Method: The pivot and rebrand

Behind the Madness is back with James and co discussing Method's rebrand! Why we changed and how that looks going forward are the hot topics in today's chat, who's interested?

Show Notes

Brands need to stay up to date and align with their target audience, these are two of the reasons we tore up the Method blueprint and came back with something stronger and more personal!

James and co open up about the importance of the Method brand, what it stands for and why we wanted to freshen things up - so this one is for you but about us, because growth in business is at our core and therefore, leading the way is a must.

If you're thinking of pivoting, yep like Ross in Friends, or rebranding your appearance then pull up a seat and enjoy the madness!

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What is Behind The Madness?

A podcast helping companies grow with marketing strategies, automation and time-saving tips and creative solutions.

James: Hello everyone.

I'm James.

And welcome back to another episode
of Behind the Madness, where

we talk about business growth.

Ways to work smarter and the fundamentals
of business, all geared to unlocking

your brand's peak performance.

Though today, it's not about you.

And it's all about us.

That's right.

We put you to one side for one moment
while we discuss everything about Method.

We have recently gone through a
rebrand, which took many months.

This is the trouble of us having ongoing
work and ongoing clients and having to

focus on your own brand or own website
actually takes a longer than it does

for the projects that we take on.

But today that's what we're talking
about, why we decided to rebrand.

Now to go over this topic with
me, I am joined by Jamie and Paul.

Hello chaps.

How are we?

Jamie: Thanks James, really
looking forward to this one.

It's really good to get the new
brand out in the world and looking

forward to talking about the process.

Paul: Yeah, hi James.

That's been a work in progress
for quite a while but we're there.

James: Now this whole brand started
because you two got together on

Slack and decided to gang up on me
and believe that I came up with the

great idea of going through a rebrand.

Jamie: Plant the seed, plant the seed

James: As it transpires I think you
guys came up with it and this is

the joy of having a team that we do.

We all know when we need change and
it's got to that point where we've

obviously built up the company.

We've got a few of us here now the message
we were putting out on the website wasn't

really reflecting what we're doing, so,
Jamie and Paul got together behind my

back and decided that it was about time.

We relooked at it and pushed it forward.

So, Jamie, what was your
kind of first impressions?

Why, why did it kind of spring to
light that it needed to be done?

Jamie: It was more of a, almost a
modernization James It was looking

at our current brand and saying,
was the information up to date?

Was it, where COVID has pushed
businesses and our target

audience on the back of that.

But then it came from actually wanting
a new landing page for our social media.

Much like most social media
platforms, you can put a link in.

We saw our link we thought the
Linktrees were a little bit ugly,

sorry Linktree, and so we thought a
personalized landing page would be better.

We did a bit of a mock design and we
thought bigger, we thought could we

push this to a brand of the website?

How our business comes across was very
different from what we were seeing and

we thought let's plant that seed with
James and let's move this forward.

James: And as a responsible business
owner, I couldn't back down very much

the old tactics around a boat and
being thrown off if I hadn't, so, it

obviously did make a lot of sense.

It was definitely something is.

Jamie says that we needed to do.

So our first stage is usually get
something very, very quick that we

can all hang our hat on and something
that we all kind of like, and is

reflecting what we want to do.

Which is why we threw the logo
to start off with, over to Laura.

All kind of sat around and decided
what we wanted out of the brand

and tried to create something
that was more reflecting that.

We find that once we've got something
that looks like what we want to achieve,

or feels a bit a bit more like what
we want to achieve, everybody else can

then kind of get on board and we can,
we can really build on it from there.

The design we had previously
was quite a light design.

And when we looked at it against some
other brands in the digital world where

we were pretty much alongside some of
our competitors, we weren't standing

out enough so we knew we kind of had
to start there with, with the logo.

But that was many months ago.

The trouble with having an organization
like we have is we obviously

have clients who we have to serve
and they have to come before us.

You know, it's the old builder analogy
where the builder's house never has

any work done to it because he's
always doing the work on other people's

and it's exactly the same with our
organization with our business here,

we're always busy doing the day job.

So we had managed to get a
logo design done by Laura.

and then we started to turn our
attention really to our digital presence.

And where did we go to first Paul?

Paul: Well, I think as you mentioned,
our logo, I was about 20 years old

Not a lot of companies stick with
the same logo for as long as that.

So freshening it up was almost a
must I think to keep it modern,

to keep it to the sort of changing
landscape that we're working in.

So the next thing I think we were
looking at was the web design.

And we got our web designers on the
case who mocked up some pages for us.

Obviously we edited them over time
and came up with what you can see

today, which I think is sort of a
modern, fresher, more premium look.

James: We also simplified a lot of that
user journey around of where people were

looking for content or understanding
really what we offered it kind of changed

what we noticed is what we were saying
on the phones and what we were saying

to clients wasn't the same as we had
in the content on our website, so we

also had to look at changing that up.

And as soon as you're looking at a
number of different factors around

your brand or around your digital
presence then it becomes clear that

you've really got to change everything.

