Why Rebranding Your Business Isn’t Just a New Logo: How to Rebuild Your Identity

What is Rebranding

To succeed in rebranding your business, you first need to understand what it really means.
Rebranding is the process of changing your corporate identity. It can involve changing the company name, using a new symbol/logo or adjusting brand colors. 

But another aspect of your company branding is your brand voice or the words you use to describe yourself. So when you update your brand, ensure you aren’t just changing your logo. Make the most of the rebrand by clearly communicating your brand to your customers.

Why Companies Rebrand

With a better concept of what rebranding is, you need a greater understanding of the purpose behind rebranding. You might consider a rebrand if:

• Your company name, its symbols or the words you use to describe it no longer fit with your company values, products or services.
• You expand the business and its offerings to where the visual or verbal identity no longer represents your brand.
• The company branding no longer differentiates your business from its competitors that have arrived in the space.
• Existing branding does not fit with new media or modern appearances, making your company look dated or out of touch with your customers.
• Mergers and acquisitions can be another reason to rebrand as you look to bring the companies together effectively and communicate your new combined offering.

Rebranding is not a sign that something is going wrong with your business or that you are off track. Large, successful companies rebrand as a way to stay relevant and communicate their value to their customers. Going through this process can demonstrate that you are competitive as a modern business.

Rebranding Your Business for the Wrong Reasons

Just like there are plenty of reasons to rebrand your business, there are plenty of reasons to avoid rebranding. 

• You don’t have the time, resources or desire to update all company assets to match your new branding. Failing to update all materials will lead to branding confusion, which could make it more challenging for your customers to identify messages from you.
• You’re tired of your branding. Brands that have been around for decades have kept their branding consistent. So the age of your brand is not necessarily a reason to change, so long as the branding resonates with your customers and meets with modern media standards, such as for use as an app icon or social media image.
• As the newest member of the brand team, you want to leave your mark and legacy at the business with a large project. Instead, you can look to campaigns that target your various customer personas to help reach them.

Why Rebranding is More than a New Logo

Rebranding has far more elements than simply a new logo. In fact, the new logo should only come once you’ve built a clear identity for your business with a mission, vision and values statement.

The elements you should consider when rebranding include:

• Typography
• Imagery that fits your vision, mission and values
• Building signage
• Website
• Social media profiles
• Packaging
• Business cards
• Print materials
• Email templates

Here’s a look at the steps involved in a successful rebrand process to ensure you don’t overlook elements.

1. Start with Your Audience

If your audience is changing or growing with the addition of products, service lines, or an acquisition or merger, you should spend some time getting familiar with your audience.

Determine how you’ll carve out a part of the market for yourself in comparison to your competitors. 

Your brand image needs to resonate with your audience, which means you need to have a strong concept of who your audience is and what they value.

2. Your Mission, Vision and Values

Spend some time outlining what makes your company unique and how you plan to go to market in comparison with your competitors.

Outline what makes you special, how you do things differently and what you value. This will help establish your brand voice as sincere, serious, compassionate, snarky, entertaining, etc.

Spending time to outline who you are will build a firm foundation for your brand. Without this foundation, you’ll struggle to see value from the rebrand, and you put yourself at risk for wasting this expensive endeavor.

3. Build a Rebrand Strategy

Once you have a clear outline of who you are and what you value, you’re ready to assess just how much you can afford to rebrand. Many companies cannot take a clean-slate approach of wiping out all existing elements of their brand.

Instead, you’ll likely be doing a partial rebrand that mixes elements of your existing brand with your new brand.

If that’s your approach, you’ll need to make sure that your brand elements (old and new) go together well because consistent branding is essential to success. You want your customers to be able to identify you when placed next to other products or when exploring their options.

4. Evaluate Design Standards

Be careful that you don’t update your branding to be so trendy that you’ll need to invest in a rebrand again quickly.

Ideally, you should choose timeless brand marks, voice and colors.

5. Build Brand Guidelines

The best way to ensure that your brand stays consistent is to create brand guidelines. This can include everything from how you refer to your company to the feeling, temperature or subjects of the photography you use.

You can also state how to use your logo or what version of your logo to use in various use cases. Send your brand guidelines to team members who might use brand assets to ensure consistency.

Support for Executing a Successful Rebrand

If you’re unsure about how to execute a successful rebrand or need support for modernizing your website and digital identity as part of a rebrand, request a free quote from New Light Digital. Our team will guide you through the process, assess your plan or jump into any aspect of the rebrand process you need help with.Our web development team has helped countless brands go to market with an attractive, customer-focused design that connects them with their target market. Get started with your project today.

Further reading:

• Best WordPress Plugins for Affiliate Link Redirects — NLD
• Website Essentials: What Every Business Site Should Include
• 20 Best Digital Marketing Tools to Help Your Business Grow
• A Dozen Reasons Why Social Media Benefits Your Business
• Marketing Agency vs. Freelancers: Which is Best for Your Business