Our Thoughts, insights and approach
We offer a number of different targeted strategy workshop services each aimed at uncovering the essential strategic building blocks for your unique organisation. We express these in a way that cross-functional and cross-level teams can understand and internalise.
Corporate Strategy
Corporate strategy is the inseparable friend of brand strategy. The two are interlinked and woven together by one golden thread: why.
Why do we exist?
What is our purpose?
Where are we going?
Without the foundation of a concrete corporate strategy the brand strategy is left simply teetering in the wind.
Research
Successful brands are relevant brands. Regardless of industry, all companies are in business to meet consumer needs. The African consumer landscape is as complex as it is fertile, and therefore needs a research approach that is sensitive to its uniqueness and intricacy. As part of Integra Africa’s ethos of basing sound strategy on ‘glocal’ insights, we are passionate about fostering an insight-conscious culture among marketers in Africa. We manage your Pan African research projects to ensure the uniformity and quality of data and most essentially the deep mining of insights. The so whats.
Brand Development
Brand development is the process of discovering and crafting your Tribal ID – Incredible Difference. What is the soul of your brand? What are the elements that support your Tribal ID, and does this position you in a space that is unique to your competition. There are many Brand Tribes in the world, many very similar in thought and action. Today you cannot afford to be grey; your Brand Tribe has to stand for something that is credible and differentiating!
Brand Strategy
Brand strategy is simply what it says it is, a plan. It’s a plan that is crafted, built and engineered. All of this done with one purpose, creating a framework for a brand to meet its objectives. Brand strategy should be rooted in and ultimately linked back to the brand’s vision, business purpose, values and objectives, constantly striving to remain differentiated, credible and relevant to its consumers. This consistent high quality brand experience is what produces valuable and enduring brands.
Naming
The art of naming is a battle fought to protect the strategic territory of the brand being named.
The tools we use are:sound principles, scientific methods, a good measure of uncommon sense and a generous amount of wisdom.
When it comes to naming only the most efficient, compelling and incredibly different names win. At Integra Africa we also develop effective nomenclature systems that support a strong brand architecture strategy. The combination of the above 2 elements allows for corporate growth and diversification.
Brand Architecture
Brand Architecture is defined as a “A brand structure tool that clarifies, defines and inspires current and future brand structures and interrelationships between all internal and external brand offerings.”
What does Brand Architecture do?
3 things:
- Defines relationships
- Expresses market strategy and positioning
- Ensures relevance
The name Integra is inspired by what we offer:
integrated marketing services.
Integrated marketing services ensure that the brand is an integral part of your business. We of course do this with integrity. The open end of the name Integra provides forward velocity and a sense of progress and strength.
Communication Strategy
A truly integrated communication strategy is without a doubt the soapbox of the integrated marketing process. Once we know who we are, what makes us special, different or better we can shout about it. Shouting about it is one thing but making sure we shout to the right people in the right way is essential. When it comes to communications there are really 3 defining pillars:
- relevance
- insights
- objectives
Communication doesn’t just happen, it must be skilfully organised, developed and built.
Design
One of the foundations of African culture is its rich heritage of story telling. When it comes to a story none of the characters exist in isolation. We feel the same about how corporate and brand identities co-exist within their environments. We know that interpreting brand strategy into a visual format, creating a visual representation of what a brand stands for is a crucial aspect of the branding process. After all your corporate identity becomes visual shorthand for the core of what you stand for, and it is therefore
crucial to do it right. But surely it can’t stop there? At Integra we recognise that brands need to shift from purely symbolism / iconistic
elements to a combination of these elements: incorporating iconic behaviours, defining brands through their total brand language and experience.
Our design capabilities include:
- Brand identity
- Corporate identity
- Enviromental design
- Retail design
- Packaging design