When rebranding is important to your business
Your company has changed, it's evolved and moved into different market segmentations and now it's time to re-think your brand. Does this re-branding thought process sound vaguely familiar? Does it apply to your business?
New Brand
Having rebranded more than 300 companies in my career, I am always thinking about new ways in which we can merge our marketing company and creative agency collaboration to give a re-branding experience that transcends past the obvious and into the subconscious.
Many companies that we have worked with over the years have relied on Marketing Eye as a marketing company experienced in rebranding to help navigate their culture, position in the market and overall vision and mission, to re-invent who they are. We have taken them down a rebranding methodology that capitalises on the essence of who they are and where they want to be, shifting not only their name and/or logo identity, but also their people, into a new paradigm.
Are you ready for rebranding?
This shift can be seamless or if people within your company are hesitant, require you to do extra work on creating a quantum leap in mindset importantly buy-in.We designed Marketing Eye's logo 15 years ago. I still look at it today, and see it as a relevant brand that tells our story. But this is not the case with all brands. Take Microsoft for instance. Whoever designed their original brand must have been on the tech team. It's relevance to their business 15 years later would have seen no-one buying into the brand as the future platform that would change the world. Yet, they were smart. They kept reinventing their brand over the years to keep it relevant.
Then you have Google who has fluid rebranding on an ongoing basis. They capture the imagination of users by using their brand in a versatile way, engaging with events such as the festive season, football and valentine's day with influential commitments to causes such as breast cancer and political statements. What we have come to expect from Google's fluid rebranding technique is to never expect what they have done before as they will continually strive to surprise us and give us more rather than less. We won't be disappointed by their rebranding technique although we always move back to the master brand of that period of time.
A lot of people mistaken rebranding for being just about a logo design, but it is as much about the name and sometimes companies will change their name but keep their font and identity mark, to ignite a sense of respect and longevity of what they have to offer.
When it comes to rebranding, someone in our marketing agency in Sydney said to me once, "think beyond your wildest dreams what the brand could become and then take it back 10 percent because we need the buy-in of the people". That is why you so often see brands play safe. Look at the expensive rebrand of Origin Energy and how 'safe' they were in the process. Did we feel like they were a different company. No. Did we feel like they had something new to offer. Probably not. But for all intents and purposes, they changed ever so slightly. What does that mean for their company and those stakeholders who own their brand. They changed just enough, but believed that the equity in the brand was there to stay.
What to consider before rebranding?
What we like to do when rebranding a company is look at their mission, vision, culture, and marketing strategy. How will a rebrand help them reach their goals and what role will it play overall. Where will we see the brand and how will it be experienced? Is the brand primarily online or offline. If it is online, then marketing online is imperative and therefore, how will we transition that logo to be more alive on people's screens.Another consideration is size. What size is your business? Are you a sme, a medium-sized business or a corporation? What does your target audience look like? How will they react to a rebrand. What loyalty does your current brand identity have?
With so many considerations, it's important to remember that your rebrand can make or break your company. It is important to go to experts in the field, who can take you and your team as well as your customers on that journey.
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Léo
20 Feb 2019A very nice post. I heartily agree with your definition. All businesses and also non-profits organisation no matter how small should spend the time to sort out who they are, who their consumers are, and why those consumers should care. Solve these things, and your cultural strategy will be that much easier.
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