You are considering a new contracting or construction website for your business and after looking at the competition the possibility of this new online hub of information is extremely exciting to you. This is an opportunity to renovate your company image online through new content, cool projects, highlight your tenured staff, brag about your big clients, and state your case that you are the best option for your client’s next project!
This excitement continues into the next phase of gathering all the materials you are suggested to need such as determinations on your portfolio of outstanding projects and even your about page. Part of that collection is the existing logo files and brand guidelines (if available). Some projects we’ve been involved with have a few things happen at this stage:
- Some companies have no idea where their source (logo) files are.
- The files exist, BUT there are problems
- They are low quality
- They weren’t created in a proper format
- They lack a professional look
- They are professional looking but cost prohibitive to reproduce
- Everything is accounted for. The logo is vector (can be resized), has multiple options (such as reverse on color, limited color, and full-color options), and the branding guidelines provide a roadmap for the best possible use.
Obviously, where every construction company would want to land is that last bullet. Everything is in place, the brand has a guide so that each time it’s seen – it is consistent and supports trust in your company.
However, the other options may lead us to ask you if your brand is in need of an update or overhaul. Waitaminute, I was all jazzed for a website and now we need to consider this too?! Why?!
To understand why this should be taken under serious consideration, let’s refer to the pitfalls that can happen at this stage.
Source files are missing
Essentially, the items that directly identify your company to the world are so important that… they can’t be found (NOT good)! Your currency in marketing is the strength of your brand. If you try to purchase something without the means to pay for it, odds are you probably aren’t purchasing what you want with IOUs!
Your website is an interaction point that you will have with potential clients. Your construction brand does a ton of heavy lifting.
- It improves company recognition
- Branding does this through logos, colors, fonts, tag-lines/slogans and more.
It’s important in the construction industry because something as simple as a specifically colored truck can be an identifier out in the ‘real world’
- Branding does this through logos, colors, fonts, tag-lines/slogans and more.
- It builds trust and advertises
- Seeing a logo applied to a uniform, hardhat, jacket, and truck shows anyone passing a construction site who you are. When something has a consistent presence, it provides a sense of reputation that the company has its act together.
- It broadcasts the company through that repetition.
- It inspires and excites
- A strong brand gives employees an understanding of what the mission of the business is. It’s the reason the company exists. Why it does, what it does, and the motivations behind it. Not having those goals set is essentially stating that the company is directionless.
- Brands are supposed to do a key job: communicate. Your customers may talk to each other, in the construction industry, this is very likely. How is a potential customer supposed to tell a colleague verbally about your company if there isn’t a distinguishing visual component to your business?
The branding files exist, but there are problems
There can be many problems with branding and logo files in general. Unfortunately, if your logo exists, but it is in a Word document that is terribly pixelated, can’t be resized, and is illegible – it’s a big issue to overcome.
Many people talk about value and securing a great deal on something. Very rarely have there been positive stories of companies that pay 5 bucks for a logo that can take them the distance. Often times the negative result is the need to completely redo it after the fact to account for more than just how the image looks on a blank canvas (a logo exists in the wild and more than just printed in the center of a letter-sized sheet of paper). If your brand looks cheap, you can have three guesses what your potential client will think of you.
This line of thought extends to the web as well. Think of a time you may have clicked a link and landed on a website that is hideously out of date or looks like it was something put together over a weekend by a brother’s second cousin’s roommate that did some ‘web design’ back in college for a pizza. You’re picturing it now! If it looks untrustworthy – that is the message that is being communicated. An unprofessional-looking website = the company itself IS unprofessional.
Branding is a piece of marketing and advertising. If your brand and logo appear as if there is no artistic touch, no story, no history, or no real thought put into it and lacks a professional finish – the same will be thought of what your potential end-product will look like.
What are some options from here?
Option 1: Recreate what exists so that you have the professional logo and construction branding to apply to anything moving forward
Every brand evolves over time. Barely any brand in today’s digital world stays stagnant. Things such as dimension, color, reproduction value, font, all get edited to bring a brand into modern times or prepare for the future.
Recreation or refinement doesn’t mean a totally new beginning either – If the logo was made specifically for the web, but you realized when going to place the artwork on your fleet that an 8 color logo is going to require the sacrifice of your firstborn to fund… well then maybe editing so that the logo can work in one color is in your best interest in the future.
Consider only slight refinements – a font change here, editing an illustration or icon there, ensuring it can be resized or have versions for use in smaller spaces – the idea would be to retain the essence of the logo and brand but make it work without limiting your means to broadcast the business.
Option 2: March forth with a new brand direction.
Some take an opportunity to do the latter and go through an overhaul. Much of the eventual new website will need key messaging – if that messaging and content don’t exist, then perhaps a construction branding audit is the best place to start. An audit such as this can help redefine company goals and put together a business plan that will drive the marketing plan, that will have a fresh look to it.
This audit can highlight things about your company that could have an immediate impact on recognition. Maybe your contracting company doesn’t have a color associated with it, or it’s a color that 5-25 other construction companies have. Being unique positions you to stand out.
If your company was a person, what kind of traits would it have? This is a great question to get some thoughts going to start to build what the brand should look like, who it should cater to, and how it may be perceived when seen.
Option 3: Rename and rebrand
There are times when a company ebbs and flows through the times. If several years, multiple acquisitions, changing C-level staff, and service changes have left clients with the impression that your company ‘used to do this very well, but now they kinda do this’… it might be worth it to consider a rename. The construction branding and marketing audit (mentioned in Option 2) applies here as well. Consider if your name and company have the same recognition and values it has had since the start.
Have a construction website and considering an online and construction branding renovation, or initiative, of your own? 4CDesignWorks online interactive marketing and branding services are available! To reach out and learn about our limited-time offerings for Construction companies visit our website and learn more. You can also contact us directly to find out more!
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