Your brand is your prospect’s first impression of your company, so you must get it right.
But, with a rebrand costing time, money and putting your business’ reputation at stake, how do you know whether a rebrand is the right decision?
In this guide, we’ll take you through the entire process, from deciding whether or not to rebrand to discussing how to rebrand successfully. Read on to find out more.
What is rebranding?
Rebranding is a marketing strategy that involves changing the corporate image of your business. It consists of replacing any of your branding elements including your logo, colour palette, typography etc. The goal of rebranding is to create a differentiated brand identity. It usually follows a change in products and services or a pivot to target a new audience.
How do you know it’s time for a rebrand?
Deciding when to rebrand is not a simple decision. As with any big business decision, there are plenty of risks involved. So, how do you know when it’s time to rebrand?
1. You’re changing your products/service
Whilst launching one or two new products may not be enough to justify a rebrand, rebranding before breaking into a new market is an effective way to reintroduce yourself.
2. You’re repositioning your place in the market.
Your brand is designed to connect your business to your customers. So, if you reposition to target a new audience, your brand may not be relevant anymore.
Planning a rebrand can help you realign your business with your audience’s needs and ensure you stay relevant.
3. New locations
Expanding to new overseas markets is a big move for any business. Planning a rebrand will help your new international markets identify with your logo and messaging.
4. Your current branding is missing the mark.
Are your brand awareness efforts not paying off? Or perhaps your sales have been slow? It may be time to consider a rebrand! However, it’s important to note that a rebrand should always be a last resort. Start with fixing your sales and marketing strategy and, if things don’t improve, then you can look to refresh your brand, realigning your business with your customer’s needs.
What are the benefits of rebranding?
1. Connecting with a new audience
Pivoting your brand identity to target a new audience is one of the most common reasons to rebrand.
Your brand needs to connect with your audience to become trusted.
In this sense, rebranding may not mean a change of logo and colour palette but instead looking at your core values, messages, and how you communicate. Ensuring your brand resonates with your target audience will help improve your customer loyalty over time.
2. Differentiate yourself from your competition
Branding is all about differentiating yourself from your competition.
Sometimes, your branding may make it difficult for your customers to identify your key differentiators.
Rebranding and clearly defining your competitive advantage shows your potential customers that your services are unique, positioning you as an expert in your field, making your prospects more likely to choose you over your competitors.
3. Helps you move with the times.
Design trends are constantly evolving. So, it’s important to ensure your branding is up-to-date and reflects your brand as it is now.
Ensuring your branding is always ahead of the curve demonstrates to your customers that you care about your appearance.
4. Helps you get results.
Rebranding goes far beyond just updating your brand logo and colour palette. It also involves redefining your target audience, your mission, your vision and the way you communicate.
A cohesive brand will increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Recrafting your brand guidelines and realigning your messaging will ensure your marketing is seamlessly integrated, consistent and targeted towards your most valuable customers.
What are the two types of rebranding?
1. A Brand Refresh
A brand refresh is less intensive than a company rebrand. It’s a tactical move that involves updating your logo, tweaking your slogan, changing your colour palette or refreshing your marketing materials to avoid them becoming outdated.
As your business grows and changes, it’s important to occasionally refresh your brand to reflect your current place in the market. If your branding always stays the same, you may lose your competitive edge as other businesses in your industry have developed new ways of communicating to keep up with the latest trends.
A great example of a brand refresh is the evolution of the Starbucks logo, as seen below:
Over the years, the Starbucks logo has simplified to appeal to their customer base in the modern market. Their use of green appeals to their place in the Fairtrade market, whereas their focus on imagery, reflects the modern shift to concentrate on images rather than text.
2. A Rebrand
A rebrand completely transforms your brand identity. Where a brand refresh involves making small amends to your brand, a rebrand involves changing your image in its entirety.
As part of a rebrand, you may change your business name, your colour palette, rewrite your brand guidelines, change your logo, recraft your marketing materials and messaging, and revisit your vision, mission and values.
The goal of rebranding is to change your customer’s perception of your business. It helps you revitalise your brand, ensuring it appeals to the existing needs of your customers or a new audience.
