Common Questions (click on each to reveal the answer)
Your brand is what you stand for in the hearts and minds of others—what they think and feel about you. Branding aligns your business strategy with your unique story and your emotional value to stakeholders. Our branding systems provide the language, tools and assets you will use every day, year after year, to strengthen your brand value at every touchpoint.
Branding focuses on defining and articulating the essence of your brand, and providing tools and assets you will use every single day to strengthen and grow your brand year after year. It is the creative foundation from which all marketing and advertising activities are developed. Marketing is a strategic plan of action to communicate the brand message through various channels, utilizing the tools we provide. Advertising sells the brand through timely multi-media campaigns that must change regularly to stay relevant. Graphic design is a tool of branding, marketing and advertising just like photography, copywriting, videography, animation, illustration, etc.
Ripe has worked with hundreds of clients in dozens of industries. Of more importance to us than your line of work is your focus on excellence. We like working with top-notch businesses, doing innovative, industry-leading work—high achievers who push us to do the same. We seek business owners and marketing directors who are pioneers and visionaries, who embrace change as a catalyst for increasing success. Who are open-minded to exploring creative ideas and not compromising the creative process. Who have great potential and know we can help them tap it.
We have worked in dozens of industries over the years. But no matter which one you are in, we will do a deep dive into it; as well as into your target audiences, competition and marketplace. Our strength is developing unique branding systems for any and all arenas of the business sector. Not focusing on just one, and recycling old ideas.
This is an investment in your business—to drive it to the next level of success. It's not inexpensive. A full branding system can equal the cost of hiring a marketing director for one year. However, the results are long-term and used to drive all aspects of your marketing, promotional and advertising strategies. The actual cost is dependent on the scope of work and your budget.
We ask clients to focus on the project goals and what is working in the design, not what isn't. Constructive input can spark new ideas and strengthen the designs. Avoid focusing on personal aesthetic preferences, pre-conceived ideas or arbitrary opinions from outside sources who are not part of the process. This can undermine the ability to achieve set goals, make the design less effective, or even derail the project.
There is a difference. Are you refreshing your look but not re-evaluating who you are as a company? Or has your business changed drastically over the years, necessitating you to re-align your thinking and re-invent your brand language? Many customers are in between. Their business has grown, strengthened and evolved, but they never did any deep branding work in the past and need a system now in order to move to the next level.
It normally requires nine to twelve months to create and set up a new comprehensive branding system, depending on the scope of work required. After that initial year we continue to explore, expand and evolve with you as the company grows. Many of our clients have been working with us for more than ten years.
Because the ROI of branding is so large, it can literally double the value of your business. We have been doing this for over twenty years and have seen dramatic results with clients again and again. Our clients become more successful because of our work—without exception.
The primary results of our work are: build unity and clarify purpose internally; create a system of visual and verbal branding tools and elements that makes communicating your brand value efficient and effective; increase impact and curiosity in the marketplace; strengthen customer loyalty; expand business opportunities and become more relevant, more interesting and more successful.
People who don't want change. Those who want to do only the minimum required—achieving only minimal results. Companies that don't have a passion for being the best. We don't work with those who want someone to produce their idea and are not open to ours, or are hyper-controlling over the creative process. And we don't work with people who lack a realistic budget to pay for professional creative services.
Since branding requires a holistic approach, we rarely do a single project for a new client. All of the projects we do for our clients build on the previous ones and are designed to strengthen the ongoing brand message.
No. We can develop brand-centric design for social media but we do not post social media for clients.
Mutually respectful, collaborative and transformative to your business - that's the goal. And that's the result.
