Your brand is one of the most important assets of your business. It's what sets you apart from your competitors, attracts your perfect-fit clients, and helps you build a strong reputation.
But what happens when your brand is no longer working for you? When it's not attracting the right people or converting them into clients? When it's not resonating with your audience?
If you're in one of these situations, it might be time for a rebrand.
Rebranding can be a powerful way to align your business with your target market and your message. But it's important to do it right. A poorly executed rebrand can do more harm than good.
Here are two times a rebrand went very differently due to the company’s approach:
Gap's Misstep:
In 2008, Gap decided to undergo a rebrand due to a decline in revenue and stalled brand presence. They spent $100 million for a new logo that was poorly received by the public. The sudden change, without explanation or audience engagement, led to confusion, mockery, and ultimately, a return to their old logo after just six days.
Old Spice's Triumph:
In contrast, Old Spice faced a similar challenge of outdated perceptions. People viewed their deodorant and other products as something their grandpa used.
Through market research, they discovered women were often the ones who bought body wash for their husbands.
The brand underwent a rebranding process with a compelling narrative, entertaining campaigns, and active audience involvement. The result was a success, transforming Old Spice's image, boosting sales, and creating a renewed brand perception.
I’m sure you would want your rebrand to be more like Old Spice’s than Gap’s. That's why I'm sharing my tips for rebranding your business well. In this post, I'll cover everything from defining your rebrand goals to launching your new brand.
1. Define Your Why
It’s important to ask yourself: Why do you want to rebrand?
Rebranding should stem from strategic motives rather than mere boredom with your current brand. It’s not something you should do on a whim just because you are tired of using the same colors and fonts.
The dividends of branding happen over time as you build that recognition, and so if you're constantly shifting things out because you're bored you're never actually going to see those returns. It's like putting your money in the stock market for a day and then pulling it out
On the other hand, a rebrand might be necessary if you want to align more with a new target market, adapt to evolving offers, or create a brand that better captures your message accurately. It also might be something to consider if you have never gone through a branding process with your business and you are ready to scale to that next level in your business.
Your target market and message should be at the center of your decisions around branding.
Once you know your goals, you can start to develop a rebrand strategy that will help you achieve them.
2. Craft a Compelling Narrative:
Your brand's story is a crucial element of successful rebranding. Develop a narrative that not only explains the evolution of your brand but also resonates emotionally with your audience. This is a great chance to tell your story.
People have a hard time with change, even if it is good. Showing and telling the reasons behind your rebrand will help prepare your audience for the rebrand. They will be more likely to welcome your new brand.
3. Involve Your Audience
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make when rebranding is not involving their audience. This means missing out on a chance to engage your audience, create excitement, and get their buy in. It can also reveal your blind spots.
There are a few different ways to involve your audience in the rebrand process. You can:
Conduct a survey on a couple logo options
Hold a focus group
Ask for feedback on social media
People want to be involved. It brings a sense of investment and loyalty if they get a say. By getting your audience involved, you can make sure that your rebrand is something that they will accept and be excited about.
Audience involvement can also help show your blind spots. We often see what we want to see. So it’s easy to miss if our logo looks like something else we didn’t intend for or to not realize our fonts or colors send the wrong message. Your audience will be quick to tell you.
4. Update Your Brand Assets
Most of us have lots of old content, a website and other assets we have been using to market our business. When you rebrand, you'll need to update all your materials to reflect your new visual identity.
If you have a lot of materials, this can be a tedious process. So it’s important to plan both for the time and cost of that transition. Ideally, you aren’t straddling your two brands for long.
5. Launch Your new Brand and make it a party
Once you've updated your brand identity, it's time to launch your brand.
Instead of just randomly switching over to the new logo and colors one day, make it an event. Choose a day and tease it in advance. Show some sneak peaks. On launch day, hold a giveaway or offer a special. Use it as a chance to retell your story and showcase your offers. You can adapt this to whatever makes sense for your brand.
Your rebrand launch is a great opportunity to draw attention and make a splash. This is when you'll need to get the word out about your new brand and start to build excitement among your audience.
6. Stay consistent
Once you commit to a new brand, use it! Make sure you're religious in using the elements of your new brand, like fonts, colors, and style.
Stay true to your brand, even when it feels monotonous. Branding is like the stock market, it takes time to see returns.
Those returns come with time and consistency. That's what builds recognition.
Too many people rebrand and then get tired of it a year later and start to stray. Then they never realize the returns that branding can have. This doesn’t mean your brand won’t evolve. But avoid wild swings in visual identity.
7. Monitor and adapt to ensure a successful rebrand
After you've rebranded, it's important to monitor your results. Are you achieving your rebrand goals? Is your new brand resonating with your audience?
By monitoring your results, you can make adjustments to your rebrand as needed. This will help you ensure that your rebrand is a success.
Not everyone is going to love your new brand, and that's okay. It's impossible to please everyone, and that’s the point. Your brand, at some level, should repel people who aren’t a good fit. So be prepared for some constructive criticism, but also be confident in the choices that you've made and the reasons behind your rebrand. If you've involved your audience and rebranded strategically, you've set yourself up for success.
Rebranding can be a daunting task, but it can also be a very rewarding one. Your rebrand can have many returns in the future if done well. Need help? Let's talk about how I can help you create a brand that is like a magnet for your perfect fit clients.