Rebrands are a great way to reposition your business, appeal to new markets, move away from a bad reputation or simply modernise your identity, but success relies on more than picking the right colour.
What the customer sees is the brand identity - the logo, the colour palette, the typography and the graphics, but what they experience is so much more - your values, your staff, website -everything about your business. So getting everything right behind the scenes is just as important.
To help you create the best chance of success, here’s 5 questions to ask yourself before you embark on the rebrand process :
1. Why do I need to rebrand?
It’s important to be clear on the reason for your rebrand. What are you trying to overcome? Why do you want to rebrand?
A rebrand is a big project and can have big ramifications if done wrong. You only have to look at the example of Royal Mail in the previous blog to see this and if you need more convincing Gap rebranded in 2010 costing $100m only to reverse the rebrand 6 days later!
Before you look at rebranding, look at what the alternatives might be. for exmaple, additional staff training to help them understand the customer benefits, reviewing your key messages to customers, extending the existing brand identity for a new location.
If you’re convinced a rebrand is the way forward, then it’s time to look at the next question :
2. What do I want to achieve?
As with any many projects, being clear on the outcome is likely to be give you more chance of delivering it. Are you looking to rebrand the whole company or is this about refreshing an old brand identity like Guinness have done over time?
What does success look like? Here are some examples :
increased awareness of x in over 50s by year end
increased sales of y in the North East in 18 months
change of perception of brand to expert and professional in next 2 surveys
Being clear on what you want to achieve allows to more closely measure the success of the rebrand too.
3. What do I want my brand to stand for?
The words purpose, values, brand values and value proposition often get interchanged, but all provide the same function; to guide the company and inform customers of your positioning. In other words how you want to be known and what for. Let’s look at a few examples :
Volvo talks about its values : Customer success, Trust, Passion, Change, Performance.
Uber use a value proposition :The Smartest Way to Get Around
Marriott uses the positioning statement : Travel brilliantly
What all these brands have done is look at what is at the heart of their business. Your statement or values should drive every decision in the business, not just how your brand is shown externally.
Research your market to see what customers are looking for, whether you can offer it and how different you are from the competition. The process of deciding on the final positioning of your brand will take time and probably several iterations, but given it’s at the heart of your business its worth taking time to get this right.
This then inform your visual identity not the other way around!
4. Who do I need to communicate with?
Taking stakeholders on your rebrand journey is critical to its successful implementation. Think about who you need to communicate with, when and what your key message to them is.
The most obvious group are your customers. They’ve already got a relationship with you . You need to make sure this continues through the rebrand and afterwards. Take them through the process - how will it affect them, why are you doing it and most importantly what are the benefits to them.
One group that often get overlooked are your staff, but this group are key to your success, they are after all your brand ambassadors. Your staff bring your brand to life and provide the right experience for customers, whether that’s providing customer service on the phone or even creating the physical products themselves.
Don’t forget suppliers and partners too. Make sure the first time they experience your rebrand isn’t when they get an invoice with a new logo on!
5. What do I need to include in a rebrand project?
Before you kick off your rebrand, make a list of everything that needs rebranding. The obvious categories are :
Source : Uhuru
website
sales documentation
staff documentation
marketing collateral
social media profiles - banners, templates etc
Email signatures
but also don’t forget:
voicemail messages
merchandise
invoices
Server and file names structures
Interior / exterior of any premises
local signage
Essentially, you need to make sure everything that represents your brand is included.
So there’s the 5 questions which could save you time and money, but also ensure your rebrand is a success.
If you’d like support with your rebrand, please get in touch.
Good luck and let me know how you get on!
If you’ve found this blog useful, you might also want to read my other latest Rebrand blog:
