So, you’ve decided that you need to rebrand your company. Perhaps you’ve gone through a major change in your offerings and need the look and messaging to match. Perhaps you’re stuck in the past and feel like your brand needs to be modernized in order to look professional. Or, perhaps your customer base has changed.
A rebrand is no small task, even if it might seem so at first. It’s more than just a logo update or a second look at your website messaging. Your brand is a vital part of your company. So before you dive headfirst into a total rebrand, keep these things in mind.
1. Start with Your Core Messaging
It’s hard to decide on things like brand colors and which social networks you should be utilizing if you don’t know who you are as a company, or what your mission and vision are. Make sure that you have the foundation of your business worked out before you decide on stock images and home page copy.
2. Think Hard About What is Working and What Isn’t
Some things might not need to be changed in your rebrand. Have people responded well to your tagline? Do they love the functionality of your website? When working with an outside firm to redesign your website and brand, make sure that you keep the elements that have been working for your company for years.
3. Call A Designer/Web Developer AFTER the Basis of Your Biz is Figured Out
Have an idea of what you want before you work with another team, but be open to their suggestions as professionals. If you decide that you want your new look to be modern and formal, and then call a week later to say that it should be fun and colorful, that won’t just be inconvenient… it will be costly.
4. Look to the Present… And the Future
You want your rebrand to serve your needs now AND in the future. So when you’re thinking about the changes you’d like to implement, design your brand to be the company you would like to see it grow to be. Some of your ideas for the future may need to be implemented at a later date, but thinking about how you want the business to grow is a great way to plan for the future.
5. Consider Updating all Aspects of Your Branding
Sometimes you don’t even REALIZE all of the places that your logo exists. From packaging to letterhead and business cards, a rebranding may mean a reprinting of a LOT of items. Will you be ordering new company t-shirts to go with the new brand? What about updating the look of your company manuals? Think about how far you want to take your rebrand ahead of time so that you don’t get in over your head.
6. Think About Your Timeline
How long will it take to completely go through with the rebrand? Will everyone have new business cards printed right away, or will they wait until they run out? When do you want your website to launch? Figuring these things out for yourself – and making them clear to the firm you are working with – will make everyone’s job a lot easier.
7. Do Competitive Research
If you feel like your website and brand are decades behind your competitors, look at what they are doing right. Then find your own unique way to take the best ideas you find and make them your own.
8. Publicize the Rebrand
Once the rebrand is complete, acknowledge to your customers that a change has taken place. Write a blog post announcing your new website and take to social media with the good news! If your rebrand is going to change the customer experience – like how they log into a system or how they navigate to pages that were obvious before, consider giving them some warning BEFOREHAND that the rebrand will be happening.
9. Consider all of the Consequences
A lot of factors play in to the success of a rebrand. If your customers were attached to your previous brand, there may be some backlash related to the changes. Be careful of changing your brand TOO much so that it is no longer recognizable. And don’t forget that one consequence will be a bill. Be sure to set a realistic rebrand budget and work with your firm to stay as close to it as possible.
If you’re thinking about rebranding YOUR business, give us a call.