Keeping your brand fresh, new and exciting is essential for a business and is an ongoing investment in your success rather than something to be seen as a costly extra. All successful companies revisit their communications periodically, even the world's most recognisable brands including the likes of Apple, Coca Cola and McDonald's.Take McDonald's for instance. They constantly review all aspects of their brand and refresh them, knowing that even when you're at the top, you can never relax. Over the years the 'golden arch' logo has undergone very subtle tweaks to keep it recognisable yet exciting for consumers while new packaging designs, signage and straplines have all helped fight off any negative publicity and keep loyal customers coming back.

“....the only way to stay ahead of the game is to evolve”

Reinvigorating your brand doesn’t necessarily mean you have to start from scratch, if you are happy with your company's values, vision and personality, these things can remain the foundations of what you're doing but the implementation of your brand should be refreshed to keep things on track and ensure it remains relevant to your target market.This is an investment one of our clients has recently undergone. The Pavilions in Uxbridge is a unique shopping centre with a mix of large popular high street retailers and smaller value stores, a large council-run daily market and flats and a large multi storey car park above. A centre, with a strong community feel, the marketing team were keen to retain these values in the centre’s future brand identity while developing the personality to broaden people’s perceptions of what the centre has to offer.Key to being able to give the scheme a clear identity and retain its community values, was the logo development. Using two key elements, the architectural meaning of the word ‘Pavilion’ and the sense of community that the centre offers we were able to create a subtle graphic representation of both, meaning that the identity is appealing to the target markets and positions Pavilions as a credible shopping destination. The community feel has been communicated across a number of different channels from signage, web design and press adverts and continues to build strong ties with its consumers to keep them returning while catching the eye of new or previously disenchanted shoppers.A similar global example of this is Pret A Manger. A strong brand, valuing fresh ingredients, minimising waste and giving back to the community, the company’s branding has been developed with 90% recyclable packaging which make the ingredientsthe focus, with simple names, colour schemes and images that don’t obscure or take-away from the fresh produce. Pret cleverly uses design to face up to younger competition, with the arrival of chatty packaging and witty graphics which gently move the brand towards a more foody sentiment without being elitist and showcasing the brand’s community values like giving leftovers to the homeless at the end of each day.So it seems, as any good business owner knows, the only way to stay ahead of the game is to evolve. Rebranding isn’t a facelift, it’s a chance to seize opportunities and foil the competition by introducing your newest services, address new audiences or enter new markets. It is not about constantly changing your skin but, like applying that anti-wrinkle treatment or those clever make up touches, it’s making sure that you have invested in an identity that is dynamic and that, with BIG ideas and clever design tools, can stand the test of time.