We’ve been practicing what we preach by investing in our own marketing recently. As a first step to analysing the alignment of our internal and external brand, we conducted an internal survey in order to generate real insights to feed into our SWOT analysis. The team’s responses make for interesting reading...

When this rebrand came to our attention on April 1st, it was obviously an April Fool's, wasn’t it? Companies House, ‘the foundation of company information exchange in the UK’ is a major government-run organisation that all businesses have to deal with on a regular basis. Considering this, you'd think that communicating a sense of authority through a strong brand identity would be high on their list of priorities. Unfortunately, the new look lacks any sort of credibility. We doubt very much that the new logo is what any business owner would expect to see when visiting the authority that is Companies House, and because of this it fails completely.

We’ve seen a rise in campaigns to promote Britain in the run up to the Olympics. This was one of the first of 2011, launched in April with an aim, according to Boris, "to showcase London as the best city to visit, invest and study in." The logo is yet another visual identity for the capital, but crucially, it fails to capture the essence of the city, and as a result fails to create an emotional connection with its target audience. We’re all for simplicity in design, but this was not simplicity done well.

In November, we were impressed by the launch of Avios - a strategically remodelled version of Airmiles, which had lost relevance and popularity. It all looked so promising, and we had high hopes. In December, we were disappointed to see that the roll-out, which should have inspired, has instead fallen flat, with an unimaginative email campaign and website. The TV advertising campaign looks like Avios chose an off-the-shelf concept, simply slapping their logo on top of it. To make an impact, every piece of communication should be a natural extension of the brand.