October 2020
FAITH LIVE RSE DGE
WHAT IS A
BRAND IN A REMOTE-FIRST WORLD?
In her regular column for IFA Magazine, Faith Liversedge offers sage advice on how professional design and transparent communications will give you and your clients added confidence
T
his is a question I've been chatting to a lot of my clients about recently. For many people the physicality of their business plays a big part of their brand.
The pandemic has forced us all to move a lot of our business online. Whether it's using video calls, sending more regular email communications, or using a client portal, we're now all part of a 'remote-first' world, and most of us would agree there's no going back. SO WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE YOUR BRAND? Without bricks and mortar, coffee cups, the letterhead, carpark signage, the blinds, the brand of coffee, the tangible bits and bobs that come together to define your 'brand' uniquely, what do you have that shows you're professional and trustworthy? And if you hadn't thought of your brand like that before, then let me introduce you to the idea that there's no such thing as a brand-free interaction. Your brand codifies your promise and anything that promotes and upholds that promise is branding. That could start with your website and include the
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way you answer the phone, your tone of voice in emails etc. It is, of course, digital as well as physical in a perfect world. In a way, it's a hard concept to describe, because it is by its very nature intangible; nevertheless, it's very real. Why do people choose to work with you? Why is it that prospective clients trust you? That's your brand. FOR ONE PARTICULAR ADVISER, HIS BRAND WAS ABOUT TO INCLUDE NEW PRINTED MATERIAL. Earlier this year, I finished working on a design job with an adviser: business cards, brochures, printed case studies, a client agreement, and investment philosophy and process brochures: the works. Around March 17th it was ready to go to print. We know what happened next. The original plan was that the adviser would take these to client meetings, but that wasn't going to happen now that we were all in indefinite lockdown, so would he still want to go ahead? I checked to ask whether he still wanted us to hit the big red print button.
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