What you need to know before rebranding
Before you consider rebranding, understand why you are doing it. It may seem obvious, but it’s important to get clarity and alignment with key stakeholders on the reason for the change.
This is not just about marketing – the whole leadership team needs to commit to the process. Successful rebrands signify and inspire real and sustainable change. They aren’t a quick fix and won’t solve fundamental issues with your product, service, or endemic cultural issues.
Why rebrand
Consider what you’re hoping to achieve with the rebrand.
Is the brand out of step with your offer, audience, or the market? Are there issues with your company culture that are impacting the brand experience? Is there a shift you’re seeking to take in your business strategy, product, or service?
Successful rebranding is also about building and maintaining stakeholder engagement. Listening to, and taking leaders and influencers on the rebrand journey is essential. This provides vital insight into the company and your audiences. It can also uncover diverse perspectives and build future advocates for a brand change.
If there are gaps in understanding, some well-designed and targeted audience research is worth considering. It can be incredibly valuable not only for the brand but also to unlock powerful opportunities for the business. Never underestimate the importance of truly understanding your audience.
Get some more insights into the reasons and benefits of rebranding here.
Successful rebrands
Set clear objectives for the rebrand. This not only provides a focus for the project but also directs the approach and importantly, key criteria to measure success.
Essential to any rebrand is to define the future strategic direction. As part of the new promise and proposition, consider what’s missing and what needs to be kept or changed. Your brand strategy needs to consider your internal culture – your beliefs and values – as well as external brand elements – positioning, messaging, and proposition.
The new strategic framework should help you build deeper and more meaningful relationships with your customers/clients, inspire your people and drive the business forward. Consider what is compelling for your audience, differentiated in the market, and ensure it is fuelled by your authenticity and purpose.
A snappy new tagline might fuel a few internal egos but if it lacks meaningless for your audience it’s unlikely to achieve much.
Beyond the logo
A new logo can be a powerful and tangible signal for change but you also need to consider the capital cost of a logo change.
There are so many other aspects that can be shifted to significantly improve your brand’s visual identity. A rebrand doesn’t have to mean a new logo.
We’ve helped many clients significantly freshen or shift their brand, without touching the logo. There are so many other aspects to your brand’s visual identity such as graphics, imagery, fonts, colours, layouts, and even tone and language that can dramatically shift your brand image.
Activate the brand internally and externally
Once you create your new brand, invest in bringing it to life internally and externally.
Updating all your collateral and brand touch points is a given, but it is important to make sure you engage your staff in the brand change. Your people are essential for delivering the new brand experience and turning the promise into reality. It won’t matter how sexy your website or campaigns are if your people don’t believe or understand how to deliver the new brand.
Get the right advice
Truly Deeply has helped hundreds of companies to successfully rebrand. From multinationals to SMEs, corporates to non-profits, they’ve all had unique challenges and opportunities.
While they haven’t all resulted in significant changes to the logo, they have benefited from a refined proposition and visual language. Regardless of the brief, all rebrands have resulted in a reenergised team and a much stronger brand that has driven the business forward.
Contact us today
To find out what’s involved in rebranding your business – the process, the costs, and the outcomes – give us a call or drop us an email. We’d be only too happy to work through your challenges, identify your opportunities and recommend the best way forward for your brand.
Rebrand examples
Check out some of our recent rebrands. Click for more detail.
Michael Hughes
Michael is Managing Partner and Strategy Director at Truly Deeply. His deep expertise is in unlocking the strategic power of your brand to create a differentiated, compelling and authentic brand proposition that will engage all your audiences and drive your business growth. Michael has extensive experience working with leading Australian and International organisations across just about every sector.