5 Questions You Should Ask Before Rebranding

Most small businesses stabilize in two to three years. It’s when it starts to be profitable and become more familiar to the audience. A company builds a brand image to become a distinct voice in the market. It is also one that people will grow more familiar with and connect with. 

However, as time passes, it’s essential for any business to eventually rebrand and do it at the right time with the right approach. After all, it is their reputation at stake. 

What does it mean to rebrand?

Rebranding is a marketing strategy where a company changes its name, logo, and other brand identity aspects. It aims to improve the image, reputation, and performance of a brand. You should know the two types of rebranding. Allow us to explain the types and their extent below:

Partial rebrand 

This option is suitable for companies that plan to create minor revisions to the way they present themselves to the public. It may come in the form of a new logo or other simple tweaks that aim to freshen an identity. Partial rebrands still retain the meat or majority of established brand values.

Total rebrand 

For this type, you can expect an overhaul or a big makeover in terms of looks and operations. Major tweaks in identity include aesthetic change as well as purpose and direction. Total rebrands typically happen in the event of mergers or even new leaders. 

Why rebrand?

The reason behind rebranding strategies vary, but here are some of the most common ones. 

• Aged identity
• New leadership
• Expanding the audience base
• Business acquisition
• Adapting to values and trends

Whether you’re going for an overhaul or a simple logo redesign, the key to a successful rebrand is timing. 

This is a strategy for increased engagement and reengagement. There are a couple of reasons that drive this decision. Knowing when to give your brand a refresh is essential, but it’s a complex process that you have to evaluate carefully. 

Questions to ask before rebranding

This article will show you 5 useful questions to help you prepare for your rebranding. 

1. Did our customers and their needs change? 

Whatever aspect you plan on changing, make sure it’s designed for the people who will purchase and support your brand.

It’s a good idea to start evaluating changes in their persona because it changes as the market does. See, studying buyer persona just doesn’t apply when you’re pitching a new business to investors. Personas have to regularly be checked to ensure efficiency in every campaign and, ultimately, sales. 

You always want to consider your audience and look at how much they have changed since you launched your business. You could conduct interviews or even surveys to your existing pool of consumers. This gives you an idea of what type of tone and message will matter. Knowing how to properly package in a way that will resonate with your audience allows you to effectively inform and engage them. 

2. What problem should this initiative solve? 

Have you lost clients? Is your competitor doing better than you? Is your company in a stagnant state? Whatever issue you are facing right now, identifying them will make your strategy more meaningful. They are what motivates you to refresh your brand and use those friction points to guide your process. 

This applies mostly to brands planning to undertake a full rebranding campaign as this may involve pivoting and offering new products. 

3. What market changes should we pay attention to? 

Is your industry beginning to lead towards digital platforms or AI? Or are you planning to expand your market to international countries with different cultures? You want to pay attention to the market you are in. 
One of the excellent company rebranding examples was MasterCard when they redesigned their brand mark to a flat logo in 2018. It opted for something that translated better to digital use and got rid of the stripes between the circles in their logo. This move created a seamless and modern design that captures the payments company well.

We can also use KFC as another example. The fast-food chain known best for their southern fried chicken offered Chinese dishes such as congee and Peking duck-inspired chicken on their Beijing menu. The dish strikes a resemblance to the country’s delicacy called Peking duck. 

There are more ways to adapt your brand to something that will help you connect with more people. 

4. Will this hold up well?

Disengagement is an inherent stage in any business life cycle. However, you can slow the march towards this part with a good strategy. There are a couple of tricks that you can do to learn how to build a brand that lasts. 

First, you want to avoid giving into trends as these are often ephemeral and are only suitable for a short amount of time. A business must be adaptive to consumer needs and the economic climate. Additionally, you can create an even more sustainable business by focusing on customer loyalty and accessibility. 

A helpful trick that you can use to increase your chances of creating a lasting brand is to stay on top of your key performance indicators. Rid your company rebrand checklist of methods that you can’t measure correctly. 

It is critical for small businesses that you spend every penny wisely as you continue to grow your business. Taking a good look at effectiveness allows you to create a data-backed strategy that will be a thousand times better than guesswork. 

5. Does my design look similar to my competitors? 

When submitting a proposal for rebranding an existing company, it is crucial to double-check similarities with direct competitors and other brands. Doing this helps lessen confusion among the consumers when they mistake you for another company.  

Ensuring originality helps you avoid unwanted lawsuits for plagiarism and other copyright-related cases, too. Take, for example, Sears, a department store company that redesigned its logo in 2019. To the public, Sears’ 2019 logo allegedly looked a lot like Airbnb’s logo. Coincidentally, the vacation rental company also drew flak for having a brand mark that looks a lot like Automation Anywhere’s 2014 logo. This is a compromising situation that could have been avoided with research. 

You can avoid costly court hearings and improve your share of voice when you come up with a branding strategy that is unlike any other or, in this case, anyone. 

Final tips

Figure these questions out, and you are all set to rebrand your business. We do have a couple of tips that you can use for guidance.

• Start strong —  Your rebrand initiative should be introduced in a remarkable fashion. It’s a good idea to start a campaign to make people aware of your brand’s changes. This is also a way for you to reassure your existing customers that you’re still the same company.

• Be consistent — Brand consistency should still be upheld. You can still appear familiar despite the change in your image through tone and language. Doing so can allow you to retain customers and even drive revenue growth by 33%.