Author: Diane Karsch
While marketing trends are sometimes short-lived, rebranding is hotter than ever. From corporate giants to startups, companies are jumping on the rebranding bandwagon.
If you think rebranding simply means a new logo or tagline, think again. It actually represents a strategic transformation of a company’s identity – everything from visual elements, such as logo, website and colors, to messaging, values and target audience. And that’s not all. Leadership and employee engagement, resources and energy are essential ingredients.
Why the Surge in Rebranding?
- Consumers have elevated expectations: Savvy consumers flock to brands that align with their values. They’re looking for authenticity and relevance.
- Pursuing competitive advantage: In a crowded marketplace, rebranding – essential for differentiation – can spell the difference between success and failure.
- Responding to mergers & acquisitions: Rebranding can help facilitate an integrated identity and value proposition for newly merged companies.
- Combating negative publicity: Rebranding can help a brand emerge from a decline in popularity and rebuild trust.
- Avoiding financial penalties: Not rebranding can cost companies money. To meet the needs of increasingly demanding customers, rebranding is often a cost of doing business.
Key Steps to Successful Rebranding
- Create a business case: Ask probing questions to ensure the time is right for rebranding. Assuming the answers are positive, this will help you garner support from leaders, employees and customers.
- Identify goals: Pinpoint your target audience and messages.
- Aim for authenticity: Your rebranding must absolutely echo your company’s fundamental values.
- Commit to communications: Communications planning, encompassing identity development, advertising, publicity, graphic design and content development, is essential to success.
Once everything is in place, remember that rebranding takes time and a lot of effort to get it right. Executed skillfully, rebranding can make a big contribution to your company’s long-term health.