When to do a rebranding for your company
Unlock your brand
Brent Hashiguchi, Guest Contributor
Brent is the President of Promolocker, your all-in-one source for any marketing promotional products. He is obsessive in helping his clients unlock their brands.
Recently, a company reached out to Promolocker for outdoor promotional products to support an upcoming rebranding effort. They were looking for fun games like pickleball and cornhole to give to their clients as they enter into a tremendous growth phase for the company. Rebranding your company is a big decision. It's not something you do every day, and it can be costly. But it's important for companies to rebrand themselves often, because the world is constantly changing, and consumers' needs change with it. A brand image needs to evolve in order to stay relevant and attractive for customers.
A case study: Facebook rebrands as Meta
In October of 2021, one of the biggest brands in the world rebranded itself when Facebook officially became Meta. The new company brand "brings together our apps and technologies under one new company brand. Meta’s focus will be to bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities and grow businesses."
Meta wanted to focus on the future, and they want to get out of the shadow of their former selves. They wanted people to think of them as something more than just a social media platform--they want to be seen as an innovator in technology, which is why they changed their name.
When do companies typically rebrand?
Rebranding is a way to refresh and revitalize your brand. It's most commonly done to bring a company's image in line with its current goals, but it can also be used to create a more cohesive brand. A rebranding exercise can involve everything from changing the logo, color palette, and messaging to revamping your entire website experience--and everything in between!
When you have a new product to launch.
When you have a new product to launch, it's important that your branding is consistent across every medium. If you want people to understand what your company does and be able to find it easily online, then it's crucial that they know what the brand stands for even before they see the logo or slogan.
You should also consider rebranding if:
You are launching a new service/product line
You're changing websites
You are pivoting the company focus
Rebranding is a big deal. It's something that can take months or even years to get right, and it should be done with care.
When you are selling to a new market.
When you are selling to a new market, it is important that your brand identity reflects this. In order to reach your target audience effectively, you must first understand who they are and what they want from the products or services that they purchase. If you don't know who your customers are, how can you expect them to buy anything from you?
The first step in creating an effective rebranding strategy is identifying who your target audience is and then reaching out directly through marketing campaigns designed specifically for them. The more specific these campaigns are about what exactly needs fixing or improving within the industry itself (rather than focusing solely on how great things are going for individual businesses), the more likely it will be perceived as being useful by potential buyers without seeming like self-promotion or propaganda.
If your brand image is too complicated or confusing for your target audience.
If your brand image is too complicated or confusing for your target audience, it's time to rebrand. Rebranding can be a great opportunity to create a new image that reflects who you are and what you stand for. To do this well, however, requires careful thought about who your company is and who it wants to become in the future.
If the current concept doesn't reflect the reality of how people experience your product or service (or if they're just plain wrong), then there's no point sticking with it--a rebranding would give you an opportunity to put forward an accurate picture of how things really work at this stage in their development cycle.
Or maybe there's an entirely different segment out there which could benefit from having access to your product or services. If so, then changing up how things look might help them understand what they'll get so they'll be more likely take advantage of it.
How do you rebrand your company?
To rebrand your company, you must first do research on your target audience. This will help determine what kind of logo and brand identity will work best for them. You can also use this time to create a new website that aligns with the rest of your branding efforts. Once you have an idea of what direction you want to go in, it's time to put everything together!
Next up: creating a marketing plan with specific goals and objectives aligned with who your target audience is (and where they are). Then, build out all new marketing materials including logos/images/graphics/videos; websites; social media posts and ads; email templates etc... And last but not least - leverage customized promotional products like pens and power banks that incorporate the new messaging!
Rebranding is a great way to bring new life into your company and keep it relevant. It's important to remember that rebranding doesn't have to be super expensive or complicated--in fact, some of the best rebrands are simple ones with just one or two changes made at once. The most important thing is that you take time out of each day to think about how your brand looks from an outsider's perspective so that you can make sure it continues being meaningful for years (or even decades) down the road!
