When our clients make the decision to embark on a much-needed update to their brand (whether it is refreshing their website, logo, or some other marketing material) they are initially PSYCHED- they are always up for meetings, constantly emailing us over ideas, and breathlessly awaiting the first samples of their re-imagined product. That high energy is usually present for the first few weeks of conceptualization, but alas, sometimes life gets in the way. As the project continues to progress, clients get busy and caught up in the day-to-day responsibilities of their jobs, and working on their own identity gets pushed off to the back burner, which can put us in a tough spot.
As a marketing firm that has to make a concerted effort to pay attention to our own brand in the wake of taking care of those of our clients, we fully understand the real difficulty of making the time to give your own business some TLC. That is why such a large part of our job entails being vigilant in following up with our clients, reminding them about deadlines, and creating a clear, consistent line of communication in order to keep the project at hand top of mind and moving forward. However, this part of our jobs can also become the most challenging when a well-meaning client continues to put the project off for another day.
The major problem with pushing branding efforts back is the fact that continual delays often negatively affect the final product. It’s a chain reaction- the longer you put off making decisions regarding your rebranding, the farther removed you are from your initial vision. That disengagement clouds and confuses the client’s focus, causing them to be all over the place in their change requests, which eats into the budget and takes the design into uncharted territory that looks less and less like what was initially discussed. At this point, we must regroup with the client and work to lead them back to the beginning, which can cost a lot of unnecessary time and money.
Obviously, what is being described is the worst-case scenario in a rebranding, and is not the norm. It is, however, the most challenging problem we face in our business, because it is something that can easily happen when a client gets extremely busy, and it can dig a hole that becomes more and more difficult to get out of. Keep this in mind when you make the decision to update your brand, and always prioritize yourself; your brand is your identity, and that is too important to compromise!
