Brand Audit
What is a Brand Audit?
Strong brands help build a strong business. Having a brand that people recognise and identify with helps you promote your business.
Auditing your brand is a way of finding out how well it is perceived, how it’s performing and how it can be improved.
This doesn’t always mean a new logo or website. It’s about examining all aspects of your brand and identifying ways to improve it or capitalise on its strengths.
Why have a Brand Audit?
Here are five simple scenarios where a brand audit could help:
1: Slow or stagnant business
Business is slow or even in decline. It’s time to make some changes.
2: Increased competition
Competitors are growing and doing a good job of marketing themselves. You’re feeling left behind.
3: Internal Changes
New management, marketing, or sales teams need to know where they stand. Would an update or change of direction make their jobs easier?
4: Your brand is on the downward slide
Industry trends have shifted, and you’ve been too busy with existing clients to keep up. Is it time to find out if your brand is moving backwards?
5: Even worse, you have low or no brand impact
It may be something you’ve never even considered. Outside of regular customers, your business might have no brand or industry impact at all. You might have gotten away with it so far, but it can’t last forever.
What do you get?
The Sevenfive team will create a bespoke brand audit report for your business.
We aim to create a practical document you can use to help make positive changes to your brand and your business.
The report will include:
Brand and marketing strength:
How effective are your existing brand identity and marketing materials?
Competitor analysis:
A look at the market, how they’re communicating and what we can learn from their messaging.
Brand messaging:
What messaging is your brand putting out there? Is it saying anything at all?
Brand SWOT:
A look at your brand strengths and weaknesses based on how potential customers see your business.
First steps:
Easy in-house tasks to help build your brand presence.
Future Plans:
How larger brand projects and changes could impact your business.
Brand Guide
A quick guide to building a brand?
You know your business and industry inside out. And you’re kind of aware that a strong brand helps. But when it comes to the details, you’re less sure.
The world of branding and design is full of jargon and the prospect of marketing yourself really takes you out of your comfort zone. Hopefully, this quick explainer video will make things a bit clearer and give you the confidence to get started.
Brand Case Study
A brand case study.
We have loads of case studies and work examples that we could show you, but this one is a bit different. Rather than explaining what we did, we’ll try and explain why we did it.
It’s nice to just look at pretty pictures but here we’ll explain what each stage of the brand project involved and why the work was produced. Because if you are going to spend money on developing a brand, you want to make sure every penny is working as hard as it can.
Building a brand for a global leader.
Case study: Industrial Physics.
Industrial Physics has worked as test and inspection partner for manufacturers, laboratories, and production lines around the world, for almost 100 years.
Following a period of sustained growth and a number of acquisitions, they were about to be the biggest player in the world. Problem was, they didn’t have a unified, global brand approach across their marketing communications.
The brief.
Our job was to complete a full rebrand and design development across all design and marketing collateral.
With growth came new customers, marketplaces and staff. They needed something with impact that would deliver a consistent message. A range of flexible, internal and external marketing materials to tell the world who the new big name in town was.
Required items:
• Brand re-development
• Full brand book
• Creative usage guidelines
• Brand colour palette
• Image bank development
• Bespoke icons & illustrations
• Brand messaging and TOV
• Brochure design templates
• Technical manual design
• Event design
• Signage
Getting started.
Industrial Physics had a trademark-registered brand identity, so the creative approach needed to be more an evolution than a revolution.
The logo was tweaked and tightened up. But the client needed much more; a single voice to sing through all of their brand, design and marketing materials. A big brand, global feel that could stamp its authority on everything, wherever it appeared.
Brand identity evolution.
Design elements were tweaked to produce a crisp, updated brand mark. This also provided inspiration for the rest of the brand’s visual language.
Visual language.
Industrial Physics needed a strong visual hook that linked all of their communication materials. Something striking, easily recognisable; definitively ‘IP’. And that hook is their magic 30° angle.
Brand imagery.
Our client had to talk to different audiences in many markets and countries. That meant a big image bank and potentially an equally sizeable budget. But, we suggested using subtle overlays of brand colours to make stock imagery their own, without the expense of multiple international photo shoots.
Bespoke iconography.
Colour, weight, shape and that 30° angle again. Industrial Physics’ icons have all been given the rebrand makeover they deserved.
Brand guidelines.
Industrial Physics is a big operation. And like any branding job, consistency is key. Technical product manuals, promotional brochures, event collateral, digital campaigns… all of it has to be on point. We’ve given their in-house teams, detailed guidelines that cover all of it, right down to the last full stop.
Brand Brief
So, you’re ready to build your brand?
Successful businesses need strong brands. This is the case from the smallest company to the largest multi-national. Year after year, Pepsi wins on blind taste-testing but Coca Cola is the world’s favourite cola. Why? The answer is simple. They have the strongest brand.
Making a strong brand takes work but the initial steps are just as important at every level of business. And you don’t need Coke’s marketing budget to do it.
Writing a brief
To make your brand project easier, we’ve created a helpful checklist that will help you define what you want and what you need. Hopefully developing a better understanding of what you want to get out of the project.
Our Approach
Our approach.
What we do.
If it needs bright ideas and razor-sharp design skills, we’re into it. But these are the three main areas we work in:
• Strategy & Marketing
• Brand Development
• Design & Content
How we do it.
At Sevenfive, we keep things simple. Minimum fuss. Zero waffle. We use a neat little framework that keeps everything on track – our 5 steps to success.
We’re creative, so we love a bit of ‘anything’s possible’. But we’re also strategic, so we need order. This ensures every decision is the right one.
Insight.
