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  As businesses change, their brands change too—or at least that’s what happens in the ideal case. A rebrand is something that should announce a shift in a business’s identity, as well as its culture, communication style, and offerings.
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Sometimes rebrands aren’t that deep. They may just consist of tweaking or replacing an existing logo. Whatever form they take, the aim is to let the world (including existing and prospective customers) know that something about the business has changed. If you’re planning to rebrand your business, you will find this article a useful guide for that process. Here we’ll have a look at the steps you can take to succeed at it. But first, let’s explain what rebranding is, and why you (or any other business) might want to do it.

What Is Rebranding?

Rebranding involves changing a company’s corporate image, including its name, logo, colours, slogan, mission, vision, values, target audience, or market. The extent to which a rebranding effort goes depends on which of the listed components are edited or replaced. A brand exists to differentiate a business from other businesses and communicate what it does and how it does it. When a company rebrands, it lets the public know that there has been some change in certain aspects of its existence and identity. Rebranding often comes with changes to the logo, colours, and messaging on a company’s website, social media pages, product packaging, marketing materials, and other items, to reflect the company’s new identity.

Why Rebrand?

In many cases, businesses decide to rebrand because they have never put any real effort into defining a brand for themselves. As they grow, they realize the importance of having a clearly defined brand. So they undertake the process of fashioning one. Other times, they may want to rebrand because their brand identifiers—e.g. their logo–are too similar to those of another company. This could cause them some trouble on the legal front if it’s not resolved. Another reason could be that the business’s mission, vision, and values have changed, and the current brand doesn’t really capture this shift in goals. A rebrand could bring the company’s public identity in line with its new values, goals, and ideals. Finally, companies could decide to implement a brand overhaul if they previously had a poor reputation. This change is better achieved as part of a broader effort to correct the errors that led to them assuming a poor image.
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Steps To Rebranding Your Business

Here are the steps you need to take to rebrand your business.

Examine Your Current Identity

As a rule, your business’s current identity is determined by its mission, vision, and values. Your company’s mission statement explains why it exists, i.e. its purpose. It defines what it is built to do, who it caters to, and how it will make the impact that it has been established for. Its vision, on the other hand, is the goal towards which your business is striving. Your business’s values are the principles and beliefs that drive your business. These points influence the sort of image that your business takes on. If you are going to change that image, your first step should be to determine whether your mission, vision and values—which influence your brand –have to be tweaked or replaced.

Seek The Opinion Of Your Audience And Target Market

You can also engage your employees and customers to see what their opinions about your brand are. Their views, as well as yours, could help you figure out where your business currently is, and what aspects of its brand might need to change (if there’s really a need to change it). Also, look at what’s preferred by your target market—what kinds of images, identity, and brand personality they tend to interact with. Examine your competition to see what they’re doing with their brand, and how the market is responding to them. As you analyze data from these research ends, be careful to note brand components that are a fad, and those that have lasted over time. There’s usually a combination of these things at play with branding and the market’s reaction to it. You’ll want to achieve this balance with your own business.

Identify Your Unique Selling Point (USP)

Your Unique Selling Point (USP) refers to the features and benefits that your business offers which are unique to it, i.e. what you do that nobody else does. It’s at the intersection of what you do well and what customers want. If you are able to define your Unique Selling Point, you’ll have something to present to the world which attracts your ideal customers to you. And that’s an important part of successful brand messaging. You can identify your USP by learning what parts of your product can’t be copied, the emotional needs of your customers that it meets, and how it makes their lives easier. Aim to incorporate these into your branding.

Rebuild Your Brand

Having noted your USPs and the expectations of your customers and target market, you may go on to redesign your brand. The things you may want to work on are the logo, colours, typography (fonts), and imagery. All of these things should reflect your brand as you want it to be seen, and support your brand’s core message. You could work with a branding company that has the knowledge and expertise required to craft a brand, including designing logos. However, you’ll probably need to come up with some of the details (e.g. taglines). Involve your team in your rebranding process. They could make contributions (through suggestions) that make the new brand much better. Employees tend to be more enthusiastic about a brand that they have contributed to creating. Thus, it wouldn’t be hard to ’enlist’ them as brand ambassadors when the time comes to get the word out about your rebrand.

Launch The New Brand

Here’s where you should let the world know about your new brand identity. This should follow a stepwise process, beginning with your team. Unveil the new brand in-house. Then revamp your website, social media pages, banners, marketing materials, packaging, and other company items in line with the new brand. Get the media to publish a press release that communicates the rebrand to the public. You could also have influencers do a reveal online, to generate more publicity. Make your team brand ambassadors; hand them branded T-shirts, which, when worn, lets people know that there’s been a change to the company’s brand identity. There should be a narrative around the new brand that explains what it’s about, and how it relates to the company’s values and goals. Share this across your digital and offline communication channels, so people get a sense of what the new brand is about.

Final Words

If you run a growing business, it’s almost certain that you’ll need to rebrand it at some point. If that time is close to the present, you may follow the tips we’ve discussed here to make it happen. Featured Image Source: Score
Got a suggestion? Contact us: editor@connectnigeria.com
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This article was first published on 28th September 2021

ikenna-nwachukwu

Ikenna Nwachukwu holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He loves to look at the world through multiple lenses- economic, political, religious and philosophical- and to write about what he observes in a witty, yet reflective style.

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