Rebranding to enter new markets: Designing a competitive brand strategy through service design process
Partanen, Jukka-Pekka (2021)
2021
All rights reserved. This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021111520303
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021111520303
Tiivistelmä
This thesis is about rebranding an original Finnish framework related to emotional skills and enabling it to be exported into the global marketplace in English. The framework is explained in a book titled Tunne, antitunne, perimä – first published in 1999 and currently available only in Finnish. The company holding the rights for the book has commissioned this thesis.
The existing brand has not been managed or marketed in a modern sense during its 34 years in operation. Therefore, the aim of this thesis project is to use service design (SD) as a method to complement and redefine the existing brand and to tailor the experience of engaging with it for new international audiences. The product of this thesis is a brand strategy containing essential brand elements, name suggestions for the brand and guidelines for the translation and management of the brand before, during and after the internationalization process.
In the literature review, branding and experience design are presented and discussed. Branding and rebranding are examined both as concepts and as processes, and the best practices for creating a brand strategy are explored in detail. Models for classifying and designing experiences are reviewed. The transition from theory to hands-on design work is made by creating a summary of chosen theoretical elements that serve as the lens through which the design phase is viewed.
Service design as a methodology is focused on in-depth understanding of different stakeholders, especially the end-user, co-creating solutions, prototyping and testing them with a focus group in an iterative loop. Desk research, semi-structured qualitative interviews, a user survey and brainstorming were used to gather data which was then analyzed and filtered to achieve the objectives of the first design phases. The interviews were also used to ideate, test and develop solutions.
As a product of the design process, the brand strategy was created. It contains 25 brand elements such as translations of the core concepts, target user personas, competitive advantages, values, vision, story, strategy, tone of voice, brand mantra and suggestions for a logo and a domain name. The end product enables the commissioner to immediately launch projects that make use of the strategy. The results met well the objectives of the project and provided a considerable amount of new information and insights as well as offered the commissioner the opportunity to develop their operation. The commissioner applauded the results and is going to put the brand strategy immediately into use.
Some parts of the end product are hidden for data sensitivity reasons.
The existing brand has not been managed or marketed in a modern sense during its 34 years in operation. Therefore, the aim of this thesis project is to use service design (SD) as a method to complement and redefine the existing brand and to tailor the experience of engaging with it for new international audiences. The product of this thesis is a brand strategy containing essential brand elements, name suggestions for the brand and guidelines for the translation and management of the brand before, during and after the internationalization process.
In the literature review, branding and experience design are presented and discussed. Branding and rebranding are examined both as concepts and as processes, and the best practices for creating a brand strategy are explored in detail. Models for classifying and designing experiences are reviewed. The transition from theory to hands-on design work is made by creating a summary of chosen theoretical elements that serve as the lens through which the design phase is viewed.
Service design as a methodology is focused on in-depth understanding of different stakeholders, especially the end-user, co-creating solutions, prototyping and testing them with a focus group in an iterative loop. Desk research, semi-structured qualitative interviews, a user survey and brainstorming were used to gather data which was then analyzed and filtered to achieve the objectives of the first design phases. The interviews were also used to ideate, test and develop solutions.
As a product of the design process, the brand strategy was created. It contains 25 brand elements such as translations of the core concepts, target user personas, competitive advantages, values, vision, story, strategy, tone of voice, brand mantra and suggestions for a logo and a domain name. The end product enables the commissioner to immediately launch projects that make use of the strategy. The results met well the objectives of the project and provided a considerable amount of new information and insights as well as offered the commissioner the opportunity to develop their operation. The commissioner applauded the results and is going to put the brand strategy immediately into use.
Some parts of the end product are hidden for data sensitivity reasons.