And again, that's, you know, where
we kind of started to look at and and

reassess everything from the, from the
content right up to the user experience.

Right down to the actual
brand design itself.

Website's live, we have spent a lot of
time, as I said, obviously it takes a lot

of time for us to actually get there with
everything else that we've got going on.

But we also wanted to
enrich that offering.

So Jamie, do you want to kind of
touch a little bit on that, of what

we've also provided on our website?

Jamie: In the last year to 18 months
we've become much more present on social

media, much more digital because the
world's moved there, it had to And our

personality wasn't quite coming across.

We are very, very funny, we are
lighthearted, but we love to make

people's business reap their potential.

So, this is what we tried to
do with our whole attack on it.

Making sure that when you land on the
website, you have fun interacting with it.

You can see the downloadables, you can
find the content that will help grow your

business sometimes without even talking
to us, because we are there to help, not

just to kind of pitch what we're doing.

Then you can come into our socials,
you can see our reels you can drop

into our DMs and engage with us more.

So we're trying to make that
holistic online experience for you.

Much much more complete.

You are why we have done this?

James: And that's it I think, you
know, our personality certainly

doesn't come out on the podcast.

We turn into professional people that we
try and get the best content out to you

guys when really we're good at doing that.

But we're a more lighthearted than
we appear on the podcast, which

we are consciously trying to be
better and be more like ourselves.

Jamie: It's new, and I think whenever
you adopt something new, I think

it's really important that everyone
out there really appreciates this

because when you do something new
you almost go by the textbook and

you get learned behaviors into it.

And as you as you relax, as you
become more practiced at this, we're

sitting round James's kitchen room
table at the moment, and we've got

a couple of microphones we're having
a chat, We're almost making those

sniggers, those jokes, each other and
sometimes that doesn't come across

because you don't have that context.

So we are trying to throw the lighthearted
side of what Method is making sure

that personal touch of, yeah, you can
pick up the phone or drop us an email.

We will turn around and help you
because that's what it's about.

And that's what our digital
needed to represent more.

That's why we've done what we've done.

And we pivoted.

Thanks boys, anyone know the
reference pop it in the comments.

James: So that's, that's kind
of a little bit about why we had

to do it while we had to change.

And I think, as I said, that
the content we were putting out

before was, the blogs were great.

The downloads were good as well.

And we've really, I think upped our
game now of what we are producing.

The podcast we're going to try and get
around my kitchen table a lot more often.

Maybe throw a bit of alcohol
around, so we are more relaxed.

Jamie: Got to get that hand sanitizer.

James: And I think that's
really what we want to be.

We want to be this podcast that you
are going to gain some good content

some great tips from, but also you
know, enjoy listening to as well.

And, and trying to find that balance is
obviously something we've worked hard

on the content that we're producing,
the detail that we're producing.

I think now we just need to get
that more human touch for you guys.

Jamie: With that in mind,
I'm going to jump in on you

James because before we wrap

James: It's going to jump in on me.

Jamie: I'm going to jump in on you.

That sounds much worse than
it is in the kitchen room.

What can you give people in terms of
a point of value or a couple of points

of why they should look at their brand?

Why it's such an important thing for any
sort of long-term growth as a business,

we've spoken a lot about ourselves there.

So let's leave people with
that to take away for them.

James: So every company is out
there trying to solve a problem

for the customer, be that supply
them with food, be that You know,

producing solutions for people.

So if you can focus on that problem
and keep that at the forefront of what

you're doing in trying to answer those
questions, that your, your buyer persona,

that we mentioned a lot is after.

Then you're not going to go too far
wrong because you've put your customer

first and you're going to solve their
problems through whatever you do.

If you are constantly thinking
about their problems, they can

shift, they can change they are not
always the same problems over time.

Problems can change.

We can come up with you know there could
be technology that solves it, that we're

all using that issues that we have,
or the pain points that we did have

disappear and new ones will replace them.

But knowing your customers, understanding
them, getting feedback from them.

That's where you can have your
finger on the pulse and really

understand what you're offering.

You know, we could have left our website.

We didn't have to change it.

We didn't have to update
the content that was on it.

But we did because we knew we
could do better, and rather

than wait until it was too late.

We striked early, and are now
producing content that is building

on what we had, not waiting until
what we had was out of date.

We we're now, you know, we're pivoting.

And knowing that that content has to,
has to change and has to do better to

learn from what we've learned as well.

And you know, some of the content that
we did have our old lead generators,

you know, the PDFs, the downloads,
the things that we've got online

have also been updated and tweaked.

They're sexier and the
message has changed.

slightly, you know we've come
on We've we've all evolved And

that has to, has to reflect.

So a long story, but I think really
focus on what your customer's needs are.

And it might change, and it probably
will change and knowing when you

should change as a company is
a lot easier if you understand

that your customers are changing.

And there you have it, thank
you so much for listening.

The madness never stops, and we'll soon
be back with our next chat so have your

say and let us know what you want to hear.