Lucy Hurst on Crafting a Unique Identity in Crowded Markets

Managing Director, Sherbet Donkey Media

Could you tell us about your business and its brand identity?

Sherbet Donkey is a fast growing digital marketing agency based in the West Midlands, but servicing both national and international clients. We've always had a strong focus on delivering innovative and effective marketings solutions for our client and we've quickly established ourselves as leaders within the industry, which happens to be a fairly crowded one incidentally.

There is no "one thing" that makes our brand identity, it's a combination of our mission, our vision, our values, our brand voice, our logo, the colours we use, the style of our images, our team images, our brand fonts and, of course, ensuring that all the above are echoed across all platforms and mediums.

How has your unique brand identity contributed to the success and recognition of your business in the market?

I believe that our brand identity has definitely contributed and helped to set us apart from other businesses within the industry. Branding is so much more than just a logo and our core values include working with passion, communicating candidly, inspiring growth through long- lasting connections and striving to be the best.

Can you share the journey of how you developed and refined your brand over time?

There are certain core values which haven't changed and neither has our mission which is to empower other businesses with exceptional marketing, stunning websites, and engaging content to skyrocket leads and smash sales targets.

We have always loved to see our clients do well. We have developed, changed and refined our logo, the colours, the image style and brand fonts as we've grown as an agency and feel that our brand identity today is truly embodies the agency's commitment to creativity, innovation, and forward thinking approach to marketing.

Branding in crowded markets can be challenging. What obstacles did you face in establishing a strong brand, and how did you overcome them?

You're right, it can be challenging. Like I mentioned previously, branding is so much more than a logo and I think setting yourself with your mission, values, and vision can be an important step. It's also important to ensure that you stick to your brand guidelines across all mediums where you want to be recognised.

How do you ensure that every customer interaction reflects your brand identity, and why is this consistency important?

Our values are engrained within our workplace culture. We have nearly 40 fantastic employees who all share our values. Consistency is important because your brand identity should reflect who you are as a business and ensuring that it remains consistent will mean that you are more identifiable to your potential customers.

In practical terms, how do you measure the impact and success of your branding efforts?

There are a few ways you can measure the impact and success of your branding efforts. You can track brand recall and recognition, you can monitor website and/ or social media analytics to see how your messaging is being received by your target audience. You can analyse sales data- how are customers finding you? You can also monitor "Click Through Rates". If you want to keep things simple though, then just get feedback from staff, family, friends who you know will be candid with you.

Can you share an example of a branding misstep, what you learned from it, and how it influenced your approach going forward?

I genuinely can't think of any major missteps we've had. We always start by getting to know our clients along with their target audience, niche, mission, values, vision etc. Our team of expert creatives then go away and put together and provide several stylescapes, and they'll all take a different approach, to our clients' and then we encourage client feedback and thoughts as to what worked for them and what didn't so that we can provide a finalised stylescape for them.

What key pieces of advice would you give to new businesses trying to establish a strong brand in a competitive market?

Identify what makes you different from the majority of other businesses within your market.