The world today is highly competitive in terms of not only business performance anymore, but also on the basis of the effectiveness and impact of a brand on its entire target audience. One thing that sticks with the customers is the manner in which a brand or company resonates with their own personality or values. Additionally, the primary role of any brand is to highlight its key know-how traits through marketing tools. So where does a creative branding agency fit in with these goals?
Role Of A Creative Branding Agency
The foundation of building a brand does not happen overnight, you require strong relationships with your customers which are portrayed through effective marketing. At present, the complexities of business operations are touching new heights because of digitisation and the requirement of quick adoption by internal company employees. For the same reason, it has become a necessity for companies to look out for additional support to curate strong branding strategies. Two key ways in which a creative design agency helps your business are mentioned below:
Market Analysis And Recommendations
Market research is one of the most effective tools to analyse your brand position in the market or industry while understanding the different approaches of the competitors to target the same group of audience. Minsk, the homegrown jewellery brand which specializes in Emirati cultural jewellery designs, was falling short on connecting with its potential customers.
However, after consulting with a creative agency, they opted for a complete rebranding of the company by introducing small variations in the logo design, upgrading the packaging design for the products. Moreover, they also created an active communication portal for clients to send their feedback through.
Strategy Building Services
One of the key responsibilities of a branding agency is to analyse the current brand and weaknesses thoroughly to strategize and build a plan of action to effectively resolve the concerns from the base root itself. The popular fruit juice company Barakat, at one point, realised it needed to explore a larger target audience while maintaining its brand image with its current client base. This is where a creative branding agency helped Barakat redefine its brand image to target other parts of the UAE and help benefit from market dominance in the future.
“You need to make sure you are always ahead of the game. You work harder, you give your opinion, you prove your point and you continue to perform.”- Maha Al-Ghunaim
How To Choose the Right One?
Step 1:
Study your company’s performance and set out your branding goals and objectives that need urgent attention. This service study is essential as it helps you convey your work expectations from the shortlisted agencies.
Step 2:
Begin researching and using your networks to narrow down a list of creative branding agencies to suit your requirements. Many times, the recommendations received through connections are more beneficial as they know how your business operates and thus suggest the most appropriate ones only. This reduces the selection process time.
Step 3:
Once a list is finalized, do a background check on all agencies by analysing their work portfolio and agency background, both financial and otherwise. Given the size of your company and the size of the branding agency, it is important for you to see whether they can meet your brand requirements with their available resources.
Step 4:
Invest some extra time to understand the operational values of the agencies in question and develop stronger relationships, on the grounds of your goals and their services. Operation values in terms of the processes they implement to achieve your goals. Not all branding agencies follow a set process, however, choosing the one with a systematic approach to working can save a lot of time and money for both.
Additional Pointers To Consider:
For any active business, settling in for just any design agency is not the right decision for the mere reason that it is a big investment first and second the image of your brand is under their control. So, in order to choose the right creative branding agency in the first go, consider these additional key pointers that can help you finalise the best option.
- Ask yourself whether the creative planning agency in question can relate to your business and understand your goals and targets.
- Do not depend on their past work portfolio alone, instead spend time analysing their creative pitch to judge their creative potential.
- As a creative test, propose different case scenarios for them to understand and then suggest effective idea building and strategy solutions to target your specific brand requirements while maintaining your competitive edge.
- As a company, when you select a creative agency, you basically outsource your marketing job responsibilities to them to a certain extent. Now, a lot of creative branding agencies today depend on freelance workers to complete certain tasks at hand. So, it is thus important for you to ask questions relating to which tasks can be completed internally and if they meet your requirements or not. This is important to avoid involving additional stakeholders like freelancers hired by them, into your business strategy.
- One key pointer to consider while finalising the creative agency for your company is to see the location of operations. This is essential as you would require frequent interactions with them, and cannot be dependent on virtual meetings only.
To conclude, the ever-changing market dynamics do require companies to value creativity and innovation more than profitability and increased return on investment. Therefore, it is the right time to invest in a creative branding agency to explore a larger growth and expansion potential in the future. Vowels are one such branding firm that offers exceptional branding solutions to all your marketing requirements. They serve with one goal i.e. to work together and curate a whole new brand persona for your business, that breaks barriers and opens up a whole new direction of opportunities for your brand.
