Earlier this year you may have noticed a few changes to the Blerter brand - refinements that have helped us identify who we are, that will push us as we continue on our journey and that encapsulate our vision to see all great events, big or small, run on Blerter.
While immense challenges are still faced by the events industry as COVID-19 continues to whisk its way around the world and the light at the end of the tunnel may still be small, now is the time to be thinking about the future. Now is the time to make sure we are ready for the new normal, whatever that may look like - just as you will be doing with your own business and events.
How we position ourselves
Blerter hasn’t always been focused on the events industry. We began our life almost a decade ago as CloudM, which produced bespoke solutions that powered everything from civil defense alert systems to keeping workforces safe. Then, with a rich history in building health and safety products for many industries from construction, engineering and agriculture, we narrowed our focus to the event space - and it’s here we have found our home.
As with moving into any new industry, there were years of exploration, experimentation and a huge amount of understanding around how to solve the deep problems that we could build a business around and provide meaningful value to the events industry. But to scale means having to have immense clarity across the business, to make sure we are speaking with one voice and have a foundation to lean on when making decisions.
It was important that we understood what it is we do, how we do it, who we do it for, why we do it and what we value. And after many workshops, sticky notes, conversations with buyers and customers, and internal debates we put this together in our brand plan - a document that pulls everything onto one, easily accessible page.
While we can't share all of the details, what we can say is that it isn’t static. We will continue to iterate as the market changes, and innovate to deliver the tools needed to deliver safe, memorable and well managed events - no matter how complex, risky or ambitious they are.
How we tell our story
While positioning is an exercise of rationality and understanding the market, the personality of the brand is much more emotional. Every person in the company is different and has their own values and beliefs, but Blerter needs to speak with one voice that endures. A voice that represents our collective personality. Not an easy task.
We adopted the concept of archetypes as a methodology to develop this personality - these are universal, archaic symbols and images that derive from the collective unconscious, as proposed by Carl Jung. Leveraging the excellent Archetypes in Branding toolkit for creatives and strategists created by Margarett Hartwell we embarked on a journey that saw us come to the realisation that the Pioneer and the Citizen best embodied Blerter’s personality.
Drawing on this allowed us to create a simple statement of personality and character and define our key messages and capabilities with clarity - both internally, and as we recruit to find the right people to join our fast growing team.
How we look
Visual identity is the most visible element of the brand. In recent times Blerter has had a strikingly bold neon colour palette which has helped us to define ourselves in the market. So we didn’t want to lose this, rather to refine what we had so that it was more adaptable, had a level of refinement that better represented where we are as a business and reflected our personality.
Adopting refined gradients allowed us to soften the neon when needed, and inject out artwork with more energy to better align with our new personality. We chose fonts that embodied our bold, impactful new look, but would also adapt well for maximum readability across our web and app platforms. Our new graphical system with illustrations and icons allows us to better communicate features in our marketing and notifications within our applications.
What it means
As a product-led business we realise that our brand isn’t just visual. It isn’t just our logo, or our colours. It’s how we can take the experience we create as a brand through the entire business, from the way you interact with the product, to how you receive your invoice. A brand that aligns us and embraces personas to help us to build empathy and understanding of our buyers and users to make sure we’re solving real problems and creating experiences that delight at every touch point across the customer journey.
