Going through a rebrand is simply a way to freshen your business’s brand. It could include updating your logo, altering your color scheme, redoing the font on your business cards, or reworking your website.
Whether the changes are subtle or bold, rebranding gives you the opportunity to keep up with the times, change along with your customers, and compete in your market. If you’re planning to rebrand your business, keep in mind these seven tips.
Consider your customer
Who does your new brand target? Before you being a rebrand, understand what appeals to your customers, what draws them in, and what addresses their needs. You can’t make your products or services the right fit for everyone, but you can identify a market segment and claim it as your own.
Tell a simple story
Storytelling is an important part of branding and marketing. But when you’re rebranding, your story takes a back seat to your product and the impactfulness of your new brand. Emerson Spartz, CEO of Dose, says, “Don’t spend too much time getting lost in the mythology of the story behind the brand assets.” Include a fresh version of your company story on your website, and leave it at that.
Trim the excess
Does your company have too many different names for product lines and services? The rebranding phase is a good time to streamline your brand names and product offerings.
In 1995, after a full year of market research, FedEx ditched all special names for its many services, simplified its logo and colors, and gained a new, clearer identity. The FedEx logo is now viewed as one of the best ever created.
Consult a trademark lawyer
Before you slap your new name, logo, tagline, images, or other branding onto your marketing materials, you should briefly consult a trademark attorney. This is an important step to ensure that you’re not infringing on any other company’s trademarks. You want to avoid lawsuits or loss of investment in your new materials.
Communicate your new brand
Shannon Fitzgerald, founder and strategist at Brazen Branding, reminds business owners that “with so much weight on the actual rebrand, it’s easy to forget about the strategy for announcing it to the world… Make sure you’re not leaving behind the things people love about your company. You must articulate why this is better — explain they’ll still get the parts they already love plus new, exciting benefits.”
Don’t forget the stragglers
When you rebrand your business, remember to update all marketing content with your new brand image and logo. It’s unprofessional to have new signage if your business cards retain your old logo. Update pens, product packaging, your website, and everything else with the new look.
If it fails, change it back
If you do enough research and testing of your new branding ideas, you should be able to gauge whether or not your target audience will like it. However, in some cases, even huge companies can’t predict the negative backlash.
When Gap changed their logo in 2010, customer backlash was ferocious. Gap switched back to the original logo after just 6 days. Even if it hurts your budget and your pride, remember that the customer is always right. If the majority of your customers are complaining about your new branding, go back to the old brand.
Once you’ve determined your rebrand direction, your logo is one of the first brand elements to update. Get some ideas by browsing through thousands of logo designs on our logo maker.
