As a businessperson, you know too well that relating to your customers is a priority. You can achieve this through your branding efforts. Simply put, your brand is what makes your business tangible and relatable.
Relevance is an important factor in doing business. If your current brand seems not to work, it is high time that you considered rebranding. Keep in mind that rebranding is not just about changing your colours and logo. There are a lot of things that you should be taking into account. Below are some of them:
Do you really need it?
The first question that you need to ask is if you really need to do this. You have to understand that this will require a lot of work and resources. If you think that your brand looks and feels outdated, you have to validate this by finding out what people think of it. Rebranding may also be a nice solution if you want to change the image of your business; for instance, if you are leaning towards a younger target audience, using youthful colours and design elements may help you.
Which aspects are you going to change?
Branding has a lot of aspects, and you need to be careful when choosing which of them you are going to change. Is it just the overall look of the logo? The typeface? Or is going to be both the logo and the name? Changing the logo and the name will be akin to restarting your business more than giving it a refreshing approach.
Work with the experts
You may think that your in-house designers can easily carry out the entire rebranding assignment. But now may be the right time to work with third-party professionals. Getting the unbiased perspective of outsiders may work to your advantage, as they have ideas and viewpoints that you might not have considered. You can work with a branding agency or an advertising agency for this undertaking. A PR agency, with a huge network of journalists and business writers, can help make your brand re-launch successful.
Do not forget the online components
Your branding efforts should also cover the online side of your business. This is especially needed if you are running an e-commerce site. Revamp the look of the site and optimize it, so that people can find you (particularly helpful when you have changed your name). You can work with a company that offers e-commerce SEO services.
Prepare the brand bible
Branding is all about consistency. To maintain this, you need to have a comprehensive guide that art directors, graphic designers, and creatives can refer to when applying your brand to marketing communications materials. A brand bible, which covers the dos and don’ts of using your brand, should be drafted.
Rebranding is not always easy. A lot of work goes into this, so you need to have the best team possible. More importantly, you need to ask yourself if this action is really the solution, as this will keep you from wasting money, resources, and efforts.
