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| Rebranding |
Step 1: Evaluate your company's goal, vision, and values
If your brand already has a vision, goal, and set of values, now is the time to revisit them. If you haven't already done so, now is the moment to get down as a group and define them.
The cornerstones of your brand are your vision, mission, and values, which may be developed by answering three questions:
1. What exactly are we up to? This is your vision — the focal point for all of your decisions. It's not just about being where you want to be; it's also about being where your audience wants to be. The vision of content marketing and SEO agency Grizzle, for example, is to create end-to-end services that assist organisations in achieving their growth objectives while also empowering their consumers.
2. How are we going about achieving it? This is your company's mission statement. If this shifts, your company's message must shift as well. Grizzle's goal is to develop material that actually empowers people while also delivering outstanding outcomes for their clients. They don't simply want the algorithms to win; they want everyone to win. How about you, what's yours?
3. Why are we doing it in the first place? This is where your values come into play: why you're working toward your vision and why you're dedicated to your goal. Consider your current company values and how they relate to the ones you established when you first started. Every piece of material Grizzle creates must be the most beneficial end-product anyone has ever seen, according to the company. This includes content they make specifically for their own audience.
In terms of how you communicate your message to the world, any changes to your purpose, vision, or values must be represented in your branding. This could entail changing the design of your brand by establishing a new logo, name, or tagline, or going even farther to evolve the voice and feel.
Step 2: Conduct market and audience research
To create a successful rebrand, you must first ensure that what you're doing resonates with your clients and fits within the market as a whole.
To begin, you must re-establish your target market. Consider the following:
Your target market's age range
What gender they are, where they live, and what they do for a living. What their economic condition is, and what interests and hobbies they have.
What personal and professional connections do they have?
You can get responses from your site and social analytics, your CRM, customer surveys, and focus groups.
What you want to know is whether or not your target demographic has changed. Is your target audience who you thought they were, or do you have clients from a demographic you hadn't considered before?
Next, look into what's going on in the market. Do you think there are any new branding trends?
These days, an increasing number of businesses are paying more attention to their online communities. Some people are emphasising their social awareness. Is this anything you're seeing in your line of work? Because not every trend will last, do your study with this in mind.
Take a hard look at your competitors as well. Is there a new company on the horizon that offers similar products and services to yours? Examine what's working for them and their competitors to determine if there are any similarities that could impact your rebranding. Even if you take influence from other organisations, make sure your branding design, concept, and language are distinctive and stand out from the crowd.
Rebranding becomes less of a risk when you know exactly what works and who to target.
Step 3: Determine what distinguishes you from others
Answering these questions and focusing on what sets you apart from the competition is critical to persuading customers to choose you over the competition. A great branding should highlight your distinctiveness even more.
Here are some ideas for figuring out what makes you unique:
When compared to the competition, make a list of all the characteristics and benefits that distinguish your product or service.
Determine which features of your product or service cannot be duplicated, copied, or reproduced.
Define the emotional demands that your product or service satisfies for your customers.
Define what the customer gets out of it. As a Slack app customer, for example, you receive "a place where people get work done, together" because they've created a "better way to communicate."
Step 4: Redesign your company's logo
Things start to take shape at this point.
Before you begin, make a list of all the aspects of your firm that require rebranding.
Make a list of all the places and times your clients might come into contact with your brand to identify these elements. Put yourself in the position of the customer if you're not sure what these touchpoints are. Ask:
When I have a problem that has to be solved, where do I go?
What is the best way for me to find a product or service that will answer my problem?
What factors do I consider while making a purchase?
How can I communicate with a company after I've made a purchase?
Once you have a complete list of all physical components that may need to be changed, move on to the next step.
A designer will usually concentrate on updating:
It's your logo. This should be straightforward, memorable, and relevant to your target market. It should also be adaptive to your company's multiple communication channels (e.g. website, social and print).
Color scheme. There should be three colours in your brand: basic, accent, and neutral. Your personality should be reflected in the basic colour. The accent colour should complement and enhance the base and accent colours visually, while the neutral colour serves as a background to complement and enhance the base and accent colours.
Consider your palette carefully because a signature colour can enhance brand identification by 80%. Use colour psychology as a guide to selecting colours that complement your business image. Whatever colour scheme you choose, it should complement your new brand identity and appeal to your target demographic.
Typography. Fonts, like colour, should reflect your brand's personality while remaining accessible to your target demographic. You should have 2-3 typefaces to use as the main text font, headline font, and accent font in addition to your logo font to make the text stand out.
Imagery. The images and graphics you use on your website should support and reflect your brand's core message as well as your target market. For example, Mailchimp promotes its brand via graphics, which appeal to the company's younger, more creative audience. This method, on the other hand, would not work for a wedding photographer who relies on the quality of their work to generate revenue.
Step 5: Put your new brand out there
This necessitates a quick, step-by-step rebranding exercise in and of itself.
1. Make a "need-to-know" list.
There is a broad order in which you should roll out your rebrand. In order of the importance of your relationships, internal audiences must be informed first, followed by external audiences. For example, before revealing your rebrand to the entire public, you might show it to sponsors or key clients.
A'soft launch' is when a product is first introduced internally. It's a means of bringing everyone on board and immersing the team in the brand story so that they can effectively represent it. It's also a good opportunity to work out any issues before going public.
Begin by making a list of all internal and external stakeholders who need to be notified about your rebrand. This could include things like:
Members of the Board of Directors Donors Sponsors
Employees \Customers
Community \Media \Influencers
Some board members and important employees are likely to have been involved in the rebranding process, but those who haven't will need to be introduced to the new appearance before it is shared with the rest of the company and external sources.
2. Design a narrative
You must focus on articulating the story behind your rebrand launch once you've determined your rebrand launch audiences and the order in which it will be unveiled. Focus on why you've decided to rebrand, how you came up with the new style, and what it means for your company's future.
Sharing a compelling story about why you decided to rebrand gives the transition a more human touch. Stories allow you to connect with your audience on an emotional level while also allowing you to explain the reasoning behind your updates.
For example, Mailchimp provides a compelling story about what their rebrand is, why they chose to rebrand, and how their rebrand reflects their values and mission.
3. Create a buzz
Anticipation creates a sense of urgency. By informing your audience that something new is on the way, you can start to create a buzz that will get people talking.
And the best approach to make people excited about something is to prepare them for it. The hype surrounding an event, like to a movie trailer, the 25 days leading up to Christmas, and the New Year's Eve countdown, often makes the actual event that much better.
Involving your influencers is one approach to generate enthusiasm for your relaunch. Give them permission to drop hints and sneak peeks through their social media outlets by sharing your revised brand identity. If you have a new product, show them how to use it before letting them use it on their own.
4. Make a communication strategy.
How will you inform your audience that your new brand has launched?
This might include a presentation followed by a Q&A session in-house. Externally, you may need to write scripts for phone conversations, email text, social media content, press releases, commercials, and formal letters, among other things.
Once you've finalised your launch material, create a timeline that shows when each piece will be distributed based on your need-to-know sequence.
When you've finished, it's time for the big reveal. The most crucial thing right now is to act quickly. If the rollout is too gradual, buyers will be confused because two brands will be active at the same time. Keep the public unveiling timeframe to a minimum of two or three days.
Also, think large. You’ve worked hard on this rebrand, so proudly tell your story and celebrate your achievement.
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