Durkan

A new look for a market leader with a distinctive tone of voice, strengthening communication and messaging to their people customers and stakeholders

Brief

Evolving the brand and proposition to take the company to the next level

Having worked with Durkan for a number of years we gained a great understanding of the character of the business and the markets in which they operate. The project started when we were approached to look at how the company communicates it’s proposition to the outside world. The company was aware it needed to evolve to align closer with their aspirations and the changing nature of the contractor/developer market.
On reviewing all the company’s messaging the project expanded into a larger full scale re-branding exercise followed by the development a new website.

Objective

To define and align the Durkan brand to match the needs of a challenging and evolving market place, to ultimately position the company in the strongest possible position to allow the business to continue to grow and prosper.

Client: Durkan
Services: Branding, website
Sector: Construction
Medicine Man
Medicine Man
Medicine Man

Approach

During our Explore stage it was critical to understand how the business perceived itself internally and externally.

We conducted a series of interviews to gain insight, revealing all the positive attributes whilst exposing the key challenges. It was important to refocus the business proposition statements and align Durkan’s identity closely to their vision and aspirations going forward.

Brand Refresh

We started the branding process by asking a lot of questions and then asking a few more! You can never ask enough questions, we wanted to understand the businesses emotional connection to the existing brand. We explored the history of brand symbols to help understand the evolution and relationships they may have formed over the generations. Durkan’s legacy as a family owned business was a central focus, the tone of voice needed to represent this personal and rich culture. The renewed identity reflected a new and confident Durkan that was responsive and poised for the future. The brand language was brave and bold breaking away from the industry stereo types allowing Durkan to create a clear point of difference in the market place.

Website

Once the new brand identity and communication language were defined, our digital team began to explore content structure and user experience journeys. It was established during the early planning stages that the website needed to have scope to integrate with data management systems supported by a comprehensive CMS backend. The launch of the new website was a big asset to the Durkan marketing strategy, driven with regular news feeds and insight; it has given the business greater reach and cemented a strong brand presence in the contractor and developer sector.

Results

The new brand was launched in spring 2017 with fantastic feedback from both internal and external audiences. A new set of comprehensive brand guidelines were produced to support Durkan in their future growth and to maintain brand consistency in all communication.

To follow up the new website was launched a few weeks later giving the company the digital presence to match the impact of the new brand. The fully responsive website carries the new brand message/identity and delivers a comprehensive Umbraco CMS system. The system was designed to allow for easy content update and news story input to keep the site content fresh.