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Because You Know You Better Than We Know You!

So, you’ve decided to rebrand with KickCharge Creative! Congratulations on that first important step—we can’t wait to get started on crafting your new brand. The brand that will probably change your life. The brand that will help you climb higher than you ever thought possible. You know, the perfect name that ties together perfectly with the perfect logo and the perfect tagline. Wow, that’s a lot of perfection you’re expecting! Lucky for you, this is where we at KickCharge excel. But, first, we need your help!

Homework That Helps Us Work 

You probably haven’t thought about the dreaded “h” word since you were a student. And that’s OK! The initial step in your rebranding journey is to fill out a creative brief. We ask that you set aside enough time to really dig deep when you are answering the brief’s questions. Your answers are how we get to know you and your current brand. What makes you tick. What brought you to us. What you’re struggling with. What you want your new name and logo to convey. You get the idea! We understand that there are a lot of questions and a lot to think about when answering them. BUT your creative brief is our roadmap to helping your vision come to life, so please be as thorough as possible in your answers.

When we receive briefs in which questions are unanswered or that are hastily filled out, we are already at a disadvantage. We use these briefs to prepare for your kickoff call, and they give us an idea of what we need to clarify before we get to work on brainstorming/designing. So, if the brief is lacking in answers, we will need to follow up with you on the kickoff call. Problems arise when clients have no more answers on the call than they did in the brief. We understand just how difficult it can be to answer intensive questions about you and your current brand on the spot, which is why we ask that you really take the time to provide complete answers in the creative brief. If your brief is lacking and you do nothing to clarify your hopes and dreams for your new brand on the call, we enter into your project attempting to read your mind, and that rarely works out for either party.

Your Call Is Important to Us. Please Stay on the Line!

When heading into a call with our team, it is imperative that you have achieved some level of preparation. This is true of naming kickoff calls, logo kickoff calls or any type of call to discuss the content for your print collateral. We will often send questionnaires before the call for you to answer, or at least give some thought to before we are on the call together. The more you have thought about our questions beforehand and the better prepared you are upfront, the more likely we are to hit your project out of the park on the first try.

Here are some frequently heard phrases that can throw a wrench into your project and limit our ability to best serve you:

  1. “I don’t know; you’re the experts.” While we are in fact branding experts, we are not experts in the unique specificities of your particular market. You know your competitors and customers far better than we ever could, so when we ask questions about your current landscape or what you see for your brand, please do the best you can to accurately and thoroughly tell us what we need to know.
  2. “I’ll know it when I see it.” Cool! But we won’t, especially if you haven’t filled out your brief completely or if you have little to say during our call. This phrase gives us very little to go on and does not set you or us up for success. In addition, this approach can lead you down the misguided path of thinking there is only one concept that is right for you—your branding soulmate, if you will. This is an unwise expectation that is sure to result in a challenging decision-making process once concepts have been presented.
  3. “Give me whatever will sell the best.” We hate to beat a dead horse, and KickCharge in no way condones the beating of dead horses, but this is where your creative brief comes in again. You understand the mindset of your current, and potential, customers. You also know the demographic you’re trying to target, which is why we ask questions such as if men or women are more likely to contact you and what their age, income, average home price, etc., may be. You are also acutely aware of your competitors—what they do right and the missteps they make that you’d like to avoid. For example, if none of your competitors has any real branding to speak of, that’s a great opportunity to introduce a mascot-based brand. Or if your area is a sea of white vans suffering from acute cases of WVS (White Van Syndrome), then a disruptive and bold color scheme is a surefire way to set yourself apart. So, really, you have all the answers to unlock “whatever will sell best,” based on your own insights into your customers and your competition. Market research firms will charge you an arm and a leg for information you already possess, which is why KickCharge does not believe it is the best use of your marketing budget. It all comes down to you providing a clear picture of your market so that we can determine the most effective branding approach. Once we have a clear picture of the “who,” there’s no doubt we’ll be able to create a killer brand that will indeed sell!
  4. “I don’t know, just make it stand out/make it cool/make it pop.” Umm, have you met us? That’s our forte and our branding bread and butter. However, these terms are subjective and offer no real direction for our team. What’s “cool” to you may be completely different from our version of cool, and the same is true for the rest of these directives. Please provide concrete information and feedback, whether you’re discussing your new name, logo or collateral.

Decisions, Decisions

Another pain point we find with clients is the deliberation period, after presentations have taken place and when it’s time to zero in on choosing the brand to move forward with. We understand what an important decision you are making, but please try not to derail the process with variations on the following:

  1. “Nothing really jumped out at me.” The “aha” moment that every client thinks they are going to experience rarely happens. It’s a big decision, and you need time to think and live with the concepts for a while. After your presentation, we encourage you to review the document that includes our pitches as to why we are confident what we presented will work for you. Oftentimes, clients are so focused on the name or the look that they fail to revisit how we see everything coming together. If you don’t delve further into our why, you may be missing out on the full potential of the concepts presented.
  2. “I showed these to my cousin’s sister-in-law’s brother who has a degree in marketing, and he didn’t like any of them.” Where do we even start with this one? We make it very clear from the get-go that all decision makers need to be made part of the process from the beginning. Soliciting third-party opinions at the 11th hour is the surest way to stall your project. Those outside the inner circle are not going to understand the vision we have or why we presented what we did, because they haven’t been in on all of the discussions. In addition, they may not be familiar with what KickCharge’s approach to branding is all about. Naming/design by committee is always going to be problematic and will more than likely result in a watered-down, nondisruptive brand, and since you came to us, we’re guessing that’s what you already have. Hold strong and try to refrain from engaging others’ opinions.
  3. “I don’t know. These are all so ‘out there.’” This happens time and time again. Everything you have told us about what you were hoping for has led us to this point. “Out there” was kind of the whole point. Please remember, disruptive branding should make you feel uneasy. It’s supposed to take you out of your comfort zone. “Comfortable,” we’re guessing, is what your current brand already is and what you were hoping to get away from. Trust the process, and you’ll be sitting pretty on a brand that is going to blow your competition out of the water.

We’ve Always Got Your Back!

As leaders in branding—who have rebranded more home service businesses than anyone else in the world—we are uniquely positioned to present you with a new brand that is sure to make a splash in your market. You have no idea how thrilled our team is to see clients succeeding and thriving and doing the amazing things they were always capable of. They just needed the right brand to take them where they wanted to go. To that end, all we ask is that you give us enough information from the outset of your rebranding journey and that you trust the process, all so we can provide you with the brand that’s ideal for you, your current customers and your future customers.

If you’re ready to discuss what KickCharge can do for you, contact us online or call us at 908.835.9000 to connect with our team today!

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