HI Switzerland: Switzerland's First Center of Excellence for Brands
After more than 20 years as a branding agency, HI Switzerland is repositioning itself as Switzerland’s premier center of expertise for brands. Here’s what that entails and why brand management today is about more than just design and communication.
HI Switzerland Reorganized as a Center of Excellence for Brands
Things have gotten noisier out there: Artificial intelligence is transforming entire ways of working, customers expect more, and cost pressures are mounting. While companies today have more opportunities than ever—they must also make correspondingly more decisions. This makes the question of what provides guidance all the more important. HI Switzerland is responding to this with a broader understanding of brand management and, after more than 20 years as a branding agency, is evolving into Switzerland’s first center of excellence for brands. This repositioning began with a fundamental question: What do companies need from a brand management partner today?
«We’ve always viewed brands as holistic systems,» says Yves Herger, owner and brand expert at HI. «Technological development, corporate culture, business model, communication, and identity are all intertwined. Brands are not individual planets in a company’s solar system. They form the entire solar system and hold it together as its gravitational center.»
Complexity as a Driver of Realignment
What has changed is the complexity that companies must navigate today. The number of possibilities, technologies, interfaces, and relevant perspectives is constantly growing. For HI, it was therefore clear: as the system becomes more complex, the nature of collaboration must become more open. The former branding agency is evolving into a center of excellence that is deliberately opening up its own «solar system»—to additional areas of expertise, external expertise, new perspectives, and, depending on the issue at hand, ever-changing connections.
The insight behind this: Brand management is becoming increasingly important in the face of technological and societal changes. New technologies are constantly opening up additional opportunities for companies. At the same time, the number of decisions that executives must make is growing. For HI, a clearly managed brand is intended to serve as a framework for corporate development. «There is an incredible amount of knowledge, an incredible number of possibilities, and also an incredible amount of noise right now,» says Herger. «That’s precisely why having a distinct identity is becoming more important. A strong brand helps a company decide what’s relevant, what it needs and what it doesn’t, and in which direction it wants to develop.»
HI therefore also views brand management as a form of management consulting. The focus is on brand consulting, digital and analog brand experiences, and the meaningful integration of new technologies. At the same time, the center of excellence aims to expand knowledge transfer: An in-house editorial team covers current developments in brand management, corporate culture, and artificial intelligence. The insights gained will be incorporated into client projects, expert articles, workshops, training programs, keynote speeches, and panel discussions.
From a Branding Agency to an Open System
For HI, the term «competence center» also describes a way of working. «We view a center of excellence as an open system,» says Creative Director Daniel Klauser. «Our goal isn’t to know everything ourselves or to be able to do everything ourselves. What matters is bringing the right skills together and knowing where to find additional expertise.»
As a result, the understanding of brand management has broadened. The 17-member team is supplemented by a dedicated network of specialized experts. Accordingly, the starting point for clients can vary widely. Companies may come to HI with a specific task—such as a repositioning, a new website, or an advertising campaign. Alternatively, the process may begin with nothing more than a business-related question. «You don’t have to know what you need right away,» says Yves Herger. «Sometimes our most important task at the outset is to separate the important from the unimportant, reveal connections, and figure out which question actually needs to be answered.»
The rebranding makes the opening visible
This repositioning is also reflected in HI’s new visual and verbal identity. The previously minimalist design has been expanded and made more colorful, while the communication has become more personal and accessible. «We wanted people to really feel this openness,» says Klauser. «HI should be a place where people enjoy coming together, asking questions, discussing issues, and working on solutions together. That’s exactly the atmosphere we experience here every day. The new identity conveys much more of that.»
Even in spatial terms, HI does not view the competence center primarily as an institution, but rather as a meeting place for people and perspectives. Workshops, events, and open exchange formats are set to play a greater role in this going forward. «In the end, despite all the technology, it’s still about talking to people,» says Klauser. «The best ideas emerge when different people bring something to the table and develop those ideas together.»
For HI, this repositioning is therefore the logical next step in a journey that began more than 20 years ago as a branding agency.
