Today I am going to share with you the story of my brand refresh (for The Honey Bee Wedding Cake Co). It was in fact completed seven months ago, but I didn’t do a big brand relaunch at the time – for a number of reasons. One was that I just didn’t get a chance – I was busy preparing for, and then running my new Wedding Cakes business course, and also working hard to keep offering help and advice in the Hive group. We were homeschooling for the first time then, too, so everything was a bit overwhelming.
But when I stepped back and thought about it, I realised that it didn’t matter, and that there was no rush. I took my time over the following months to work on things like my new flavour menu, changing up all the templates for my invoices and order forms etc, and getting branded stickers, vellum paper and ribbon made for my taster boxes. I got some great professional photos taken of the boxes and of myself in my snazzy green blazer!! And, of course, I worked on my website (which is still very much a work in progress!). By the time I felt ready with all of these things it was nearly the end of the year so it made sense to wait for a New Year relaunch.
The other reason was that in all honesty, I wasn’t in a position to make a song and dance about my new branding, with a view to attracting new bookings. Due to all the postponements, as well as the orders I already had in, my 2021 very quickly became fully booked. And actually, the new enquiries had slowed right down – the uncertainty of the whole situation meant people were holding off on booking things, as confirmed by many of the other suppliers in the industry that I’d spoken to. So the time wasn’t right.
Only a few days ago, 2021 felt more hopeful, the vaccine is being rolled out, things can only get better. This was, of course, before Monday’s lockdown announcement! Regardless, it felt like a better time to show everything off, so I did, and I’ve had an amazing response. What do you think? Branding is so much more than a logo, but for example, the logo on the left was my old one, and the one on the right, the new one:
| So why did I change? The old one was quite nice, I’d only had it a year… I was ‘pretty happy’ with it. But I had a bit of an epiphany when I was teaching my students about ‘Ideal Client’ – and realised that mine had evolved, yet my branding and messaging no longer reflected this. I set to work with Jacquie from Bailey & Roo and she understood straight away who my IC was. She even helped me refine it! We went for ‘winter’ colours, emerald greens, whites and gold – traditionally ‘luxury’ colours which is exactly the vibe I was looking to attract. We simplified the logo – the bee had to stay (although again, simplified) but the script font just wasn’t modern enough. I am so happy with it, and it has given me the spring back in my step that I was starting to lose in 2020. |
| Do you review whether your business activities are still suitable for your target audience? Is there anything that could do with a tweak? Drop me a message – I’d love to know what you’re working on for 2021! |