Shifting Gears: Rebranding Made Easier
No one spends more time thinking about colors and fonts than a company trying to navigate a rebranding campaign. Whether you’ve been in business for decades or you are launching your name to the world, it’s hard to ignore the impact of a few small decisions. Your company name, logo, and colors will become how your target audience recognizes your brand whenever they see you. The more distinguishable you are from the competition, the more likely you can win business just by being yourself.
The good news is that your branding is somewhat fluid. That doesn’t mean you should be changing your logo every new year, but you can fine-tune and adjust your branding as your company grows. In fact, even the biggest names in the business eventually go through some type of rebranding.
What is a Brand?
A brand is much more than just a logo or a name; it represents the entire identity of a business. It encompasses the emotions, perceptions, and experiences that people associate with a company. A strong brand conveys a clear message about what the business stands for, its values, and its promise to customers. It creates a distinctive image in the minds of consumers, differentiating a business from its competitors. Through consistent messaging, visual elements, and customer interactions, a brand builds recognition, trust, and loyalty.
Your brand is a cohesive visualization of who and what you are as a company.
When is it Time to Rebrand?
The decision to rebrand can cross your desk at different phases of your business’s lifecycle. Things might just be starting to feel stale or you need to change the public perception of who you are as a company.
Here are five instances where you might want to consider a rebrand:
Your target audience is evolving.
As audiences change over time, a rebrand allows you to refresh your visual elements, messaging, and tone to resonate with new demographics or shifts in consumer behavior. By aligning your brand with the current interests and expectations of your target audience, you can maintain relevance, build stronger connections, and attract new customers who identify with your brand’s renewed image.
You want to change your market positioning.
A rebrand can significantly change your market positioning by shifting how your business is perceived and aligning it with new market trends or customer expectations. By refreshing your visual identity and messaging, you can target new markets, differentiate from competitors, and reflect strategic changes in your business.
Your company is experiencing a merger, acquisition, or expanding to new markets.
Whenever you combine two companies, it might be a good idea to rebrand. Choose something that incorporates both brands and is relevant to your audience. The same goes for expanding businesses that are reaching new geographic areas, but their brand doesn’t accurately represent them.
You are launching a new product or service.
If your newest products and services aren’t accurately represented in your current branding, a rebrand might be necessary so they can get the attention they deserve. This is reminiscent of sweet treat connoisseurs, Crumbl, who recently underwent a partial rebrand as they expanded beyond the realm of cookies.
Modernization
If your brand has been around for a while without even a refresh, it might be time to rebrand. This is a fun way to tell your customers that you are still relevant and ready to continue serving them in the future.
What Type of Rebrand Do You Need?
Sometimes you don’t even need a full rebrand, just a tweak here and there. There are three types of rebranding campaigns that you might consider:
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Brand Refresh: These changes are subtle, but strategic. You might want to slightly change colors, fonts, or marketing language, but your logo and company name stay the same. Start here if you notice a shift in your audience and want to bring your brand up to speed with customer interests.
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Partial Rebrand: A step beyond a refresh, a partial rebrand includes more significant changes. This could include altering the brand name, updating the logo, or changing your tagline to reflect a new direction or market positioning. You’ll preserve your overall identity to stay connected with customers, but you can build hype around a partial rebrand to pique interest.
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Full Rebrand: The Chip and Joanna Gaines of rebranding campaigns. This is a full gut and renovation. If you want to undertake this comprehensive overhaul of your brand, your focus will be on developing a new name, logo, messaging, and overall market positioning. This is most often taken when a company is undergoing a fundamental shift in its business model. A full rebrand seeks to completely redefine how the brand is perceived.
Each type has its own benefits, and they can bring your brand to a place where it fully matches your company mission, values, and target audience.
Elements of a Successful Rebrand
A full rebrand will tackle each of the elements below, but if you are looking at a partial rebrand or just a refresh, you might only need help adjusting your brand's finer points. Either way, evaluate each of these for consistency across all platforms.
Why is consistency a big problem for so many brands? Logo files and colors get lost in the shuffle, and the brand loses continuity. A brand refresh can help clear up confusion and get your colors, logo, fonts, and messaging all on the same page. Build yourself a brand guide as part of your rebranding, and consider getting some branded swag as part of your rebranding campaign to demonstrate your new commitment to your brand.
Bringing Your Rebrand Across the Finish Line
Partial or full rebranding campaigns can be a fun opportunity to attract attention and traffic to your business. Be strategic about how and when you will launch your rebrand to the world. This is a great time to grow your business and make new connections.
Build hype around your rebrand like it’s a once-in-a-lifetime event or exclusive launch. You can send out invites or plan an online launch/countdown to pique interest about launch day. This community-building technique can even reinvigorate jaded customers who might return to see what changes your business has made.
One element of some of the best rebranding campaigns that help the rebrand make an impact is staying cohesive. This means that your website, social media channels, print materials, and messaging all change at the same time. It might take more time to get everything ready to launch simultaneously, but it helps execute your rebrand with more punch and pizzazz.
In the end, your rebranding campaign is about making your brand reflect the people it serves. Listen to feedback from clients and customers to deliver a brand that truly meets their needs. For help, consult with our Las Vegas AlphaGraphics team for a knockout redesign and execution of your rebrand.