One of the largest tanning salon chains in the country found themselves with a bit of an identity crisis: the brand was respected within the industry, but the company wasn’t connecting to or retaining its ideal customers and franchisees. Worse still, its outdated brand design was reaching the wrong audience.

As with many growing franchises, TanCo’s undefined brand standards had resulted in a lack of continuity throughout its locations, marketing and advertising, and online presence. Understanding that a well-defined brand would be integral to maximizing new market penetration initiatives and overall growth, TanCo contracted IDealogic® to develop a modern brand that would help the company meet its defined goals.

When we began working with The Tan Company, it was already an established franchise, respected in the franchise industry, and a major industry leader in its markets. And though the company had a strong customer base in place, they weren’t the sort of loyal and passionate clients that would help push the company to new heights.

Our task was to raise the company’s perceived value by redesigning its brand identity to reflect the luxurious, high-end feel its ideal customers were seeking. We knew that the company needed to identify with its ideal customers in order to align with the lifestyles they lived (or aspired to live). We envisioned a new brand that resonated with its audience in the same way high-end brands like Louis Vuitton, Versace, and Gucci resonate with their customers: with an image that showcases extravagance, affluence, and luxury. Our goal was to establish the brand as a companion to those well-known luxury brands by elevating its identity to adhere to the same essence. We also incorporated into our strategy a revitalization of the brand by shortening the name to something more memorable and luxe. And so the TanCo brand was born.

We first initiated our rebrand strategy with customer segmentation. We needed to help the brand get to know its ideal clients on a deeper level. By understanding their lifestyles—and, more importantly, the lifestyles they aspired to have—we were able to exclude their less-engaged customers and target their ideal customers directly. TanCo’s ideal audience are brand conscious, fashion-forward people who take pride in their appearance, love looking great, and enjoy the luxuries of life. So we created a lavish, indulgent brand identity that appeals specifically to them. Along with custom photography we shot on location in a 20,000 square foot estate, we designed the brand’s style to emphasize the finer things in life. We utilized deep golds to imply luxury—an opulent twist on the colors used in some of their locations—and created a logo pattern (symbolic of many high-end brands) that brought a high-end, custom element to the company’s image. In doing so, we created a brand standard aesthetic that is fashion-forward, modern, and visually stunning.

The new TanCo brand identity hit all the right notes. It is luxuriously high-end—the kind of brand its ideal customers and franchisees were seeking. The brand standards we created were quickly implemented; and as a result, the brand’s perceived value—along with sales and memberships—increased dramatically.

• The output of franchise businesses in nominal dollars is projected to increase 6.2% in 2018 to $757 billion and grew 5.6% in 2017 (IHS Markit Economics).

• The number of franchise establishments in the U.S. is expected to increase 1.9% in 2018 to 759 thousand (IHS Markit Economics).