Is your brand outdated and sucking the life out of your business? Has your marketing stopped producing like it used to? Rebranding can re-energize your business and take you to a new level!
Wikipedia Says… Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors, and competitors. Read more about rebranding from Wiki
Often, this involves radical changes to a brand’s logo, name, image, marketing strategy, and advertising themes. Such changes typically aim to reposition the brand/company, occasionally to distance it from negative connotations of the previous branding, or to move the brand upmarket; they may also communicate a new message a new board of directors wishes to communicate.
Should you consider a brand refresh or a complete overhaul?
A rebrand is like a makeover for your company, product or service… a better haircut and a new outfit can transform how a person feels about themselves, as well as how they are perceived by others. Your brand is no different.
When you consider a rebrand there will be elements you’ll want to keep, those you’ll want to update or add to, and those you’ll want to get rid of completely. This may be because some elements are outdated, or it could be they no longer fit your company culture at all.
So, even though rebranding doesn’t have to mean a complete makeover, in some instances, that is exactly what is needed to accomplish your goals. A rebrand should maintain some visual connection to the current branding, especially if it’s been successful. But, while the “new look-and-feel” should modernize and energize your flagging brand, it should also continue to connect your brand community to your company.
We call this the rebranding transition. Make it a smooth transition for your brand community, and your rebranding efforts should be met with much buzz and success.
However, make the transition a hard break, and you could see your brand community disconnect from you.
How do you know if your brand is outdated?
A rebrand should always be done for the right reasons. So, if your brand is working, you can always apply the: “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it rule.” Here’s an example of a bad rebranding choice: When PepsiCo decided to rebrand their Tropicana Orange Juice brand, it fell flat with the consumers causing PepsiCo to have to roll back to the original branding. Time and money wasted and nothing but brand disconnects to show for it. Ouch!!
So how do you know if your brand is truly outdated? If you are experiencing any of the following issues, this may be the time to consider a brand update:
- Your brand has become old and stale
- Your brand no longer represents your company or culture
- No one currently working for the company has a clue as to what the brand means
- When launching a new product line or making major product changes
- New competition has arrived and is enticing your market
- Expanding your marketing reach to new markets and audiences
- Consumer tastes and perceptions have changed
- Launching a new packaging format
- Introducing new leadership, such as when transitioning to a new generation
What are the ways to rebrand my company?
You may already know what you need to do for your rebranding efforts, if that’s the case then you are ahead of most of us. But, in reality most companies don’t have a clue where to start. Here are some ideas to point you in the right direction:
- Modernize your logo with our logo designing services to give it an updated look-and-feel
- Create new messaging to re-engage your audience
- Change the “voice” and “tone” of your look-and-feel
- Create a new integrated branding toolkit with bold new visuals
- Update certain elements while retaining a visual connection with the old branding
Design the Planet’s proprietary Brand Audit process is one of the primary tools we use to help clients pinpoint the reasons and direction for their rebrand. A brand audit can uncover issues you never knew existed. It can also bringing new innovative ideas to the forefront. When a Brand Audit is done right, it will give your management team the insight they need to see the big picture. What else? It will give your marketing team a clear direction for retargeting your market reach and audience. It will even help attract, hire and keep better employees.
Afraid that you’ll be alone in your rebranding efforts even if you know your brand is outdated? Most companies update their brand around every three years.
At Design the Planet we are experts in rebranding and have developed a step-by-step brand audit process to help our clients discover what they need to get on the right track with their brand marketing efforts. We believe that rebranding is an important step in the evolution of any company including our own.
