Trusted to deliver a major re-brand

Focussing on evolution, not revolution, the process looked to retain elements of the company's existing branding whilst making the logos and tagline more well-suited to the modern world of social media and e-commerce.

Beginning in August 2020, we were approached by IronmongeryDirect and ElectricalDirect to facilitate an overarching rebrand of the company’s logo and tagline. The decision to embrace change was driven by a recognition of the businesses’ ongoing dedication to delivering an enhanced customer experience, central to the brands’ ethos. Additionally, the new rebranding process presented an opportunity to align both brands more closely from a visual perspective with its parent company, The Manutan Group - a European leader in B2B e-commerce.

To begin with, we worked with IronmongeryDirect and ElectricalDirect to identify areas of weakness within its current branding offer. Following a consultation with a number of key stakeholders, it was decided that the existing offering was unrepresentative of the company’s true values. For one, the existing tagline ‘Masters Of Our Trade’ didn’t chime with the company’s strong customer centric approach. Above anything else, the company prides itself on the incredibly strong relationships it has built with professionals and suppliers alike across various trades. Moving forward, it was decided that this needed to be better represented in the overarching branding.

Working alongside these stakeholders, we developed a new tagline: ‘Trusted to Deliver’, which more succinctly communicates what makes the company so great. Better still, it was equally applicable to both sides of the business and reinforced what sets both IronmongeryDirect and ElectricalDirect apart from its competitors. In particular, the new wording underlined the company’s strong logistics division, which is able to ensure accurate and on-time deliveries consistently. Together, both sides of the business can be trusted to deliver quality products on-time, with great value and with excellent customer service.

From a visual perspective, the rebranding process allowed the company to work more effectively within the digital sphere. The previous logos had been designed in a pre-social media era and this had started to cause issues – for instance, when shrunk in size, or displayed on certain social channels, the text-heavy logos could look squashed. As a team, we therefore adopted a social first approach to designing the new logos, ensuring the new identities would look great no matter where they were used.

Flexibility was also a key consideration when designing the new logo. As a business, IronmongeryDirect and ElectricalDirect continue to expand into new markets, particularly as the broader construction market evolves with changing building practices and trends. Thanks to the new design, the companies can easily adapt the rebranded logos to accommodate any potential future expansions. To this end, the new design serves as a template, which can be tweaked further down the line without major concern. What’s more, this uniformity of design between different sections of the business also helps to reinforce the overall visual identity of the brand.

All in all, the new branding provides a much better representation of what sets IronmongeryDirect and ElectricalDirect apart from its competitors. Whether that be the more aligned colour choices, the engaging logo, or even the new tone of voice the company takes when putting together external copy, it’s now clearer than ever that this is a business with its customers at its heart. Of course, as an integrated construction marketing agency we were able to fully support the rebranding process with our public relations experience. As such, we helped to ensure the new branding was properly promoted online, as well as in the relevant trade titles.