On occasion an existing product develops a new usage and, as a result, a new customer base. It is at these times that your brand may need to pivot. A good design firm will know how to address a new audience while still maintaining your company’s core beliefs and identity. It’s about expanding the brand not changing it.

Just because you are a start-up doesn’t mean you want to look like a rookie. If you get a creative involved early enough, you can develop your brand identity so that you come out of the gate feeling confident in who you are and how you appear to the outside world.

To create ads that truly speak to your customers’ needs and desires, one has to understand the product or service one is selling thoroughly. Whether for a product, a service, or an idea, advertising should differentiate your business and stimulate its audience. A designer needs to become your “ultimate wingman.”

To many of us, our uniqueness is what makes us great. But if you are part of a large national brand, how can you stand out. The right design firm can create a “brand within a brand” and provide marketing materials that stay within corporate guidelines and pass compliance.

The reason that most small businesses stay small is because they don’t have access to the same talent that larger businesses do. The right design can make a small business look large, make a large business look smart, and put a medium size business permanently on the map.

Why have an in-house art department when your day-to-day creative needs aren’t quite every day? Sometimes a small design firm can provide large agency capabilities in a smarter, more responsive structure. They will be more motivated to keep your business, and you will only pay them for what you need.

The need for promotional campaigns go beyond selling products, it goes to the very essence of marketing—reminding people you’re still here! Whether it’s monthly, seasonal or even just once a year you need to have your brand stay in the conversation. If you’re not promoting yourself, they’re not listening.

Sometimes you have to evolve to stay fresh, but can you do that while you maintain your “brand equity”? It might be time to ask yourself, “How recognizable is my brand right now, anyway?” and, “Does my current brand really portray who I want people to see me as?”

Whether you are designing editorial for print or digital, consumer facing or “business to business” the principle is always the same, know whom you are talking to. When it succeeds everything is where the reader expects it to be and images and graphics actually enhance the written word.