Is It Time for a Rebrand?
Your brand encompasses everything that your target audience thinks it knows and understands about your offering. As such, it can be a significant asset for your organization. Unfortunately, because buyers often disregard a brand in seconds, if your brand is not projecting the right image or communicating the right message, it can also be holding you back.
When should you consider rebranding?
Things change, and sometimes your brand has to change to remain relevant. But rebranding is usually a time-consuming and expensive undertaking. There must be a strong business case for the enterprise-wide benefits that it will bring.
That said, there are many situations that warrant considering rebranding. These include:
- Your target audience’s needs and desires have changed. Your current branding isn’t broad enough to encompass the changes you must make to meet these new needs.
- You’re losing market share. Your brand no longer reflects a competitive advantage.
- Your current brand is looking dated. The perception is that you’re no longer relevant in your marketplace.
- You’ve changed your strategic focus or fundamentally changed who you are or what you offer. Now there’s a misalignment between your brand and your business strategy, goals, priorities or mission.
- You want to diversify your audience. You need a new branding that will resonate with these people.
- You’ve experienced a PR disaster. Your current brand’s reputation has been irreparably harmed.
What are the potential benefits of rebranding?
A successful rebrand is a strategic growth accelerator that opens new doors for your organization. As such, it can increase sales by:
- Giving you a competitive advantage
- Broadening your appeal
- Attracting new audiences
- Transforming perceptions
- Making your brand relevant
- Streamlining your identity
- Reflecting changes in company size, market position and technological innovation
- Increasing employee engagement
You need to do a thorough cost/benefit analysis
Unfortunately, there are no guarantees that a new brand will bring any of these potential benefits, which is why rebranding is not a decision to take lightly. A rebrand can be a boon for your organization, but only if it’s truly needed and done well. We’re all familiar with the disaster stories of companies that undertook very expensive rebranding efforts that were so poorly received that they had to be immediately rolled back!
As you’re evaluating your options, be sure to ask some important questions, such as:
- Does this warrant the cost?
- Is there truly a need, or could we accomplish our goals through other measures?
- What strategic goals do we have that cannot be supported by our current brand?
- How is our current brand limiting our growth?
- How much positive brand equity will we lose by rebranding?
- What are the potential risks and costs of not rebranding?
Need help making the rebranding decision? Give us a call. We’ve been down this road many times, and we can help you take a hard look at whether the business case pencils out or not.
