Beyond
Beyond is a learning and workforce transformation consultancy that helps organisations prepare their people for change through learning strategy, design and implementation.
Beyond was a new business and needed a brand to reflect the depth of its expertise, the organisations it wanted to work with and, importantly, the way it approaches transformation differently.
We worked with Claire to build the strategy behind the brand first, creating a clear foundation for its positioning, messaging, personality and visual identity, before developing a marketing plan to take the new brand to market.
Strategy
Before we started designing anything, we needed to understand what Beyond stands for, who it wanted to work with and where it should sit within the market.
Through our brand strategy process, we explored the purpose, vision and values of the business, its audiences, competitive position, brand personality and the problems it solves for its clients.
One of the strongest themes to emerge was the importance Beyond places on the people affected by organisational change. While transformation programmes can become heavily focused on systems, processes and deadlines, Beyond believes people need to be considered from the beginning if that change is going to work.
This led us to the strategic idea of ‘Human-centred transformation, made practical’ and a positioning territory centred around people-ready transformation, connecting workforce capability directly with wider business transformation.
We identified an opportunity for Beyond to position itself as the human-centred alternative to large, process-led consultancies. Its strength lies in combining strategy, creation and implementation, supported by senior strategic expertise, emotional intelligence, inclusion and hands-on support.
The strategy also gave us a clear personality for the brand. Beyond needed to feel warm, perceptive, candid, supportive, pragmatic and knowledgeable, with enough optimism and playfulness to avoid becoming another dry corporate consultancy brand.
Beyond needed to feel warm, perceptive, candid, supportive, pragmatic and knowledgeable, with enough optimism and playfulness to avoid becoming another dry corporate consultancy brand.
With the strategy established, we could translate everything we had uncovered into a new identity for Beyond.
The creative direction needed to reflect the personality and positioning we had established, balancing warmth with authority, playfulness with credibility and empathy with commercial focus.
The icon itself was developed around Claire’s approach to transformation. It represents the journey from the messiness and chaos of unstructured change through to a smoother, more considered process that an organisation can confidently carry forward. The icon also gave us a graphic device that could extend beyond the logo and be used throughout Beyond’s documents, social media and wider communications.
We explored a number of colour directions with usability in mind, eventually developing a palette that feels bright, distinctive and a little unexpected, while still being practical enough to work effectively across the different ways Beyond needs to communicate.
Branding
The result is a brand that better represents the depth of Beyond’s expertise while retaining the humanity, optimism and personality that sits at the heart of the business and its approach to transformation.
Marketing
Once the strategy and new brand were in place, we developed a marketing plan to help Claire take Beyond’s new identity and positioning to market.
The plan created a structured approach for launching the new brand and identified the marketing channels Beyond should prioritise going forward, helping Claire focus her efforts on reaching the senior leaders and decision-makers identified within the strategy.
Because the marketing plan was developed after the brand strategy, the recommendations could be built around a clear understanding of who Beyond needs to reach, what the business stands for and how it should position itself within the market.
Beyond now has the strategic foundations, brand identity and marketing direction needed to launch the business with much greater clarity and consistency.
“When I first met with Big Reputation, I was totally honest about my lack of experience in areas of branding and marketing. Up until that point, any strategy was sporadic and reactive, in part because I had no clear marketing strategy, and alongside that I lacked the belief and confidence to speak about my existing brand.
Collaborating with Chelsea and Sophie, has been a joyful discovery, as we took on on a total rebrand, develop a marketing strategy and how I could do this with greater intention to achieve my business objectives. Their approach is the perfect blend of curiosity and expertise, taking the time to really understand who Beyond is and is an honest reflection of the personality and soul of the business.
Thank you both so much for everything that you have done to help me to breathe life into my new brand. Even before Beyond was officially launched, the impact it had on my confidence and ability to speak about Beyond has become better focused, energetic and assured. We have taken on new clients; we have opportunities for new team members and several other exciting plans in the pipeline.”
Claire Coughlan, Beyond
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