If you’ve been considering a rebrand for your company, the first question to ask yourself is, “Why?” For these efforts to be successful and worthwhile, you must have a good reason to begin and a strategy that guides you throughout the entire process. There’s no need to change simply for the sake of changing.
For those who are unfamiliar with the specifics of a rebrand, let’s start there. This process is a complete overhaul of your brand's identity. It’s in-depth and often requires revisiting significant elements such as your brand positioning, values, and guidelines, as well as your mission and vision statements.
So, back to the question at hand. Why would you or anyone else want to embark on such a large and impactful project? There are a few very good justifications for this, including the following.
You notice that you're not staying up to date with customer preferences.
The customer is always right after all! It is crucial to seek feedback frequently. If you discover that customer interests and needs have changed, you must adapt. This may be the most important reason to rebrand. Just be sure to update your products and services first. Promising change without delivering would be worse than not acting at all.
Your business model or offerings have changed.
Keeping your current branding after such a companywide change can confuse audiences. A great example of this is companies whose focus has moved away from products and towards services. Another is those whose products have evolved so dramatically over the years that their current offerings hardly resemble their original lineup. Take this opportunity to redefine your market position.
Your company is experiencing an acquisition, merger, or change in leadership.
Situations such as these require a company to reintroduce itself. This allows your target audience to meet your current team members and understand your modern mission. It also signals reinvigoration and growth, which is typically attractive and reassuring to customers. Similarly, if you are expanding into new markets, territories, or countries, you may want to consider a rebrand for the same reasons.
Customers have negative associations with your company.
If you’ve been through a scandal or made a bad business decision, you’ll want to correct the perception of your company as soon as possible. Rebranding can help with this – after any issues have been resolved and the public relations crisis has died down, of course. Also, even if you haven’t made any big mistakes, misinformation or other circumstances beyond your control can stain your reputation. Making certain changes can help outwardly align your brand with your true values.
As previously mentioned, rebranding isn’t as simple as making a few visual updates. Doing that alone would be considered more of a small brand refresh, which is certainly a route you can take. A rebrand should be reserved for scenarios like those above as the process requires a lot of time, money, and hard work. If you’re not in that boat, here’s a little more information about how you can make some immediate and helpful changes.
Conducting a brand refresh is a great method for modernizing your image while maintaining your core identity. Although changes are typically made to these elements during a more extensive rebrand as well, you may consider updating your logo, color palette, fonts, slogan, or writing style. These decisions should still be made strategically and backed by market research and competitor analysis.
If your company’s look is outdated or lackluster, a brand refresh can give you the appeal and competitive edge you’ve been missing. However, it’s important not to take things too far. Even during a full rebrand, you want to remain recognizable and retain some of what customers know and love, so they don’t get confused and opt for another brand.
Once you’ve pinpointed why you want to conduct a rebrand, you can either be confident that your company would benefit from a complete makeover, or you can opt for more appropriate cosmetic changes. Even a small brand refresh can put you back in the spotlight or draw attention from new audiences. Just be sure to implement brand changes slowly, thoughtfully, and consistently.
Also, if you start down the path toward a full rebrand, you must commit to seeing it through. Doing time-consuming research or spending money having a designer create a bunch of new content for you and then turning around to never actually implement any of this would be a painful waste. Not to mention that if you start to roll out some of the changes but don’t follow through with the entire strategic campaign, your audiences may end up more confused and frustrated than ever.
A successful rebrand is no easy feat and requires a shift in the overall mentality of the company. So, you must have a good “why” behind your actions. Then, if you seek the proper professional help and manage the process well, you will likely reap the benefits for years to come.
