Creating a brand that masses of people connect with on a personal level goes beyond a good idea or well-working product. For a long-lasting company, brands need to streamline their message, visuals, and the way in which they appeal to their target audience with complete precision.
But sometimes, when that precision misses the mark, a little refresh breathes new life into an older brand. Enter: rebranding.
When you think of rebranding, you might envision a simple color change or some sans serif font, but there’s more behind an image overhaul than our go-to creative thinkers and excellent designers can provide — especially because a rebranding effort is more than just a shiny new logo slapped on every surface. Here are five do’s and don’ts for a successful rebrand.
Do Work From The Inside Out
It’s important to note that rebranding isn’t just external-facing — the core of the company should feel (and respond positively to) the strategy shifts as well. Identify the reasons you’re looking to rebrand: Overdue modernization? Battling with a competitor? Distancing yourself from negative PR? Then communicate that honestly within the company.
Convey outward efforts to employees before they launch publicly and ensure everyone is equipped with the correct slogans, images, and training to speak about the company’s new strategy in an informed and confident manner. Rebranding efforts emerge from the inside out. If you steady your company on its new foundation, the public will be much more likely to receive it well.
Don’t Be Hasty
While you might not be getting the results you want in your particular venture — high clicks, plenty of purchases, buzzy word-of-mouth marketing — rebranding as a hail Mary is not the answer. In fact, it could lead you to alter something your consumers identify with, thus producing the opposite effect.
Instead, invest in research before overhauling your company’s image. Identify your actual consumers then locate the attainable customers you hope to attract, conduct market research to identify the aspects of your brand that consumers connect with, or hire an external digital agency to assist you with everything from user-friendly web design to a solid social media presence to a sleek logo.
Finally, remember that a rebranding effort — whether large scale or small — incorporates language, logos, graphics, websites, products, social media, and overall personality. Every piece of the pie is equally important in defining a distinct identity and should be handled with care.
Do Create Quippy Copy
Your color palette might be on-point and your graphics might be chic, but if you don’t have a clever tagline to impart positive feelings, you’re already behind. Twitter’s 140 character limit has spilled over into every facet of business (can you say “TL;DR”?) and those short snippets of brand benefits are necessary.
Take a cue from Nike, whose long-running “Just Do It” supersedes sneakers and catapults consumers into an active lifestyle. Dollar Shave Club — a competitor of Harry’s — reinforces its inexpensive delivery through its punny tagline “Shave Time. Shave Money.” Coca-Cola is a particularly strong example of regular rebranding. Every few years, its tagline changes, which gives consumers enough time to identify with it and consume carefully constructed ads across several mediums before the message goes stale. In fact, “open happiness” was just replaced by “taste the feeling” in 2016.
If you’re struggling to cultivate a mini motto that embodies your company (or particular campaign), try making it a group effort. Have a team within the business identify the brands they love on their own time, then come together to present why they were chosen, what the brands did and didn’t do right, and finalize your time tossing ideas for your own brand around the room. No dice? Try outsourcing to a company that can look at your numbers, audit your online presence, and use its own in-house creatives and copywriters to compose some strong options.
Don’t Get Wrapped Up In Money
Once a budget has been set and approved, it’s easy to pinch pennies along the way in order to make ends meet. After all, big bucks don’t necessarily equate to positive reception. However, a little flexibility can go a long way.
Rebranding is a huge undertaking and requires blood, sweat and tears from countless employees in endless departments. It’s better to pad the budget or pull from another arena for a strong rebrand the first time around. This way, when you roll out your new strategy, you aren’t up a creek without a paddle, desperately attempting to salvage your existing loyalty.
Do Stay True to You
We live in an age of unfiltered Snapchats, user-generated regrams and unwavering internet access. While that’s given plenty of power to businesses across the board, it's also helped consumers wisen to old tactics. Now they can spot an inauthentic brand from a mile away. That sends them running right into the arms of authentic competitors.
The best way to combat this is to always do what feels right for your brand. Science tells us that users are more likely to click an Instagram covered in cool colors, but if orange is an integral piece of the puzzle, keep it! Embedded videos may engage viewers, but if your product doesn’t translate well on the small screen, don’t sweat it.
The key is knowing your bread and butter, and playing up those aspects when faced with a choice. For example, if your packaging looks cluttered with the company name, tagline and logo on it, pick the element that your consumers identify with best and drop the others. You might feel like you should be putting effort behind the slightly weaker elements, but trust your consumers — they’ll tell you where you need to go.
Make your brand — both online and in real life — a safe place that delivers on its promises by figuring out what works for your consumers and brand. The rest will fall into place.
