North Devon Homes

Brand refresh

The client

Based in Barnstaple, North Devon Homes (NDH) is a provider of affordable homes to the local community. Following its conversion from a housing association to a registered charity NDH were seeking a marketing agency to refresh its brand image.

Following a competitive pitch process we were appointed to deliver the project.

The challenge

In addition to the NDH brand there were also three ‘sub-brands’ that needed to be considered, namely:

  • Devon Home Link – NDH’s community alarm service.
  • Home 2 Home – NDH’s direct labour unit.
  • Team NDH – an internal staff-facing brand.
  • There was no consistency across the brands.

The solution

I undertook a brand audit exercise to understand the essence of the NHD brand and see how it fitted into its market place. This involved:

  • A series of facilitated brand workshops with three stakeholder groups (Executive Team, staff and users/suppliers).
  • An analysis of similar brands to see how they portrayed themselves.

Following this process I were able to provide a brand report summarising my key findings, which included:

  • A summary of the brand personality.
  • Five core brand values.
  • Recommendations on tone of voice.
  • Alternative strap line suggestions.

    Outcome

    The results from the brand audit informed the colours and style of the new logo designs. My designer developed several initial concepts and one overall style was chosen to be developed further into the final design.
    • A similar house shape was kept to enable brand recognition.
    • Blue was kept as the predominant colour, which represents loyalty, professionalism and reliability.
    • Simple shapes provided an affordable feel with some rounding to make the image friendlier.
    • The house shape was used as the basis of each sub-brand design for recognition and consistency.
    We also delivered a full set of brand guidelines.

    Client Comment

    "Alison and Emma were extremely professional and easy to work with throughout the project. We liked how they were honest and direct in their approach where necessary, which was really useful in helping us to keep focus when things were getting a little bit confused internally. Overall we are very pleased with the end result and our new logos."

    Rowan Summers, PR & Marketing Coordinator

    Straight Marketing
    Tawny Bank, Maer Lane
    Exmouth, Devon
    EX8 2DE

    07754 375078

    info@straightmarketing.co.uk
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