A Fresh Lick of Paint for a National Estate Agent
Northwood are a well-established national lettings and estate agent with over 90 locally owned franchise offices and have been operating since 1995. While Northwood has a solid reputation for being a trustworthy estate agent that provides a quality service, they recognised the need of updating their brand to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving market including new online challenger brands entering the market. Following a competitive pitch process, Northwood chose to partner with Harrison Carloss to embark on a rebrand process.
Before we began any creative work, we undertook competitor research and also conducted a branding workshop with a group of Northwood franchisees and the Belvoir Group team. We looked to draw out exactly what needed to underpin the new brand and what was important to franchisees and their customers.
A Fresh New Look
We were tasked with giving the brand a fresher, more modern look, whilst also retaining the heritage of the brand including the Northwood ‘burgundy’ that staff and customers had come to know and love. We needed to deliver a new brand image that not only strengthened the estate agent’s national identity but also added significant value in enhancing their market positioning, customer engagement and attracting a wider demographic.
A New Chapter
We have developed the new brand identity for Northwood to modernise its overall look. The updated logo is still distinctly ‘Northwood’, maintaining the lower case ‘n’ for a softer look but adopts a more dynamic look, taking the previous ‘rooftop’ and adding a modern twist. The new Northwood rooftop icon encompasses both the apexes of houses whilst also representing the ‘n’ and ‘w’ from Northwood. The written Northwood logo also has a custom version of Red Hat Display with sharp angles protracting upwardly to represent the apexes of rooftops on relevant letters ‘t’, ‘h’ and the ‘d’.
Smarter Fixtures and Fittings
Harrison Carloss have then supported Belvoir Group with the brand roll out and execution for Northwood across both online and offline elements including shop fit outs, digital design and most importantly, for sale and to let boards.
The boards needed to stand out in a crowded and competitive space, so we threw away tradition and have incorporated a soft edged, die cut board leading with the two primary brand colours; ‘cherry burgundy’ and ‘indigo’.
A Brand New Outlook
Each one of Northwood’s 90 locally owned franchise offices will be updated with the new branding and have an overall refresh.
The typography has been switched for Red Hat Display and Nunito to give a warmer, friendlier feel to the brand whilst the rebrand also sees an overhauled colour palette. We’ve introduced a more vivid, bold shade of the ‘burgundy’ to complement the deep ‘indigo’, whilst elevating the old Northwood yellow with a warmer ‘gold’.
Kiara Simmance, Marketing Director at Belvoir Group, said:
Harrison Carloss designed the refreshed branding for Northwood and we couldn’t be happier with the results. They took the time to understand our business, our franchisees and our customers and came up with a brand that was just what we needed, an evolution not a revolution. The ongoing communication and project management was great, and we felt reassured throughout. The brand is now live and being tried and tested in the ‘real world’ and we’re still just as happy with the outcome. We look forward to working with Harrison Carloss for future Northwood marketing campaigns.
Adam Mobley, Managing Director at Harrison Carloss, comments:
We were thrilled to be chosen by Belvoir Group to rebrand Northwood. It’s a brand that we’re all familiar with and it’s in such a competitive space.
Being chosen to rebrand a national estate agent with such heritage and credibility in their sector was a fantastic creative challenge for the team at Harrison Carloss. We didn’t want to lose the recognition and respect the brand had built up over their almost 30 year heritage but also had to ensure it could compete in a modernising industry. We were all so proud when we saw that first Northwood for sale sign in the new brand!
About Harrison Carloss
Harrison Carloss is a strategic creative agency with 50 years of know-how behind them.
