Branding is the perception of people about a particular business or person. Most times, when people or businesses set out, they do not usually pay attention to their brand. This is because, at this stage, you are all about breaking even. Whether you intentionally create a brand or not, people will definitely have a perception about you or the business. Putting in the work to set the narrative right about people’s understanding of your business or personality will do you a lot of good. Here is what re-branding is all about.
It is essential to know why you want to re-brand, and this ‘why’ must be a necessity. There are risks involved in the re-branding. There are several examples of brands that have lost recognition and patronage because of an error in re-branding. But with a strong ‘why, the success of re-branding yourself or your business is almost guaranteed.
Some of the good reasons you may have for re-branding include:
These are some of the scenarios where re-branding may be necessary. After a careful analysis of why you need to re-brand to decide if it is even needed at all, here are simple tips to help you pull it off successfully without hurting your brand.
This may not be necessary for a personal brand or small business, but for a large company, an attempt to re-brand will take a lot of effort, careful planning, and a good level of expertise. You need to set up a team that has the knowledge, skills, and expertise to properly re-brand your company. There are good branding agencies that you can outsource this task to, or you set up a team within your organization. Combining the two could be a good idea too. The in-house team knows the organization well, while the branding agency has the expertise needed.
Branding is less of what you want and more of the perception of outsiders. You need to test your ideas with the outsiders, these could be done through administering a questionnaire, carrying out a survey, and so on. It is also essential to check out and analyze what your competitors are doing. When you research and test ideas this way, you will understand the current perception of your business and understand if re-branding is even necessary and how much work needs to be done.
At the initial stage of branding, knowing the current perception of your target audience is super important. This is the starting point of any re-branding attempt. Know who you are and who you want to reach, then set up strategies to help you communicate better with your audience based on your re-branding goals.
Understanding the “why” of re-branding is perhaps the most crucial step of all. Why do you want to change how people see your company. What are the things you intend to change and how will results be measured in the long run.
After setting up your team, testing the ideas, and setting your re-branding goals, you can now proceed to set up a structure for your goals. This involves identifying the things you intend to change and how you want to execute your plans. Re-branding may include changing your logo, your mission and vision statement, personal or company tag-line, color, visuals, and so on.
Re-branding should be a carefully thought out process, especially if you have an existing brand that is doing relatively well. You don’t want to mess things up by making a branding mistake, so pay attention to these tips and carefully work with experts to properly re-brand your company for great results.
What are your tips for re-branding? Tweet us and share! For more helpful content, check out our blog.
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