Rebranding could be detrimental to a business if done wrong but also a fantastic solution when done right. It can help you distinguish yourself in a competitive market and realign your business with your customer’s needs.
An example of a business that has done rebranding well is Apple. In the mid-1990s, Apple’s sales were low, their customers were losing interest and, their competitors had hold of the market. After rebranding, Apple adopted minimalism and modernity, introducing new technology and marketing campaigns focused on customer experience. This rebrand helped Apple shape the brand it is today.
How to rebrand in 6 simple steps:
1. Re-establish your brand’s target market.
Step one of a rebrand is to carry out extensive research on your target audience. Find out who they are, what they do, and where they hang out. Take a look at your sales data, find out exactly who is buying from you.
You may uncover that your target audience isn’t who you thought they were or that your competitors are reaching new markets that you hadn’t thought to consider.
Once you’ve established who you want to target, you can start the process of rebranding, keeping your target audience at the forefront of your mind at all times.
2. Assess your mission, vision, and values.
Before you begin rebranding, it’s also important to ensure that you clearly understand your company’s mission, vision, and values. Why does your company exist? What are your goals? How are you going to achieve them?
If you're conducting a full rebrand, you may want to re-evaluate your vision, mission and values, as these frequently change as a company grows. Taking time to reconsider these will provide you with a firm foundation for building your new brand.
3. Collaborate with your team.
Just as important as your business itself are the people who help grow your business every day.
Collaborating with your team can help you gain a fresh perspective. Allowing your staff to be part of the process will ensure they're proud to be the voices that represent your brand to your customers.
4. Rebuild your brand identity.
Your brand identity is comprised of all the tangible elements that communicate your brand to your target audience.
When you rebuild your brand identity, your rebrand will start to take shape.
Here are some of the common changes you may want to make during your rebrand:
Your logo
Your logo is one of the main things you or your designer may consider changing during a rebrand. Your logo should be simple, make an impact and be memorable. A new logo will let your customers know that you have changed your brand identity. When changing your logo, you should always consider creating different variations for social media, print, your website etc.
Your colour palette
Colour has a huge impact on your brand. Some brands are even recognised by their colours e.g McDonald’s yellow. Using colour psychology to inform your decision can help you choose a colour palette that reflects your brand.
Your brand should have at least three colours: base, accent and neutral. Your base colour should be the colour that represents your business, whereas your accent colour should pair well with your base colour and, your neutral colour should act as a background.
Credit: Graphic Plus
Typography
Your fonts should be consistent with the markets you are targeting and your messaging. It’s important to keep in mind that your typography should be legible, clear and readable from a distance if considering advertising outdoors.
In addition to your logo font, you should think about having 2-3 fonts to use as the main font, headline font, and accent font.
Imagery
Like your typography, logo, and colour palette, imagery plays a huge role in how your brand is perceived. If you’re changing your branding, it’s worth reconsidering your imagery and visual elements to ensure your brand is cohesive.
Your brand guidelines
If you’re rebranding, developing a new set of brand guidelines is vital. Your brand guidelines should include information about how your logo should be used, colour variations, spacing, and more.
To find out more about creating your brand guidelines, check out our guide here.
5. Obtain feedback
When redesigning elements of your brand, it’s important to obtain feedback along the way. You could ask your staff how they feel about the changes or set up focus groups with your clients or target market to ensure your new branding resonates with them.
6. Prepare for a successful launch
A rebrand is a major change for any business, so preparing for a successful launch is vital. But, it isn’t as simple as changing your fonts and logo and hoping for the best.
You should write a press release to communicate the changes, why you’ve decided to rebrand and what this means for the future of your company. Accompanying the launch with online and printed advertisements that utilise your new branding is a great way to tell your audience about the changes.
Are you ready to rebrand?
Rebranding is a huge step for any business, but working with a team of dedicated professionals can make the process simple.
At Soar Valley Press, we have an expert team of Graphic Designers who take time to understand your business inside and out. They can help you build a visual brand identity that gets you results.
To find out more, contact us by emailing orders@soarvalleypress.co.uk or call us on 0116 259 9955.