Rebranding Whello

Abstract

Whello is a full-service digital marketing agency based in Amsterdam and Indonesia, offering branding, web development and campaigning services. They have grown a lot the last few years since their establishment in 2018. However, this growth is not reflected through their current branding. This, combined with their desire to take the next step by entering the international market, led them to the idea of a rebrand.

Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to develop and implement a new and improved brand image for Whello that better reflects their growth and positions them as a professional and experienced player in the international digital marketing industry. The project was performed in 3 overlapping phases to ensure an iterative process based on design thinking; the research phase, the ideation phase, and the implementation phase, to conceptualize, perform, and substantialize the rebranding of Whello.

First, to start off the research phase, literature research was conducted into rebranding, international branding, and business-to-business branding. The main insights gained from this, were that the new branding should not leave too much of what worked and is appreciated behind and should be based on a universally accepted idea that is continuously adaptable to nuances. Lastly, the rebranding should be used to bridge the gap of uncertainty by showing Whello’s experience and expertise, and thereby increasing the purchase confidence.

Second, the 5C analysis concluded the research phase. Key findings were that Whello's main strengths lie in their 3-step full service approach, together with their distinctive empathic approach with an emphasis on co-creation, communication, and synergy between their specialists. Another clear distinction was the friendly approach of Whello. Lastly, it was found that Whello sees a lot of depth in growth in terms of balancing growth for themselves, their customers, their employees, and the planet.

Then, the key findings, together with findings from a workshop with employees, were turned into a new brand identity through the ideation phase. This consisted of three sections; the identity, the brand, and the evidence, together setting a foundation for the implementation phase (Figure 1). From this Whello’s new brand identity was made to be empathic, cheerful, structured, and inspirational to show their strengths, growth and future vision.

Next, to help Whello with the implementation of their new brand identity, a Brand Guide was created and evaluated. This showed how the brand is translated visually and tonally, through a new logo design, colour palette, typography, key visuals, visual elements, tone of voice, and three brand touchpoint examples (one example can be seen in Figure 2). These examples were then also evaluated on whether they reflected the intended brand identity. This showed that most of the intended elements served their purpose, but that they should be used together, and that sustainability was not well recognized in the design.

Finally, the results of this thesis were evaluated on feasibility, desirability, and viability, after which limitations, implications, and recommendations were discussed and the thesis is concluded. Key takeaways were that the new direction can be used by changing the communication, but the implementation should be evaluated further to get more insights into which elements and configurations work best.