Rebranding your business? Ever felt like you could do with a style upgrade as you catch your reflection in the mirror? Brands are no different.

Just like when winter rolls around and your once comfortable jeans are now a little too snug, your business can outgrow your branding.

A successful brand:

  • Communicates what your company does
  • Communicates how it does what it does
  • Establishes trust and credibility

Your brand is the core identity of your business. When it comes to new customers in particular, it is the first impression they will have of your business.

So, could you be losing people at hello?

Here are a few questions to help you identify if your brand is letting your business down.

1. Have you outgrown your current branding?

Like hairstyles and fashion, design trends change. Over the course of a couple of years, fonts, colours and shapes that once seemed cool have become passé.

Or perhaps it’s a matter of scaling. If your business has grown and is now playing in the pond with other big fish, it is often necessary to leave your old brand behind so you can compete in the higher-tier market.

Outdated, stale, boring, unoriginal.

If your online presence falls or corporate identity could be described by one or more of these adjectives, you need to update your brand.

2. Are you having trouble converting?

You’re getting traffic through your business but… no one is converting. Once you rule out marketing strategies, it could be a branding issue.

A brand should represent the service or product it provides—it needs to clearly align with your trade and objectives. If it doesn’t, chances are you won’t attract the clientele you’re hoping to.

That said, conforming so you just become another service in your niche is not something we would recommend either. You still want to stand out from the crowd, but with a style that is consistent to your core identity, values and services.

3. Are you lost in a sea of uniformity?

Branding is all about competitive differentiation. If you feel like your brand is getting lost in a sea of marketplace uniformity, you could benefit from rocking the boat a little.  Re-position and capitalise on your unique value propositions to exponentially increase your brand visibility with consumers searching for unique solutions.

4. Have you over-complicated your brand?

Your brand needs to be clear, concise and to the point. If your design is confusing, your messaging is making your audience nod off or your business has become a patchwork of offerings with no unified narrative, it would be wise to take a step back to refocus. From a branding perspective, increased complexity means a decrease in cohesiveness. The best way to remedy this? A rebrand.

5. Do you want to raise your prices but feel it’s impossible in the current market?

If market price for your product or service seems hopelessly fixed, don’t despair! Brand ultimately boils down to customer perception. The value of your offering is entrenched in the mind. A rebrand allows you to reshape the way customers perceive you—and you’ll be able to raise your prices accordingly.

6. Has your target market changed or expanded?

If your target demographic has altered for any reason, it’s highly likely you’ll need a rebrand. An effective brand This is what makes the brand relevant and relatable. A brand that appeals to middle-aged men won’t appeal to teenage girls. Revise your image to stay alive.

Today it’s millennials. Tomorrow it’ll be post-millennials. There will always be another generation hot on the heels of the last. A rebrand allows you to redefine yourself, helping you to reach the goal of tapping into these new and untouched audiences.

Staying on top of demographic shifts is being business savvy. After all, the last thing a shrewd young demographic wants is to associate itself with the dull brands of their parents’ generation.

7. Have you changed your mission or values?

Your mission and values dictate the development of your brand. If they change, your brand needs to follow.

For example, you may decide to start providing more eco-friendly products and moving your company towards minimising its global footprint. It would be wise then to opt for a more earth-friendly brand. Do whatever it takes to make your brand a reflection of your company’s identity.

8. Was your original brand poorly executed?

Of course, it’s also possible that initially your brand was assembled poorly. This could be the result of working with a cheap or inexperienced agency or designer, an unqualified in-house worker on your team, being rushed or produced on a tight budget. If your brand was originally “botched,” you may need to rebrand to get a fresh start for your company’s identity and refocus it within the marketplace.

I answered yes to 2 or more of these questions, where do I go from here to start the rebranding process?

Well, assuming you would like to follow through with rebranding your business, here are the next steps for you to follow:

  • Identify or redefine your business goals. Do you want to rebuild your company’s image from scratch, or just taking a little off the top to redesign your identity for a modest change? Do you want to appeal to a new audience or to revitalise engagement with current customers? This will change the process quite significantly so start here.
  • Research branding strategies for your business. We have five helpful starting points here.
  • Work with an experienced branding professional. Branding is one area you can’t afford to skimp. Work with the best people you can find.
  • Proactively announce your rebrand. Don’t blindside your customers. Proactively prepare them for your rebranding rollout via a series of formal announcements. You might also like to consider celebrating with a promotion or sale to get them excited about your changes.
  • Research branding

Chat to us today about how we can simplify this process and help you rebrand your business.