Rebranding a business for competitive advantage

More businesses are rethinking their image as they realise how important a good brand is, especially to global growth, a leading branding company says.

Dow Design has worked with a number of companies on branding, including Mac's, Speight's, Deutz and Fresh'n Fruity.

Group account director Simon Wedde​ has noticed more businesses rethinking their brands, particularly smaller enterprises.

"These businesses have to compete on a global scale and they need to be awesome," he says.

"They're investing ahead of the curve for a strong brand so they can compete successfully."

Branding was one of the first things that Marcel's Pancakes marketing export manager Rafael Porto Carrero​ oversaw when he started working in his mother's company this year.

His mother Inge Vercammen​ and her partner Marcel Naenen​ set up Van Dyck Fine Foods, manufacturing a range of pancakes and crepes, branded as Marcel's Pancakes.

But the Taranaki company was suffering from too many different brands and looks once the product range expanded from crepes to American-style hotcakes, blinis and pancake sandwiches.

"Several products launched with a different look or with the product name becoming a sub-brand. We needed one look, one brand," Porto Carrero says.

They repositioned the brand to reflect the company's approach of being the "modern pancake kitchen": the pancakes cater for a modern lifestyle that is both time-poor but craving for the finer things in life.

The aim is to expand overseas and negotiations are currently ongoing to get the product into China.

Earlier this year Wellington based BW Chartered Accountants and Miller Dean Chartered Accountants merged and a top priority for the merged company was to decide on a new brand.

Principal Lance Burgess says the merger was a chance to combine strengths and resources to tackle the ever-changing and highly competitive environment.

Clayton Webb, left, and Lance Burgess came into one team after their accounting companies merged into BW Miller Dean.

They enlisted the help of a branding company and came up with a brand that reflected the history and joining of both the companies and also their adaptability.

Director Clayton Webb says the brand had to permeate everything they did and it had to work across all channels, whether that was in marketing material or on the doors in the office.

"The branding reflects who we are and how we operate. We have a diverse range of clients that our branding needs to connect with," he says.

Dow Design's Wedde says the absolute key to getting branding right is to be authentic and to not follow trends; look for original and honest ways of expressing what the business is really about.

To figure that out, business owners need to ask themselves: why should the brand matter? Why does the business matter to consumers? What is the original motivation behind the business?

If businesses use a design firm for rebranding, they should question the designers about their ideas and where they come from.

"Sweat the small stuff and really interrogate everything. Really strong brands are in the details," Wedde says.

This article by Tao Lin has been featured on stuff.co.nz