This is true even for a business. Change is a sign of growth and progress and should be honored as an opportunity to move towards something new and exciting.
Trusting in your company's capabilities will help you to embrace the future and all the opportunities it brings. Rebranding your business is an ideal way to bring your company closer to the future.
There are many reasons why a rebrand is necessary. As time passes, styles and trends change. With some, designs becoming irrelevant.
Keeping to your current branding may cause consumers to think that you are old-fashioned, and your business will run the risk of falling behind.
At the same time, your demographic or your core purpose may have changed. Thus, you need to rebrand your company to reflect these updates.
Risks abound when it comes to marketing your business under a new name. Customers may not recognize your brand anymore or may simply find it unappealing.
However, this move might be necessary regardless. After all, changes in ownership, business partners, or even CEOs can provoke such massive changes.
Regardless of why your company needs rebranding, the crux of the matter is to do it right. One wrong move might cause your plans to collapse and lose your customers. To successfully rebrand your business, you can follow the following tips.
Calibration to Core Values
Your company should already have a vision and mission, with both determined based on the core values the business is founded on.
Your core values define your business and product, even if they are not widely advertised. Customers should be able to see what your company prioritizes through your products and services.
If you don't already have these things, a rebrand is a perfect time to fix this problem. Call your top execs into a meeting, put your heads together, and figure it out.
With your vision, mission, and core values hashed out, it will be much easier to construct a successful rebrand.
They will form the basis of your company and help you keep to your goals with undergoing the rebranding process.
Market Research
One of the most critical moves you can make during your rebranding process is keeping informed of your industry's current trends.
By keeping up to date with what people like and what your competitors are doing, you can figure out what your niche will respond to and what's likely to stick around for the long run.
While you're at it, you should also watch your competitors to find out what works best. You can guarantee that your rebranding keeps its effects for longer and produces the results you desire when you do your homework.
Identify Keepers
Once a new brand is launched, not all aspects of the original brand will be carried over. However, this doesn't mean that the past identity won't have a lasting effect on your company.
Before a rebranding kicks off, it's essential to keep track of the areas in which the current identity resonates with consumers.
The goal of a rebrand is to reach a wider audience. Still, the images and concepts that define your brand may need to stay.
After rebranding, these aspects might even be magnified to ensure that all of your target audience can quickly identify your business.
You need to figure out what these elements are and make sure to discuss whether keeping them or moving on is the best move.
Planning Strategy
Rebranding can be an intensive process and take up a lot of resources. As such, you should have a comprehensive idea of what you want to accomplish before getting started.
This is especially true if you're only going for a partial rebrand as you have to make sure the old and the new are complementary.
Without a clear idea of where you're going, your rebrand will eat up even more time and effort. Worse, it may even doom your project before you get anywhere near the finish line.
Determine Cost
You might be surprised by how much needs changing when you start replacing logos and setting up your website and social media.
All of your marketing materials will need to be refreshed. None of this comes cheap. To ensure a rebranding project doesn't end up eating into your bottom line, you need to determine a budget and stick to it.
Rebranding Visuals
Businesses can be known by their names, products, or services, but they are primarily identified through their logos.
A logo is the pillar of a brand and what customers identify with, so it's of great importance to get things right and ensure your visuals and brand elements are done well and communicate the same message.
When rebranding, you should ensure that you have an easily identifiable and unique logo to be used consistently across all marketing channels and assets.
Everything should share the same color palette, fonts, and design style. Otherwise, your visuals will end up a mess.
Get Feedback
Even though you have completed all the previous steps, you can't commit to every aspect of the rebranding yet.
You first need to make sure that your changes actually work. The best way to do so is by asking for and analyzing feedback.
You should not only be getting opinions from the top brass or design department. Ideally, you should have all departments within your company involved.
This process can also act as a team-building experience. Don't forget to include your customers in this stage of rebranding as well.
Rolling Out Changes
Once you are done with your rebranding efforts, it's time to make sure all your materials reflect the changes.
Updating all your assets can be time-consuming and labor-intensive, but these efforts lie at the heart of the rebranding journey. Be sure to include your website, business cards, stationery, and social media banners.
The Relaunch
You're almost done. When you have updated all the necessary assets and materials, it's time to spread the word.
Marketing your rebranding is an excellent opportunity to gain interest from old and new customers alike.
Be sure to share sneak peeks about your progress and tell your company's story through the rebrand.