Elevation_PillarPage_Rebrand/RefreshDevelopment

Rebrand/Refresh Development: What Are The Details and Differences

Rebrands or a brand refresh are exciting! They impact all facets of your business and we always love being a part of them. From the initial strategy of gearing up for a rebrand/refresh, to the creative development, and toolkit execution, we have years of experience designing and executing them for our clients.

We're sharing some of that experience here to help guide you as you might begin to research and dive into a rebrand/refresh for your brand.

The Power of Visual Identity: More Than Meets the Eye

Visual identity is one of the most crucial aspects of building a strong brand. Let’s face it: in the world of branding, appearances matter. While we do believe it’s what’s on the inside that counts most, your outward appearances play a crucial role in making first impressions, establishing credibility, and attracting the right audience.

Consider the idiom “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” While there is truth to this, you can learn a lot about a book just with a quick glance. Within seconds of looking at the front of the book, you can answer a lot of different question: Is it for kids or adults? Is it a captivating political thriller or a reassuring guide designed to help boost your mindfulness? Does this book look like it belongs in the bargain bin or a best-selling list?

Through a combination of typography, colors, graphic design, and other context clues, you can intuit a lot about a book just through its cover, including if you will buy the book.

Guess what: People do the same thing with your brand.

Just like a well-crafted mission statement can inspire and guide a company, a strong visual identity can make a lasting impression on your audience. In today's increasingly visual world, a cohesive and consistent visual identity is crucial for establishing your brand's presence, personality, and purpose.

In this blog post, we'll dive into the world of visual identity and explore why it's an essential aspect of branding. We'll also examine the main components, the role of...

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Building a Brand Core | Elevation's Guide to Brand Building Part 1

A skyscraper needs a sturdy foundation. A towering oak needs deep roots. A Crunchwrap Supreme needs a crispy tostada.

And a great brand needs a great core.

As we covered in our Elevation’s Guide to Brand Building overview, the core is the most important element of your brand. It’s what everything else revolves around. Your brand’s core guides your business decisions, visual identity, marketing strategy, and pretty much anything else your company does. It provides the touchstones that attract brand ambassadors and turn customers into advocates.

If you do nothing else, focusing on your core can transform the way you approach branding, product development, and even your company culture.

But building a brand is a little like getting washboard abs: you have to put in work to have a great core.

So, how do you make a core that’s not just solid, but amazing?

In this part of Elevation’s Guide to Brand Building, we’re going to deep dive into every element of your brand’s core. We’ll let you know what your brand’s core is, provide examples of companies with amazing cores, and give you an exercise on how to better define your core to build a strong and meaningful brand.

What is your brand’s core?

Your brand’s core is a combination of your brand’s mission, vision, purpose, values, and point of view. It is the reason your brand exists. It is the very essence of a brand.

Whether you know it or not, your brand's core influences everything you do now and provides a roadmap for where...

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Elevation's Guide to Brand Building

How do you build a great brand?

It’s hard to overstate the value of great branding. Companies like Nike, Apple, and Coca-Cola are not only massively successful businesses, they are some of the most iconic and enduring brands in modern history. Just a glance at the distinctive silhouette of the iPhone or swooping script on a Coke bottle conveys a reassuring sense of quality.

It’s branding that inspires the type of customer loyalty and fervent fan bases that we all dream of. It’s branding that recruits the top talent, who will jump at the opportunity to be a part of the company’s mission.

You may believe that the key to building a brand like that is a memorable logo, on-trend fonts or colors, and a buzz-worthy marketing strategy.

That would be a mistake.

That’s not to say those are not very valuable aspects of branding. But building a brand is so much deeper than the style guide, visual identity, or even a quality product.

Our philosophy towards branding is holistic. Great branding is not only about how a company appears to the outside world. It’s about how it behaves and operates. It’s about how your company sees the world. Branding is a fundamental building block that should permeate product development, company culture, and every bit of messaging. If you nail your branding, your employees will buy into your vision. Your audience will evangelize for you. Your company will have a distinctive voice, point of view, and identity.

Branding gives people something to believe in....

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Nostalgia Branding: Bridging the Past and the Future

This post written by Elevation's Creative Strategy Director, Brett Rakestraw, was originally published on Brandingmag.

Remember the good old days? Maybe they were the seemingly innocent days of “Leave it to Beaver” and apple pie. Or, were they the sugar and caffeine-fueled 80’s, complete with hyper-color neons and so much hairspray? Perhaps, they were the nights out with friends just before the pandemic shut everyone in.While we each experience it in different ways, we are all affected by nostalgia. Brands can harness the power of nostalgia with the right understanding of the psychology behind it and a clear connection to nostalgic concepts within their own branding and brand marketing. With the wrong intentions or a misguided understanding of sentimentality, brands can come across as tone-deaf, insensitive, or simply dated.The term nostalgia refers to a wistfulness or longing for a place or time with positive memories. So, nostalgia is generally rooted in sadness or melancholy. But, while the source of nostalgia comes from negative feelings, the results of experiencing nostalgic memories are generally much more positive.In a Psychology Today article on nostalgia, author David Ludden suggests, “Experimental evidence indicates that nostalgia is experienced as an overwhelmingly positive emotion. It has the effect of boosting one’s mood as well as increasing a sense of meaning in life. It also raises self-esteem and optimism for the future.”A key takeaway from this quote is...

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M&M Mascot Mess: 3 Rebranding Lessons to Help You Find the Sweet Spot

M&M’s made a mess last week, and for once it’s not because I dropped some in the seat of my car and forgot about it. The Mars company unveiled a refresh of their lineup of brand mascots. The M&M characters underwent a redesign to be “more inclusive” and better reflect “today’s society.”

Sounds good so far, right?

Until you compare the old design of the characters to the new designs.

Like a toddler whose had too much chocolate, the internet went wild mercilessly mocking the M&M’s rebrand.

While initial public reaction and internet memes aren’t everything, this is a case of good intentions meeting flawed strategy and execution. Which is extremely unfortunate, because I’m a huge fan of the M&M’s brand and product — as anyone who has been to a...

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