After the Logo: How to rebrand multiple sites when your business refreshes its identity

Posted in: Property Services Shop fitting

No business nowadays would underestimate the power of a strong brand identity. All of the companies that we offer our property consulting services to have achieved their current status by establishing and building a solid reputation for their own brand.

In light of an improved understanding of marketing principles and the design of brand identities, businesses in all sectors will regularly assess and evaluate their brand. As a result, most logos and brand identities will evolve and change as the business does the same.

Since we’d already looked at a hassle-free approach to shop-fitting, and given our own experience of working with well-known retail brands like Bonmarché, we thought we’d share some insight into the logistics of rebranding multiple sites.

What is the rebranding process?

At TPG we recognise that a logo isn’t just the icon that appears on your windows, stationery and website, it’s an all-encompassing statement of who you are and what you do. It’s the culmination of years of service.

Because of this, it’s important that the team responsible for delivery of the rebranding project are involved from day one with the creative team that are producing logo designs. This will ensure the transition from design to construction has already outlined the roll-out program, budget and buildability.

Strong brand awareness is vital if your business is to succeed and will assist growth in the extremely competitive retail market.

Whatever the reason for a rebrand, it gives businesses an opportunity to reassess and understand their target market, the values and culture of the business and how they want to be positioned in their marketplace.

Armed with all of this information, the team that’s tasked with creating a new brand identity will use it to create a visual identity for the business.

After the branding agency has done their bit

While this stage is very exciting, once a new logo and brand identity have been chosen, you’ll need to think about the logistics of what this means to the business as a whole.

As well as shopping bags, uniforms and stationery, the biggest impact is likely to be on the signage in your stores or branches, especially if there are multiple sites across the country.

Now that the branding agency’s work is done, you’ll need to find a shop-fitting rebrand specialist to implement the changes on-site. We strongly suggest that you allocate a “Rebrand Champion” in the business to oversee the whole project.

What needs to happen to deliver the rebranding onsite?

An experienced shopfitting company will be able to take a client’s initial brief regarding the rebrand and offer advice on the messages that need to be displayed in-store.

Working with the Rebrand Champion, they can then develop the brief, provide architectural and design services and complete any final value engineering to produce:

• Concept images and sketches showing logos, colours and fonts
• Detailed planning-standard drawings (including applications) indicating construction details
• 3D visuals including virtual walkthrough tours
• A scale prototype and implementation at a test site for the directors to inspect before final roll-out.

Once a business has agreed to the designs, it’s time to make them a reality.

Rolling out the rebranding to multiple sites

Businesses with several hundred properties across their portfolio will need to create a roll-out programme to ensure its effectiveness.

This should include:

• Desktop study and or site survey depending on level of information available
• Scope/schedule of work, budget costings and production of concept drawings
• Feedback/design meeting with Rebrand Champion
• Detailed design production and sign off
• Planning permission and advertisement consent applications where required

Don’t forget, some buildings also require listed building consent or may be in a conservation area so the branding may be compromised in these locations.

With projects covering hundreds of stores, it’s unfeasible to tender each as an individual project.

Therefore, at this stage, it’s advisable to select between 3 and 5 specialist suppliers/sub-contractors and tender multiple ‘live’ projects that capture all of the works and site locations required to complete the rebrand.

These should be ‘live’ projects as each contractor will need to include site-specific conditions and logistics within their costs. A desktop estimate will not be a true reflection of actual cost as no unit is ever ‘the ideal world’.

How can you make your rebranding project stress-free?

For a smooth-running project that covers all eventualities, here’s what we would recommend:

Use all of the tender returns to ‘standardise’ unit rates

Agree on these with your preferred suppliers. This will enable you to engage your supply chain in a timely, cost-effective manner. Further through the programme, it will also take workload and performance into account.

The business’ finance team and Rebrand Champion should use this information to forecast budget requirements.

Select the supply chain

Your principal contractor may already be the same company that you engaged on day one as your shop fitting rebrand specialist. If not, you will select one from the tenders already completed but there are a number of suppliers and sub-contractors to select in the supply chain to ensure you achieve maximum cost and programme efficiencies.

Capex for individual stores should be raised and signed off. As standard rates apply, it’s possible to select one contractor to cost x number of units and one Capex could be raised that covers all stores. However, this would depend on financial and cost centre constraints.

Work starts

You can now engage the contractor and project manage the works on site.

It’s important that the Rebrand Champion, and anyone else with an interest (such as shareholders), hold progress meetings at relevant and agreed stages throughout the project.

Completion

Practical completion and handover to Visual Merchandising mark the end of the process before the marketing campaign begins and the relaunch of the store can be announced with the new branding.

We’ll be the first to admit that no two retail or multi-site rebrand projects are likely to be the same. But hopefully, this has given some insight into the processes that a shop-fitting company will take to ensure that a rebrand is as hassle-free as possible.

If you have any questions about how you could rebrand your portfolio of properties, feel free to get in touch with our expert team.