Refreshing or rebranding is not a small job. There’s finding the right creative agency who not only specialises in branding, but whose approach resonates.
Then there’s aligning and replacing all the visuals once the job is complete. And this is without even mentioning having to get buy in from senior stakeholders. Some of whom might be rather attached to the current branding...
Measuring your brands performance is similar to analysing your website. The two ultimately go hand-in-hand as the power couple of your marketing. It’s the face and personality of your business.
Before we begin, it’s a good time to ask yourself:
- Why do I want to rebrand?
- What don’t I like about my current branding?
- What has to stay?
- Could a brand represent us better to our customers?
Reassessing your brand can supercharge your marketing
Ensuring your branding is consistent across all touchpoints helps build your reputation. Having a strong reputation drives consideration. Simple.
Perhaps your branding hasn’t had any attention in a long time.
A few simple updates can transform future campaigns into powerhouses that deliver quality leads. Our clients at Grayce found this to be true, after we modernised their branding. This included reviewing their personas, tone of voice, logo and colour palette. Oh, and we rebuilt their website too, helping to making the migration from old to new, painless!
Refresh vs. Rebrand
When you’re looking at changing things up, there are two options: refresh or rebrand. But what’s the difference?
A refresh is modernising what’s already there:
- Changing your fonts
- Updating your colour palettes
- Tweaking your tone of voice and messaging
All the while maintaining your mission, position and offering.
A rebrand is starting from scratch. Logo, fonts, colours, tone of voice, personas, visuals. Even what you focus on with your services and products.
A total overhaul is undertaken if the brand identity:
- Isn’t generating leads
- Has confusing messages
- No longer represents the company’s mission
Either way, a new brand guide is necessary.
A creative agency will be able to audit your existing branding. This thorough analysis will include researching your buyer personas and your competitors. This is crucial to make sure you can work together to create something with impact but is still appropriate for your business and industry.
Take the plunge
Perhaps some of these ring true for your marketing performance:
You’re not generating enough leads but you’ve already reviewed your strategy and website
- You’re blending in with your competitors
- The company has changed since your branding was last updated/created
- It’s inconsistent across various marketing channels
- You have reassessed and it’s time to try and attract different/new customers
Temporary updates
From time to time, brands adapt their logo and visuals to embrace an event, season or a company milestone.
It’s important that when these changes are made, even though temporary, they are still consistent with your brand.
If this is something you would want to take into consideration when refreshing or rebranding, discuss this with your design agency.
For example, you might want to celebrate:
- Charity affiliation
- Company milestone (e.g. 25 years in business)
- Something seasonal that is relevant to your customers
- Celebrating your staff, for example with Pride month
What happens next?
It’s important to introduce your new branding to your customers and leads alike. It stops confusion and helps them to recognise you in the brand landscape going forward.
You can relaunch your branding in a few stages over many different digital channels. We recommend emailing your customers so that they won’t miss the update. If you have changed what you do or your focus, this is a great time to explain what and why.
A relaunch content strategy can be deployed via social media. Before changing your profile and cover photos, consider posting about the change. A digital marketing agency with experience in design will be able to make recommendations based on your audience.
Summary
You may meet some resistance along the way, but armed with research, you can prove your theory. If you can prove how your brand isn’t performing, it’ll have a much deeper impact than “it looks dated”. Which of course can also be reason enough.
Working with a creative design agency like us will help you scope out your requirements. Consider if you want to completely rebrand, or is a refresh enough?
As always, make sure you take into consideration your personas. Keep in mind branding is so much more than a logo! It’s colours, fonts, language and tone. And above all, your brand is your promise.
If you’d like to discuss your burning branding questions, reach out and we will be in touch!
