So you’re thinking about a rebrand. When considering the importance a brand carries, establishing a visual and emotional connection between your company and your consumers can be a daunting task. Here are some of the main things to consider when planning your rebranding strategy:
Why?
Before making the decision to rebrand, be sure of the ‘why’ behind your decision. Recognizing the ‘why’ means that you understand what needs to be altered in your brand to spark (or re-spark) a connection with your customers. Identifying the ‘why’ also leads to a smoother brand transition, which ultimately wastes less time and money (and who can argue with that?)
The following are some (but certainly not all) the reasons for rebranding:
- Your brand does not have a clear brand image/identity or none at all. If this is the case you may lack brand awareness and recognition/recall.
- Your company or organization is heading in a different direction from when the brand was launched. To stay consistent with the new direction, a new brand (or an overhaul of the existing brand) is necessary.
- Your company or organization wants to expand its reach and target markets but the current brand is frustrating the expansion.
- Your brand needs to stay relevant with contemporary culture.
- You want to differentiate yourself from your competitors.
If you don’t understand why you need a rebrand, then you need to analyze your current brand to identify the problem. There is no reason to start fixing something if you don’t even know or understand what you’re fixing.
Consider the Whole Package
A rebrand can range from a drastic shift in your brand’s identity and position in the marketplace to a slight refreshing of the current brand. However, whether you’re diving in feet first and making a drastic change or only dipping a toe in the water and refreshing your brand, it’s crucial to remember that a brand transcends surface level changes. This means that your visual brand (logo, website, marketing materials etc.), needs to align with your brand personality and it’s positioning in the marketplace. If they don’t, you need to alter them so that the brand is consistent from top to bottom.
Consistency is important because you want to build brand awareness and the loyalty it brings as a consequence. You want return customers and those who will go out of their way to find and use your product or service. An inconsistent brand is open to interpretations, which hinders overall brand loyalty and awareness.
Cost vs. Reward
Regardless of the need, rebranding is not a cheap endeavor. As with all big decisions, you need to consider the cost versus the reward when rebranding. More specifically, do the benefits outweigh the risks? This brings us full-circle back to understanding the ‘why’ behind your need to rebrand. There is a small margin for error when rebranding, as it takes financial commitment and risks your current customers’ understanding of the brand. Therefore, you need to take a strategic approach when rebranding to maximize results while minimizing the use of non-essential resources.
After thinking through the above considerations, if you are interested in rebranding, we can bring all our expertise to the project and you can leave all the heavy lifting to us.
