The competitive business environment is punctuated by a plethora of brands. The logos, language and imagery they use play an important role in communicating to audiences who or what a company’s brand is and precisely what it represents. Logos are the face of brands; they are a defining symbol of a company and are often one of the first publically visible assets.
The story a business tells about who they are, what they do and crucially the value they bring to the lives of their customers and can be powerful marketing tools because they immerse themselves in customer’s consciousness and sub-consciousness. It is therefore imperative to strategically design and develop the right logo for a business; effective logos are ones that seamlessly communicate who a company is and what they do through the medium of graphic design, font and by power of association.
Equiniti is a business with a considerable history starting with the pensions services in 1836... We wanted to respect this fantastic heritage and the role we play... but also signal how we are positioned for the future.
For Equiniti, the new logo and brand identity carries a significance. “Equiniti’s rebrand provided an important opportunity for us to tell our evolving story”, explains Amy Madden, Marketing Director. “Equiniti is a business with a considerable history starting with the pensions services in 1836 and the share registration side which originated 50 years ago. We wanted to respect this fantastic heritage and the role we play in the lives of the best known brands and public sector organisations but also signal how we are positioned for the future. Our business is powered by technology and data – this is what we offer to organisations to help them tackle the issues of today, and we wanted this part of this story is reflected in the visualisation of the brand.
“We also wanted to reflect the specialist role we play – helping tackle complex issues in regulated markets, and I think Equiniti has managed to represent that, as a business which focuses on ‘making complex things simple’. Our approach is to use up-to-the-minute technology to build smart solutions and we want to convey that. The visualisation includes 4D images of ‘living data’, images which are unique to us. This sits alongside photographic images which are bold, optimistic and modern.
A brand needs to evolve, engage people, and talk to audiences.
“In terms of the logo we have pulled out the EQ which reflects how we do things in Equiniti, highlighting emotional intelligence as a key element of business success and emphasising our primary traits; adaptability, optimism, trustworthiness, and leadership.”
Brands are also largely about perception. They carry an association with a particular product or service, assimilate certain connotations through the use of specific colour schemes or fonts, and can inspire instant recognition and customer loyalty solely through brand identity.
Amy Madden, Head of Marketing at Equiniti
Amy stresses the importance of engaging people in the brand: “A brand needs to evolve, engage people, and talk to audiences. We introduced new colours to broaden our colour palette and reflect how dynamic we are as a business, but we retained the red as the key colour scheme as it is signature to the brand.”
She goes onto say “We were keen to engage people from across the business in this evolution and performed many roadshows in order communicate what we were doing and why we were doing it. This has created a buzz inside the business.”
In the financial services industry, a solid, reputable brand is even more imperative. Clients are not buying products as much as they are hiring a company for its reputation for honesty, advice and service. If existing clients don't understand a company’s value, there may be a risk of losing them; and if a company can't articulate its differentiating points to prospects, the odds of converting them to new clients can decreases significantly. A solid brand is therefore imperative.
All companies grow and change and they have to keep ahead of the competition. So it’s natural for a brand to evolve with an organisation, and to stand out from the crowd.
Managing over half of the UK’s leading FTSE 100 companies, public sector and financial organisations, Equiniti’s strong reputation is key, and brand plays an intrinsic part in this. A brand and its reputation are interchangeable; it should be invested in and leveraged to grow business and can become a highly valuable intangible asset of the company.
“Another reason behind the brand refresh was that we wanted to be more confident, and the new logo reflects our confidence in the business and its products,” Amy explains. “All companies grow and change and they have to keep ahead of the competition. So it’s natural for a brand to evolve with an organisation, and to stand out from the crowd. What looked good for us four years ago doesn’t necessarily fit anymore as we grow as an organisation. We needed to move with the times and introduce something more contemporary and technology-driven.”
It’s an exciting phase for Equiniti as we continue to evolve our services, products and market position, and the growth of the company is manifested in our new fresh image as a technology-focused company.