A guest post by Alannah Alves of Logojoy
The idea of a business’ brand has become increasingly important as businesses are able to interact with their customers on so many different platforms. A brand is representative of you, your business, your mission, your products, and your services. As successful branding becomes more important, rebranding can be tempting if you find your business in a rut. Rebranding has been a popular tool for breathing life back into a business for years, however it’s not as easy as it may seem. Rebranding frequently requires a lot of time and money for subtle changes which may not always be noticeable.
So when is it worth rebranding your business? Check out our list below for reasons you might want to consider rebranding.
1. Your brand doesn’t leave a memorable impression
Do your logo, website, and web presence create a meaningful brand presence? Would they be recognizable as consistent with your product, company, and overall brand? If your brand is run-of-the-mill and gets lost in the saturated market, you might want to consider rebranding. This might include processes such as creating a more unique logo or designing an innovative web page. Ultimately, you want your brand to be identifiable from a distance. Your brand should always bring images of your product and your business to mind without requiring further research. If further research is required because your demographic is not familiar with your brand yet, you want your brand to be interesting enough to pique the interest of consumers.
2. You want to change your reputation
So maybe you got off to a rough start and your business ran into a few PR challenges. Your brand will be a constant reminder to consumers of that blunder. If you would like to distance yourselffrom a reputation that your brand is associated with, rebranding is an extremely important step. A successful example of rebranding because of a reputation issue is the luxury clothing designer, Burberry. As happens to many expensive brands, Burberry became known as the brand for gangsters in the UK to wear. This image was detrimental to Burberry’s sales and their reputation; it was necessary for them to rebrand as an haute-couture designer brand. They were able to do so by hiring Kate Moss and Emma Watson as brand ambassadors. This rebrand was clearly successful as Burberry has shed its reputation as a clothing line worn by gangsters.
3. You want to appeal to a new demographic
Your brand might already be quite successful, but you’re interested in expanding your customer base. It can be very challenging to find a way to appeal to a vast demographic which includes many age groups with varying interests. If you’ve already had some success with a major demographic, think about what key marketing tools could make you attractive to another group without isolating your existing customers. You might consider changing the way you represent your brand on social media if trying to appeal to a younger demographic. If attempting to gain the attention of an older demographic, you might consider creating a logo which references vintage logos through fonts and colours. Old Spice successfully increased their customer base by altering their style of advertising. Old Spice was once considered a standard deodorant used by older men. It was uninteresting, traditional, and did not appeal to a younger demographic. Old Spice rebranded by hiring NFL player Isaiah Mustafa to star in their commercials which were more reminiscent of absurdist YouTube humour than traditional advertisements. This rebranding led to the growth of a young demographic without excluding their existing customers.
4. Your name or logo is similar to an existing brand’s
Coco Chanel once said: “In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.” While she was talking about fashion design, this can be applied to branding as well. If your brand is too similar to existing brands in any way, your brand can be easily confused with the others, or worse, lost in the crowd. Having a unique logo contributes to ensuring your brand is memorable. The last thing you want is potential consumers seeing your logo and thinking of another business. Make sure that your logo is unique and different from what already exists. A good way to create a unique brand is to be creative in its development. Look for inspiration in daily life and other creative industries when designing your logo, website, and advertisements. Trying hard to be extremely trendy can lead to a brand which becomes outdated quickly. Instead, incorporate classic and trendy elements into your branding which guarantees you a unique brand which will stand the test of time.
5. Your current brand is outdated
If you an element of your branding has become outdated with the rapid evolution of trends, it might be time to rebrand. Brands with outdated websites and logos are often seen as less professional than those which appear to be current. In most industries, consumers are seeking out businesses that are up to date with technology, trends, and/or products. Since your brand is representative of your products, you want to ensure that your brand tells your potential customers that your products are modern. Rebranding due to outdated logos has been extremely popular recently as we’ve seen the introduction of trends such as minimalism and flat logos. We can look to businesses such as Instagram for changing its logo to a more minimalist style in order to appear more up-to-date. If your logo is dated, consider creating a new one easily with an online tool like Logojoy.
6.You’ve outgrown your original scope
Congratulations! Your business has become bigger than you were initially expecting. Perhaps you’ve grown to include more services than you had intended. Maybe you had only planned on opening one store locally and your success indicates that opening a chain of stores would be lucrative. No matter what how you came into your success, if your business has grown substantially beyond what you were expecting, you will likely need to rebrand. This might include changing your business name if it originally included a location, such as Queen Street Vintage, and you’ve expanded beyond Queen Street. Similarly, if you have decided to sell new clothing in addition to vintage clothing, you might consider renaming your as a “boutique” instead of as a vintage store. It is important that your brand reflects what your scope and what you offer.
7. You’ve merged with or acquired another company
Similar to outgrowing your original scope, merging with or acquiring another business is a good reason to rebrand. You can rebrand to reflect your newfound scope or to ensure that your brand reflects everything your business is capable of. It can also be beneficial to rebrand in a way that represents the merging or acquisition of the other business. If both businesses have a large customer base, branding in a way that represents both businesses can guarantee those original customers will follow. Marketing professor Natalie Mizik found in a 2012 study that businesses which rebrand using a “fusion branding” tactic (in which both businesses fuse aspects of their brand identities together) are more successful than those that assimilate or remain as two distinct brands. For example, when United and Continental Airlines merged, they created a logo which was a hybrid of their pre-existing logos.