Faced with underwhelming sales, lack of company culture, or even aspirations of growing to the next level, brands are faced with a single, burning question: to rebrand or not to rebrand? When navigating the question, a branding strategy that keeps your message intact is key.
To begin with, every single business that works has a brand. Even the little girl sitting in front of her house selling lemonade has a brand (and an effective brand at that). When we decide to rebrand, possibly going to a branding company in Orange County to get help, we’re choosing to take our message and identity in a new direction. The most important question to ask yourself here is why—why is now the time to change things up?
What’s my market?
The wider your market, the more important a specific, strategic rebrand becomes. Corner coffee shops are a good example of “unbranding,” or branding that is natural, with little or no specific effort put into it. That coffee shop may rely heavily on local points of culture, accentuating the presence of a bulletin board, or schedule of local music acts or other events. On a local level, this is effective, but when the same strategy is applied on a larger scale, issues arise. This small-scale, straight-forward, and sincere brand, though more or less effective locally, simply loses steam when it is applied on a multi-market scale: it’s just too general, and lacking in a pointed, communicable message.
Branding Big
A tight, well-strategized brand that succinctly expresses the nature of the company is required in big markets, where a quick impression is all you’ve got to turn the tide of customer opinion. Here, being specific in addition to sincere is what will make the difference. Hence, if your business is embarking on a marketing push, where more eyes will be on your logo, name, and image, it may be wise to undertake a formal rebrand to ensure that your message is consistent, concise, and relevant to as many people as possible.
Don’t throw out that baby…
Rebrands can be exciting. When you’re taking the plunge and renovating your image, be especially sensitive to what has worked for you in the past. Certain imagery, formal and informal names, even color schemes, can accumulate deep meaning over the years, and discarding the pieces of brand identity that have come to accurately reflect you just because, you want something different would be the heights of silliness. Rebrands are useful to ensure that the overall message and image of your brand is effectively communicating to your audience. But also, it’s useful because it can allow those little gems of brand identity to shine brightly, and not get covered up. In tossing out what’s no longer relevant to your brand, be sure you don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater!
The decision to rebrand is a weighty one, and one with holds risks and opportunities for every brand. As we said, each business has a message and a brand—but not every company has a coherent branding strategy. What branding companies of Orange County can help you out with is making sure that message is ready for the market it will find itself in. But most importantly, make sure the message is you!