Think of a brand you love. Think of its colors, its logo, tagline — the way it makes you feel. In many ways, corporate branding is just as important as the product or service itself. It can tell a story about a company’s history or, indeed, its vision for the future.
Here at Wrike, we’ve undergone a bit of a corporate rebrand and, as excited as we are to re-introduce ourselves to customers with a new look and feel, we’re also committed to sharing an updated vision. And Wrike’s vision is clear. We’re working hard to create a world where every person, team, and organization achieves their best.
Crafting a cohesive corporate branding strategy is no easy feat. It can take months of design, content reviews, and a healthy dose of project management. Thankfully, we were able to use our own platform to get it all done! Wrike Proof shortened our review cycles, made approvals more efficient, and ensured our teams were aligned and communicating effectively.
On June 25, we debuted our latest Wrike corporate branding elements — a new UX, logo, vision, updated branding guidelines, and more.
Updating your company’s corporate branding strategy can be a lengthy and long-term undertaking but, in most cases, it’s well worth it. Learn about the importance of corporate branding and how Wrike handled a corporate rebrand that’s been a year in the making.
What is corporate branding and why is it important?
Corporate branding and corporate identity are the outward manifestations of the story a company is trying to tell about itself.
This story can be told through visual elements like imagery, logotype, typography, color palette, and taglines — and through elements rooted in authenticity like brand values, tone, positioning, and clear expressions of customer commitment.
Corporate branding can be very nuanced, too. It's both broad and granular — big picture, and small. This can range from choosing between a serif and sans serif font to condensing your company’s entire ethos into a brief manifesto.
For our SVP of Marketing, Saranya Babu, reimagining Wrike was about building an experience for our users and customers.
“Our visual identity was created with the deliberate intent to create a delightful experience while offering an assurance to our customers that we are trusted partners in their journey.”
Here at Wrike, we’re constantly working on projects that interest and inspire us. As users of our own product, we wanted to make sure we were conveying the same sense of teamwork and positivity we experience from collaborating in our own tool every day.
“The brand is user-friendly and makes it easy to find and consume information. We focused on the deeper sentiments that our visuals evoked, beyond just the logo, fonts, and color palettes. Our goal was to build an emotion.”
Research shows that creating emotion through design elements is important for a brand. It takes about 10 seconds for a potential customer to form an opinion about your logo. If your logo, website, or brand identity don’t align with your current business goals, are you making the best of those crucial 10 seconds?
3 key elements of successful corporate branding
Famed branding author and consultant Marty Neumeier once said that “branding is the process of connecting good strategy with good creativity.”
That marriage between strategy and creativity is possibly the best chance your company has to convey its personality and vision. Good branding strategy can be achieved with some well-thought-out elements.
1. Brand vision, mission, and positioning:
What does your brand believe in? What is its vision for bringing value to every customer?
Wrike’s vision: A world where every person, team, and organization achieves their best.
Wrike’s mission: To help you do the best work of your life by reducing chaos and complexity through visibility, contextual collaboration, and automation.
2. Strong logo and design elements:
Did you know that the effective and consistent use of a signature color can boost brand recognition by 80%?
Wrike has an updated logo and color palette! We also have new website and graphic design details that better convey our personality. We used Wrike Proof for in-context comments on assets so our design team knew exactly which elements to change.
3. Distinctive brand personality and brand voice:
Brand voice covers everything from tone to style of writing, and more. According to iSynergy, brand voice is essential to leaving a lasting impression on your audience.
Wrike’s brand voice, for example, is team-focused and positive. That’s because we’re obsessed with helping all types of teams succeed at work.
Why companies go through a corporate rebranding
A company can choose to undergo a rebrand for a number of reasons. Think of the most famous rebrands in business, and how subtle (or not-so-subtle) changes elevated and redefined their entire brand persona. Apple, Coca-Cola, Starbucks — the list goes on.
A company may choose to rebrand if it feels that its persona is no longer aligned with its internal goals or long-term strategy. Other common reasons are:
- Brand evolution
- Outdated brand logo and visuals
- Corporate merger
- To differentiate brand elements from companies with a similar logo or brand identity
“Corporate identity is something that does not change that often. And should not,” explains Saranya. “But as a company evolves and the markets change, often the company’s position in the market changes.”
Here at Wrike, our rebranding strategy was about creating a persona based on our robust features and intense commitment to project and work management.
“Our product, solutions, and services had outgrown our story and brand identity. So we had to communicate our real story. The most important part was to bring our story, personality, and voice to life through content and visuals,” explains Saranya.
So, what’s new with Wrike?
Well, a lot has changed here at Wrike — at least from a visual perspective. Wrike’s rebranding effort has been underway for a year, with the first half of 2020 representing the bulk of our efforts. We have an updated logotype, design, and UX, rich new color palette, evocative illustrations and graphics, and a new website.
These were all important parts of conveying our story, personality, and voice to customers. The process also required a great deal of cross-team collaboration. Our design, content, and marketing operations teams were able to efficiently work hand-in-hand using Wrike’s flexible and intuitive project management features.
Rebranding with Wrike also meant that each team knew and understood their priorities and deadlines, making what is often a stressful process far more streamlined and efficient.
Wrike’s branding may have changed, but our commitment to work management hasn’t. We’re still here to help teams accomplish more and do the best work of their lives.
Start a free trial now to see how Wrike can help you manage your work from anywhere, or launch a corporate rebrand you can be proud of.
