The need to rethink what it stands for and how to adjust the way it presents itself to the world is a defining business growth milestone. Maybe you’ve surpassed your humble startup beginnings or matured to the point that your founding vision and mission don’t align with day-to-day reality. In that case, it may be time for a brand revamp.
In this article, you’ll discover whether you should go through with a rebrand in the first place, along with a breakdown of the process all successful rebrands must go through.
Do You Need a Revamp?
Before you commit countless hours and a sizeable budget towards what may be a risky venture, you should thoroughly analyze whether there’s a legitimate need for a revamp.
By legitimate, we mean sizable shifts in your current brand identity or circumstances. Maybe you’re repositioning the brand towards serving a more upscale clientele, or an upcoming merger with another company makes current branding obsolete.
Conversely, a thought-out marketing campaign may be more effective at addressing lulls in activity or waning customer interest. You shouldn’t start reconstructing your entire identity just because that same old logo and color scheme is what you keep seeing around the office. It’s an even worse idea to try and cover up blunders behind a logo change—your customers will see right through that and be anything but pleased.
You don’t have to pull out all the stops, either. A brand refresh—where you keep most elements of your logo, messages, etc., but tweak them to better suit the times and new circumstances—may sometimes be all you need. A complete rebrand carries various risks, the loss of brand equity and customer displeasure being among the most egregious.
How to Approach a Brand Revamp?
Once it becomes clear you’ve outgrown or pivoted away from your current branding, it’s time to consider the change carefully. Behind every successful rebrand, there’s a ton of research and careful planning. Let’s break it down.
1. Current brand assessment
Begin with an audit of your existing brand. What audiences does it attract, and which messages does it communicate well? Why is a revamp needed? What is the brand’s current market perception, and which gaps are you not exploiting? Having this information will inform your rebranding efforts and improve your chances of success.
2. Define the purpose of the rebrand
The next step is to identify the reasons for the rebrand while ensuring it aligns with your company’s broader business strategy. Expanding to markets in new parts of the world, attracting a different audience, or adopting an identity that appeals more to modern audiences are examples of goals to aim for. You’ll also want to start considering ways of measuring success and tracking progress.
3. Market research
Changes in your company’s goals, vision, mission, or desired customer base are all reasons for another round of market research. What preferences does your new audience have? What cultural norms will you need to account for if you’re moving into foreign markets? What branding strategies are competitors using, and what are they missing that your shiny new brand can offer?
4. Rework your value proposition and brand positioning
Now, you can finish conceptualizing the rebrand by defining what sets it apart from the competition, reworking its vision, mission, and values, and establishing its position on the market. You can then draft a comprehensive rebranding strategy with more tangible elements like timeframes, workflows, and evaluation procedures.
5. Start developing specific brand elements
If you follow the previous steps, you’ll be in an excellent position to start working on changes to tangible brand elements. These include your logo, typeface, color scheme, slogan, brand voice, and more. While you don’t want to reveal everything just yet, it’s a good idea to involve crucial stakeholders and test the waters by asking your audience’s opinions on some of the proposed changes. That way, you can avoid following in The Gap’s footsteps and not roll out changes no one asked for.
6. Follow through with your rebranding strategy
With things set in motion, you’ll find yourself in charge of different small details and may need to put out a fire or two. Should the revamp roll out gradually or amaze in one fell swoop? Do you need to secure additional funds for last-minute changes? Are there contingencies in place to deal with crises, like disruptions to your supply chain or the brand’s premature and possibly unflattering media coverage? The better prepared for the challenges you are, the smoother their rollout will be.
It is also a hectic time when concerns like data security won’t seem like priorities. Yet, your plans, currently undisclosed branding changes, and databases with information on existing customers and new leads may be at risk. This is especially true if the rebrand requires creating new third-party accounts for design and other purposes.
Follow cybersecurity best practices, such as using the best VPNs, encrypting crucial files, keeping secure backups, and maintaining vigilance during heightened phishing attack risk.
In addition, safeguard your accounts from data breaches, not to mention the associated financial and reputation losses, by implementing a business password manager and protecting the accounts of everyone involved with unique and strong passwords.
7. Roll out the changes
Fundamental changes to your brand are a big deal, so treat it as such. Lay the groundwork by getting colleagues used to the changes internally and creating public interest beforehand. Boost the rollout with a marketing campaign designed to introduce the changes, ease worries, and win over new audiences.
8. Monitor & adjust as needed
Your revamp is live and hopefully causing a stir! You’re now at the point that requires close monitoring of various channels, performing sentiment analysis, and gathering other data that will help you gauge its impact and performance. Keeping a close eye on such metrics at this time will let you gain more traction or better control the narrative if audiences and markets aren’t as enthused by the changes as you are.
Conclusion
A brand revamp is a bold step that may prove beneficial in the long term, yet taking the plunge comes with uncertainty. Now that you have a clearer notion of what such a change entails and which risks to avoid, you can rework your own brand with renewed confidence.
Also Read: The Psychology of Rebranding: Keys to Brand Transformation
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