The definition of rebrand
Rebrand:
/ri: ‘brand/
To change the corporate image of (a company of organisation).
To elaborate… rebranding provides an opportunity to adapt your company’s strengths, values and consequently your offerings to customers in a rapidly evolving market space. Rebranding requires businesses to dig deeper, consider their ‘image’ and define their ‘why’ through assessing multiple layers of the business.
A company’s brand isn’t necessarily defined by their past, brands evolve so we can all help define the future.
In essence, rebranding is a strategic opportunity, the chance to make changes to your brand and strengthen your competitive advantage.
The 5 key motivators to rebrand
- Acquisition or purchase and the need for business alignment
- Your brand/product has become tired and no longer relevant
- Your brand/product needs to reach a different audience
- Your customers do not have a clear understanding of what your brand stands for or represents
- To assist in creating differentiation in the market place.
While a rebrand nearly always involves changes to the brand’s logo, name, image, marketing strategy, and advertising themes, the main purpose is to tell your companies story and communicate a new message to customers.
We have recently embarked on our own rebranding journey, transitioning from Creative Results to Finlayson Communications. It’s been a whirlwind experience – professionally and emotionally. As a business owner – your company essentially becomes a reflection of you; the values we promote and the culture we cultivate stems from your personal character and beliefs. For the team, it was about pinpointing what we were really, really good at as an agency and ensuring our message to clients is clear.
Our key motivation was that our clients didn’t really have an understanding of what we represented and what makes our agency an asset to their business. Like all good agencies we have been evolving just like the communications landscape and this needed to be communicated effectively to our clients.
Whatever your reason for rebranding, it’s extremely important that it is done right, with careful consideration.
I speak to a number of marketing professionals on a daily basis and it never ceases to amaze me how many believe a logo revamp equates to a comprehensive rebrand. So you brightened the logo pantone, you got the bosses sign off and the brighter new logo made its debut on the company’s latest advertisement… but what next?
Here are my 6 simple steps to ensure your rebrand is a success:
1. Determine your mission
What do you want to achieve? What do you want to stand for? What gap do you need to fill? What are the business objectives the brand needs to reach? Outline this early and ensure you have a clear way to measure the results.
2. Ensure you base your direction on research
Hold internal and external brand review sessions. It’s important to get alignment both internally as well as externally.
You must ask yourself some important questions about your customer, their expectations, your competitors, your future, the industry’s future, your product /service and what it actually delivers.
3. Rebranding is much more than a logo change
Define what you do, how you do it and the way you do it. Ensure the brand aligns with the business objective and growth plan.
Ensure you devote time to creating and outlining your internal corporate culture.
4. Take the opportunity to get everyone on board
a. Educate the staff about the company and brand
b. Get buy in and commitment
c. Communicate to key partners, retailers and distributors the reason WHY you are rebranding.
5. Don’t sweat the small stuff
Not everyone will love your new brand ID (the logo mark) and that’s ok. It is the reason WHY, that is most important and the story you create around that logo mark, is what really matters. Spending endless months on how big the ‘D’ is, really isn’t necessary.
6. Get the word out there
Ensure your planning doesn’t finish at the approval of a new logo and what the new packaging looks like. Have a plan to take the brand to market.
View some of the our latest work
Sarah-Jane Finlayson, Director of Finlayson Communications.
We take innovation to market.
We create to connect.