Turning Brand Vision into Reality: Implementation Essentials

Tell us about the genesis of the rebrand of IFM by Base. What were the main challenges?

Delphine Wharmby: The main challenge was the ambition of the project itself: turn IFM, which was a reputed small-size French-centric school, into one of the best fashion schools in the world. On top of that, manage the merger of two different schools with two very different identities while moving to a newly remodeled campus. The timing also presented a challenge in that it was quite short; we had one year between December 2017 and January 2019 to complete the transformation. The work to be done encompassed a large scope: brand strategy (including rebranding and naming of the school), devising a communication plan, creating a brand book with various applications, and finally the website.

One of the biggest difficulties was to find an approach which was acceptable to all 3 pillars of the school (fashion design, craftsmanship and fashion management), especially since we ended up keeping the name of one of the 2 schools (IFM) while changing its perception.

Base really helped us find the right tone-of-voice and gave us an amazing toolkit with lots of applications which allowed us to immediately hit the ground running with our in-house graphic designer.

Florence Belleville: The building's transformation posed challenges, particularly in raising creation as a focal point for prospective students – this made a very complex but exciting brief. A key challenge was anchoring creation as the school's forte, as IFM was previously known more for its Masters of Management programs. So, there was a big challenge regarding visibility, as well as the complexity of the name. We decided to capitalize on the strong brand recognition of the IFM name, repositioning the school as an existing entity with renewed focus.

Pre-merger, IFM gained recognition for its fashion business master's programs. The merger allowed us to introduce new programs and align the curriculum with European standards. Opening the scope of our student audience required that we incorporate more English into our communication, so we decided to play around with this with “franglais”, mixing the French and English languages. It’s something we still push on today to reinforce the blending of different cultures and backgrounds that is evident in our diverse student body.

IFM is one of the top fashion schools in the world. How did you organize the rebranding implementation in the institution, both internally and externally? On-site and online?

DW: Base organized several workshops at the very start of the rebranding process which were very efficient in helping representatives from different departments work together on the school’s values, and having everyone agree on the overall strategy. We continued this collaborative approach in the implementation phase, working with the creative teams closely. And we offered training sessions to all the staff to help them understand the way the school wished to communicate.

Externally, our best ally was our Dean, who put a lot of effort into explaining our project to our stakeholders and the fashion ecosystem at large. We organized lots of events, big and small, including opening Paris Fashion Week with our graduate shows. And our second main ally was our campus, which had been completely renovated. When you walk through the doors, you can feel the energy of the brand, a creative place where the future of fashion is being made.

FB: As ambassadors of the IFM brand, we followed Base's advice and shared the new brand guidelines with everyone. Once the custom typefaces were developed, we distributed them to professors and students, encouraging them to personalize their use. While we continually remind them of the usage rules, we also allow them creative freedom to feel part of the transition. Integrating these new tools required significant support, especially as it was a departure from our corporate culture. However, everyone's unique creativity enriched the new identity.

To enhance our external image, we collaborated with Base to develop a new website. Base's designer, Léa Wolf, who spearheaded the new identity creation, worked closely with our internal designer to ensure seamless implementation of the brand toolbox in website content creation.

Describe two very specific moments of the implementation of the new IFM identity:

One very unexpected or difficult moment, that represented a challenge you had to solve.

FB: Within IFM, where the majority of our employees are creatively inclined, collaborating presented a unique challenge. We needed to build confidence within our existing team at IFM, showcasing our capacity to question ourselves and embrace new energy and projects. Demonstrating our ability to reinvent ourselves daily throughout our projects over the years was key to this endeavor.

DW: I must say that working on our new brand identity really challenged the role of the communications department within the school, which I had not anticipated. We were at the crossroads of many different perspectives: the creative teams, who always have strong art direction input, other people who resisted the new identity or felt left out, others who believed in continuity rather than change, new people who thought everything needed to change… Communication can sometimes be perceived as a job that can be done by anyone, rather than a technical expertise, which sometimes led to heated discussions. It took some time for the communications team to gain the trust needed to find the right balance between all of these different points of view. But we managed and came out stronger!

One moment you were extremely happy or satisfied with the result, both for you, your team, or the IFM school in general.

FB: I really think in the corporate culture. Of course, Base helped us with our identity and rebranding but we also learned about a new way to work together. Since our collaboration, we’ve applied this understanding of corporate culture into our communication department’s operations. We've inherited a legacy from this experience which has been extraordinary, because in communications we don't always have such a huge scope of rebranding projects. It was quite fascinating to work on subjects like that, and I enjoyed working in these areas so much that I made them my specialty.

DW: For our last end-of-the-year show, we had people saying in the press that it's become the must-attend Fashion Week event, to come to the IFM show. That was the pride of knowing we'd passed a milestone. Also, when the Parisian indie library and concept store Ofr., sometimes called ‘the temple of cool’, reached out to us on Instagram, wanting to sell our IFM-branded tote bags.

Reflecting on the IFM rebranding four years later, how has the brand evolved? What changes did you have to make, and how did you approach them?

FB: We've exceeded our expectations. For a creative program that represents the school's strength, our two design programs are on the official Fashion Week calendar and open the event. So in terms of visibility and recognition I think we've achieved our goals.

DW: I think the rebranding is great because it's not at all out of style. The toolbox is alive, it's there, and it's hyper-adapted, and we haven't become outdated in 5 years.

Base had identified three phases in our rebranding: birth, adolescence, and maturity. I think we skipped the teenage phase and jumped directly to a more mature phase, where we were able to flex our muscles more quickly than we had anticipated. The main change had to do with talking to an international audience and producing much more content in English.

On a strategic level, since 2019, the year of the rebranding, the number of students has been multiplied by 5, the budget by 2.5, the campus surface area by 4.5, and the IFM Foundation has grown from 14 to 36 members, enabling it to fund 114 scholarships and 4 research and teaching chairs.