What do I need to know before branding or rebranding my business ?

Rebranding a business can be a costly and time consuming process, so what do you need to consider before rebranding your business? 

Firstly, branding is vastly misunderstood. Some people think your brand is your logo. Others think it’s your company name. While both your logo and company name are elements of your brand, they aren’t your brand in its entirety. Not even close.

Your brand is actually the perception the marketplace has of your company. That perception is created by several factors including your brand story, your logo, company name, brand colours, visuals, web and social media design, your pricing, tagline, your positioning in the marketplace, font styles, packaging, signage, the language you use and customer experience that you provide. 

It is also the team and people that represent your business and the feeling that your customers have every time they interact with your brand.

Your brand is everything that makes you different from your competitors. It’s the reason people come to you, and do business with you instead of them. It’s your lifeline.

You may find it useful to read: ‘Brand Clarity: 4 Easy Steps to Understanding Your Brand‘ blog post. 

No Longer Serve Its purpose

Sometimes businesses decide to rebrand because their original brand no longer serves its purpose, or their business has evolved or changed direction. Maybe you didn’t do an in-depth branding exercise when you first started your business and merely named your business and created a logo, and now you are ready to make it all much more defined. 

Whatever the reason may be, this article should provide you some guidance on what to do when rebranding your business.

But remember that there is a lot of strategy in choosing colors. If you decide to do this, make sure you do some research into colour psychology. Don’t just pick colors because you like them or because you think your target market will like them. Do some digging, keeping in mind what you’re trying to project as a company, and choose your colors accordingly.

Different colors evoke different emotions. Figure out how you want your audience to feel when they experience your brand, and then figure out which colors will facilitate that response.

To make your brand coherent you may find it useful to have Brand Guidelines developed for your business. If you haven’t already, read ‘Brand Guidelines: What are they and why does your business need them‘. 

Changing your business tagline 

Is it ok to change your business tagline? Yes, absolutely! 

Huge companies do it all the time. What may have been a brilliant tagline for your company two years ago, may not be so brilliant anymore. That’s okay! If your tagline no longer represents your brand well, you absolutely can change it – in fact, you should change it. Doing so shows you care enough about your brand NOT to remain stagnant.

Renaming your business 

If you do decide to rename your business, there are a few things you need to know:

It can be expensive. You’ll probably need to have your logo redesigned, new business cards designed and printed, any other print material redone, website, social media art, etc. It can be a lengthy process and it’s an investment and you want to get it right. 

Communication is key. Be sure to clearly communicate the change, and the reasons for the change, to your existing customers, as well as any other businesses you partner with. 

You’ll want to do this mostly through a great email nurturing campaign and social media over a certain amount of time,  that keeps them in the loop of when the change will take effect. Note that some platforms such as Facebook may not allow a complete name change – so please consider that when renaming completely – you may have to lose the following you’ve already built up and start again. (This does have it’s advantages though!)

If you haven’t already re-named your business, read: ‘How to Name Your Business‘ blog post. 

What are the things to avoid when rebranding your business?

1. Not communicating it properly –  When you embark on a process of rebranding your business, you have to handle it delicately with your community. The bigger your business, the more delicately you’ll need to handle it. A lot of times people get attached to things being a certain way so you really have to communicate the reasons for the changes well and make it a benefit to your prospects and your existing customers.

2. Doing it all alone – When rebranding your business you need an outsider’s perspective. The truth is, you have a skewed perspective of your brand. Most often we are too close to our own businesses, therefore can not see things objectively. That’s why it is always beneficial to get outside input whenever making any substantial changes to your brand. You may even want to have your existing customers or community to be involved in the process.

3. Not doing research – Don’t choose something just because you feel like it or because you like it. You have to think about what your ideal clients like, want, and need from you. Do some research, then do some more, until you have a really clear understanding of where you’re at and where you need to go as a company.

4. Don’t be cheap – There are a lot of websites that promise to design an amazing logo for pennies. Sounds great right? The problem is that often, the logo they design isn’t original at all. A lot of them have been ripped off from other companies, but you would have no way of knowing that if you haven’t seen the other company.

5. Don’t jump into the visual aspect without doing research. –Before you start on the design phase, you need to have a super clear understanding of what your brand stands for, what your brand voice is, who you’re marketing to, what message you want to send out, what action you want people to take, etc.

There really is so much that goes into branding, or rebranding, your company and, as you can see, it’s so much more than just a logo or your brand colours. It’s important that you don’t rush into this process and really think about why you want to re-brand. Take all of the above into consideration and you are sure to create a killer brand that your audience and clients will LOVE!