You can probably remember some of the most successful rebrands of big companies in recent years. Airbnb, Burberry, Old Spice, all of these examples have made bold decisions to change up the look and feel of their brand.
It’s not just the brand colours and logo that changed. Rebranding is about making a clear commitment to change or reaffirm your brand values and business goals.
All these brands thought about where they were and where they wanted to be in terms of their ideal audience and their position in the market. Deciding to rebrand means looking at both how you represent yourself visually and through your values.
Before you get to the point of figuring out how to rebrand your company, you first have to decide if it’s really the right time for you to make such an important change. Here’s my tips for rebranding your business at the perfect time.
The Right Time for You
Are you feeling unmotivated at work? Do you sigh when you have to upload new products to your website or send an email newsletter to your customers?
If you’ve built a business from scratch, it’s really disheartening when your work starts to feel too much like… work. Feeling unmotivated isn’t a sign you should pack everything in and go back to your old office job. It’s an opportunity to take a step back, figure out what’s causing you to feel this way and make positive changes in your business.
If you cringe when someone asks you if you have a business card or asks for your website address, it’s a sure sign your branding could benefit from an update.
You should love looking at your logo, shop sign, or website. The visual identity of your brand needs to make you happy so that you can be proud to show it to your customers, investors, friends and family.
This emotional connection to your brand needs to start with you. An important part of successful marketing strategies is to connect emotionally with your audience through your brand messaging. If you feel that connection yourself, it will be easier for your customers to see what your brand is all about too.
The Right Time for Your Audience
Identifying your business goals and targets is an important part of setting up any company. But sometimes, the everyday running of a business gets in the way.
Perhaps your business found success quicker than you first expected. When you’re on a steep learning curve, talking to suppliers and packing orders every day, your long term targets and strategies might be taking a backseat.
Once your business gets more steady, you can take the time to look at your business goals and ideal target audience again. You’ll soon see if your current visual identity and brand values fit with your aims. And if they don’t it, might be time to rebrand.
Sometimes you just can’t predict where your customers will come from, even with the most airtight business strategy. If you’ve found that your customer base has changed over the years, or you’re looking to target a new group, rebranding will help to make stronger connections with these new audiences.
The Right Time for Your Company
When you’re starting a business, you have to make compromises. For some business owners setting up on a shoestring budget, spending money on a clear and strong brand identity isn’t a priority.
Your simple branding might have worked well for you in the first few years of business. If you feel like you’re moving up to the next level, a rebrand would celebrate your business success.
Working with a designer on a full brand identity package will show your customers that you really mean business. You can take time and care to choose the visual elements that will work best for your company.
When you look at your branding compared to your competition, are you happy with how it looks? Would your customers be able to pick your brand out from the crowd?
If you want to build strong recognition and a tribe of loyal brand ambassadors, you need to make sure that your visual identity really pops.
It could be time for you to rebrand if you can see clear improvements that can be made in how you represent your space in your industry. Changing the colours of your brand identity, or switching from using stock imagery to custom photos and illustrations will make your audience sit up and take notice. Your USP will immediately be clearer for both new and existing customers.
How to Rebrand Your Business
If you’ve identified the reasons why a rebrand would be beneficial for you, your audience and your business, the next step is to plan for your rebrand.
Making a mood board is a great way to start identifying what you’re looking for in a rebrand and what you want your business to represent. It’s an easy, no-pressure task that can help you and your designer to communicate and plan the changes to your brand identity.
It’s also important that you don’t leave your customer in the dark about rebranding. Even if part of your reason for rebranding is to attract new groups of customers, you can keep a level of stability and customer loyalty by communicating with your existing audience. Let them know your exciting news and bring them on the journey as you launch your new brand identity.
Are you ready to make changes to your business and think rebranding is the way forward? Get in touch with us to find out about our full service branding packages.