Rebranding is an exciting time for any established, or new, brand. Often considered to be the marketing equivalent of a spring clean, a rebrand can totally reboot your brand and can help your existing and potential customers to think of your brand in a completely new light.
However daunting rebranding may be, it’s often an important undertaking for brands that need a bit of a facelift in the eyes of the consumer, bringing it back to the forefront of peoples shopping habits. With this in mind, it’s often considered to be a daunting task that brands may hesitate to undertake due to the timely and complex nature of a rebrand of marketing assets and a website. If you’re considering rebranding, there are five key things that you likely need to consider. Read on to find out what these are.
Why are you rebranding in the first place?
Before you rebrand, which in itself is a huge undertaking for most businesses, it’s important to understand your exact reasoning behind it. Is it simply that your branding is a bit outdated? Or, do you want to appeal to a broader audience of customers? It’s vital to consider the reason you’re choosing to rebrand at all, and the implications this will have on a number of areas of business, such as the need to reproduce all marketing material, change signage, update uniforms and refresh your website. This is why it is so important to research your brand and what it means to people before you decide to make such a drastic change.
To truly understand what works well and what doesn’t work well in your market, it is important to take a holistic look at your nearest competitors. Take a look at their branding and establish what works well, and what doesn’t. Obviously, we are not suggesting that you replicate their work, but certainly, look at their branding and establish your own based on the features that work the best for them.
It is also wise to look into who your customers are. Understand exactly who they are and what their values are, whilst using this to inform exactly what they are looking for from a brand. Use this to inform your new branding.
Establish a new strategy
Use all of this research to help you understand what your new brand is and what it hopes to achieve. This will all inform your new brand strategy and the marketing strategy moving forward, including your new tone of voice, brand values, mission statement and so much more.
By creating a thoroughly detailed marketing and brand strategy, you will work to eliminate any of the pain points of a rebranding exercise.
Make your staff the focus
People power is one of the greatest resources that any brand or organisation can have. This is why it is so crucial to include your team from day one when you undertake any rebrand exercise. These are the people who will help you to roll out and communicate any new branding to your customers, which is why it is so vital that you have them fully on board with the new brand and what it stands for.
It might be an idea to include the team in any branding exercises and ideation sessions that you undertake when rebranding. After all, they are the ones who know your brand inside and out, and communicate this to customers every single day.
Make sure you listen to their feedback and take it on board when you’re looking at establishing your brand. Gain their interest early to keep them engaged with the new brand and to allow them time to understand exactly what this means for them.
Communication is key!
Whilst it is undeniably important that your team members understand your rebrand, perhaps the most important people to understand your rebrand is your customers. It it absolutely essential that they understand not only what changes you’ve made to your brand, but also, why you’ve changed the brand at all.
This is where you need to consider your brand strategy and how you are going to clearly communicate to your customer base the changes that you have implemented and the impact that they will have on them. Or, perhaps it would be worthwhile to get their feedback on the new branding through focus groups and questionnaires? Speak to your customers to find out exactly what they think of your brand in the first place and what they expect from you in terms of changes. This is a fantastic way to garner the meaningful feedback and engagement that will help your brand to flourish.
Update all of your point of sale marketing
A rebrand can be a lot of work. This is because you will also need to update your logos, signage, uniforms, and so much more. You will also need to update any of your point of sale materials, including any banners, signage you use in-store, banners and shelf talkers.
It is vital that everything aligns with your new brand to ensure that the brand is cohesive in the mind of the consumer to drive home brand recognition.
If you’ve decided to undertake a rebranding exercise, why not speak to a point of sale printer about how they can help you refresh all of your in-store point of sale displays to retain that consistent brand message. Having a reputable point of sale printer on hand can help to ease the whole process, streamlining your rebranding process to ensure that you are ready to launch your new brand as soon as it is ready.
Get ready to launch your new brand
Now that you know the five key fundamentals to consider when rebranding, what is stopping you? Refreshing your brand is a great way to bring it back into the forefront of your customers’ minds, positioning your brand as a leader in the market.
Launching a new brand can be exciting and daunting in equal measure – but if you focus on the key points listed above, you’re unlikely to stumble into any pitfalls.
