7 Signs It’s Time to Rebrand Your Business
We get it. In the throes of passionately doing what you love, it’s easy to throw up a website, scribble a logo, and bang out a mission statement for your business. After all, it’s the work that you want to do that matters. Not your brand. Right?
Wrong answer.
Your brand is your organization’s number one spokesman, shiny shoes and all. And you know what happens to shiny shoes?
They get scuffed up. You grow out of them. You decide to go barefoot in the rain.
Before you know it, it’s time to get a new pair. And just like slipping into a new pair of shoes, it might be time to move into a new brand. Ocean Pacific can’t be cool forever.
1. When Elements Are Looking Dated
Are you embarrassed to put the logo on your collateral, or ashamed to use your Papyrus typeface on another letterhead? If things are looking like a pre-war can of beans, and not in a cool hipster “Kilroy was here” type of way, then it’s time to get back into the brand trenches.
2. When You Can’t Articulate Who You Are and What You Do and it Pisses Everyone Off
Has your language and copy become so esoteric and convoluted that no one at the company even gets it? Is your website filled with buzzwords that don’t mean anything? Would you rather dunk your head in a bowl of ice than articulate your value proposition? Yup, time for some brand CPR.
3. When Being “On Brand” Feels Constraining
Does the current brand and its guidelines temper your team’s ability to speak authentically and creatively? Is it more constraining than an iron maiden? If the team cannot stay focused, or agree, and their ingenuity is being stifled, that is killer to morale and innovation. Your brand’s gotta go.
4. When Your Website Is Stuck In 1996
Think CNN-levels of confusing content, sidebars upon sidebars, reels of testimonials from your mom, and nowhere explaining what exactly you do. If you find yourself reluctant to share your website with anyone, just know that there’s a cure to this website shame. Time to bring your brand into the 21st century.
5. When You’re Screaming the Wrong Message
Do you have to qualify everything you say on your website? Has your message evolved and your focus shifted? Does your brain think one thing and your mouth say another? Congratulations, time to step it up in the brand game.
6. When Nothing Matches Anymore
Is your website copy super aspirational, but the marketing materials visually all over the place? Does the MailChimp template font match the blog font? Are headlines written in the same tone? Are left and right brains attached at all? Time for a little brand rewiring.
7. When Shit Gets Hella Negative
Did you recently cause a massive oil spill that affected billions of people, ruined businesses, and destroyed people’s financial futures? Are you Bernie Madoff? For the sake of yourself and your business, it might be time for your brand to check into the witness protection program. Dude, it’s time to clean up your act and step out into the world with a new look.
So it’s officially time for a rebrand. Now see how it all comes together.
About ABC Design Lab
Born out of West Coast ingenuity and New York grit, ABC Design Lab is part design firm, part product development team, advancing the way businesses are born and evolved. As a team of artists, scientists, and strategists, we build brands and digital products that emotionally and intuitively connect.
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