I started a business. It made me want to drink copious quantities, smoke myself into oblivion and hit my head against a brick wall. Instead I wrote a blog.
It's always a hard call making a divisive decision, especially when in the past you have been a people-pleaser. But building a brand that sticks out in peoples' minds requires strength and definition.
For a while now we have been getting feedback like -
Where do I go to get this?
There are too many calls to action on the front page.
Right, am on the site - where are the downloads?
What do you actually do?
The homepage which I adored over a year ago when it was designed, was too textual for many, the inclusion of product titles risky because some were clearly directed at one end of the spectrum e.g. corporate finance professionals and at the other home run start-up businesses. As one user put it -
'I see the acronym IRR and I want to run a mile.'
So within the design of the home page (all there is money for redesign right now and our focus for this week) we looked at getting rid of text as far as possible, making the calls to action simple and explanatory (albeit keeping our sense of humor) directed to one audience - our clients. We made a judgement call on keeping posts to the blog, reviews, twitter and Q&A because of the helping hand this gave the SEO but when we had pretty much finalized the layout, a curveball came out of the blue...(literally the blue)
'I like the layout, but the blue color of the logo has nothing outlaw nothing rebellious about it.'
'It's normal' I explained, 'we started out as corporate, finance focused - what I might have called in the old days quite professional. We've developed our brand further, but the actual colors and logo haven't changed.'
'You're using the same color scheme as LinkedIn.' said one consultant as I scurried off to have a look. He was right.
Blue, Grey, Blah.
'But what can we do about it now? There's no money for a rebranding exercise.' I said worriedly.
'Two ticks am dreaming something up on photoshop.' He said, before shooting me off an image that made me gag.
It was our site. In purple. Specifically, the entire background was purple (the rest hadn't changed).
'You see' he typed on Skype ' that change is just one HEX color code and very simple to do. Your brand represents innovation but there's nothing innovative about the way it looks.'
Of course the key decision to be made was WHAT color we should go for which would change perceptions. Shock but evoke curiosity instead of repulsion. And equally how would this color contrast or adhere to the palette of the rest of the site.
It so happened that in our secondary color palette we did have already a fairly controversial color. Mustard Orange.
We had used it on occasion for picking out some site buttons but in general it wasn't used. So we tried it out. I mocked up a front page (in excel of course as photo shop is beyond me...) and sent it out to 5 users for feedback.
'It draws the wrong connotations from people - Coward, Sickly, Poorly, Cheap.'
'It's wonderful. orange for creativity and new life, yellow for confidence inner strength and will power. I love it.'
'Yellow. Poo. Vomit. And it makes me feel anxious.'
'That's so much better.'
It feels modern and new. Plus mustard flower remedy is traditionally used for improving melancholy.'
(Obscure? Well yes. But it cheered me up :-)
I feel that this is the right direction for us, even if this is a 'Marmite' kind of decision (love it or hate it!). And certainly in the absence of an entire rebranding exercise, the best we can get for now. I strongly believe that making a bold statement such as the background color will distinguish us from others and represent us as a real 'New breed of consultancy'.
But when some people are so against it, especially as they have been those who have been tremendously supportive until now, losing buy-in causes me some disquiet.
Luckily, the change of the background color does remain one code. And it's a ten minute job to change. So let's see what the market has to say when it goes live ....