Your client wants to break branding rules. How can you ensure their identity stays intact?

Communication is the bridge between a brand and its audience. When breaking traditional branding rules, clear and consistent communication is crucial to avoid confusion. It’s important to articulate why the brand is evolving and how these changes benefit the consumer. This ensures that the audience understands the brand’s new direction while still feeling connected to its core identity. For example, a rebranding campaign should include messaging that explains the changes and reassures customers that the brand’s core values remain unchanged.

Maintaining brand identity is crucial, even when clients want to break the rules. I approach this by understanding their reasons and finding a creative solution that aligns with their vision without compromising the essence of their brand. It's about finding that sweet spot where innovation meets tradition, ensuring the brand remains recognizable and impactful while allowing room for growth and change. By carefully balancing these elements, we keep the brand’s core intact while offering a fresh perspective.

To maintain your client's brand identity while accommodating their desire to break branding rules, focus on the core elements that define their brand. Preserve key visual components like logos, color schemes, and typography that ensure brand recognition. Introduce flexibility by allowing variations in tone, messaging, or creative expressions, but keep these within a defined framework that aligns with their brand values. Ensure any deviations are strategically aligned with their long-term goals and consistently reviewed to maintain brand integrity, avoiding dilution or confusion among the target audience.

Understand that evolving branding strategies can be beneficial. Work with the client to align changes with their overall brand vision, ensuring any new direction still reflects their core identity.

Reinforce the client’s foundational values in every aspect of the brand, even if they wish to innovate. Make sure that the new approach doesn’t stray from the principles that make their brand unique and recognizable.

While experimenting with new styles, maintain key visual elements like logos, colors, and typography. Consistency in these areas helps ensure that even a fresh approach feels like an extension of the existing brand, not a departure from it.

Support the client in experimenting with new ideas while ensuring that these innovations align with the brand’s core mission and message. Creativity should enhance the brand, not dilute it.

Keep the communication strategy in check by ensuring that the brand’s voice and tone are consistent, even when the message or medium changes. This helps the audience connect the new approach back to the established identity.

Engage in regular feedback sessions with the client and key stakeholders. Assess how well the new branding approach resonates with the target audience and make adjustments as necessary to keep the brand identity strong. By managing change with a strategic focus on core elements and consistent communication, you can help your client innovate while protecting their brand integrity.