Field notes: pick process
- Date 02 September
- Category Project updates
- Author Alex
When business slows, and a brand starts to feel stale, the instinct is to reach for a brand refresh; new logo; new look; new energy? It’s an understandable impulse, but it often mistakes the symptom for the disease. We firmly believe in process before prescription.
You’re in a rut with sales flatlined, maybe thinking about rebranding. Marketing efforts have been on a repeat cycle for a while, with the playbook stuck in a loop. Your logo is dated, and you’ve got no meaningful brand assets to work with. That competitor has just dropped something sleek, too. You’ve Googled your symptoms, and a fresh identity feels like the shot in the arm the doctor ordered. A tonic to reinvigorate.
Whilst jumping head-first into a rebrand feels productive, new files, new colours, a look-at-me launch post… Six months later, despite the quick fix, sales are still flat, and the old playbook is back out. Style was chosen over substance. Crucially, strategy was skipped over.
But rewind, step back, the logo was never the problem.
The symptom missed the diagnosis. Your positioning remains unclear, your offer doesn't match where the market moved; your cut-through visibility stays low; the message was muddled.
The rebrand cured nothing, and the valuable time and budget spent haven’t served.
If your brand feels dated, that's the symptom, but it’s rarely the disease.
Our brand platform does the diagnosis before the design. Strategy, then surgically, identity. No skipping. Process is the prescription. Process before the writing the prescription.