Knowing when to rebrand could be the key to your company’s future success. Learn the top 5 questions you should be asking and have a plan of how to move forward.
If you’ve followed along with any of the major brands over the years, you’ve probably seen a fair share of brand and logo changes. Popular brands like Coke and Pepsi have successfully updated their branding over the decades while some brands, like Gap, had a pretty pitiful attempt at changing their logo in 2010.
Pepsi has successfully completed both full rebrand and brand refreshes for more than a century!
Whereas, Gap Inc., not so much. There was such a backlash to the change, it was public for mere hours.
But why do companies rebrand anyway? What is the purpose? What’s the process? How do you know when and if you need to rebrand?
Let’s take a look at the top 6 questions you should ask before you jump into the rebranding pool.
1. What problem do you believe rebranding will solve? This is the most important topic when rebranding and it should lead to a host of other questions you need to dive deep into before answering. In order to be laser focused on the process of rebranding, you must discover the reasons and results you wish to achieve with a rebrand. Here are just a few of those questions to get you started:
- Has something changed in the industry landscape that is impacting our growth and expansion?
- Has our customer changed? What are the demographics now? What do they want from our company/product now?
- Have we outgrown our purpose or reason? Is our brand associated with something that no longer means anything?
- Who specifically should care about our brand?
- How many years should this rebrand serve us?
Rebranding should be purposeful and should solve a problem. Be sure you are walking through the discovery process to be certain your rebranding efforts will be successful.
2. What new story do you need to tell in order to recapture your target audience? Chances are, you’re noticing a decline or problem in sales and/or a lack of connection with your customers. That’s probably what led you to my article! Before you jump into any visuals on a rebrand, it’s important to first understand what new story you need to tell in order to make that reconnection with your audience. This is best done using a brand strategist. They will research and guide you to a solid understanding of who your target audience is and create a plan on how to best reach them.
3. Does my company currently have the resources and team to lead the rebranding efforts? After you figure out the “why” of rebranding and you have a path to help you move forward, it’s time to be sure you have a team that can carry out the rebranding efforts. This team should consist of branding professionals (strategists, brand designers, copywriters, PR and social media experts) as well as internal team members who can communicate and provide the necessary information to both the internal and external teams.
One of the most important aspects of the rebranding process is to have strong goals in place and ensure your team sticks to these goals. In my experience, when the visuals begin evolving, personal preferences and too many drivers on the bus begin to dilute the plan and divert the strategy. Be sure the lines of communication stay open between internal and external teams and that final decisions are made by no more than one to two individuals. As long as those individuals were part of the strategy process and are keeping to the goals of the project, they will help you stay on track and deliver you to the finish line on-budget and on-time.
4. Do you have the budget to rebrand? If you did it right the first time around, you probably have an understanding of the cost of branding. And depending on the size of your company and reasons surrounding why you may need to rebrand, it could cost the same or even more to rebrand. However, the benefits could very well save your company. Reaching the audience that truly wants to connect and purchase your products and services should result in more sales and you can’t effectively connect with those customers if your brand isn’t on message, both visually and verbally.
5. How will rebranding affect your current marketing? If you’re in a situation where rebranding must happen soon, you need to consider the costs of doing so and how it might affect any current marketing efforts. Be sure to include costs for the branding professional(s) you’ll need to partner with as well as time and costs to update your social media profiles, social postings, print materials and any other marketing efforts that the new branding will touch. Also, you’ll want to reach out to any collaboration partners or industries in which you cross promote and make updates accordingly.
6. What results do you expect to gain with a rebrand and how will you measure success? Certainly, the obvious answer to that question is if sales start to rise, you know rebranding probably helped you connect with new customers or reconnect with previous customers. You may notice an immediate ROI or it may take some time for the fruits of the rebrand to flourish. Either way, having a plan of action to start will enable you to accomplish your ROI goals.
Plan of Action
Here’s a top-level list of some of the steps your rebranding plan should cover (discovery and strategy being the first phase, of course):
- Create a timeline of the rebrand roll out. Categorize actions into phases so it becomes easier to see, track and manage.
- Be sure you further break down the phases into smaller tasks per team so everyone is clear on what to do.
- Schedule rebranding team meetings at least once a week for updates on progress and to help anticipate problems.
- Create a master list of the various items that will need updating with the new brand and include firm deadlines to keep the project moving and on time .
- Evaluate your current and future marketing plans so that you can anticipate what branding changes you’ll need to make.
- Keep your external partners in the loop so they can anticipate when printing, loading and disbursement of various marketing materials may need to happen.
When there’s a plan and purpose, rebanding can offer a lifeboat to a struggling company. Just be sure you’re following the steps and working with experienced professionals to maximize results!
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