(RE)BRANDING BY CULTURE

Ah, spring. Everything is starting again and regaining colour. So do we! After merging with BVH four years ago and celebrating our fifth anniversary, we chose to restore the original ‘Clubgeist’. It turned out to be a beautiful rebranding (at least if you ask us) and we’d love to tell you what we did and why. Who knows, maybe it will offer inspiration for your own brand?

A strong identity is the basis of everything we do for our clients. From labour market communication to corporate campaigns. It starts with the uniqueness of your brand. How do you map it out? Is it exact science or rather fingerspitzengefühl? Spoiler alert: a bit of both.

YOUR BRAND IDENTITY: TRICKY AND IMPORTANT

What ‘branding’ is may seem pretty simple. It probably encompasses a lot more than you think! It is all the ways in which you present your brand. We ourselves often make the distinction here between ‘corporate identity’ and ‘communication’. It involves, for example, the colours, font, style and images you use. And the tone-of-voice, the way you talk to the world. From logo to website and from flyer to bus shelter.

But you can’t really get to grips with that until you’ve got the ‘fire’ down.

It is already difficult for people themselves to define who they are and how they stand in the world. What makes them unique. Can you imagine what it must be like to remain distinctive as a group of people, as a brand, among the many companies, organisations, entrepreneurs or agencies operating in the same industry.

But it’s worth it. Because when all is said and done, there is no second like you. Your distinctiveness is yourself. With a clear identity, you can forge stronger bonds between your company and target audience. And more easily appeal to new people.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR TO FIND YOUR IDENTITY

Suppose you ask us to map your organisation’s identity. So what do we look for? For that which makes the eyes sparkle. And so we talk to your employees. Every group of people is slightly different from the next group. The same goes for a company or an organisation. What is your culture like? How do you interact with each other? Why do you do the work the way you do it? What ‘animates’ you, where is the enthusiasm of the club (you get it)?

There somewhere we find your individuality. And we can use that as a strength.

You can copy products or services, but not that uniqueness. That’s what makes it strong. And if you portray it well and put it into words, you appeal to people who recognise themselves in it or want to be part of it. That way, you can find customers and colleagues who fit in with you, who might want to stick around for the long term.

THE CLUBGEIST OF CLUBGEIST

We can tell it pretty well, but of course we have to live up to it ourselves. This spring, we changed our name: ClubgeistBVH became Clubgeist. A good time to re-examine our identity.

Full of conviction, we chose the unique, deep blue of French painter Yves Klein. This colour blue combines a sense of reliability and intelligence with creativity and art. Exemplary of our way of working: we dare to go deeper so that we can make a stronger statement. Just think of our campaigns for KPN and Amnesty International.

But not only the colour has been decisive. The basic elements of our brand are the name, logo and corporate identity. A lot of energy went into this. Our name touches on our mission. We could also have just cut BVH out of the logo. But for a stronger and complete identity, we wanted to give the name a new face.

In the first phase, we had a very clean logo, but we were all missing something in it. We wanted a bit more feeling in our corporate identity and to bring out our playful character. Because as ‘blue’ as we are, we are also quite… witty. Thus the ghost was born. The Geist. Something light-hearted that, for example, we can also play with on socials like Instagram. And maybe you’ll see it floating around on our site too?