Why Every Business Should Look Forward to a Brand Refresh

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Business owners are like a proud parent loving their child unconditionally. The branding and logo that their business was born with may have taken them far, but eventually, the brand messaging and design must grow and evolve with the times.  So why then are so many business owners hesitant of the idea of rebranding or refreshing their brand?

Just like any homeowner knows, your home needs to be maintained and renovated over the years to stay safe and valuable. When a homeowner fixes their roof or upgrades to all-new stainless steel appliances, it is an investment. The same goes for a business owner who is invested in their branding. Everytime you refresh your brand, it is like getting a haircut. We can all appreciate that feeling of looking new and improved.

A rebrand or brand refresh does not necessarily mean an entirely new, unrecognizable company. There are many elements to a brand to consider when renovating, i.e. the logo, the fonts, the color palette, the message, the photography, and anything in between may need to be reimagined or enhanced over time in order to stay cutting-edge and connect with new audiences.  

We recently went through a renovation of our own! Digital Neighbor started with an internal focus group and found that while we were excelling with our client work, we were putting our own branding on the backburner  So, we invested in improving our own home for the new decade and we’re so happy we did! Here is our story:

As a marketing agency called Digital Neighbor, we’ve always been inspired by the philosophy of being neighborly and caring ab=out our community’s success. However, we realized there was room for improvement to bring our digital passion to the visual forefront.

Before:

Digital Neighbor Logo

After:

Digital Neighbor - SEO Agency Logo

The result is a better reflection of who we truly are. The clean sans serif font and computer mouse represent the digital space, while the serif font and fireplace represent our neighborly compassion. It’s not just a logo change for us, this brand refresh empowered us to enhance our brand photography and social media story. It’s amazing what a new hairdo can do!

Examples of rebranding

Here are some of our favorite recent rebrands from companies of all sizes!

Nonprofit Local Organization

American Advertising Federation Tampa Bay

AAF Tampa Bay went through a complete brand overhaul. The Tampa chapter’s logo and website had not been touched over a decade, so it did not match their creative organization in the modern times.

Before:

Old logo before

After:

New logo - after

Local Businesses

Port Tampa Bay used to be called Tampa Port Authority, and although it is currently Florida’s largest port, handling over 37 million tons of cargo per year, the brand knew it lacked brand awareness and excitement. Not anymore!

Before:

Tampa Port Authority logo before

After:

Port Tampa Bay logo after

Magical Butter is a cannabis company here in Tampa Bay that has been growing tremendously with their products for cannabis-infused recipes. Transforming from a scrappy startup to a corporate leader, the team went through a complete new look that will take them far.

Before:

Magical Butter logo before

After:

Magical butter logo after

Global Business

We all know the coffee brand Dunkin’ Donuts which recently shook the world by renaming their business Dunkin’. Words matter!

Before:

Dunkin Old Logo

After:

Dunkin New Logo

We can help your business stay cutting-edge with a brand refresh

It’s amazing to see all of these different brands stay true to their roots, but move forward in a positive direction and continue to grow their business. If you are interested in discussing your brand and possible renovations, connect with us here.

Chatbots vs Humans: How to Determine the Time & Place for a Tool Versus a Friendly Neighbor

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Chatbot marketing is a tactic that allows you to always engage in customer service; even when you are personally away from your phone or computer. A chatbot is a computer application that is pre-programmed to respond to your visitors; when using the help of artificial intelligence, your chatbot can also ask appropriate questions and provide human-like responses. 

Brands and companies use chatbot almost as a virtual assistant; and can connect the program not only directly to their website but to Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Snapchat, etc. There are many benefits of using a chatbot, including saving time and money while still offering 24/7 support, speeding up payment processes, boosting engagement, and pulling in data for analysis or lead generation. 

However, just like humans, chatbots are not perfect. Each company will have different needs and interactions with customers. For example a retail company may be able to set up their bot to take orders, ask for sizing or measurements, etc. where a more service-based company, such as a law firm, may get a wider variety of questions or needs that are too broad to be answered by a bot. 

When setting up a chatbot, you need to take into consideration your customers’ needs in order to alleviate any risk of upsetting those who want to speak to a person, or risk having your chatbot provide responses that are not appropriate to the questions asked, leading to frustration. How do you decide when to be a friendly neighbor to your site visitors and guests, versus setting up a bot that can provide answers outside of your usual 9-5 window? 

We put our thoughts to the test by communicating with the chatbot linked to a local businesses website, Lunchpool, which is a virtual networking platform that was founded by a St. Petersburg local. Lunchpool uses Smallchat, which is a bot service that is connected through Slack, so the messages go directly to a Slack team channel; which is an app that can be opened on your phone or on your desktop.

We were pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a sleek looking bot, and asked to share our email address for follow up. Within minutes, we received a personal message directly from the Lunchpool founder, Alex Abell, himself! This is a great example of how to determine the best timing to shift from a bot to a human; but still use a bot to intake your first few messages, saving the team time and providing a positive experience.

As self-admitted nerds on chatbot marketing, our team at Digital Neighbor has utilized a few different techniques both on our own website and when working with our clients. Our biggest piece of advice for companies setting up a bot is to make it as transparent as possible, letting your customers know they are speaking with a bot and that a human will be helping them as soon as possible.

Bots are great for drip-chat techniques, weeding out the questions that can be easily asked and recorded, allowing the customer service representative or the live responder to have information before speaking to the customer that can help prepare them for a more streamlined conversation.  
If you are curious how a bot can benefit your company, or if chatbot marketing will be worth a try for your business, send a note to our chatbot named Roger, and we’ll be in touch soon to help answer the question of Chatbots versus Humans!

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Want to learn even more?

Whether you have a simple SEO question or want to have a deep conversation about your digital strategy, we’re all ears. Contact us today for a chat or to learn how we can put our digital marketing expertise to good use for your business.