Rebranding is complicated and entails some risks. Most people view rebranding as merely designing the logo or other elements. But there is much more to it than that. As complex as rebranding is, it is also a highly effective method to ensure that your brand stays relevant and competitive. It gives you an opportunity to evolve with your consumers. In order to make this work you need to seriously consider if you really need rebrand.
There are many reasons a brand might opt for rebrand. It might be due to decreasing number of sales or maybe your brand awareness efforts are not giving you the desired results. However, these issues can also be solved by coming up with a new marketing strategy or conducting a market research to pin down the issues. It can be a little tricky to understand if your company really needs rebranding.
Here are a few major reasons you might consider a rebrand:
New Locations: If your business is expanding into a foreign market where your logo or messaging is not recognised, you might need a rebrand.
Market Repositioning: Rebranding would be required if your brand were to target a completely new customer base. Whether it is through product, place, price or promotion, you brand would need to align with it.
New philosophy: Your brand’s mission, vision and values should be considered first in every business decision you make. And if you are planning a to shift your company’s philosophy in a different direction then you need to reevaluate your brand as well.
Mergers and acquisitions: If your company is acquired or joined with another company then you need to find a new brand that reflects this new entity in order to prevent confusion.
Now that you know whether you really need rebranding, let’s look at some tips that will help you achieve success.
State your brand strategy
A rebrand first starts with a brand strategy. Your strategy is the base upon which everything else stands. It will help you know who you are, what your goals are and how you can achieve them. Visual elements like logo, colours, fonts etc. are just tools to help you implement your brand strategy. Therefore, when dealing with a rebrand your priority list should look something like this:
Brand strategy
- Brand identity
- Company audit
- Market research and competitive analysis
- Target personas
Brand messaging
- Branding guidelines
- Market position
- Value prop
- Messaging structure
Visual design
- Branding guidelines
Know your brand
Analyze and determine your core brand identity. This will be a primary step while forming your brand strategy. Your identity comprises of the following:
- Purpose: Why does your brand exist
- Vision: What future do you want to help build
- Mission: How will you build that future
- Values: Who you are and how do you work?
These principles influence every part of your brand from how you address your audience, your tag-lines and visuals. Evaluating these during a rebrand is essential. It is imperative that you talk about them in a precise, simple and clear way. Making your statements too wordy is not going to help.
Research
Rebranding calls for a lot of research. You are basically positioning yourself in the market. For this you need to gather intel on your own company’s internal and external aspects. You analyse your own strengths and weaknesses, what needs to improve etc. Next you will research on your customers. You can get the information you need through emails, calls, surveys, social listening etc. It is important to gather as much information as possible on your target audience. Lastly, you will research your competitors. What is their positions as compared to you, how they communicate with their audience and how they present themselves? This will give you insights on how you can have an edge over your competitors.
Write a creative brief
A well written and thorough creative brief is important. It serves as a blueprint of your entire project. This is a written document that will include information that your team needs about the project. Your objectives, budget, deadlines, customer profiles, visual design inspirations, competitors etc. will be a part of this. Through this brief you will be highlighting the problems that you are trying to solve, and all the other info related to it that will help your team to do their job.
Get approvals at every stage
You need to make sure that your plan is solid, and the process is smooth. Rebranding has many stages. Strategy is followed by messaging and messaging is followed by design etc. It is important to seek approval at each stage. If any of the aspects dose not resonate with people within the brand, then its most likely to create problems. It’s important to ensure that everyone is on the same page. It will save time, energy and make sure that you complete each stage within the desired time frame. In order to avoid miscommunications, you need to assign this task to a person who creates a timeline, knows who need approval on what, collects feedback and confirms approvals etc.
Know what you are rebranding
You need to identify the reason why this rebrand was necessary. Don’t change for the sake of change. Justify your reasons and identify what is required to implement this change. Know the challenges associated with it. Be aware of the time and resources required for this. Considering all these aspects beforehand will help your rebrand strategy to be a success.
Always test everything internally first. Make sure to keep your business goals at the centre of everything.
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