Marketing
3 Effective and Affordable Strategies for Rebranding
As the name suggests, Rebranding is about giving a new image or appeal to an existing business.
There are many reasons for giving your business a new identity, and rebranding can be achieved in some different ways. What’s ultimately most important is you achieve your goal with a new identity that makes your business stand out in the customers’ eyes. In this blog article, we will look at rebranding types and why one is proactive and the other reactive.
Reactive vs Proactive
In general, there are two categories of rebranding: reactive and proactive. Reactive rebranding is when you receive a lot of negative feedback from customers and the general public on your current brand identity (for being offensive, outdated, etc.) and damage control by rebranding.
Proactive rebranding is when you are looking to attract new customers, launch in new market segments, or give a fresh and modern touch to your brand identity.
Read on ahead to learn to get our cost-effective strategies for rebranding your business.
Timing
When is the right time to rebrand? When your brand has expanded. Success brings the urge to expand – regardless of the industry. However, as you expand, it is important to keep your brand’s identity up-to-date with the industries you are operating in.
Several brands fail to relate to their current market because their logos or names are too product-specific, and they do not adapt to their expanding markets.
Dunkin Donuts
An example of rebranding, for this reason, is from Dunkin Donuts that changed its branding from “Dunkin Donuts” to “Dunkin” a couple of years ago, since they started off as a donut and coffee brand but now sell a great variety of food items.
Burberry
Another example can be taken from Burberry, a top-of-the-line clothing brand. During their expansion, Burberry focused on innovation and embraced a new wave of social media promotion. They also focused on their origins and employed British actors and models for all their marketing.
Outdated or Creating A Negative Impression
Stay in tune with your brand so you know if it is outdated or creating a negative impression.
Rebranding when your business has become outdated or starts creating a negative impression (due to changing the general public’s views) is mostly reactive. One of the main reasons’ brands decides to rebrand nowadays.
With everything evolving so rapidly around us, including design concepts and ideas, branding that was done decades ago no longer remains relevant.
Most brands look to adjust to their overall brand identity (such as change of logo or slogan) to stay up-to-date with modern trends and the younger generations.
Old vs Outdated
However, it’s not as straightforward as: out with the old and in with the new. First, you need to identify what is ‘old’ versus what is ‘outdated’.
GAP
A well-established brand should consider doing solid market research before tossing out the old logo. The Gap logo transformation faced a disaster because the brand tried to modernize whereas the customers felt connected to the iconic logo.
However, at the same time, a good example of rebranding to avoid becoming outdated is from Mastercard’s redesign of their logo in 2016. The new logo demonstrated a modern feel while retaining the iconic design of overlapping circles. It was a simple yet thoughtful way to bring their 90s design into the future and stay relevant.
Reconsider Your Brand’s Slogan
A good slogan can make quite a difference. As a business, you need a catchy and meaningful slogan, all while capturing your company’s vision and mission. While changing your brand’s name can be difficult and can have many legal and financial issues involved, changing slogans is much simpler and can be an effective method for rebranding at a low-cost.
When changing slogans, the first question you need to ask is: what do we want our customers to think of when they read it? Some ideas to get started are to use metaphors or poetic language, be instructive or supportive, or directly just compliment your customers.
L’Oreal
For example, L’Oreal Paris has the slogan: “Because you’re worth it” that directly complements and addresses their audience. The slogan is geared towards the customers, so you should have their feedback for the change. For this, you can hold focus groups to see what works and what does now.
AirBnB
A good example of a company that has recently changed its slogan is Airbnb. Their old slogan was “feel ordinary with us”, and they recently changed it to “belong anywhere”. When compared to the old slogan, this slogan is much more adequate since the primary audience of Airbnb is travelers, so their new slogan is a statement that tells them they can go and settle anywhere with Airbnb.
Rebrand With New Brand Stationery
Transforming a company’s logo is another effective method for rebranding. Sometimes this type of refresh is needed just because your logo does not work with the current times: cool back in the 90s is considered outdated these days.
Design an eye-catching logo
On other occasions, you might want to redesign your logo when deciding to move into new markets and want your logo to reflect this. But whatever the reason might be, the logo redesign can be something as simple as a color change or an entire redesign from scratch.
YouTube
A great example of rebranding with a logo change is YouTube, which changed its logo to focus on the play button, central to every YouTube video.
A good logo will fit anywhere in your business communication, be it a social media post, a newsletter or a job opening post.
Plus, if your business doesn’t want the expense of hiring a graphic designer, it is a low-cost and hassle-free method of rebranding your logo that can be done professionally using logo maker tools, says PosterMyWall.
Make and Print Modern Business Cards
Business cards usually contain the contact information of a business or a person working in a company. However, marketers have turned them into a modern way of driving customer’s attention. These cards today are used to make a quick first impression on clients.
Despite all the innovations and technological advancements, there is nothing that can replace business cards. Most company officials hand their business cards while shaking hands with clients and potential investors. Businesses put their business cards in shopping bags or boxes just so that their customer can contact them again easily.
Thus, maintaining a modern business card aligned with your brand’s current strategy is essential for businesses. It portrays an image of the business to the customers that leave a long-lasting impression. Well-designed and modern business cards can reflect and portray an effective image of your business.
Shift your focus towards corporate social responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility To Improve Image
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can significantly improve a company’s image in the public’s eyes. To maintain a positive image with their target audience, businesses need to be ethical in their conduct and take social responsibility where and when possible.
Going green and being philanthropic are two of the most common methods businesses use to take on corporate social responsibilities.
You might have noticed that businesses that take social responsibility often get a lot of media coverage. According to the teachings of a current bachelor’s degree in visual design, this discipline should be seen as the art of responsibility, commitment and change.
By rebranding and shifting your focus on CSR, you get free advertising for your company while also contributing to the greater good of the public and the planet.
Even if you do not get media coverage, social media in this digital age is the perfect place to share your CSR stories. This is an effective rebranding strategy that is used by even giants like Google and Apple.
For example, Google launched a Google Green program (also known as Google Sustainability) that focuses on saving energy for a better environment.
Rebranding declares that you are looking to take the initiative with your business and are committed to its growth. It provides you with the opportunity to refresh your business and revamp the relations between you and your customers.
Change is never easy, but it is inevitable. If you don’t rebrand, the world around us will still keep evolving, and that can lead to your brand becoming obsolete. Therefore,
rebranding is essential.
So, whether you change your business’ slogan, redesign your logo with a logo creator, or shift your focus on taking more social responsibilities, you are now ready to take on the challenge of rebranding.
