WE ARE NOT JUST MARKETING GIRLIES, WE ARE DIGITAL POWER WOMEN

You are a brand, representing something, and it’s crucial to remain recognizable. But are you still current? Does your visual identity reflect what you do and hope to achieve? Does it resonate with your ideal customers? Does your company’s appearance align with your ambitions and future vision? These are questions that companies often overlook.

But we are The Dot Society, in other words, we ask ourselves these questions. This led us to the realization that what The Dot Society has evolved into and stands for today is not fully reflected in our visual identity. It’s time for something new, bigger & better: we’ve chosen to undergo a rebranding! But what does that exactly entail and how do you go about it?*

WHY REBRAND?

While rebranding is often approached with hesitation, change can be positive, especially if it means bringing your brand closer to your vision. The term ‘rebranding’ for many seems to be only about adjusting the logo or other visual elements, but that’s a superficial approach. Rebranding is a significant undertaking; it involves adjustments that strengthen a brand’s position in the market while refreshing and making the company’s image more positive. Though sometimes complex and costly, it helps companies stand out and better connect with consumers in a rapidly changing digital environment.

HOW TO REBRAND?

There isn’t a strict guide for approaching a rebranding, but we’d like to share how we internally tackled it.

During a rebranding, you always start from the existing design and ask yourself preliminary questions. Based on the answers and considerations, you give the existing visual identity a new look and feel. This involves understanding the brand personality and what you want to convey. Begin with an exercise based on keywords: which five keywords encompass what our company stands for? Are you aiming for feminine, innovative, top of mind, or do you better summarize your company’s image as graceful, professional, open-minded? Do the same with your company’s values: list them, how do we convey them, or can we explain them more to the outside world? Also, think about your target audience: who do we want to reach and in what way? A millennial, for example, is reached differently than a Gen Z.

Once you’ve taken the time to ask yourself these fundamental questions, proceed visually and structurally. Find the appropriate combination of fonts, colors, refresh the logo, examine the structural and visual layout of your website and social media.

To make it more tangible, let’s start from our rebranding. After extensive brainstorming sessions, we settled on keywords like power, professional, innovative, transparent, and flexible. Build on these and continually refer back to them during the design process. By reflecting periodically, you ensure that the design aligns with what you want to convey.

We chose to retain the graceful touch at the core of our logo but also to modernize it. A graceful yet contemporary serif font combined with a timeless, business-like sans serif laid the new foundation. In rebranding, ‘recognizability’ remains essential. Ensure you keep a connection with the previous branding for the audience that already knows you. In our case, we chose to retain the distinctive blue and pink, giving them a facelift and introducing some siblings. Additional colors were chosen based on what we want to convey as a company:

• Pink: Luxury
• Light and dark blue: Intelligence and business
• Light and dark gray: Timeless
• Green: Expertise and data
• Orange: Trust and transparency
• Fluorescent yellow: Power

In the previous branding, we worked with only 2 shapes. This limited us in creating something innovative during the design process for socials, workshops, pitches, etc. To return to the word ‘recognizability,’ we transformed the two pebble-shaped forms into circles: timeless, contemporary, strong. Here too, we introduced some siblings: different shapes that can be combined. These will allow us to endlessly mix and innovate.

Of course, it doesn’t end with fonts, logos, colors, and shapes. You design a new website, create new social media profiles, lay the groundwork for your presentations, and don’t forget: print is not dead! Design stickers, acoustic panels, gadgets for your next corporate event.

Let’s reflect for a moment. As mentioned earlier, rebranding is not a small intervention. Own it, and turn effort into endless possibilities!

IS IT YOUR TURN?

There are many preparatory and executive steps, but also sufficient time needed to achieve a good and strong branding. So, don’t rush it; invest your time and effort into something new, better, more powerful! Work on it, let it rest, and don’t be afraid to revisit things.

As an entrepreneur with an existing brand or company, it is crucial to occasionally ask yourself: ‘Am I still relevant, and do I still convey what I stand for?’ If not, this might be the perfect moment for a rebranding, an opportunity to reinvent yourself and better align with the changing needs of the market.

If you have any questions about the creative approach, don’t hesitate to contact The Dot Society’s creative team! Let’s grow together, even creatively!