How my construction client achieved a 21% increase in revenue after rebranding
The UK construction industry has had its problems in recent years. Not least down to a worldwide pandemic, Brexit, material shortages, a war, and the resulting distribution problems and rising costs. Regardless of which, my client was making millions. But they had a problem. Or rather, a whole bunch of ‘em!
They had a logo. Not a brand.
So, they had zero positioning.
progressive’s old logo - in use from 1988-2022
No insight. No purpose. No mission.
So, their existing comms had no compass. And it didn’t reflect their reputation, skills, and experience.
No demonstrable benefits of their service.
Meant no answers to questions, nor evidence of problems solved.
They looked like a small, faceless business, when in fact their team is approximately 50 strong, and growing!
So, their amazing accomplishments? They were invisible.
As was their fun and friendly culture.
And the great relationships they have with their clients and the wider community.
Not to mention the work they do to give back. To their community and their industry.
Their website was pointless. Old and broken.
progressive’s old website
A lack of content meant the site was bereft of any benefit and devoid of any personality. A real snooze fest. And with next to no content, it told you literally nothing.
No clear calls to action on the front end of their site and no search engine optimisation and analytics in the back end meant that even if the site had anything interesting to say? - it didn’t - it gave no good reason for you to contact them. And even if you did? They wouldn’t know you’d come from their webshite. And no dear reader, that’s not a typo.
So, how did we change all of that?
1. Brand Discovery
1.1 Meeting with Key Stakeholders
The first meeting set the tone for their project by asking questions to get to the heart of their problem.
In their case, they needed to completely reposition themselves to better reflect not only the business they are today, but also the business they aim to become.
A new board understood that now was the perfect time to review their brand.
Their ‘off-the-shelf’ logo had been around for over 30 years. It wasn’t designed specifically for their business. And with no positioning? It meant absolutely nothing.
They knew it had to go. They understood the benefits of rebranding.
1.2 Brand Questionnaire & Brand Workshop
Further questioning each of the key stakeholders and a half-day brand workshop with the whole team revealed loads of epic insight about their purpose, their values, and their culture.
1.3 Brand Reputation
1-1 conversations with their clients, suppliers and team brought loads of honest and impartial feedback to the mix. While questionnaires gave those with limited time the opportunity to take part by contributing their thoughts.
1.4 Market & Competitor Analysis
Research of their market brought perspective, and a deeper understanding of how they are placed amongst their clients, competitors, and suppliers. Their strengths - and their weaknesses.
2. Brand Strategy
All of this information was collated and brought together into a working document to form the basis of their brand strategy.
A working document gives my clients the opportunity to feedback to, comment on, and contribute to their brand strategy, which includes:
Name – In this case, their brand name needed little more than a tweak to retain continuity, and better reflect how they are known and referred to. To simplify and modernise.
USP – Their USP is their elevator pitch. When they’re talking to a prospect, they bring out the big gun in their arsenal, their USP, to clinch the deal.
Their Values
A set of values that are true to the company, what they believe. The values they align themselves with resonate with their clients’ own values.
Purpose
Their purpose clarifies why they exist. Other than making a profit.
Brand Promise
A promise of what their clients can expect from their service. Time and time again.
Core benefits – to their customers
A set of demonstrable benefits clearly communicates to their clients how their services can help.
Their Mission.
A mission statement that clearly, and succinctly, (it’s not ‘War and Peace’), surmises what the company does for its clients, its team, and the community. Internally, the mission is their compass. It provides clarity and guidance to their stakeholders and their team. Externally, it gives their clients and suppliers a clear picture of who they are, who for. And why.
Their Strapline.
Short and sweet, their strapline isn’t a description of everything they do. Theirs provides reassurance.
2.1 Brand Voice
As part of the overall branding, exercise, it was hugely important to develop a clear tone of voice that sounded and felt, like them. Given that they didn’t have one, we had a pretty clean slate for this.
