What are the challenges facing companies?
Jan Facchinetti: With the digitization of business processes, which is affecting all industries, many companies find themselves forced to rewrite the story of their brand. They must not only think about the visual appearance of their brand, but also what it stands for. Brands ahve to develop business models and ensure that they fulfil their brand promise at all touchpoints.
Kristin Janoschka: Many project enquiries focus on three aspects: automation, efficiency and flexibility. How, for example, can a new corporate design not only look good, but also minimize the effort in its application? We find the right solutions.
What are your solutions?
Kristin Janoschka: Always different, matching the respective goals and budgets. But in most cases it quickly becomes clear that it's not just about the design alone, but also about how to implement the design worldwide, for example. When do you start getting employees involved? How do you go about that? We have specialists for all these aspects. Strategists, designers, our interactive team, IT experts, architects – we bring them all together at one table.
How quickly do you network the various disciplines?
Jan Facchinetti: We have all the specialists in-house; freelancers are rarely used. We can put the teams together in no time at all, and are there right from the start. Each team has designated contact persons available, for example project managers who hand the day-to-day business. This enables us to launch and steer individual projects successfully and deal with challenges as they arise, while at the same time keeping an eye on the big picture.
Do customers ever come to you with precise ideas and you have to convince them that the problem is completely different?
Jan Facchinetti: That's actually almost the case. Still, our aim is not to convince the customer, but to develop an understanding for his wishes. If companies want a new corporate design from us, our first question is of course, "What are the developments in your company that have made you want to present yourself differently to the outside world?" We ask where the need for a new image comes from – and then very quickly reach a point where we talk about message management. Or another example: If we are commissioned to roll out a corporate design worldwide, then of course this is followed by the consideration of how those who have to work with the brand can be involved in this process.
Kristin Janoschka: When we accompany change processes, we become intinately acquainted with the company's internal processes. For companies, this presents a valuable opportunity – not only because we bring the external perspective with us, but also because employees are often more open to us than to their superiors. Employees are usually very honest with us and tell us unfiltered what is going well or badly. In this way we can help companies optimize their change processes.