Will a visual rebrand be right for you, right now?
Making a decision whether to rebrand is a tricky one at whatever stage of business you are at. Recently I decided to redesign my logo, tweak my colour palette, reposition slightly and improve my website. For ages I stalled not sure whether I should wait to rebrand or go with it because my heart and head were telling me to.
You might have come to realise that your customers aren’t fully resonating with your brand identity. Maybe customers even tell you they are confused about your offerings or it could be you need that sense of clarity. Often it’s that niggle it needs to change or worse you feel kind of embarrassed to tell people to go to your website or handover your business card.
The chances are that you are a few years into business and past the initial stages of getting things going, naturally as time has gone on your brand has evolved too and perhaps the visual identity doesn’t now reflect this.
In this post I am going to break down the considerations that you will have to decide whether it is the right time to rebrand for you and if it will help you to achieve your goals.
Common reasons for rebranding:
- Business name change
- The business has evolved and the old identity isn’t as fitting
- Your positioning has changed or you would like it to (more premium for example)
- You current brand identity looks outdated
- The original brand identity was DIY and your business is now established
Considerations for whether it is the right time for a new brand identity
Your availability and indeed headspace for a project
Are you ready to do the work involved in a rebrand for your business?
Of course rebranding is a big undertaking – especially if it involves a name change – so you will need to take a few things into consideration before diving in. This will help to determine whether now is the right time.
Depending if you are a product or service business will also make a difference as to the level of involvement because if you have a range of products they will all need to be relabelled and packaged, as well as new photos! I don’t say this to dissuade you if it is the right time.
Another thing to consider is whether you have the clarity you need for a rebrand undertaking. If you are still figuring out how your business is evolving now is not the time for a visual rebrand (or complete rebrand. You should have quite a good idea on who your audience is although many designers will complete some form of research and brand strategy to help you gain further clarity ahead of any design work.
If you are about to go into a busy season within your business/industry then you might want to consider postponing until a better time. You could lay the groundwork by reaching out to designers to secure a spot and be working on ensuring your business is ready.
Now that you have reflected on your availability for a project you will be clearer on whether you can go ahead right now from a time perspective.
Budget
Will you be able to make the investment needed? You want to get this right and not need to rebrand a short time down the road so it’s important to budget for the right designer, which may or may not be priced as you were expecting. Check whether they can meet your expectations in terms of deliverables for it.
As mentioned above it’s not just a case of a new look and woohoo job done, your new look will need to be rolled out across everything. Now some of this may be able to be done in-house as such either by you or if you have a team. However you most likely will want to consider a website redesign or refresh at the same time rather than just switching in a new logo, font and colours because this will have more impact and be more aligned with the new visual branding.
Ensuring you have factored in an appropriate budget to cover the design costs and roll out across print for example will reduce the risk of a new look that won’t stand the test of time.
Your goals and desired outcomes
What are you hoping to achieve and gain from a rebrand?
Before any big and important project it can be helpful to consider your expectations as to what you hope to achieve from undertaking it. And a rebrand is no exception to that. Whilst there is no certainty that a rebrand will help you achieve your goals, you can decide on what would be a good outcome for you and how likely it is that the new visual identity will help you achieve it.
What do I mean by this, well if your goal is to boost sales for your business and you know that your current visuals aren’t really resonating with customers and your audience then you can assume that a new brand identity that is designed to attract your right customers will indeed have a positive impact on sales.
Here’s the thing…
A rebrand isn’t a quick fix, it might not just magically change things but it can help by appealing to your target audience/customers and making your brand stand out against others.
What it can do is bring clarity to you and to your customers. It can align your brand with the direction you are heading. It can refresh the look and feel giving your brand a boost, and can help to better tell the story that you want to be telling about your business .
TL;DR
Sense check whether you have availability for a big important project in both your calendar and mentally.
Allow for a budget that will cover the costs of the designer that will be able to execute the rebrand as it should be and the cost of the rollout after.
Define your objectives and assess whether they are likely to be achievable or if you are willing to scale back expectations and still proceed if they are perhaps too high.
If you would like to discuss a potential rebrand project with me, I’d be happy to talk – please complete my enquiry form and you will hear back from me soon.
