We recently applied our own methodology to unveil a refreshed brand with an updated logo, website and event and communications material, designed to communicate our positioning as a leading, modern and unified B2B creative marketing agency that confidently competes on the Australasian stage.
For over 15 years, Green Hat has successfully guided B2B and ‘considered purchase’ brands to develop marketing strategies and create communications to support business growth. In recent years we’ve strengthened our brand strategy and brand management and campaign activation expertise to complete the integrated service offering to clients.
The Green Hat brand refresh – created by the inhouse creative and brand strategy team was an ideal opportunity to demonstrate our full suite of B2B branding and marketing capability across multiple media channels. From brand management, content marketing, web design and development, customer experience, creative lead-generation campaigns to ongoing lead nurture management – supported by state-of-the-art automation and analytics tech.
Our strategic brand refresh process
Having a strong brand that stands out positively in the minds of our audience and differentiates us from the competition was our goal. In order to ensure that we achieved that goal, we brought key people on the strategic journey, we answered the questions we usually ask when conducting workshops with our clients and followed our brand strategy and identity development process.
A few of our key questions
- Why do we matter to customers?
- What do we stand for?
- How do we stay relevant?
- How do we evolve and communicate our value?
The brand refresh process
Here are some important considerations we addressed and insights that you can take on board in your own brand development journey:
Discovery and research
Ask who you are and what makes you different from the competition. Discovering the history of the business and conducting qualitative research is the best starting point to remain credible and authentic.
Persona research
Building buyer personas help understand how to communicate with a target audience in meaningful and relevant ways. In today’s marketing environment, the motivational content produced not only impacts lead generation and business development, it also shapes the brand in the minds of prospects.
Competitive analysis
It’s imperative to understand the competitive landscape you operate in. If you want to look unique and not follow, plotting the competition across what they look like, how they behave, their content and messaging will help you to identify what to retain and what to avoid.
Brand positioning
We crafted compelling key messages to pinpoint our unique personality and position in the B2B marketplace. These messages aim to reach a key target audience on a rational and emotional level. A style is developed that can’t be easily imitated by the competition.
Identity and supporting system
A brand refresh does not simply mean redesigning a logo. While becoming more distinctive with some subtle changes, the new Green Hat identity had a facelift and also addressed visibility issues the old brand had across media. The logo, colours, styles, imagery, fonts, patterns and other brand elements all convey a fresh presence for the brand.
Brand audit
A communications audit is necessary to ensure that the new brand identity system is applied consistently. List every ‘touchpoint’ where the logo is experienced and all the ways your company communicates to external and internal audiences. A magic wand doesn’t exist so you need to create a hierarchy of needs to stage the application updates.
Rollout plan
Have a plan for rollout internally and externally. Given the level of investment, it’s most often best managed as a phased approach. It’s important to identify how much fanfare you want to create with a refresh or rebrand. It’s important to communicate the change to employees, clients and prospects the reason for the change.
A brand code to match our DNA
Green Hat’s genesis was based on Dr Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats. The Green Hat focuses on creativity: possibilities, alternatives and new ideas – and has been our North Star these past 15+ years.
The new logo remains in the distinctive square, now with better visibility. It’s a fresh invigorating new green, has a tailored type style that’s more legible, with multiple media channel placement considered. All decisions across the refresh present a stronger creative culture with developed from the brand attributes.
Green Hat is now unmistakably four shades of harmonious and vibrant green with the odd hit of zesty orange. We chose to own green, the meaning of Green Hat and how our name came about drives our thinking.
A thought-provoking introduction of people imagery, juxtaposed with an unlikely eclectic, symbolic mix of objects and a green ‘thinking’ beam-like-funnel adds energy to the brand. This style has been introduced to support our unique, integrated offering across brand, marketing strategy, creative, content and digital.
The refresh is being considerately rolled out across all brand platforms, with new website design, show-reel and robust market-to-sales media presence. It will be visible across multiple touchpoints, from credentials to t-shirts and pens.
Andrew Haussegger, CEO, GH stated: “A brand refresh is a careful and considered journey. We chose to walk our own talk when we addressed our new brand platform. The refreshed brand reflects our unique B2B marketing culture and more closely represents our integrated offering. Building and strengthening the distinctiveness of our brand leads to a more effective return in the long-term. And we know we, like all B2B businesses, need to get the right balance between short-term sales activations and longer-term brand building.”
We’re rather proud of the work we’ve been creating for our clients, and now, for ourselves. Please take a look at our online brand identity resource* – I’d love to get your feedback!
*This resource is a work in progress, which means we’re continually improving and updating it as we continue to develop our brand.
