It might be a total rebrand or it might be considered more of a brand update or refresh. Either way, it’s probably one of the most significant marketing challenges the company will face in a given year and it’s important to get it right. Here are a few tips from our experiences.
- Get decision makers involved early and often. This might be the most obvious one, but it’s the most crucial. For example, if we talk with a potential client and a C-level executive isn’t a part of the process in some form–from giving us time for discovery interviews to signing off on direction and potential positioning statements, we’ll pass on the assignment. This isn’t a process a company’s communications group should undertake in isolation.
- Define and understand all your potential audiences. What do they like about the current state of the brand? What do they dislike? If it was their brand what would they do differently? What’s sacred cow that the brand shouldn’t touch without audiences taking their loyalty elsewhere? (New Coke anyone? O.com instead of Overstock.com…)
- Test multiple directions with your audiences. Internally, you may have drank some of the kool-aide, and the agency may have blinders on from being the “makers” and knowing what the message or creative is supposed to communicate. Most importantly, you need to know if the world is going to see or interpret something completely unexpected, which may not be the intended message at all. Consumer’s can see things a brand and agency may miss. Some audiences may even see something bad, funny or negative in a brand refresh (Airbnb logo anyone?)
- Rebranding isn’t just a new logo and tagline, it’s defining your authentic tone and voice. It’s finding a positioning that will resonate with your current audiences and allow for future growth.
- A brand is a living entity, therefore it needs updating and adjusting as sentiments and styles change. Going through a brand update and exercise is good to do at least once a decade, even if the adjustments end up seeming minor to you and your external audiences barely notice. The process will at least give you peace of mind that your brand currency is relevant and will (hopefully) continue to be, all other factors aside.
- If you partner with multiple agencies, be open to sharing the process with all of them. Not that you need feedback from other agencies, but everyone will need to work with the update and it’s important that they feel it has the legs to work how they need it to.
At Seed Factory, we consider ourselves an advertising and PR agency that often starts the process with a branding exercise. We understand brand positioning and real-world applications of branding across advertising, PR, social, digital and of course, design. Let us have a holistic conversation about your brand’s needs even if it’s a small project. Sometimes the “refresh” comes from a website update to keep it current with the ever-changing digital landscape. Take a look at the largest two rebrands we have done: CDC Foundation and Navicent Health
