Transforming the Personal Development School
Overview
When I first joined The Personal Development School, an online wellness learning platform that offers self-growth, relationships, and attachment theory education, the brand was facing several challenges that hindered its growth and market presence. My primary goal was to rebrand the company to reflect its founder’s core values, connect with a defined target audience, and elevate the overall aesthetic to align with our strategic goals. This case study outlines the comprehensive process undertaken, from data research to content creation, that resulted in a successful rebranding of The Personal Development School.
Challenges
The initial brand identity of The Personal Development School lacked coherence across platforms and did not meet design or compliance standards. Specific challenges included outdated visuals, inconsistent messaging and tone, and a widely undefined brand guidelines document. Additionally, there was a significant lack of strategic data to drive branding and business decisions that needed to be collected and organized.
Photoshoot Planning: Organized and executed multiple professional photoshoots to capture high-quality visuals that reflect our new brand identity for all channels. These would later be used for press releases to maintain a professional presence in corporate markets.
Brand Strategy: Developed a clear brand strategy defining their purpose, vision, mission, values, and brand persona. This fundamental information expanded into guidelines for copywriting, photography, videography, and content creation for consistency and clarity.
Content Creation: Produced cohesive and engaging content for our website, social media, and marketing campaigns that align with our new brand voice and aesthetics. This included revamping course material, web pages, social media content, and conference print materials.
Brand Development: Created a new brand identity to be cohesive through a modified logo, expanded color palette, clean typeface, iconography, and image library. To increase efficiency, I created templates for recurring assets for the broader team to use.
Workflows and Structures: Implemented team-wide structures for creative execution and content creation, which reduced team overwhelm and increased quality for more extensive, recurring tasks. Established wellness check-ins to support staff and foster a positive work place.
Solutions
To address these challenges, I embarked on a thorough rebranding process, collaborating with the executive team, that included data-driven research, strategic planning, and creative execution. The solutions implemented were as follows:
Data Research: Conducted comprehensive market research to understand our audience's preferences and perceptions. This involved analyzing user surveys, researching market trends, and conducting a competitor analysis.
Results
Since rebranding The Personal Development School, we observed significant positive changes across the business. We continued to expand and evolve as a team. Our website saw increased visitors with an improved user experience. Our social media presence grew substantially, reflecting higher follower counts and greater platform engagement. Customer feedback was positive, with many users praising the new, cohesive brand identity. Internally, our workflows became more streamlined, reducing task completion times and enhancing team efficiency. Staff morale was improved thanks to new structures and wellness initiatives. The new professional brand presence assisted in gaining positive media partnerships from publications like Forbes and Psychology Today and an invite to the UK Business Tradeshow Show in 2023. Our market analysis indicates a strengthened position relative to competitors, with improved brand recognition and a clearer value proposition.
MY Project roles
UX Researcher, Brand Strategist, Graphic Designer, UX Designer, Creative Lead
Collaborators
Product Manager - Raina Kanjirappallil
Copywriter - Sylva Sivzattian
Video Editors - Cuauhtemoc Velazquez and Andrew Chisholm