Rebranding is a popular term these days, and more and more businesses are jumping on the bandwagon with logo redesigns or complete brand makeovers. It’s natural to wonder if you should be rebranding, too. There are several factors to consider before you embark on a rebranding effort, which can be costly both in up-front design costs as well as in long-term marketing expenditures to communicate and build the new brand.
Do your customers’ expectations for your brand match the experiences they actually have when they purchase your brand? If there is a discrepancy between what your company and products actually do and what consumers actually experience with them, then a rebranding effort might make sense. This discrepancy might happen organically as your business and consumers evolve, or your brand might have been misaligned with your business from the beginning. Whatever the reason is for the gap, you need to find the best way to bridge that gap.
You might want to rebrand if your business is poised to launch a new product or enter a new market or industry that makes it more than or different from what it was before. However, you need to remember, rebranding can open new doors but it can also close old doors. In other words, there is inherent risk involved with rebranding. A rebranding effort could isolate existing customers. It might confuse people and requires a significant investment in communication to go smoothly. Of course, if your plan is to completely change your brand, business and target audience, then losing existing customers might not be a negative to you. Completely changing your brand is just like starting a new business and you need to pursue it as such.
On the other hand, if your brand simply needs to “catch up” to your industry, business, and customers, than a simpler rebranding is probably all you need. Your logo design might be outdated or your brand promise might be irrelevant based on macro-environmental changes such as technology advancements. The trick is to catch up without going completely off track and losing existing customers who trust your brand and recgonize your current logo design.
If you decide it’s time for a rebranding, make sure you follow an all-or-nothing approach. Don’t change your brand piece-meal. Instead, roll out the new brand across your business, from your stationery to your website, ads, and so on. Mismatched branding does more harm than good. If you need to roll-out your new brand over the course of a few months due to budget and time restraints, make sure you focus on customer-facing elements first.
Again, don’t rebrand for the sake of rebranding. Instead, rebrand only when it’s strategically beneficial to your business and consumers.