A brand is the “personality” of a company. It makes it different from others and helps to be remembered.
As the world is constantly changing, brands must also innovate to meet the demands of today’s consumer. To do this, the owners are rebranding: changing the design, adding new features, even revising the tone of communication with the audience. In this article, I will explain how to understand if your brand needs changes and how to implement them.
Why rebrand?
Rebranding is not just a change of colors or a name. It is a change of direction in which the core values and vision of the company are maintained.
There are several reasons why an owner should consider rebranding:
1. Consolidation of companies
When several businesses merge into one, each brings something different and a new company is created with its own distinct style. To make everything look organic, you need to find a new identity that would combine both brands into one, taking into account the characteristics of each.
2. Entering a new market
If you decide to expand and open offices abroad, you need to make changes to the visual style of the brand so that it does not differ from what the locals are used to. All peoples have a different idea of beauty, so the design that was in demand in your homeland may seem bad taste here and repel customers.
3. Attracting new customers
Sometimes owners expand their product line or change positioning and want to attract the attention of a new target audience. Then you need to adapt to the style that is acceptable among these people.
4. The brand is outdated
Some companies do not change their logo, slogan, design for years, but at the same time develop new products and enter new markets. Then the brand ceases to match the offer and needs to be updated.
5. Updated goals and intentions
When the strategy changes dramatically, the company has a new mission. This is the core of the company, so all external attributes must be adjusted to the new vision.
6. Change of concept
Let’s say you used to have a restaurant, but now you only deliver food to your home. It is necessary to rebuild the brand around this concept so that customers do not build false expectations and do not get confused.
7. Poor initial branding
Everyone makes mistakes, especially at first. If you, without experience and deep knowledge, tried to “blind” the logo and it turned out crookedly, then you can arrange a rebranding at any time when you gain experience and do everything with high quality.
When not to rebrand
Sometimes the owners want to completely revise the company’s brand and make changes, but this is inappropriate and can only harm the business. Consider situations where nothing needs to be changed:
1. Change of leadership
When a founder sells a company and a new boss comes in, they may want to sign off with a changed logo. But you need to understand that rebranding involves restructuring the brand, and not changing small details. And this should be the need of the whole company, and not the wish of one person.
2. Saving reputation
If your company has become involved in some kind of scandal and is no longer popular with customers, rebranding will not help restore a good name. When the audience realizes that you are trying to deceive them by changing the name and style, the attitude towards you will become even worse.
3. The desire to diversify something
Rebranding out of boredom when the old one is tired is a bad idea. The brand should be changed only when analytics and strategy show that it is necessary for the continued existence of the company. But if you change everything, just because you are fed up with the corporate identity, then you risk losing the audience that loves you just for it.
Types of rebranding
Depending on the scale of changes, there are 2 types of rebranding:
Perestroika
In this case, the brand changes completely. To carry out such a rebrand successfully, you need to carefully analyze everything and develop a new strategy.
Typically, brand restructuring begins in the following cases:
- The product or service is completely changed;
- The company enters a new market;
- A mistake was made in communication with the audience and the brand needs a new story to attract attention again.
But this kind of rebranding requires a lot of money and time, so it should be used when you see that only a full-blown change can help the business continue to operate.
Update
This view is suitable for those who want to only partially change something in the company. It is usually used when they want to attract a new audience, while maintaining a relationship with the old one.
During the update, brands only change the logo, company websites and build new communication methods.
How to rebrand
It will only be possible to rebuild or update the brand of the company if you follow clear, consistent steps.
Decide why you need a rebrand
A business cannot succeed without a purpose. It is she who motivates to achieve high results and gives a vector for the development of the company.
All work should be aimed at achieving this goal, so consciously approach the analysis of the brand and understand what is now preventing it from realizing the main idea of creating a business. When you ask yourself questions about your company, you can find the brand problem and clearly understand what you want from the rebrand.
Decide which clients you want to attract
Determine who your target audience is now and who you want to reach. Consider gender, age, education, interests, income, location. Also take into account what associations your previous positioning evokes in this audience. Additionally, also try to find out the tastes and special wishes of the consumer.
Decide what you want to change
No need to demolish absolutely everything when rebranding and start from scratch. First, review what techniques work and what is better to leave. For example, whether the name will change or whether it helps customers recognize the brand and distinguish it from similar ones.
Go through all of the building blocks that make up a brand and decide on each one what to keep and what to change. For example: colors, slogan, logo, packaging, tone, promotion, etc.
Explain to the team what the change is about
Demonstrate the change to employees, partners, and investors before bringing the changed brand to market. Get feedback from them: perhaps they will tell you what can be improved. And then make sure that everyone understands what has changed and where the company will move now.
Launch an updated brand
When everything is ready, start implementing changes. Gradually reveal the details of the updated brand and attract attention. A good action is to explain to consumers why you decided to change. People like it when they are sincerely communicated with them.
Collect Feedback
Customer feedback about a new brand is important. Listen to what they say about you, how they react to change, conduct surveys and interact with the audience more often. This will help you understand what needs to be tightened up and strengthened, and what was a successful action.
Conclusions
Brands must be updated to meet the requirements of the audience. If you want to set a new direction for the company, then you need to work on style, tone, packaging, etc.
You can either completely rebuild the brand, or partially update it. This is done in 6 steps:
- Designation of the purpose of rebranding;
- Definition of potential target audience;
- Deciding what needs to be changed;
- Explaining to the team the meaning and goals of rebranding;
- Launch of an updated brand;
- Collection of reviews.