Written by: Sachin Parmar
Are you thinking about rebranding your company? Before you start the process, read this article to better understand why your employees need to be involved. Sachin Parmar, Creative Director from evokeu, London’s leading boutique digital marketing and branding agency, explains why your internal audience is as critical to a rebrand as your external stakeholders.
Depending on your business model and sector, your external stakeholders could be clients, customers, investors, suppliers or shareholders. Yet your internal audience of employees, although a lot smaller and less complex is often forgotten when a company decides to rebrand.
A rebrand of a company is a huge investment in time, money and expertise, but can pay dividends in the rewards it reaps. evokeu recently carried out a rebrand project for award-winning construction consultancy, Core Five, which involved a discovery workshop, brand design and activation, and a new website. Fortunately, Core Five’s objective from the beginning was to create a compelling and interactive platform for clients as well as employees, but here are some reasons why you need to consider your internal audience as much, if not more than your external stakeholders when entering a company rebrand.
Make your team part of the process
As soon as you have the seed of an idea to rebrand your business, you need to involve your team. evokeu offers a 12-step brand discovery workshop, which utilises the knowledge of your employees to generate ideas and clarify the focus of your company. Nobody understands your business better than your staff; they’re on the ground day-to-day selling your product or service and speaking to clients. Trust in your team to feed into a project as significant and impactful as a rebrand – you might be surprised by the results. By including your employees in the process, there’s also more chance of them being engaged with the finished product. If your employees believe in what your company stands for and are proud to work for such an establishment, they’ll work harder to drive the business forward and make it a success.
Attract and retain talent
A rebrand will normally consist of either a website refresh or a completely new site – for Core Five, it was the latter. Your company website is a critical part of your business; it’s your shop front and is frequently your external audiences’ first impression of your business. A poor website could be the tipping point between a prospective client and a client that’s on your books. But your website is also an essential sales tool for your employees. An attractive website that clearly communicates the vision and mission of your business and sets the tone for your organisational culture will capture the attention of your current employees and inspire them to embody your company values. You want your employees to be happy to share your website with the outside world, not embarrassed that it’s dated and reflects a less than desirable place to work.
Represent your team
At the very least, your new sleek website needs to include images of your team, but ideally, it needs to detail names, job titles and biographies. This gives external stakeholders an insight into your company structure and shows your team that you hold their skills in high regard. One of the main reasons that Core Five decided to pursue a rebrand was mainly because their team had grown exponentially and the existing website no longer represented the current company format. evokeu designed a website that included plenty of team photos to signify a professional, yet friendly and welcoming environment. By being open about who is part of the team, the new website showcases Core Five’s open, diverse and trustworthy culture, which reinforces the perception that they’re the go-to consultant for clients.
Launch your brand internally as well as externally
Finally, once the rebrand is complete, make sure to celebrate the success of your company internally as well as externally. After all the hard work that’s been devoted to the project, take time to enjoy the results with your team. For Core Five, evokeu organised an event to celebrate the business’ 10th anniversary. The event was a highlight for all involved and launched the rebrand with all the glitz and glamour it deserved.
If you’d like to find out more about Sachin and evokeu, please visit: https://www.evokeu.com/. You can also follow Sachin on LinkedIn, where he frequently posts business advice and inspiring content.
About the author:
Sachin Parmar is Creative Director of boutique digital marketing and branding agency, evokeu. With decades of design experience, Sachin has a keen eye for detail and a drive to create consistently superior results. Sachin and his expert team work with big and small brands across many sectors to help clients capture customer attention and create growth. Evokeu also has a vertical brand called Graphic Kitchen, which specialises in the hospitality sector.
