Watson Furniture Group is turning 51 years old this year, and for the past few years the business has grown both organically and through acquisitions. As the company became home to a third line of products last year, it became clear it was time to rebrand.
“We were treating our three divisions as boutique brands with little in common with each other. The rebranding will help with continuity,” said Creative Services Manager Michael Shipley, who has been leading an in-house rebranding team for the past year.
The company is getting ready to roll out its new brand any moment, and, among other things, will have a new name: Watson.
“We used to be a house of brands… and we’ve turned into a branded house,” Shipley said. “…We also want to make a push to build local and regional awareness, especially in Washington and Oregon.”
Continuity, growth and brand awareness are common reasons for undertaking a rebranding project. Some local examples in recent years include Harrison Medical Center and Kitsap Bank, or, at a nationwide level, Starbucks Coffee and the YMCA.
Sometimes the reasons are more external — such as a changing economy or marketplace. Beth Bacon, who owns Zoyo Branding on Bainbridge Island, said rebranding is a good way to reevaluate a business, and even if a new look may not be needed, going through a “rebranding exercise” will help bring clarity. It’s like a business planning exercise, except it looks not only at what the company wants to do but also what the competition and the market are doing and what customers feel and want.
“If you’re a business and you feel you have too many balls in the air, too many plates spinning, too many things going on, it’s good to do a branding exercise to narrow things down,” Bacon said.
Small businesses often make the mistake of thinking that rebranding means simply a new logo and graphics. But a complete rebranding is possible without making any changes to those components. “A brand helps influence a logo but (the logo) is a minor part of the brand,” Bacon said. “A brand really isn’t about graphics — it’s being able to articulate what you do quickly so people get it right away. You have to identify that before the graphics can communicate that message.”
That information will also help the graphic designers to work on the visuals. Shiloh Schroeder, owner of graphic design firm Fusion Creative Works, said even if all a business really wants is a new logo and collateral materials, she still needs to know answers to questions such as who is the target market.
“There are misconceptions about what a logo actually is. A logo should be simple,” she said. “Generally speaking, it goes in hand with other information (such as a tagline) so it needs to be appealing and not have too much crammed into it.”
Companies differ in how they approach the research stage — some go to their customers or vendors, others get employee feedback. For the Watson team, the process entailed interviewing dealers and reps regarding their perceptions about the company.
“We established a three-word brand compass that guided the process: Simplicity. Dignity. Curiosity,” Shipley said. “The brand compass was so important — being able to define who you are, who you believe you are, and use it as a benchmark to base your decisions on… The brand compass will live on as part of the message.”
Even the shortening of the name to one word came through the brand compass — part of “simplicity.” At the same time, the team had to be in tune with the market and the competition. “We didn’t want to look exactly like our competitors but still needed to remain in the market and look like a furniture company,” he said.
The rebranding included new logo and color palette, refreshed tone for written communications and an updated boilerplate, among other things. The rollout will be done in stages and ultimately include a website redesign.
The brand compass and the rebranding exercise will also impact visuals such as the color scheme, typefaces and tone of the written materials. Bacon’s latest rebranding project, for Bainbridge Island’s Emerald BioStructures, didn’t get into the color palette discussion until after the analysis into what the company does well.
“One of the things it does well is that it has real scientists working on the same things as the customers. The message was, ‘We’re working with you on the same road to discovery and we understand the road to discovery.’ From that, we came up with the color scheme,” said Bacon, who was brought on board as a full-time marketing consultant by the biotech company last spring specifically to develop a branding and marketing strategy.
The rebranding included new graphics, brochures, marketing materials and website (unveiled recently). Part of the reason for the rebranding was the company’s recent change of ownership: Emerald BioStructures had just divested itself of its parent company. The branding research not only showed what the company did well, it also compelled it to focus more on the separate arm of the business, sister company Emerald BioSystems, which sells technology and crystallization chemicals created by Emerald to other scientists.
“Learning that helped the company start emphasizing their custom products. It was very helpful for the business side of things to see the potential growth,” Bacon said.
Bacon believes that businesses of any size, no matter how small, can benefit from branding research — even if as simple as asking customers about their perception of the brand.
“Small businesses definitely need a brand as much as anyone because it gives a simple, clear message,” she said. “…Asking customers is a huge way of knowing your brand: They’re forming a brand in their mind whether you give them a brand or not.”