Big ideas come easier with an open mind. That’s why we look at your business from every angle – yours, ours and the world you fit into. Getting a proper fix on where you are and where you need to go next.
• Research
• Stakeholder fact-finding
• Positioning
Direction.
So, we’ve agreed where you need to go. Now we need to work out how to get you there. A proper, solid strategy to grow your brand out of. Direction, purpose, what you stand for, what makes your heart skip a beat…
• Brand Purpose & Vision
• Strategic Foundation
• Name development
• Communication Strategy
Create.
Here we go. This is where everything comes together and starts to take shape. This is where we play with ideas, colours, patterns, images, words, sounds… all the good stuff that’s going to make your brand your brand.
• Brand identity development
• Product & Service Tagline
• Brand Language
• Brand guidelines
Build.
You’ve now got a brand identity that ticks all the boxes. Next step, we create everything you need to get it out into the world. Online, offline, wherever you and your audiences hang out – you name it, we can build it.
• Packaging
• Print materials
• Brochure design
• Asset & Imagery Development
• Content
• Website & App design
• Art direction
Deliver.
Marketing strategy. Planning. Making sure everything we produce earns its keep. Testing, measuring, squeezing every drop of goodness out of your brand assets. Building on what we’ve already got and plotting the future.
• Marketing Strategy
• Marketing planning
• Copywriting
• Social content
• Campaign Development
About Us
About us.
Sevenfive was set up in 2007 to design great things for great brands. Work that’s easy on the eye and good for business. Multi-national, SME or startup; whoever you are, we promise to pour strategic and creative magic into everything we do for you.
Our team.
Keith McQuade
Managing Director
Keith is our Managing Director and head of strategy. Equal parts designer and tactician, he’s all about finding a brand’s purpose, then joining the dots between strategy and creative. Keith has worked with the likes of Whyte & Mackay, Scottish Enterprise, NHS Scotland, Highland Spring & RBS.
Craig Bickett
Creative Director
Craig is our Creative Director and brand-building powerhouse. He works closely with clients to help identify their goals and devise work that helps reach them. And nothing leaves the studio without his say so. Craig’s brand experience includes Reebok, the University of Edinburgh, Sony PlayStation and Shelter Scotland.
Questions and answers.
There will be lots of questions.
Who are you? Where do you fit in? What do you need? And how can we best help? It takes time to work it all out and the guts to break a few rules along the way. But if you’re up for it, we really should talk.
First, you might have a few questions of your own, like…
What does Sevenfive do exactly?
We break our work into three main areas: Strategy & marketing, Brand development, and Design & content. Basically, everything you need to define where your brand fits in, what you need to say and how to say it. From plotting your course, through to brand identity, design and production – on and offline.
We already have a brand, so why do we need you?
Wherever you appear, is it unmistakably you? Do you stand out amongst your competitors for all the right reasons? Is there a golden thread running through everything, from the colour of the chairs in reception, to the message on your answer machine? Do you have all the tools you need, to go to the next level? If the answer to any of these questions is ‘err, no, maybe’, you definitely need us.
Is now the time for change?
The first step is admitting that, like it or not, change happens. Recognising when competitors are muscling in with new ideas. Or that the energy has dropped in your business. Or you’ve lost sight of your goals. Yes, change can be painful, but it’s a necessity, and when you embrace it, it’s liberating. So, is it time for change? We bet you already know the answer.
Why should we work with Sevenfive?
Two words: ‘Strategy’ and ‘Creativity’. And fifty four more words: We’ll get to the heart of what your business is all about, to build a rock-solid strategy that everything else hangs on. Brand and marketing materials with meaning and purpose. Design with an edge – that not only looks good, but also works hard for your business. Seems like a good enough reason to us.
What's the first step?
It all starts with a good old-fashioned chat. Just call or drop us a line and tell us what you’re looking for, and we can get the ball rolling. Meanwhile, if you want to read more about how we do what we do, have a look at our design process.
Who we work with.
We’ve been doing our thing for decades. Working across a huge range of sectors, for all sorts of brands. Education, food and drink, healthcare, hospitality, leisure, manufacturing, public sector, sport, recruitment, telecoms… Any opportunity to build a great brand with decent people, who get the power of design – we’re in.
Alba Ultrasound
AML Associates
Bounce Back
Carron Bathrooms
Children’s Hearings Scotland
CSConnected
East Ayrshire Leisure Trust
Education Scotland
EIE
Fishbox
Gamba
Glasgow Caledonian University
Glasgow City Marketing Bureau
Golden Charter
Howden
Hunter Laing
ID Inquiries
Industrial Physics
Jet2 Holidays
Mira Showers
NHS Scotland
Sandyford
Scottish FA
Scottish Enterprise
Scottish Rugby
Spelfie
Stewart Milne
S-Three
SX
Talk Talk
The University of Edinburgh
Treat Cheats
Waverley Care
Wellhouse Housing
Home
Hello. We're Sevenfive.
Design. Brand-building. Big ideas. We love all of it. And we love working with people who love it too. If that sounds like you, we’re going to get along famously.
Case Studies.
Case Study:
Bounce Back.
Tone of voice, messaging and campaign creative materials for a ‘post-social recovery drink’. Creating a brand personality that delivered, where previous marketing had failed.
Case Study:
Treat Cheats.
Why shouldn’t healthy eating be fun? Good question, and one we answer here with a new brand for an amazing new product.
Case Study:
Sandyford.
Bringing an old brand up to date, to speak the sexual language of today – without compromising the messages it needed to drive home.
Case Study:
Industrial Physics.
Full rebrand and design development across all design and marketing collateral. Bringing a global portfolio of companies together under a single brand banner.
