Have you ever wondered why some companies re-brand and others don’t? What is the benefit of rebranding, and how does it work? We’re going to discuss when rebranding can be helpful for your business and the reasons you might want to rebrand or even redesign your logo. Let’s get started!
What is rebranding?
Rebranding is a marketing strategy that usually involves changing a company’s brand or branding of a product or service. Rebranding might include changing the name, logo, symbol, and other visual assets. When a company does a rebrand, a common goal is to create a new brand identity. When you started your business, you came up with your brand identity. Everything visual about your brand was chosen for a reason and represented your company’s vision, values, goals, and services. Sometimes, that brand identity doesn’t match what your company is about, or your company changes direction and focuses on something new, or you just want people to take notice of your brand again. Remember when Instagram changed its logo and everyone thought a new app had been downloaded? It brought new light to the app, and everyone started talking about it. Now let’s take a look at why you should rebrand.
Rebranding can be a great way to stay relevant and fresh with your customers. It shows that you’re proactive, willing to adapt, and have the customer’s interests in mind. Here are some other reasons to consider a rebrand:
- Update your brand identity — A rebrand doesn’t have to be a huge overhaul. It can be something as simple as changing the font of your logo or changing the color from red font with a white background to a white font with a red background. These changes are typically seen in companies that have been around for many years, like Apple or Coca-Cola.
- A brand merge or buy-out — Maybe your company is combining forces with another company to create a single powerful company that can double efforts for achieving goals. You’ll need to ensure that the rebrand represents both companies so people know that the merge happened. If your company is bought out, or if you buy out another company, you’ll want to rebrand to the vision you have for the new company.
- Your company’s mission has changed — People start companies all the time that end up going a different direction than they had originally planned. Avon is a great example. In 1886, David H. McConnell started Avon by accident. He sold books door-to-door and would offer free gifts of perfume to female customers. Before too long, the perfume was more popular than the books, so he shifted his focus and founded the California Perfume Company, which later became Avon.
- You want to attract a different audience — As your company grows, so does your audience. As your target customer gets older, you might need to rebrand to tailor to an older or younger audience. Or maybe you decide you want your brand to shift to be more female or male-oriented. Whatever the reason, rebranding is going to be a much-needed project if you change your audience.
If you want to rebrand because your marketing efforts aren’t paying off and your sales aren’t where you want them to be, you might want to reconsider. Some of these issues can be resolved by developing a new marketing strategy or conducting market research to determine why your business isn’t performing well. Rebranding can sometimes come with a pretty hefty price tag. Not only do you have to pay to have a rebrand done, but redesigning your marketing materials and assets can also cost in terms of valuable time. When you are rebranding, you have to keep your company’s vision, values, and mission in mind. Consider what makes your company special and why your company exists. All of this needs to come across in your brand. Going through a rebrand without having this foundation is like building a house out of twigs. It will last for a little while, but it’s not sustainable.
There are two different types of rebranding. The first one is a total rebrand. That’s taking everything associated with your brand identity and scraping it—starting entirely over and going back to the drawing board. A lot of companies won’t do this unless there is a merge or buy-out. Changing your brand too much can confuse your customers.
The second one is a partial rebrand. A partial rebrand is taking the existing brand assets into account while changing your brand identity. Coca-Cola is a company that is a great example of the partial rebrand. Over 130 years, they have updated their logo just enough to be different, but not enough to change their identity. Keeping the best part of your brand and doing a little change can be refreshing for your customers. You do have to keep in mind that even with a partial rebrand, you need to update all of your other assets so your identity is the same across all marketing efforts.
Rebranding isn’t rocket science, but it can also be very difficult. At Design Spinners, we have worked on many rebrand and logo redesign projects. We can take on your project or act as an extension of your marketing team. If you need to bring new life to your brand identity, contact us today!