It’s Time To Rebrand
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10 common reasons it’s time to revisit your business strategy and consider a rebrand
There are many unique reasons why you should consider a rebrand. Ultimately you and your leadership team should know your organization’s needs. Exploring a rebrand may require research, like behavioral segmentation, to understand the market before investing in a new direction. More on that later.
Regardless of your industry, product or service, data-driven updates to your presence and messaging can breathe new life into a company that is stagnating. Here are 10 common reasons it may be time for a rebrand.
- Your internal and external brand perception aren’t aligned
- Your target market is not well defined, or it’s time to reach a new audience
- You’re losing relevance and you need brand revitalization
- Your product or service mix has changed
- Your market position isn’t unique or your service mix has changed
- Your visual brand is outdated
- You realize you have the wrong brand image
- You’ve experienced a change in leadership
- You’ve undergone a merger
- Your company’s mission has changed
1. Your internal and external brand perception aren’t aligned
This happens quite often, especially in the startup jungle of VC and ecommerce products. A company launches a product or service without a strong brand strategy or truly understanding the target audience.
Sales happen, but over time the brand (remember, brand is owned by the target audience) becomes something different based on the brand experience. No matter how you designed your corporate image on the drawing board, your brand isn’t up to you. It is shaped by the consumer’s brand experience.
Failure to carefully understand those needs and craft a brand strategy to guide expectations means you may be missing out on profits and competing on price.
Take a look at your company holistically. Do your employees feel the same way about your brand that your target audience does? Your employees should be your #1 brand ambassadors, and are a valuable measure of how your messaging matches up with your business model. It doesn’t matter how many posters you hang on the wall in your office – if your target audience doesn’t share the brand perception you have within the company, you have work to do.
2. Your target market is not well defined, or it’s time to reach a new audience
“Our target market is everyone.”
“Ubiquity is our strategy.”
“We sell to men and women between the ages of 24-38.”
These are real comments, by real CEOs, leading real companies, with real brand problems. It sounds silly to read them this way, but we’ve all seen these strategy briefs. They are intended to be too inclusive to fail, but in the end, they do. If your target market isn’t clearly defined, how can you know what they really need from your brand?
Get comfortable with sacrifice. Sacrifice trying to please everyone and truly serve your target audience. Sacrifice ubiquity for success.
Demographics are constantly changing. Know your audience well enough to recognize a shift in the market and stay agile when it’s time to revisit messaging, brand touchpoints and even your products.
Maybe ecommerce success has driven you to serve a national or global market. You may need to segment audiences based on geography, language, or cultural differences.
Be fastidious about every brand touchpoint – from your social media to your brand packaging. Many times, a brand message, lexicon or the actual packaging doesn’t communicate the same way in new markets.
It’s simple: Know the consumer. Know the brand.
3. You’re losing relevance and you need brand revitalization
Take Tiffany’s as an example: not only did their target audience need to shift, but the brand itself no longer resonated with consumers the way it once had. For such a culturally visible brand that thrived for decades, conjuring images of the late Audrey Hepburn and the iconic “Tiffany blue box,” the company was struggling to get in the eyeline of younger buyers.
Rather than digging in and clinging to their existing identity, Tiffany’s saved their company from decline with a bold brand revitalization.
How did it make the change? It sacrificed some of the adoration of its longest standing audience. “Not Your Mother’s Tiffany” became more than just an ad headline. It became a relevant attitude woven into the fabric of all brand touchpoints.
However, Tiffany’s didn’t change everything for the sake of change. Even an April Fool’s joke that introduced yellow as the new house color couldn’t kill one of its most recognizable brand assets – Tiffany Blue.
In 2021 Tiffany’s rebranded to shift focus on a younger buying audience.
4. Your product or service mix has changed
You’ve dialed in to your audience enough to realize they are craving something new, or that technology has finally opened the doors to meet those needs with a new experience.
Don’t be afraid to create new products. If you define a product or service that meets its needs that your competitors don’t offer, guess who wins?
You’ve now become #1 in your space, and your competitors have become reactors.
A strong brand strategy to define and protect that new space is vital. Help the target audience fall in love with your brand and build trust. Otherwise, you’ve simply cracked the doors for others to kick open.
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5. Your market position isn’t unique or your service mix has changed
Why should your audience care about your product?
If you haven’t clearly defined what’s in it for them, or what sets you apart from the competition? Why should they buy from you? They need a reason to align, trust, and buy your brand besides price point. Competing on price is a race to the bottom.
Don’t make them guess what you do or beat them over the head with tons of boring messages about products and features. Define a brand voice with tribal knowledge of your audience.
Carry that voice over into your brand identity and at every retail touchpoint – from brick and mortar to social media to ecommerce. Align with your audience to the point where you speak their language and you become a symbol for the tribe.
6. Your visual brand is outdated
We’ve established that brand is bigger than logos and colors. But let’s be honest – people do judge a book by its cover. Your visual branding not only helps you stand out in the market but helps communicate relevancy to the target audience.
An outdated visual brand doesn’t always refer to the logo or colors. Maybe your competitors have outmaneuvered you at the store level and your packaging is missing the mark. This may be design, physical structure, placement or the hierarchy of your value proposition in a sea of competitor products.
When was the last time you actually walked a store, or multiple stores, where your product exists? Understanding how your brand stands out and stands up to the competition is vital information for a product line review with your merchant.
