“What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.” Plutarch

Pretty sure Plutarch was not talking about branding when he said this, but as a universal truth, let’s apply this towards marketing and branding. Right now, during the pandemic, many businesses are somewhat limited in their outward activities and not operating at their usual busy pace. Why not take this time of hibernation to go a bit inward and look at your brand more precisely? Is it time for a little upgrade? Maybe even rebrand?? When do businesses typically rebrand?

There are a few situations when businesses may need rebranding.

• “Tired” look and feel

If your business has been in existence for a long time doing the same old things, it will be probably beneficial to step back and look at it with a fresh set of eyes. And no, we don’t mean to just look at your logo and letterhead, but look at your company as a whole organism. The way it looks, feels, sounds, and what it represents. Yes, your brand is the representation of your business “soul”, your company culture, and products and services. Of course, you need to talk to other stakeholders such as individuals, clients, employees, and look at the competition to help you decide to rebrand.

• Different client base

Over the course of time, your offerings and services might have evolved. Maybe you have added new services or attracting different types of clients than you used to earlier, but your brand does not reflect these. So, this calls for rebranding and possibly even renaming. For example, a local automotive service that used to specialize in oil changes is under a new ownership and now offers all types of mechanical work. If its business name still reflects just the Oil Change Service, it will limit the potential client base and the business might miss out on more lucrative repair work

• Brand expansion, Geo or Product Line Expansion

If your business has grown substantially, evolved and/or expanded into new geographical markets, or added a sub-brand line, it might call for brand analysis and a potential re-brand. A sub-brand is a brand within a brand with its own distinctive “personality”, marketing strategy, and possibly its own logo. Samsung Galaxy is an example of a sub-brand in the Samsung Company. Heavenly Bed by Westin is a trademarked sub-brand product of the Westin brand. Do you have a baby product with its own personality that might be a sub-brand material?

• Merger

When you merge companies, and/or acquire other businesses, it will most likely lead to the consolidation of brands, possible name change and re-brand.

Whatever the reasons are for re-branding, this is the step that needs thorough analysis, planning and a big picture vision for the future. Even if it seems to be a minor change like a possible visual “facelift”, it may impact the company in bigger ways, and most likely will lead to further changes, communication campaigns, Press Releases, redesigns, signage changes and a marketing strategy overhaul. So, it’s important to discuss rebranding with the marketing experts.

Benefits of Rebranding

When done right and effectively, rebranding should be a huge positive change for your business. Briefly, it will:
– Attract old customers to re-visit and to do repeat business
– Attract new customers
– Attract publicity
– Increase sales & boost the bottom line

Where to Start

When our marketing agency starts working on branding packages for new businesses, we start by analyzing their customers and various customer personas in detail. By knowing the customers thoroughly, their “pain points”, preferences, and how their interests and demands might have evolved over the years, we get a better understanding and more clear direction to move forward. From there, we create various brand concepts to attract those specific customer types.

Remember, that brand is not just the visual representation but the association that the customer has with your business at EVERY touchpoint – in the store, on the phone, on your website, on your social media, etc. So, it’s very important that employees are on the same page and have their branding training, and know clearly what your business represents. You can start by downloading our Branding Worksheet here to start the brainstorming process.