We developed a tone that is direct and personable. It communicates in a way that is honest and upfront, clear and consistent, professional, but not corporate, friendly, fun, and human.
The resulting brand voice guide, and web copy, are easy to follow and understand.
3. Brand Identity
3.1 Creative Brief
The brand strategy formed the basis for the creative brief, which captured everything we hoped to achieve with the rebranding exercise. The brief set the tone for the creative to come. It provided clarification to the client of the aims of their project and clear guidance to me. This included:
The Objective
Target Audience
Customer Insights
The Brand Idea
The Brand Message
Core Benefits
3.2 The Creative
With the creative brief agreed and signed off by the client, it was time to get to work on their new brand identity. At this point, I conceptualised three clear concepts for the brand identity. These concepts were presented to the board for their input.
As the company is made up of three divisions, it was important to address the brand’s architecture in the first presentation, which clearly showed how the overarching brand identity, particularly its logo, would look, and how its divisions would be branded to instantly be recognisable as a part of the same family.
The chosen concept was then approved by the board for further development.
3.3 Brand Identity Development
The next stage brought together all the components of their new brand identity, which included:
Logos - Company Logo & Brand Architecture
Colour Palette
Graphics
Strapline
Brand Voice
3.4 Internal Presentation
With the fundamental components of the new brand identity approved by the board, it was now time to do a big reveal to the team! A presentation of the new identity to the whole team captured their interest and helped build momentum towards a launch.
3.5 Brand Implementation
Next, I set to work on the implementation of the new brand to be rolled out across all touchpoints of the business, internally and externally. All collateral needed to be replaced, so this included:
Internally
Logos
Documents
Email signatures
PowerPoint Presentations
Externally
Logos
Business Cards
Vehicle Livery
Advertising, Exhibition & Display
Printed Materials
Social media
A new website
See case study
4. The website
The web project began by planning the essential structure of the site, the site map and user interface. A content plan and user experience mapped out the route we wanted users of the site to take, and how we would inform them, along with clear calls to action and a wealth of informative content.
Video would showcase their key projects in the home page of the site to make a great first impression. While animation brought their versatile strapline to life.
The user interface was conceptualised alongside the content writing, and once the site and its content were approved, a custom WordPress site was built over a period of four months. While research and analysis provided the basis for their SEO and PPC strategies.
The culmination of the rebrand, their new website was launched in May 2023.
Visit the site
How long did it take to implement the rebrand and new website?
-
Brand Questionnaire / Brand Workshop / Client & Supplier Surveys / Market & Competitor Analysis
-
Strategy Document / Creative Brief / Brand Voice
-
Brand Identity Development / Internal Presentation / Brand Implementation / Roll-out internally and externally
-
Site planning / Project Management / Front-end Web Design / Video / Photography
-
Content planning, writing and editing
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Development of a bespoke WordPress appplication
From the very first meeting to the launch of their new website, this project took 15 months to complete.
The timescale for a branding project varies from one client to the next, but I am comfortable in saying that a rebrand, particularly for larger or more established organisations typically takes a year or more. Particularly when a new website is fundamental to the project.
How did I qualify the 21% revenue increase?
Quite simply, their turnover a year later, minus their turnover prior to the rebrand.
Now, let’s be clear. I’m not saying that their revenue increase is entirely attributable to the rebrand. Of course not. It’s largely down to the efforts of their team and the great work they are doing for their clients! And I know that in their case, much of their business comes from a loyal customer base.
But, it’s a contributing factor, for sure. Would they have achieved similar results without their brand strategy and the resulting rebrand? I think not.
I always survey my clients to gauge the impact that rebranding their business has made. That way I continuously and accurately demonstrate the value it delivers to future clients. And deliver it does. With my clients consistently reporting a revenue increase that can be anywhere between 15-25%.
So, when you weigh up the cost of a rebrand against a 15-25% increase in turnover, and the subsequent profit? That scary-looking investment at the outset of your rebrand will become a very small number indeed.
