For any organisation, it is a good idea from time to time to have a look at your branding and image and to make some changes. However, this can be a big project with a lot of things to consider, so we thought that we would share with you the re-branding process that we went through in 2014.
We felt that 2014 was the right time for us at Comms Multilingual to have a look at our image and to make some changes to better reflect the company and what we offer.
The strapline was the first place to start. Our old strapline “Local Language – World Class” had served us well over the years, but we wanted to find a new one which would describe what we mean for our clients and partners.
We had a lot of internal discussions and asked the staff to say what they thought Comms meant to our clients. Why do people buy from us? What do they like about us?
We also looked at e-mails from clients and the wording used in testimonials from them and we came up with the following:
So how do we do this?
- We save our clients time by ensuring that we use real experts in our translations, so that any review time is cut to a minimum. Our technical capabilities also ensure that you are provided with the translated materials completely ready to use.
- We save effort through our expertise in project management: we take the strain away from you as you know you can trust us to do an excellent job.
- We save reputation, as you know that you can trust our translations to do exactly what you expect of them and you can therefore confidently offer your materials translated into other languages.
Once we had decided on the strapline, then the work began on designing the site. Everybody had different views, but we decided that we wanted the site to have a modern look and feel and we eventually settled on our current look, which we hope you like.
One of our primary aims was to ensure that the site was easy to navigate around, so that people could find exactly what they were looking for very easily. From talking to clients, we know that what people value a lot are case studies, so we added in a lot of those, and are working to optimise their navigation.
We have also been beefing up our presence on the social media sites, hence the blog, plus our presence on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. We hope that many of you will follow us on those sites.
We called in an expert to help us to understand what was required for social media. Our aim is to provide blog posts and articles which will be informative and helpful as you explore the world of globalisation and translation.
The website was our main focus, but it is also important to re-brand, re-design and update other areas. To that end, we have produced new business cards, new stationery, new giveaways for exhibitions and new brochures.
What have we learnt from this?
- Never underestimate the amount of time required: think of a time scale and treble it at least!
- Put together a comprehensive brief so that you are clear on what you are looking for.
- If you are using outside organisations for this purpose, get 3 of them to pitch their ideas to you so that you can choose the agency that can really relate to your organisation and its goals.
- Take time to really think about what your organisation means to your clients: this will help you to come up with an appropriate strapline.
- Don’t forget to budget for all the other marketing materials that will need to be changed.
We hope that you enjoy our new web site and we would be very grateful for any comments you may have.