In-store, you may find other brands copy the category leader and the space becomes blurry. This is a great time to become radically different in the space and become a symbol of re-evaluation for the consumer.
A visual refresh that’s very different from the competition can get the attention of new buyers long enough to understand your value proposition.
7. You realize you have the wrong brand image
Brand image is more than visual identity. Your brand image is your customer’s perception of your brand. This is where the general audience can influence your primary audience if the brand image is negative.
One of the tried-and-true rules of branding is – whether you develop it or not, your company has a brand. That brand can shift based on a number of factors out of your control. Sometimes your marketing or business decisions don’t align with the brand strategy, diluting or even destroying the brand image for your target market.
Sometimes there’s a scandal. Sometimes society decides that part of your brand image is no longer acceptable and it’s time to make a shift.
No matter how it happens, when you realize the brand in the heart of consumers doesn’t fit your strategy, it’s time to rebrand.
With social justice and racial equality conversations coming to the forefront of society in 2021, brands like Aunt Jemima needed a rebrand to survive a negative backlash of cultural appropriation.
8. You’ve experienced a change in leadership
This one is a Catch-22. This could be a great reason to rebrand, or a great reason to stand your ground. Ultimately the perception of your target audience is what should drive the decision.
If leadership has changed based on new company direction, especially following a PR gaffe or huge misstep that costs the company market share, you can signal change at the helm with a rebrand that reintroduces a company’s values and mission that align with the target audience.
Focus on the target audience and why they should care. Don’t make it about egos or the leadership itself, but why the change should intrigue buyers.
If the company is healthy and consumers are spending money, let the transition be about consistency in brand. The opposite and a bad example of when you should rebrand, is to feed the ego of a new leader and make the rebrand about them.
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7 Benefits of Rebranding
Your brand is how your organization is perceived by your customers, your employees, and beyond. Shaping those perceptions is the key to influencing behavior, and behavior impacts your bottom line.
It stands to reason, then, that rebranding is one of the soundest investments a company can make, especially if your
company is in the midst of stagnant growth, waning profits, or even just a good old existential crisis.
1. It Grabs Attention
A logo can quickly grab
viewers’ attention and communicate a company’s core values in an interesting way. That short attention span – you know, the one that causes consumers to judge your business by its appearance – can work to your advantage, if you have a solid logo to speak for your company.
2. It Makes a Strong First Impression
A logo is a company’s first introduction to consumers. If designed well, it can pique the interest of the public and invite them to learn more
about the company; if not, you’ve just alienated a potential customer base and basically tanked your business.
This first impression is your way to immediately communicate ownership over the product/services you sell.
3. It’s the Foundation of Your Brand Identity
Successful branding is about telling a story that will influence customers’ emotions.
Colors, Tones, and Fonts all of this is determined by the story you’re trying to tell, and your logo sets the stage for this story.
These elements will later translate from your logo onto all of your branding materials – letterheads,
business cards, landing pages, you name it – creating a concrete, marketable brand identity.
4. It’s Memorable
Logos are a point of identification; they’re the symbol that customers use to recognize
your brand. Ideally, you’ll want people to instantly connect the sight of your logo with the memory of what your company does, and more importantly, how it makes them feel.
Because a good logo is a visual, aesthetically pleasing element, it triggers positive recall about your brand that
the name of your company alone might not.
5. It Separates You From Competition
A well-designed company logo can communicate everything from the company’s background (professional, relaxed, fun) to their mission (entertainment, efficiency, and innovation) through the right icon or proper font.
6. It Fosters Brand Loyalty
7. Your Audience Expects it
Your logo is the first thing that your audience will look for when they see any communications from your brand. It should be front and center of all your marketing materials such as business cards, flyers, advertisements, etc.
If you don’t have a logo (and one that stands out), then you are missing an opportunity to make your business stick in the minds of your audience.
2. It Makes a Strong First Impression
A logo is a company’s first introduction to consumers. If designed well, it can pique the interest of the public and invite them to learn more about the company; if not, you’ve just alienated a potential customer base and basically tanked your business.
This first impression is your way to immediately communicate ownership over the product/services you sell.
9. You’ve undergone a merger
When two companies merge there can be a major impact on brand perception. Do you want to keep both company’s audiences? Will products change? Is one company on the manufacturing side and relatively invisible? Do you have a new geographic footprint? It’s easy to get lost in the excitement of an acquisition or equal merger.
Don’t forget to keep the focus on your new target audience. The decision to rebrand or not should come from how it affects the brand in the hearts and minds of the buyer.
You may need a larger, differentiated identity that fits your new capabilities or market. That may require a new name that fits the new brand strategy.
Don’t forget your employees as a target audience for the rebranding announcement. They’re also vital stakeholders. Employees, executive teams and board members need to believe in the new corporate branding.
You need to communicate company values and mission so your staff becomes brand evangelists for your new external marketing strategies.
10. Your company’s mission has changed
Many companies begin as small businesses. They’re focused on the product or service that was a passion project of the founders. Over time they grow and must accept larger challenges, define new markets, create new products and please new customers. During this time the company mission may shift, giving a new vision for leadership and employees.
Sometimes the brand moves beyond commerce and finds purpose. Purpose that creates loyalty among staff and consumers alike. If you’ve found your new “Why,” make sure it’s woven into the fabric of your new brand.
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When Is It Time to Rebrand? 10 Powerful Reasons You Should Take Action
Written by By Phillip Oakley
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