As you may have noticed, our website has been refreshed a few days ago. We felt it was important to update its architecture and content. This update is part of an even more important project: a subtle re-branding of our brand. Indeed, after more than five years of existence, Swikly has built itself and our brand had to gain in maturity. We therefore suggest you discover the lessons we have learned from our branding that you can integrate in your turn, whatever your sector of activity.
Make an inventory of the existing
While we felt it was essential to update our brand, it was clear that we should not start from scratch: our brand has been built up over 5 years of development and many elements of it needed to be retained.
Our name and logo
The most recognizable elements of our brand, our name and logo were designed based on our vision, which is still relevant today: Swikly is a contraction of the acronym SWAK, Seal With a Kiss, which translates to "seal an agreement in a pleasant way" and the adverb "quickly". Our logo takes up this philosophy by mixing a handshake, symbol of an agreement or a commitment, with the link icon, symbol of the relationship between the owner and the tenant secured by our online service.
Our primary color
The blue that has characterized us since our beginnings was chosen to emphasize the trust and reliability of the service that we still offer today. In this sense, it seemed obvious to us to keep this colour at the heart of our brand. The choice of this colour brings a sense of calm to the relationship with our customers and their customers in turn.
It's unlikely that the entire brand you've built to date is disposable. So, it's essential to take inventory of all the strong elements of your brand and assess whether they are still aligned with your vision. They will serve as the foundation for the rest of your branding.
Doing your introspection
To solidify the foundation of our brand, we went back to the Swikly story with some simple questions:
Why did you found Swikly?
We believe that economies of use and sharing can help our consumption patterns evolve towards more environmentally friendly models. (Why ?)
In this sense, our mission is to accelerate this change by acting as facilitators for all the actors of the use and sharing economies. (How ?)
That's why we provide our clients with a dematerialization and automation service for bond management, tailor-made for the entire eclectic rental landscape. (What?)
SWAK and quickly make more sense at once, don't they?
What have we accomplished?
We have developed a reliable, secure and easy-to-use service that is constantly evolving. A support service accompanies our customers in their success: our business model being based on pay-per-use, our success depends on that of our customers, hence our attentive listening to their expectations. Finally, we have maintained our commitment to remain financially accessible and flexible to adapt to seasonal issues and the variety of our customers' activities.
Anchoring your foundations: values
Our introspection allowed us to highlight different pillars which are the foundations of Swikly since its creation. We were thus able to define them explicitly:
- Reliable
- Human
- Accessible
- Flexible
The definition of your values allows you to formalize your vision according to understandable and activable axes through all your activities. Confronting your actions to your values will allow you to consolidate your development according to your vision.
The design
As a result of the previous work, we have updated various visual elements of our identity.
Colour palette
We have added a secondary colour to our palette: a turquoise composite of our primary colour, which represents the balance and serenity that comes with using our service. We are using this color in a gradient with our primary color over all of our illustrations in order to anchor our visual identity more firmly. It also replaces the green color that we previously used for the buttons on our site.
Typographic universe
In addition to the Lato font we previously used, we have added the Raleway font for our various web and print titles. These modern, minimalist sans serif fonts were selected for their consistency with the characteristics of our service while evoking a sense of trust.
Conclusion
If branding seems like an afterthought in your business development, make no mistake: it is essential to increasing your authority in your market and is essential for sustainable growth.
It will also be essential to document the elements and rules of your branding and to act on a daily basis to ensure that they are maintained over time.