When It May Be Time to Rebrand Your Business
Sooner or later, almost every business or nonprofit faces the question: Is it time to rebrand?
If you’ve ever entertained this thought (and even if you haven’t), consider the following:
Your founder created your logo based on their favorite color, animal, child’s name, etc., and it just doesn’t make sense for your business.
If there’s an owl, for example, in your logo simply because your founder loved owls, and it has nothing to do with your business and no appeal to your target market, it’s probably time to rebrand.
You have changed names, expanded and/or shifted directions, and your logo no longer encompasses who you are and what you do.
For example, if your company originally made candy canes but now focuses primarily on making pretzels, chips and chocolate, yet you’re still using a red and white striped logo, you have outgrown your current branding.
Your brand doesn’t appeal to your target market.
If your target market is men, for example, yet your logo is pink with feminine swirls, it’s most likely time to rebrand. Your logo’s design style and other choices need to appeal to your target market.
Your logo dates your company and/or no longer represents the image you’d like to portray.
Perhaps when you started 15 years ago, you created your own logo (or had your brother-in-law do it) out of budget necessity. It served your needs then, but now it’s too common, doesn’t capture who you are or simply doesn’t look professional and is hurting your business.
Your brand name no longer works for you.
Perhaps the name of your company now has negative associations, is offensive in a new market, confuses people, is too long, is too difficult to remember, doesn’t match the products or services you offer now or, much to your horror, is the same as a bad, popular new slang word.
Your brand name or logo doesn’t stand out or differentiate you.
If your name or logo is too common or similar to others in your field, it will be difficult for potential customers to know the difference.
When It May Be Time for a Brand “Refresh” Instead
IF your brand name is well-known and/or still fits you and your target market, but specific elements of your branding do not, you may be able to tweak your brand instead of throwing the whole baby out with the bath water.
Logo design issues
Your name and tagline still fits, but an element of your logo design (perhaps the font or the icon) dates or simply doesn’t fit you, your services and your target audience.
Logo color issues
Your logo colors are the issue. As an example, we worked with a client with a health food brand, Their founder, when she started the company, insisted the design use her favorite beach colors. The logo itself was beautiful, the name of the organization was perfect … but none of their colors could be found in any natural food products. Instead, they were cotton candy food dye colors – a complete contradiction to their mission and brand. We kept the logo but changed the colors, and that’s all that was needed.
Your tagline or part of your name or logo needs changed
Sometimes, you simply need a new tagline or need to change one part of your name or logo.
This was the case for Thrive PR. While our focus was PR for the first decade in business, we had always done marketing and branding work. Throughout our second decade, we expaned our services more, and most clients called us simply Thrive, while some called us Thrive Marketing or Thrive PR. Those who worked with us for PR didn’t realize we provided so many marketing services … and vice versa for those who worked with us for marketing.
After we worked through our branding strategy and explored various rebrand options, we realized we simply needed to tweak our logo rather than create something entirely new.
So we kept “Thrive,” moved our leaf icon and changed our tagline to PR+Marketing. We kept the core name, the same font, and the same colors!
We’re still recognizable, but our new logo and tagline better match who we are and the services we provide!
When It May NOT be Time to Rebrand Your Business
You can’t afford to do it yet.
If you’re a startup or a small business just barely making it, and you have a lot of printed materials that would need updated, it may be best to hold off until you can afford to update everything. Don’t rebrand if you will be putting yourself in a 2-brand position – one online and another offline (with your printed materials).
You’re bored with your logo and think it’s time for a change.
If you or someone on your team wants to rebrand simply for the sake of rebranding and none of the factors above apply, now is probably not the right time to rebrand. Consistency – unless your brand needs changed – is more important.
An incongruent company culture or your off-brand marketing are the problem.
In some cases, a company’s logo and name are NOT the issue. Instead, their overall branding issue falls into the category we call “incongruency.”
This could be an incongruence between your external messaging and your internal company culture (saying one thing externally; acting very different internally).
Alternately, it could be an incongruence between the brand and your marketing strategy and tactics. For example, if you’re targeting the top 1% of income earners, and your name and logo fit your target market, but your messaging, images and/or clunky website user experience do not, you need to bring other marketing elements in line to match your brand.
