Earlier this month, I launched my new branding and a small change to my trading name which is now ‘Anna Lake Insight’. As last month’s ‘The Happy Client’ was all about how listening can support your brand journey, my own recent experience has presented me with the perfect opportunity to talk through how this might work in practice. So, here goes…
When I first set up my business, I’d wanted to call it ‘The Happy Client’ but it wasn’t possible as that business name was taken at the time. (It’s been great though, some years later, to have been able to weave that name into my activity through this monthly communication!) Back then, I had a young baby and a lively toddler, and just wanted to get going with the business. I didn’t have time to prevaricate and so went with ‘Anna Lake Consulting.’
My logo was more about me and my name, using a lake motif and colours I liked, but it didn’t really convey what I did. It did however land well with the people I met and there was no doubt that the branding helped me to stick in people’s minds.
As time moved on, I gained traction in the market, both in the professional services sector and in the South West region where I live and mostly network. I started thinking about how my business was evolving and how my brand should reflect what was happening. I toyed with several ideas, including ‘Anna Lake Listening’, but after doing my own market soundings with clients and trusted contacts, I decided I’d be better served by something that reflected the outcome I deliver for my clients rather than the service I offer to them.
In short, I deliver insight.
Insight that enables my clients to understand how their clients and other stakeholders feel about their business, their service and the relationships between them. This then helps them make evidence-based decisions about the action they need to take to retain clients or staff, attract new business or talent, and grow their business.
Although changing ‘consulting’ to ‘insight’ was easy enough in terms of the name, I wanted my visual identity to evolve too. I went back to the person who’d created my original branding and explained I wanted the next iteration to be bolder – expressing how the insight which I deliver leads my clients to reflect on next steps before taking the appropriate action. As I’ve said numerous times before, there’s no point in listening if you’re not going to do anything as a result!
Not only does the visual element of the branding now demonstrate the ‘reflection’ facet of my work, it’s also an expression of how my business has evolved – marking the progression of the original brand concept.
You’ll find the new branding (which of course goes beyond my logo) on my refreshed website – the culmination of a lot of thought about how I describe what I offer, the value I add and what it’s like to work with me.
Thank you if you’ve commented on any of this already, if you haven’t, and you’d like to, I’d love to hear from you, please do get in touch. I look forward to hearing from you!