6 signs it's time to rebrand
From freelance to Fortune 500, every business eventually faces the day when their brand loses its luster. Changing trends in design, target audience shifts, company growth and product diversification are just a few reasons why this happens. But, you’re in good company. Shell, UPS, Starbucks—they’ve all successfully rebranded multiple times—and you can too.
Use these 6 Helpful Questions to determine if you’re ready to hit the road to rebranding:
1. Does your logo need a makeover?
Even the best professionally designed logos become outdated over time. Fonts, colors and design trends change, so it’s best to review your logo every few years to make sure it’s still on the right track. Logo reviews are even more important for small and young companies. That’s because these companies often have meager marketing budgets where logo development falls to the lowest bidder like a crowdsourcing site or a “creative” friend. The business quickly outgrows its basic brand beginning, and ends up needing to rebrand sooner than expected in order to keep up with its slick looking competitors.
2. Does your brand differentiate?
Mercedes-Benz and Honda. They’re both automobile brands, but it’s easy to differentiate one from the other. In addition to offering useful products and services, establishing a unique name, graphic identity and brand message will make sure you stand out from the crowd. Do people remember your company (or product) name, or do they sometimes confuse it with others? If you’re not memorable, you should consider rebranding. And always remember to use original art in your branding, because clip art and other images with existing copyrights cannot be trademarked.
3. Are you reaching your target market?
Have you seen the Lincoln Motors commercials with Matthew McConaughey? Lincoln is definitely targeting an older, more financially established crowd. In turn, that demographic isn’t buying the Kia Soul like Millennials are. Different genders, ages, socio-economic levels, geographical regions and countless other demographic groups require distinctive messaging in order to connect with a product or service. Take a fresh look to re-identify your primary target audience. If it has grown, shrunk or shifted over the years, you likely have outgrown your current brand.
4. Does your brand have room to grow?
Many companies do a great job at creating and launching their brand. Unfortunately, they fail to plan ahead for future growth, expanded offerings and market shifts. Remember when companies would pick a name simply because it would show up first in the phonebook? Similarly, don’t limit your brand to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) keywords or your geographical location. Your local business could eventually branch out of state, forcing you to drop the locale from your name. Did you know that jamgd used to be jam graphics & design? Because we offer so much more than just graphic design we needed a brand that was more inclusive of all our marketing services.
5. Is there a difference between what you do and what people think you do?
“Radio Shack—America’s Electronic Shopping Center” eventually evolved into “The Shack” but that decision appears to have come far too late for the floundering company. RadioShack still carries car sound systems (now satellite radios), but many people don’t know that RadioShack now also offers computers, video gaming systems, hard drives, security systems and is developing a Technology Education Program for educators. If what you offer doesn’t match up with your target audience’s perception, it’s time to put the pedal to the metal and rebrand.
6. Does your brand risk negative associations?
From Ford’s Escort and Probe car models to Honda’s Fitta, which translates to a vulgar term for female anatomy in Scandinavian languages, brand names can inadvertently carry humorous, questionable or negative associations. Since international business is the norm these days, make sure your brand steers clear of these kinds of potential hazards and breakdowns.
Rebranding injects new power into your marketing efforts. So if your current brand could use a tune-up, rebuild, or simply more consistent performance across all of your marketing mediums, contact jamgd for experienced, professional brand development and maintenance services.
View our work.