In a nutshell
In the brand world, too, it’s the inner values that count. As brand strategists, we know that it takes strong DNA to grow. We help brands build or transform by asking the right questions. Based on the brand workshop, we develop a brand strategy that covers value proposition, personas and customer journey, brand architecture and employer brand – only then can the brand communication hit the Schwarzin the end.
Services
What makes you unique as a brand? Together, we evaluate your individual value proposition and package it into a simple core statement that makes it clear to your Customers why they should choose you – by clearly highlighting the concrete benefits they will receive. How? By first looking at what specific problem your Customers have.
An excellent brand alone is not enough: The better you can assess the behavior of your buyer persona, the more precisely you can reach them via the relevant touchpoints such as website, newsletter, social media and campaigns. The journey your Customers go through – the customer journey – also builds on the persona analyses and connects them to your company. We map the path that your Customers take in the decision-making and purchasing process across all contact points and nodes.
In parallel to the essential aspects of your brand strategy, we evaluate measures to strengthen your employer brand, which is in no way inferior to your brand DNA. Here, too, concrete personas and the employee journey help us. This not only binds applicants to your employer brand, but also your existing team.
Contact
You have questions about our services, our projects or need a quote?
We will be happy to help you.
In detail
After a previous brand workshop and a well-defined positioning, it’s time for brainstorming. Together we develop the brand-strategic basics for your appearance. We bundle the knowledge available to us, bring it together in your unique brand story and provide you with initial core messages. What they should always answer succinctly? What your company stands for and where it wants to go.
“When evaluating brand strategy, not only should the internal value proposition receive attention, but a competitive and target audience analysis and marketing strategy are also critical.”
Alina Bach, Online Marketing Manager
Process
Research and analysis
We do not guess into the blue. We want to get to know and understand the company, its plans and goals – over a cup of coffee (it doesn’t have to be black). Together we evaluate the positioning, competition and architecture of the corporate brand. We must first immerse ourselves in your corporate cultureso that we can swim our lanes safely. Next step: Your custom-fit brand strategy.
Conception and design
We give your brand personality an expressive face. So that you see your business as we see it, we create a concept that outlines colors, shapes, logo and typo. Your Go is our starting signal and we go into designing. No idea is lost: We record everything essential in our guidelines. So that you have a solid foundation on which to build excellent visualized brands.
Realization and communication
Thought locks are all well and good – we also want to bring outstanding concepts to the road. As digital natives, we support you in the rollout of your brand. Whether social media marketing, ad campaigns, website and more – individual goals require individual services. We give our all every day. Our unyielding sense of aesthetics and innovation allows nothing else.
FAQ
To be sure which brand design is right for your business and inspires people to choose you, a brand strategy is essential.
Before going blindly into design, it is essential to strategically classify the brand and define the right positioning.
What your brand stands for, what values it represents, what mission and vision it pursues, and so on – all these are points of your brand strategy.
The essential components of a brand strategy include
Because a clear brand strategy increases the added value for Customers and has the potential to bind them to the brand. How? By telling a unique brand story from front to back that Customers can identify with. Between the many decisions people have to make every day, the one for your brand should always be the right one.
The strategy always refers to the brand itself. The fire always evolves according to its own rules. Industry, product characteristics, market data and target groups play an essential role.
The single-brand strategy focuses on one product or one specific service, each of which has its own brand identity and image.
In the multi-brand strategy, several brands exist for individual product types. This sometimes results in the individual brands competing with each other. Want an example? The Henkel brand under which Persil, Perwoll, Vernel and Co. are summed up – all brands for detergents.
Then there is the umbrella brand strategy. Dr.Oetker could be mentioned here, for example: Several products can be subsumed under this, but the main focus is always on the umbrella brand. Possible disadvantage? Coming to a common denominator when several very different business areas and products fall under this umbrella brand.
In the family brand strategy, certain product groups of a company are combined under one brand. Within a company, several brands thus exist side by side, each pursuing completely different goals. What is it good for? Consumers are confronted with the same brand promise over and over again, which strengthens trust, while this also has a positive effect on newer and existing products, which people are therefore more open to.
The brand transfer strategy is only relevant if the aim is merely to introduce a product innovation, not a new brand. Instead, it’s about transferring the existing brand to the new product.The advantage? The image of the existing brand alone is enough to get consumers excited about the new product.
A brand strategy is sustainable and successful when the internal value proposition is part of the brand strategy. Equally essential is the orientation to the competition and the internal as well as external compliance with the points defined in the brand strategy. Furthermore, any marketing measures must take the brand strategy as a basis and be oriented to it.
A brand architecture is the arrangement of all brands of a company to define the positioning and the relationship of the brands as well as the respective product-market relationships from a strategic point of view. Complex brand architectures are brand architectures in which two or more brands are arranged at different hierarchical levels.
As agency for branding and digital design from Dortmund, our Designer:innen and Brand Strateg:innen specializes in the development and design of outstanding brands. In order to meet the ever-changing market requirements of our fast-paced times, we develop digitally powerful designs that are unique and stay that way. We never stop learning and are always on the lookout for new or better solutions to respond agilely to trends and new requirements.
Our Brand workshop serves our work as an essential foundation on which the brand strategy and everything else is built. Because brands only grow upwards successfully from the inside out. In addition, we support start-ups, medium-sized businesses, companies, brands and marketing departments but also with all tasks in the areas of Graphic design, Communication Design, Motion Design and Print Design.
Schwarz+Matt has made it its business totransform communication through digitalization. Our team bundles expertise in the field of design and provides support in sustainably improving the visual brand presence and increasing brand value.
The focus of our work is on the Implementation of integrative processes. We pursue the goal of working not only for, but with our customers. We want be more than an external service provider – as part of our customers’ internal marketing department. This enables us to tap into new target group potential, intensify existing customer relationships, and Growth sustainable to increase.
We are Schwarz+Matt. We create brands for tomorrow as an agency for branding and design. Our team? Consists of 25 top talents in strategy, design and marketing. We turn the brand of ambitious start-ups and companies into a growth driver. 300+ Customers already trust our brand strategy expertise, our first-class design and our rapid response time.
Westfalendamm 188
44141 Dortmund
Germany
Hafenweg 22
48155 Münster
Germany
Hammer Str. 20-22
40219 Düsseldorf
Germany
Do not miss: New branding and digital design insights every two weeks
