Rebranding your business might be exactly what you need to boost your company’s success, but do you know the best reasons for a rebrand, why they’re the best, and how to ensure your rebrand is successful should you decide to embark on this path?
Before we cover a few approaches to rebranding that will help make your strategy more successful, let’s look at why and when it makes sense to rebrand your business.
Why and When it Makes Sense to Rebrand Your Business
First, many business owners rebrand their businesses when it doesn’t make sense. For example, they’re bored, want to change their logo, or because they (not their customers) think it’s a good idea.
Because the above reasons don’t support a business need or aren’t well-thought-out reasons for rebranding a business, the effort will likely be unsuccessful.
On the other hand, here’s when it does make sense to rebrand your business and why:
Your branding is inconsistent
Inconsistent branding stunts the growth of many businesses. It’s likely to blame when you don’t stand out from the competition, or your ideal customers don’t recognize your business.
It’s an excellent time to explore rebranding if your current branding is inconsistent. For example, your brand identity is irregular across platforms, and your brand voice varies depending on the content.
Rebranding to create a more consistent, cohesive brand image, voice, and identity will help your customers recognize your brand no matter where they encounter it.
Your brand no longer represents who you are
Recent branding statistics reveal that “86 percent of consumers say that authenticity is a key factor when deciding what brands they like and support.” And please believe that people can tell when a business isn’t being genuine. So, if your brand no longer represents who you are and what you want to be to your customers, it may be time for a rebrand.
You must reinvent your business
If you’ve had some bad press or recently survived a crisis in your business, you may have to completely reinvent your brand and business to get things back on track. A rebrand, in this case, is appropriate because it supports a genuine business need to revamp and bring your business back to life.
Now, let’s dive into a few tips that will increase your rebrand strategy’s chances of success.
Three Tips to Increase the Success of Your Rebrand Strategy
There are many suggestions out there for increasing the likelihood of rebranding success. Start with these three if you’re looking for guidance:
Ensure you’re financially prepared for a rebrand
Our first tip is to ensure you’re financially prepared for a rebrand. You must examine your business finances and determine whether you can afford to rebrand your business.
Rebranding expenses can add up quickly. For example, you’ll likely spend money updating your website, designing original visual branding elements, developing a new product line, creating a fresh marketing campaign, working on a new sales strategy, and so forth.
It’s a good idea to work with a financial manager to help you:
- Identify if you have the funding for a rebrand
- Put together a realistic budget for the rebrand
- Name the risks of rebranding your business
- Look at the long-term financial outlook of a successful and unsuccessful rebrand
- Put a plan together to improve your business finances if you can’t afford a rebrand right now
Next, it’s wise to spend ample time in the brainstorming stage.
Spend a reasonable amount of time in the brainstorming stage
Your rebranding efforts have a better chance of success when you spend a fair amount of time in the brainstorming stage. This is because you’re able to explore various ideas for the best approach to rebranding and gain insights from the multiple perspectives of your team.
Summon your entire team for each rebrand brainstorming session. Encourage their participation by creating a meeting outline to adhere to and giving everyone equal opportunity to share their thoughts.
It’s also essential to use top-tier brainstorming tools that make it easy to collaborate freely, organize ideas, and move your rebrand forward with the next steps.
Explore the following questions in your brainstorming sessions:
- Are you introducing a completely new branding strategy? Or will you pull branding concepts from a better, happier time?
- How do you think your customers will react? How can you get them on board with the rebrand?
- How can you include your customers in the rebranding process?
- How will you market your rebrand on social media, your website, and your email list?
- How will you track the success of your rebrand?
- What funding and resources will you need to pull off a successful rebrand?
- Has your competition pulled off a rebrand? If so, how?
- How do you envision a successful rebrand?
- Who will lead your rebranding efforts?
- What are the roles and responsibilities of all teams across your organization in the rebranding?
Lastly, plan to implement your rebrand in stages.
Implement your rebrand in stages
It isn’t a good idea to roll out everything at once. Nor is it a good idea to roll out a rebrand without preparing your customers first.
Instead, implement your rebrand in stages. Create a plan for how you’re going to roll out different elements of your rebrand. Start with designing a marketing strategy for your rebrand that covers its introduction, building excitement for it, the rebrand going live.
Ultimately, implementing your rebrand in stages will give you room to make improvements that resonate better with your audience before you roll out the entire rebrand.
Conclusion
Don’t take rebranding your business lightly. Instead, you must first consider why and when it makes sense to rebrand your business and see if your reasoning aligns with what you learn. Then, if you decide a rebrand makes sense for your business, start with the three tips above to increase your chances of relishing in rebrand bliss.
