WorkSpace Interiors Branding Refresh
The expansion and growth experienced by this company with headquarters in Kingsport, TN brought to light a lack of brand awareness, cohesiveness, and understanding. Leadership at WorkSpace Interiors recognized it was time to revisit their logo and messaging and develop their own brand strategy that was complimentary to but separate from their supplier.
My brand refresh process included a brand assessment, brand strategy, and brand identity design. We were able to build on their existing foundation while clarifying their vision and condensing their messaging to better-connect with their ideal clients. (We were also able to build on their existing signage with an additive logo design instead of a visual rebrand, saving thousands of dollars.)
I’ve always had a love and respect for interior design, so I was excited to immerse myself in the industry, become a “temporary team member” of their business, and get to know their company. After spending just my first three hours with them, I felt honored to be in the same room as those people. I absolutely loved working with everyone I encountered, and they truly have a cheerleader in me (sans the pompoms).
Because of their marketing director’s - well - direction (and the whole team’s willingness to share, brainstorm, and get down to business), I was able to develop this brand with strategy. Now, they can stand out from the crowd and target the right customers. Now, they can grow with purpose, consistency, and authenticity.
Brand Assessment
We started their brand refresh process with a brand assessment.
An external brand assessment allows you to recognize your brand’s strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement. My assessment reviews core brand elements, published material on all marketing channels (digital and physical), and the customer experience. It’s especially helpful to establish a baseline and gain leadership buy-in when planning to rebrand an existing business.
For WorkSpace Interiors, I was able to provide a 20+ page PDF summary of how I:
evaluated the image of their brand
exposed perceived brand gaps
identified opportunities to strengthen their brand
Brand Strategy
After the brand assessment, we moved into strategy development. I met in-person with their leadership team in Kingsport, TN and via Zoom with lead members of their sales team to complete our brand strategy in two sessions. Together, we identified:
What makes them unique and set apart from their competition
Their company history and background
What they want to be known for
Their ideal customer details (backgrounds, passions, desires, motivations, goals, etc.)
What problems their ideal customers are facing
How they solve those problems
Topics that relate to both them and their ideal customers
An ideal customer path/funnel (leading a potential customer to be their biggest fan)
Platforms/media to use to reach their ideal customers
Opportunities to serve their ideal customers and meet their needs
They received a 33 page PDF brand strategy guide that combined their initial insights with my research and guidance for creating community with their ideal customers.
Competitor Brand Analysis
Industries are constantly changing, and each time a new company enters your space, they are doing a competitor analysis on your business. It's important to continually evaluate your competitors businesses, and in our case, narrowing down and evaluating their brand image. When you take the time to analyze your competition, you may find there are things they are doing well and things you’d do differently. Understanding where they fit and where you fit gives you space to stand out and grow without running into them.
During the brand strategy phase, I performed an analysis of their competition (other businesses in their industry and market). I provided a one-page PDF analysis for each of the three chosen competitors. I included notes and screenshots in various categories of analysis and summarized lessons to learn from each brand.
Collaborator Analysis
During our brand strategy phase, I also performed an analysis of their collaborators to identify collaboration opportunities with other businesses and community organizations. Collaboration with other businesses can provide valuable awareness for your brand, establish you as a leader in your space, and help you reach your ideal customers.
Brand Messaging
It was important that they develop messaging that spoke to both their brand vision and the desires of the target audience, so I was able to develop a full suite of messaging including a new tagline, “Success begins inside,” which they were able to trademark.
The word “inside” could be followed up in numerous ways (inside their doors, inside your heart, etc.), allowing for unlimited internal and external marketing potential.
Here is a small sample of their messaging:
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Success begins inside.™
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WorkSpace Interiors provides businesses, schools, and health care companies with commercial furnishing solutions and partnerships made to last.
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WorkSpace Interiors provides businesses, schools, and health care companies with commercial furnishing solutions and partnerships made to last. Our belief that success begins inside creates enriched spaces and personal connections.
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Knowledge: We are committed to life-long learning through education and experience.
Integrity: We tell the truth with full sincerity using respectful, candid communication.
Quality: We are a Steelcase dealer because we believe in quality furnishings and quality service.
Tenacity: We are determined to work through challenges faced in our business, community, and industry.
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We are scope-proof.
Our passion for meeting the needs of our customers is unwavering, whether the first project scope includes one chair or furnishings for an entire building. Our team members establish real relationships to provide ongoing solutions within a full range of aesthetics and budgets.We are compassionate.
Our employees donate time, talents, and resources to organizations in Bristol, Kingsport, Johnson City, Knoxville, and beyond. We collectively contribute thousands of volunteer hours each year in the communities because we care about where we work and live.We are quality-driven:
Our commitment to Steelcase shows we believe in quality furnishings, but we also believe in quality service. We maintain as much control as possible over the quality of our projects from our initial meeting to the final touches on your project with our in-house installation crew. -
Trustworthy: honest, reliable, truthful, dependable
Collaborative: open, listening, caring, considerate, inviting, cooperative
Creative: fun, innovative, dynamic, imaginative, original
Professional: reputable, ambitious, knowledgeable, confident
Logo Refresh
Brand identity design is what makes brands instantly recognizable to your customers. It’s important for logos to have a memorable visual element, and that was the only thing missing in this logo.
A classic word mark logo that was in existence at the time of this brand identity revisit had been used for approximately twenty years. The font is a true classic, so it didn’t date the logo (kudos to the original designer there!). I was able to enhance the original logo by adjusting the alignment and balance and adding an icon or “logo mark” to accompany the word mark.
Signage already existed at multiple locations, so it was important that I create an additive logo design where elements could simply be moved slightly or added onto. Simple changes can make such a big difference in modernizing a logo!
Brand Solutions
I always have a section at the end of brand strategy for brand solutions - practical ways to implement the strategy. I included a few suggestions to enhance their existing project recaps on their website to focus on client solutions and successes vs. the products used in the designs. I offered ways to update and reorganize their website, as well as some ideas for tagline buy-in. My last solution was photo/video; they have lots of opportunities for marketing assets like a more authentic overview video, success stories (video and lifestyle photos of projects and all involved), location-specific brand imagery, etc.
Results
“With our brand, there was a lack of awareness, cohesiveness and understanding both internally and externally. We needed to stand out from our competitors and create our own personality that was complementary but separate from our supplier.
The strategy session was engaging and fun for our leadership team, and I really liked how she started the meeting to get us all in the same mindset. The brand strategy was so helpful in helping us think about solving for our clients’ pain points for both our marketing and sales teams. The resulting branding [messaging and visuals] aligns well with our values and how we want our clients/customers to feel about us, and we LOVE our logo.
We really needed consistency and to level up our brand awareness, and Briana’s process really helped us with that. She listened to our needs and wants through the entire process and really went above and beyond with the development. She even made me/us aware of trademarks/legal information that was beneficial to us. Her attention to detail from start to finish with the process stood out to me, and I could read smiles in her emails. I feel like we had worked together much longer than we had! ”
“When we received the brand strategy guide, I thought it would be something I would skim through. After reading the first couple pages, I couldn’t put it down. The information was informative and insightful.”
Does your business need a level-up like WorkSpace Interiors?
I’d love to hear about your vision and where you’re currently at in the branding process. Let’s hop on a quick call to chat! Want to learn more about the branding process they went through first? Just click the button below.
