Rebranding your business isn’t a fly-by-night process. It isn’t something to do when you’re bored or tired of seeing your logo. Or have this off-hand idea for a new website design or line of products.
The choice to rebrand your business should be rooted.
When you have a new vision for your business, a different brand message you want to push, or a newly realized purpose for your company, rebranding is definitely appropriate.
It’s understandable to want to fix the gap between how people currently see your brand and how you want them to see it.
However, there are different things to examine when rebranding your business if you want a seamless brand transformation.
Read on for nine things to consider when rebranding your business.
The Why
As stated above, your decision to rebrand your business shouldn’t be a trifling one. Instead, there should be a solid reason for why you want to take your business in a different direction.
You must know who your company is and the mission behind your existence first.
Being definite about the above information makes your choice to change the direction of your business that much clearer. If the rebrand doesn’t support who you are or where you’re trying to go, chances are “the why” is frail.
Why you proceed with a rebrand should be entrenched in the core of your business.
How Long It Will Take
A triumphant rebrand will take time. But there should be a clear timeline for how long it will take to go through with the rebrand completely.
In your overall timeline, details like when your website will relaunch or when your new logo will be finished need to be noted as well.
Also, the length of your timeline will depend on whether you’re doing a complete rebrand or a partial one.
The rebranding process will be a lot easier if you have a timeline to refer to. In addition, it will keep you moving forward and organized in the process.
The Financial Impact
Rebranding your business will impact you financially in one way or another.
Whether it’s expanding your marketing budget to build new brand awareness, paying for a logo designer, or opening a new location, you’re likely to spend money in the process.
You want to be clear about where you stand financially before moving forward with a rebrand.
Once you’ve determined it’s something you can invest in, identify the specifics about what you’ll need to spend money on in this rebrand.
The Impact on Your Team
When you’ve decided on the best path for your rebrand, you need a plan to execute it. Additionally, you need your entire team on board to fulfill your plan.
Your team is vital to the entire rebrand process, but especially in the planning stage.
You’ll most likely need to host several strategic planning meetings beforehand to organize your plan, assign teams to specific projects, and identify how you’re going to track progress.
And, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, you may have to work together remotely, adding another layer to how your team tackles the rebranding process.
So, you must understand how you will support your entire team if you move forward.
Be transparent with your employees, partners, and stakeholders about how this rebrand affects them and their role in your company.
Also, consider the additions you may need to make to your team to realize the full vision of this rebrand. For example, will you need to hire a graphic designer, web designer, or developer? What about a marketing specialist skilled in rebrands?
Do You Need to Change Your Name?
When you decide to do a rebrand, it will most likely include a name change.
Experts say that “if you’re revisiting your name while rebranding, focus on alignment with your brand’s vision, mission, and values — more than just what sounds good. That way, your new name has a better chance of supporting your long-term growth and goals.”
You may want to change your business name to something unique that rolls off the tongue, but you want to ensure it isn’t too far away from the core of your brand.
So, you’ll want to ask yourself a few questions before choosing your new business name:
- Does it sound awkward, or is it spelled too uniquely? Consider how the name sounds out loud and how it’s spelled to ensure it resonates with your target audience.
- Does it limit what you can do with your business? For example, if your business name is John Doe’s Carpet Cleaning, you’re limited to that one service in the customer’s eyes. Your new business name should leave the door open to grow your business and expand your services/products. John Doe’s Cleaning Services would be an excellent alternative to the one above.
- Is the name being used by anyone else? Ensure that nobody has the business name you want to use. Choosing an original name helps you avoid trademark lawsuits and customer confusion.
You’ll also want to ensure that even with a name change, you’ll be able to recover brand recognition and organic search traffic if you’ve already built a following with your current name.
Your Visual Identity
A considerable part of your rebrand will be the change to your visual identity. Therefore, your brand’s fonts, colors, logos, and other visual aspects will need to be updated to align with your new direction.
If you decide to change your logo, website, or other brand materials, include anything from your old visual identity that worked with or for your target audience. It could be symbols, color combinations, specific images, or font families.
Maintaining your easily recognizable visual elements makes it simpler for your current and potential customers to make the connection. This connection is how your brand used to be recognized and how your brand will be remembered going forward.
Who is Your Target Audience?
When a business decides to do a rebrand, they need to ensure their target audience is still intact. Unfortunately, many company leaders lose sight of who is most important in a rebrand, and that’s their target audience.
If your rebrand doesn’t resonate with your current customers, you’ll likely lose them. If it doesn’t sit well with visitors or potential customers, likely, they’ll never become loyal to your brand.
So, it’s important to solidify your target audience before making any permanent rebranding decisions to ensure the transition will make sense to them. Additionally, you should maintain the emotional connection you have with them, even with the changes to your brand.
If you choose to do a rebrand because your target audience has changed since your initial launch, it’s vital to redefine who they are thoroughly. Answer questions like:
- How do they think?
- What needs to they have?
- What are their current challenges, pain points, or frustrations?
- How do they communicate?
- What are their hobbies?
- What drives them to make purchases?
How Will You Market Your Rebrand?
When you’re in the thick of rebranding, the creative projects can take precedence over everything else because, honestly, they’re just more fun.
Marketing, for example, can be tedious, time-consuming, and downright overwhelming if you aren’t prepared for the task.
Would you rather design a new logo or do market research? Or what about choosing the new theme for your website design over researching your competitors?
We’d go with designing a new logo and choosing a new theme for the website too.
Unfortunately, this lack of focus on marketing almost guarantees your rebrand to be unsuccessful.
You can create the best logo, relaunch your website, and change a few things about your vision, mission, and goals, but it means nothing if the most important people don’t get the message.
Marketing your rebrand means:
- Sharing that you’re in the rebranding process with your target audience
- Ensuring that they know the timeline for the rebrand and what they can expect
- Being clear about why your rebranding
- Sharing the progress of your rebrand throughout the process
- Creating a buzz around your rebrand
- Putting together a PR strategy
- Hosting a launch party
- Creating marketing material about your rebrand
- Ensuring you engage stakeholders, investors, and other partners throughout the process
The way that you raise brand awareness and improve your brand reputation after the relaunch is also essential. You’ll need a solid strategy for continuing the education on your rebrand after the fact.
How to Handle Things in the Mean Time
Not enough business owners think about the in-between time during a rebrand. In other words, they don’t put enough thought into how they’re going to maintain sales, continue marketing initiatives, and handle customer service issues during their rebranding time.
You should take a serious look at how you plan to keep things running smoothly for your current customers. You also want to create a strategy for first-time visitors during your rebranding process.
How are you going to nurture your customer relationships during the rebranding process?
How are you going to approach any complications that arise?
How can you help your internal teams during this transition?
Having answers to questions like these can ease the meantime in-between time.
Rebranding your business is one of the most satisfying parts of being an owner if it results in success. Be sure to consider the above nine things and any others that you deem essential in your rebranding process.