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Are you contemplating a company rebrand? Perhaps you’re not so inspired by your logo anymore, or you feel like the aesthetics doesn’t speak to your values, or you’re branching into new territories with your company.

Your business is very important to you. You have created it, and you’ve put a lot of hours into it. There are several reasons for a company to go for rebranding. One prominent factor is to connect with customers. Rebranding offers a great opportunity to strengthen the company’s presence and image in the eyes of your customers. However, can be an effort-intensive process, so you need to be deliberate about the why and the how of going about it.

Rebranding is the process of changing the corporate image of an organisation. It is a market strategy of giving a new name, symbol, or change in design for an already-established brand. The idea behind rebranding is to create a different identity for a brand, from its competitors, in the market. 

There are two types of rebranding:

Proactive rebranding is done when a company recognises that there is an opportunity to grow, innovate, tap into new businesses or customers, and to reconnect with its users. 

Reactive rebranding is done in a situation when the existing brand has be discontinued or changed. Possible reasons for such a action could be mergers & acquisitions, legal issues, negative publicity such as fraud, aiming to beat the competition, or create your own niche.

Is it the right time for rebranding?

Below are few signs that it may be time for your company to be rebranded.

The target demographic has changed

As it grows, your company may be trying to target a broader audience, and the brand should reflect this.
The key to success? Focus on digital-only marketing and influencer branding strategy.

New competition, technological shifts or taste trends have emerged

If technology has disrupted your industry, a rebranding could be necessary to keep up with competition and to reposition as a leading-edge company in the new environment. Perhaps the change is not necessarily tech-inspired; new consumer taste trends may be affecting your industry.

The business has changed in a significant way

Your company may have pivoted, expanded into new product lines, entered international markets or acquired/merged with another company. Your brand needs to reflect these important changes, and not be left behind to represent your company’s past identity.

There hasn’t been a cohesive branding effort—yet

When companies just start out, it’s not unusual to be very scrappy with branding: you just slap a quick logo and come up with any other brand elements in a haphazard way. However, as your company grows, a more deliberate branding effort could go a long way to make the company appear more professional.

The brand is dated

After many years in business, your branding may not feel as contemporary as it should. Your 1990’s logo in neon-colored bubble letters could certainly use a fresh take (alongside anything in Comic Sans, please).

Why are you rebranding?

It is important to be clear about why you’re rebranding; this way you ensure that the effort of rebranding is worth it and will achieve the expected results in your business. If none of the scenarios described above reflect what is going on in your company, then take a moment to think about why you’re considering to rebrand. Perhaps there’s a problem that runs deeper in the company (such as no product-market fit *gasp*), which rebranding will not be able to fix.

These are some of the reasons why you might want to rebrand your business. Now that you know some signs that it’s time for a rebrand, it’s important that you know that there are some of the challenges that you’ll come up against.

Overcoming Previous Perspectives – One of the things that you’ll have to overcome is the previous perspectives of your business. A good way to deal with this is to use some of the elements of your previous brand in your new brand.

Fighting Stakeholder Resistance to Rebranding – If you have stakeholders in your company, they may not like the idea of your company’s rebranding. If you don’t handle this correctly, the stakeholders might encourage others to also resist the change. It’s important that you are being open and communicating with your stakeholders and letting them know the reason for your rebranding.

Opinions of Employees – Another group who might resist the rebranding are the employees. They’ve been really used to the old way that they may find the switch to be difficult. It’s similar to when the new year starts – it’s hard to stop using the old year. This can be overcome by making sure your employees are involved early in the process. This way they don’t feel as if it’s coming out of left field.

Is it time to rebrand your company? It is a difficult decision, but it also can be necessary to keep your business alive, and you know that there are challenges ahead. But it can also be very profitable and a good move for your business.

If you’re interested in our branding identity packages, I would love to hear from you. We provide all of our clients with brand guidelines, showing you exactly how to execute your logos, colour palette, fonts and more – this offers consistency across all of your platforms and allows your dream client to truly see who you are and what you do.