Behind the Curtain: An In-Depth Look at Hatcher’s Branding Process
A brand represents the collection of thoughts and feelings your audience has about their experiences with your organization or service. For a brand to be successful, it needs to be clear and consistent in strategy, messaging, visual design, and engagement.
When you hear about a company or organization’s rebrand, often the first thing that comes to mind is the logo. However, a logo is more than simply a visual way of differentiating your brand. It’s a mark that embodies your organization’s reputation and represents your brand to the world.
There are many reasons why a company or organization might decide to rebrand. And since your brand holds so much significance, it’s not something to rush into lightly. Before moving into a rebrand process, it’s important to ask what the motivations are behind the request. Has your organization changed leadership or expanded its strategy or mission? Has it moved into a new market or audience? Or is your strategy solid but misaligned with a dated visual identity? In essence, a rebrand should tell the story of who you have become, and so it began with our own organization. As with all of our clients, Hatcher’s rebrand followed a process built on decades of expertise creating brand identities for purpose-driven organizations.
Phase 1: Develop the Brand Strategy
We began with a brand audit, involving not only Hatcher’s team but also clients and other stakeholders. Through interviews and surveys, we discovered the direction that aligned internal beliefs and aspirations with external perceptions about our value proposition. A thoughtful process of high-level strategy, research, company-wide involvement, and detailed planning guided us in developing our mission, vision, and values, as well as overall brand goals and messaging.
Phase 2: Develop the Brand System
The brand strategy provided a clear direction to create our new visual identity, and conveying our purpose and commitment to our clients was a priority. Our team developed a new logo, brand architecture, updated color palette, graphic standards, and user experience recommendations. Some elements of our current visual identity were preserved in unique ways to maintain the continuity of the brand over time. For example, our new logo is based on the Hatcher “H,” which is an evolution from the previous branding. It’s an abstract representation of the movement we’d experienced, and an innovative map. It shows Hatcher is strategic, bold, determined, and able to guide our clients to success.
Phase 3: Create Brand Assets
Thoughtful rounds of logo evaluation, testing, and refinement produced Hatcher’s new visual identity. Next was the creation of brand assets to build out Hatcher’s integrated system. We began by developing a comprehensive list of assets to which the new identity would be applied. This is time consuming, but crucial to consistently present the organization across all messaging, advertising, marketing, website, and social channels.
Phase 4: Launch, Evaluate, and Optimize
The final phase of the rebrand process is a critical step that is often overlooked and underestimated. The Hatcher team built out a realistic schedule for launching the new brand that left enough time for all phases to be executed effectively. As Hatcher’s brand ambassadors, staff were involved throughout the entire process. Our team launched the new brand internally and kept external stakeholders informed of the upcoming rebrand with a “teaser” in our newsletter. As we launched the new brand to the public, all social media, PR, and marketing plans supported our strategy. And we can’t forget evaluation! The Hatcher team is set to monitor and evaluate all aspects of the rebrand, continuing to adjust and strengthen our message and our impact on the world.
Is your organization ready for a brand evaluation, or are you in need of a new brand for a campaign or initiative? Let us help you make it a reality.
By Reece Quiñones, Senior Vice President and Creative Director and Debbie Rappaport, Graphic Designer