Rebranding is a lot more than a simple logo change – its a whole ‘new you’. The reasons to go through the process of rebranding your business are numerous perhaps it is:
- International growth
- New business model
- New management
- A poor reputation
- Outdated business identity
- New products or markets
While it’s something not to be taken lightly and will cost a penny or two, it can really set you up for a massive boost in sales and market share through refreshed recognition and improved positioning. What are some key considerations before you rebrand your business?
1) Involve your team
As a business owner, this is your baby and at the end of the day you will feel possessive. Try and let some of that go for the sake of a well conceived rebrand project.
A rebrand has the effect of galvanising the workforce, breathers new life and meaning into your work and assures people of the solidity of their employment. Your own employees, however, also have a trove of information and insight into the business that needs to be tapped.
It’s a great idea to hold a brainstorm session with your team when making decisions – get a vote going on colours, designs, typography, values, themes, taglines and logos. You may be surprised with the insight into your own business your employees have. In fact you might uncover that you have a hidden design guru or undercover brand specialist in your midst – people are surprising.
You can of course go right ahead and ignore them after considering their opinions … but you need to war game this kind of decision among the group who know the business best – your dedicated employees.
2) Build it for the market
Be client focused the whole way – your opinion does not matter more than your client base!
As Jeff Bezos once said –
“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
Your brand is made to be consumed not admired in the mirror, so make sure your new brand is designed purely for your clients, not for your own purposes. A rebrand can’t be selfish after all.
Engage with any data you have collected over the years, take out surveys, analyse customer patterns, evaluate needs & wants and dislikes. Talk to them, check out your competitors and come up with messaging, colour schemes, image styles and themes which put you dead in a client’s cross hairs.
3) Thoroughly plan the rollout
Your planning here needs to be very meticulous. You may even consider hiring a project manager on a short contract or fork out for a few sessions with a consultant to professionalise this process. It is often worth it especially for larger companies. A poorly planned and badly rolled out rebrand will be a very obvious mess and you may suffer for it with loss of business or credibility.
There are going there a lot of plates in the air:
- Logos
- Design
- Brand guidelines
- Website
- Social channels
- Email templates
- Customer communication
- Merchandise
And the list goes on… How are you going to roll this out? Draw up a proper plan of attack and make sure it gets rolled out in a smooth transition with as little crossover or dead space as possible.
You don’t want a new name and website but still be emailing from an old address or handing out old branded business cards. This is a great way to look unprofessional. Plan out the design, engage with all levels of your business and allocate tasks accordingly to create a team effort.
Take time to think of the smaller technical details you may miss as well:
- Email addresses and signatures
- Legal documentation
- Ad words
- Domain names
- Redirects
- Hashtags
There’s a lot more here than you might think so that is why a thorough and staggered plan is needed to bring all threads to the right point at the right time. If you botch it, you will end up with a confused staggering of brands and you will miss the benefits of a strong and confident launch.
