Company Rebranding Services

10-Step Rebranding Process

Branding can be a powerful tool for businesses, and those that have done it well can be recognised by the fonts they use, colours, styles and more. However, sometimes a company must rebrand itself, whether due to a brand takeover, a merger, expansion into different or new markets or merely the fact that your business is now very different to what it was ten or even 50 years ago.

Undoubtedly, rebranding a company will mean extra work, but the results can be worth it. Be it a simple refresh of the brand image or a complete transformation into a new visual identity.

Not only will the brand still be able to retain its old customers, but it will also entice some new ones by giving the business a new lease on life, especially if it is starting to appear old-fashioned.

In the world that we live in today, social media can be the heart of any company, from a simple communication tool to content marketing and customer care. Of course, the social media channels accompanying your brand strategy will also have to change along with everything else, which may mean you have to change your brand voice and how you speak to people on social media.

Sometimes, a rebrand can lead to a company's downfall, but this is often because they need to take the time to consider what needs to be done correctly, not pay attention to details or plan for the future.

If you want to rebrand your company while ensuring its success, you can follow some simple steps. Look below at this rebranding checklist of 10 simple steps that could lead to a successful rebrand.

1 – Determine Why Rebranding is Necessary

As mentioned before, there are many reasons why a brand may feel like it is time for a change. Once you have identified a particular purpose, you have a solid starting point for positioning. It would help if you asked yourself the questions:

1. Are you trying to appeal to a new set of customers?
2. Has something gone wrong with your company that you are trying to change or move away from? This could be as simple as losing sales to something more extreme, like a corporate scandal or bankruptcy.
3. Are you too similar to your competitor’s brands and want to do something to stand out from the crowd?
4. Have you added a new element to your company or moved away from the services you provided?
5. Is your brand merely old-fashioned and could do with a little TLC?

Once you have figured out the reason for your rebrand, developing a plan to make the changes will be much easier.

2 – Make a Plan

All things work best if there is a plan involved. All companies work differently, but all successful rebrands should develop a roadmap outlining how best to achieve the goals. It is best to create a timeline outlining when you want exceptional milestones accomplished and include projected costs so you are not left with nasty surprises.

Rebranding can take the form of a simple tweak, like changing the colour of your logo design, to improving what the company stands for, so projected costs and timelines can vary significantly from country to country.

3 – Make Things Simple

One of the worst things you can do is to clarify your customer base, both old and new. People tend to be set in their ways, so it can be confusing if they are used to sudden changes in their perception.

Therefore, it is vital that your customers can see and understand what you can now do for them, even if that means reiterating what you have always done.

If you have added services or products to your company, then make sure that this is obvious, while on the other hand, if you no longer provide a particular service, then this should also be stated. The ideal situation would be to describe your brand to someone in less than 10 seconds.

Communication is vital; therefore, if people cannot tell what you can do for them, they will go and look elsewhere – Brand loyalty and promise are often tricky.

4 – Customer Feedback and Research

It is essential to have long-term brand value, even though some people consider feedback and research time-consuming. There are different ways to get ideas about feedback; for example, you can use phone calls, online or email surveys, questions in a blog post, communication via social media or face-to-face market research.

This way, you understand how individuals perceive your new ideas, what they associate with your mark and what interests them.

In addition, it may be helpful to conduct some research on current employees to see different viewpoints on the perception of your brand and find out what changes they believe should be made.

5 – Work Out What Needs Changing

Rebranding a company does not mean you have to change every part of it; only some bits may need replacing. You should identify the parts of your brand that no longer represent what your brand does, the parts that are starting to look a little old-fashioned, and the parts that don’t communicate with your audience very well.

If parts of your company are still working very well, then it might not be worth changing them. Not only will this waste time and money, but your current customers may get confused or annoyed about losing something they like. There is no point upsetting your current customers in the hope of pressuring some new ones.

6 – Brand Comparison

It would help to compare your brand to your rivals to see what you want from rebranding a company. This way, it is easy to see what stands out about your brand or will allow you to identify where it will be possible to stand out in the future.

This could be something as simple as brand colour.

If your brand is a very similar colour to one of your closest competitors, you need to ask yourself whether this is the look you want to be going for or whether it is time for a change.

If there is an opportunity for differentiation, you should seize it while you still can. Other options for change could be the default font you use for your marketing, the brand message you are putting out there, or the images you are using.

Not only should you be looking to stand out from your competitors, but you also need to be careful not to make your branding too complicated; if possible, you should be looking for opportunities to focus your brand, and unifying elements can be beneficial in the long run.

People are much more likely to recall a straightforward logo design than one more complex.

7 – Thinking Ahead

It is not necessarily true that just because your brand may be relatively modern now, it will continue to be in the future. Besides, what you need to consider here is if it will still make sense after ten or even 20 years have passed.

If not, then how else can you make it better suited?

Rebranding in many forms proves your company is proactive and forward-thinking. This means you are flexible enough to go with the flow and take the necessary risks of being at the forefront.

8 – Crafting Your New Brand

This is always a favourite part of a rebranding process.

It is where designers can get creative, and the new brand and the brand message can be created. Although this may seem like the most work, much of the effort has already been put in with the research stage, so you should already have a rough idea of what you want your new brand to look like and stand for.

It is from this research that you can start to craft your brand.

From the market space, you aim to own the design parts such as the logo, colours used, typeface, overall brand messaging, merchandising, company website, social media, advertising campaigns and whatever else you want to be part of your brand identity.

It would help if you were sure that you are thorough and don’t leave any element as your old branding, which could lead to confusing messages.

Establishing a brand’s voice is lovely; you can use it in other social media customer care and marketing efforts. Everything from the pens you use in the office to company vehicles should scream your new brand.

9 – Let People Know

Why put so much sweat, time and money into renaming a company when no one will hear about it?

One of the first things you can do to get the “buzz” started is to inform your employees about this.

They will probably become brand ambassadors if they can throw their weight behind the change and get excited. You should train all your workers on why the new brand identity is essential.

In short, you want your employees to have faith in and love your brand. There are other ways to begin telling people about your new brand name, like using an external PR campaign or throwing a party where press, clients and community are invited. Alternative approaches include advertisements, emails, direct mail and social media.

10 – Supporting a Promotion

The stages after a rebrand can be just as critical as the lead-up, so companies mustn’t forget about it.

You must commit yourself to the rebrand and stand with it every step of the way, even if there are problems or downtimes. As a company, the minute you start to doubt things, so will everyone else, including your customers and competitors.

If you rebrand your company for the right reasons, it will all be worth it in the long run.

It would help if you continued to support what you have done through various advertising channels and make it a well-known fact that you have now changed. The promotional material could include brochures, radio adverts, print, posters, literature, social media, and TV adverts.

Sure, taking on a whole rebrand can be a stressful time for a company; that is why ensuring everyone is on board from the onset is essential.

It may be daunting, but the results often speak for themselves. Using the helpful facts provided and these ten steps in the rebranding checklist, you should be well on your way to successfully rebranding your company.