Five Major Mistakes to Avoid When Rebranding

In today’s competitive market, your brand is what will make your product stand out from all the rest. Rebranding is more than just a logo — it is how the world sees your company. Rebranding often pays off for many companies, but can occasionally have no effect (which kinda sucks but isn’t terrible) or backfire and impact your company negatively. A rebrand should be a very well thought out venture that ensures you’re still catering to your existing clients, while attracting new prospects that you have been neglecting in the past. Here are five rebranding mistakes and how to avoid wasting your money:

1. Rebranding because you feel like it

When you’re deciding to rebrand, ask yourself why you think it’s necessary. Is it because you just don’t like the colours anymore, or is it because your new logo isn’t scalable for your new website? Are you doing it to expand and update your business to keep up with new technology, or are you doing it just because you think it’s “about time”? Rebranding should be done to accommodate the growth of your business; done with purpose and reason. If you’re spending all that money to update your business, think about what your end goal is. Having an end goal will help determine not only the design of your new logo, colours and collateral, but it will also help with the delivery of the message you want to convey to your clients and customers. It allows your designer(s) to create deliverables that are consistent and purposeful.

2. Lack of budget and cutting corners

Your brand is your company’s personality — it needs to be consistent across all media. Rebranding isn’t cheap, so before you focus on rebranding your company, make sure you have the budget and capabilities to roll out all aspects of a rebranding effort. Rebranding while occasionally implementing small changes is not only detrimental your existing brand, but also affects the messaging and impact of your new branding as well. Think of those makeover shows — there is always a big reveal! To roll out your implementation slowly as your budget allows is not a good idea. It not only confuses your clients, but it also takes away from the goal that the new rebrand was designed for. Your clients have no idea you’re rebranding, so don’t rush it — the only deadline for the rebrand is the one you set. As they say: Go big, or go home!

3. No goals or objectives

Once you’ve figured out why you want to rebrand your business, you need to figure out the goal you want to achieve at the end of the project. For example, if your goal is to keep up with new technology and consumer browsing habits, your end goal could be to implement a new responsive website design. Figuring out what you’d like to achieve at the end of a rebranding process helps you not only manage the project more effectively and efficiently, but also helps you determine whether or not the rebranding was successful.

4. Not understanding your audience

Rebranding your business is exciting — you’re proud of the work that you’ve put into your business and you’re about to get a new image that reflects that effort. Rebranding should help keep your existing clients and also help you attract those new clients that you’ve been dying to work with. But before you take the plunge, think about who that audience is: are your ideal clients and your existing clients two very different audiences? Or are they similar? What values do you need to maintain in order to not alienate those who have been loyal to you for so long, while also attracting new prospects?

5. Not doing enough research

Research is a vital step in the rebranding process that often gets overlooked. Rebranding is often seen as a visual exercise, and the reasoning behind all aspects of the rebrand are often neglected. Do your research at the beginning, before you even start the work: Identifying and research your competition, opportunities and market. Then, continue the research! Don’t make the mistake of settling on one initial idea and running with it until the end — keep the research going to make sure you’re going in the right direction. In order to be sustainable, you need to identify and understand the reasons behind every branding decision that’s made.

If you’re thinking of rebranding your company and would like some help executing a successful rebrand, don’t hesitate to contact me. I’ll work with you to evaluate your existing business and provide you the support you need to elevate your business to new levels.