You can think of rebranding as a transformation, like when you get a new haircut and begin to feel like a whole new person. So, what exactly is rebranding? Rebranding is changing the look or mission of an already established company to better market to its target audience.
In order to keep up with society’s ever changing trends, businesses must evolve. Rebranding is a necessary transition when a business is no longer hitting their target audience. Often companies that do not rebrand find themselves falling behind their competition, it is advised that companies change their branding/ identity every seven to ten years.
How Do I Know When to Rebrand?
There are a variety of reasons that can cause the need to rebrand such as:
- Change of ownership
- Business strategy change
- Positioning change
- Industry or business environment change
There are a multitude of ways that a company can rebrand that do not include a complete overhaul of the company. In many cases, a simple logo change or color palette change can revamp a company.
Remember Your Target Market
Today’s market is constantly changing and in order to stay relevant you must know and understand your target audience. Rebranding is only useful if you can identify your target market and directly engage them.
In order to decide if you need to rebrand, you must evaluate your brands ability to speak to your current audience. You must identify your audience’s needs, wants and dislikes in order to draw their attention. The more you know about your target audience, the easier it will be to market to them.
Who Are You?
What is the story behind your brand? What does it represent? What will the new brand represent? Revising the mission and value statements of your brand is a good way to determine if rebranding is necessary. Your mission and value statements should align with the values of your target audience. If you feel these statements no longer represent what you are trying to achieve it may be time to revamp them.
Keep Everyone in the Loop!
Employees essentially represent your brand and must embrace the change because they will be executing the rebranding strategies. Let your employees know about your plan to rebrand in advance. This allows employees time to prepare and essentially embrace the change. Don’t forget to ask for their input, employees care about the company they work for and they want to feel included in the process. Most importantly keep them updated, this will help keep them excited and informed about the impending changes.
When rebranding, you don’t want to leave anyone out of the loop. This includes your employees, customers, prospects and your industry. You want to make these people feel like they’re involved on this journey with you by telling them what are you doing and why. While doing this, make sure to update things such as:
- Your website
- Social media
- Building signage
- Letterhead/ business cards
- Email signatures
- Online directories and backlinks
- Advertising and marketing materials
- Merchandise
These details are important in order to create a unified presence for your company during the rebranding process.
A well thought out rebranding strategy will cover all of these areas and leave no one misinformed.
