Your brand’s identity is absolutely crucial to its success. Not only does a brand identity help you stand out from your competitors, but it can help attract new customers and solidify the connection you already have with current patrons. No matter how large (or small) your business is, your brand’s identity matters.
Planning a rebrand can help you become more identifiable and unique, and here’s how to do it.
Plan Ahead, Always!
Good planning goes a long way in just about any business move. With proper planning, you can plan for things that may go wrong, estimate expenses, and more. If you’re not planning for a rebrand, you’re setting yourself up for disaster.
Good planning starts with communication. Let your team know what’s happening to the brand. Include details like any name changes, logo reworks, or any other changes that will change how they discuss the business with your customers.
Planning can be as simple as writing out a list of the coming changes one by one. From there, you can start to expand the details regarding each part of the change, identifying key issues or obstacles that each change may come with.
Once you’ve completed a list, meet with your management team and go over it with them in detail. You’ll find that your team may have creative solutions to certain issues and valuable feedback for your ideas.
Figure out the Why of the Rebrand
Before you undertake an expansive rebranding campaign, you need to identify exactly why your business needs a rebrand. Does your business have poor customer service, or has developed a reputation that’s undermining business efforts? Are you having trouble attracting the right team members? Perhaps you’re completely changing the services or products you offer?
Once you’ve identified why you’re rebranding your business, you’ll have an easier time figuring out the how you’ll be rebranding it. You might find that what you originally thought was a reason for rebranding might simply require a policy change or different marketing campaign.
Gather Feedback from Both Customers and Employees
Customer/team feedback are valuable tools that can help you transform any part of your business. If you’re thinking of performing a rebrand for your business, gathering feedback can be essential to the creative process.
You’ll want to gather insight on what your customers like and dislike about your brand; whether it be your customer service, quality of products or services, condition of your storefronts or website, etc. These will play an important role in the rebranding of your business, especially a vital component like customer service comes up short in the polls.
Keep your staff included in the feedback as well. They have an intimate knowledge of the day to day operations of your business and may be able to identify further issues which you have overlooked. No one can be everywhere all the time, making it impossible to know every detail about every part of your business. Don’t underestimate the power of staff feedback; you might just learn something important from them.
Brand Analysis
Once you’ve found the why of your rebranding campaign, you’ll need to conduct a brand analysis. This will differ depending on the reason behind the rebrand. If you’re rebranding because you’ve developed a bad reputation, you’ll need to analyze what caused that bad reputation.
If you’re rebranding due to changes in the market, you’ll want to analyze how your brand can adapt to said changes. It is during this research that you’ll likely discover the true need your brand has in order to be more successful. In fact, you may not need a rebrand at all, but rather an upgrade or simply a change to some of your policies or products.
You might simply be missing the right tools to make your brand successful. If you’re a development company, you might need to invest in something like wireframe mockup tools for better design, or a better checkout process for a grocery/retail store.
Decide on Your New Image and Values
Your research is completed, feedback gathered, and everything is in place for your rebrand; now it’s time to commit to your new image and iron out the values you want your brand to follow. Consider what made you decide on a rebrand in the first place. Perhaps you weren’t as committed to quality as you should be; this could be the center of your new image.
Ensuring that your company has values to stand behind will give everyone (including the customer) a rallying point to fall back on. Honesty, integrity, commitment to quality, and a customer-first attitude are values that make for a successful business and sought-after brand.
Redesign Your Website and Stores
Now that your new image is solidified, your stores and website will need to reflect this as well as your values. You’ll want to overhaul your site with your new logo and slogan. It’s important to include an “about us” page on your site to give new customers an explanation of what your brand is about.
Don’t forget your social media pages either. These act as a conduit for conversation between your brand and your customer base and can be incredibly helpful marketing tools for reaching new customers.
Conclusion
Rebranding can be a long, exhausting process, but planning ahead will alleviate some of the stress and make for a more successful rebranding campaign. Be sure to gather feedback from customers to get a true idea of how they view your brand, and always have a backup plan.
