding and redesign of one of our product web sites and it occurred to me on the bus ride home from the office that it would be a good idea to share some of my own learning through that process. Part of this post may seem like a bit of a self-serving commercial, sure, but there’s meat on that thar plate.
A quick history
Simple Story Videos is one of our most successful (I’d go as far to say most successful to date) initiatives. We plan, create and roll out concise, entertaining and engaging videos that are very much targeted to the client’s demographic while focusing on goal conversion and client acquisition. Our overview video explains it:
My role when we launched the brand was to whip up a quick web site to both showcase highlights from our portfolio and obtain new business. The initial design had some good elements to it but as you will see from the screenshot below, the design itself was seriously lacking:
It did the job and for no time and no real branding strategy, it served its purpose. As the business started to grow and the brand was becoming more and more popular, we knew we would need to buckle down and think through a more stable brand strategy and focus the web site to its full potential.
What we learned
As we absorbed feedback and learning from the web site’s performance and taking a step back to look from a high-level strategy perspective, we knew off the hop that we would need to invest time into really nailing that strategy’s next phase. We had the in-house talent to pull it off, we just needed to make the time. So we did. Not to speak for my colleagues, but some of the things I knew either immediately or through letting the aforementioned feedback gestate was:
- The brand wasn’t strong enough, lacking in the kind of originality and tone that our products carry so well;
- The web site had some effective elements to it like clear calls to action and an easy-to-identify message but the content didn’t flow was well as it could;
- The quality of the design itself wasn’t worthy of the products we’ve created and the reputation we’ve been earning; and
- It needed more cowbell.
Over the course of a few weeks, we put our plan together and proceeded to dive in to the re-branding process.
What we did
The first thing we did was to define the brand a little more acutely. Sure, we know who we are, what the product can do and how we do it, but we weren’t necessarily communicating it in a clear and objective way that ‘sold’ our offering. We could do better. Once we have the vision nailed down, we recognized that the brand needed to create a visual and emotional tone that was reflective of our product: fun, inviting, clean, and clear. Everything from the content to the layout to the colour scheme of the old site didn’t quite achieve that as well as it could have.
Working with our graphic designer, we created a new logo and overall identity that was fun enough to be accessible to all ages while still being professional enough to cater to multimillion dollar corporations we market to, which makes up a large part of our client list and demographic. It was about achieving balance in the brand.
Settling on the identity, we looked at our web site’s content strategy, focusing on the following:
- Sticking with what’s working;
- Providing more meaningful content to prospects without losing clarity or cohesion; and
- Focusing on ridiculously clear and natural calls to action and visibility of our portfolio selections.
After only a few days (well, long days), we buckled down and got it done. The result was definitely a step up:
We just released the new site this afternoon and while it’s too early to analyze the stats to see how it’s working for us, initial feedback has been positive.
What I learned from this process
As a web designer & developer, it’s important to contribute what you’re best at but it’s also important to listen. Just because I have more direct expertise with web design and front end development doesn’t mean I’m the only one with a valid opinion. Everyone on our team has a lot to offer collaboration is really what makes great things happen. This has always been one of the things our company has done well and for us to come together and pull off a major project like this, well it reassures me that my having ditched the old corporate desk jockey life was a dang good idea.
I also learned that no matter how well you try, no matter how talented you and your team are, you can’t expect to hit it out of the park from the get-go. That we pulled this off in less than a week while all working on other projects, attending meetings, and trying to sleep when we could was something to be proud of. Of course we’re going to need to tweak things as we go along, look at the data, review feedback, measure conversions, but that’s part of the game and I’m pretty sure that we’ve made a solid leap forward for the business and look forward to seeing it grow further – and inspire and teach us as we tackle our next venture!
