5 Reasons to Consider a Rebrand

Do you find your current brand isn’t working? Have you made changes in your business? Are you confused about what a brand actually is? And what’s the difference between a rebrand and a brand refresh? In this blog, we’ll explore some of the more common reasons that a rebrand—or a refresh—may be necessary.

1. Something in your business has changed.

Have you grown and added more employees or a new location? Have your services or product changed significantly? Are you targeting a different audience? Any of these could signal a need for a rebrand. The brand that spoke to the working man may not hold up if you’re now targeting wealthy retirees. Likewise, if you’ve entered a new market, you may need to rethink your homegrown, local feel. It may benefit you to work through a discovery session to determine if the current branding can continue to work for you.

2. Your current brand is lacking clarity.

Have you done the deep work in your business? Did you determine your values, goals, ideal client, or competition? Is your current brand in alignment with these? For example, if your business values warmth, nature, and community, but your visuals come off as cold and corporate, then your brand may be working against you.

In some cases, small revisions may be all that is needed. Changing the font to one more rounded and friendly or adding a warmer color palette could solve the problem. Or you may need to start from scratch and do the deep work first to build a foundation for your visuals.

3. Your brand has become overly complicated or confusing.

This may be due to a lack of clarity (see reason #2). If not, then it could be due to a lack of consistency. Are you using whatever colors you feel like at the moment instead of sticking with a consistent color palette? Do you try to match the font to the tone of each individual message instead of using the same ones consistently? Do you have too many versions of your logo or too many other assets or graphics? Is your logo more of an illustration and is too busy to use in some applications? Depending on the issue, you may just need a brand refresh where you flesh out your brand beyond just the logo.

4. Your current brand seems outdated in some way.

Maybe your current brand was created years ago and looks like it or your icon references an outdated concept. It serviced you for many years and you can’t imagine changing it. But if people’s first impression is negative, you really need to consider making changes. The difference between timeless and outdated is as simple as a classic tailored suit that will always be in style versus the 90s suits with huge shoulder pads.

You may be concerned that you will lose some of the brand recognition that you’ve built through the years, but customers learn quickly these days when a company rebrands. Depending on your current brand, a talented designer may be able to find a way to modernize it while retaining some of that recognition. Look at the Apple logo: it’s changed many times through the years but still is just a silhouette of an apple.

5. You never invested in a professional brand.

When you first started your business, you may have not known where it was going. You—or a friend or relative—created a simple logo in Word and moved along. Now you’ve been blessed with many years of success and have decided it’s time to invest in a professionally created brand. You want to come off as a professional who knows their stuff. And with the flexibility of various logo versions along with standardized fonts and colors, you can continue to be consistent in your marketing. This is one of the most obvious reasons to consider a rebrand.

There are many different reasons why you may want to consider a rebrand. The ones mentioned here are just the most common. There is one reason I must caution against; boredom with your current brand. If your brand is working, there’s nothing to fix. You may be bored of the color teal because you see your own brand all the time but your client does not and could be confused by continuous rebrands that have no strategic reasoning. If you’re looking for clarity, I do offer Brand Clarity Sessions that dive into the deep work I mentioned above. If you have questions about rebranding or my Brand Clarity Sessions, please contact me for a free consultation.