Brand reflections

There are many ways businesses approach brand change. Some spend lots of money, some not enough. Some will use it to form a strategy, and never find it. And others rush into it, creating only a thin fragile veneer. Some are only interested in the colours.

Brand should reflect your business and its goal, not your favourite colour.

IRESS established its new brand proposition in 2019. For some time we knew that Iress’ brand and external statements about the company needed to change (or even exist). But in addition to ensuring we were ready to (operationally) activate a new brand, we also spent time to ensure that we were clear on who we were and what we stand for. Iress had grown quickly and successfully, but we hadn’t ensured that the external image was accurate. Our self-description was absent, as our focus had been on the sum of the parts, but we knew that the sum was more compelling than the components.

Many people only knew us for the part of Iress they were familiar with — they didn’t really know who we were, what we stood for or how we could help them in a way that extended beyond a software product and its functionality. We needed to better present who Iress is.

As a technology company, we’re here to help our clients perform better, every day. And we aim to be the essential partner for forward-thinking financial services businesses.

In addition to essential partnerships, desirability has been an important attribute for Iress’ behaviour and brand. We don’t want our software to be seen as something that people use just because they have to, we want to make essential financial services software that’s desirable as well.

Looking back on what sat behind our brand exercise was a good opportunity to think about why desirability was an important brand attribute for Iress and insight into the ways we think about getting things done and outcomes at Iress. An enjoyable chat and look back with Iress’ Matthew Holland and brand expert Michael Gough of Sparks Studio.

🎧 Listen here — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1566881519?i=1000527167747