6 Steps to Rebrand

In the current market space, many businesses have been switching gears. But these changes aren’t limited to internal shifts. It’s clear to see that all of these changes to the world and its inhabitants call for rebranding. Let’s go through a step-by-step guide on how your business can pull this off successfully. 

The first step people get wrong when it comes to branding is thinking that it begins and ends with a logo. Your brand is so much more than that - it encapsulates both tangible and intangible elements. Building a brand requires continual efforts. More than simply being about what a brand looks like - although this is an important visual element - it’s about the personality, the voice, the vibe. 

Now, let’s consider why a business may need to rebrand. Since it is something a business works hard for over the long run, it is not something you should be doing just because. After all, becoming an established household name is written into the vision of most businesses. Rebranding is also a rather expensive endeavour since it requires a significant amount of resources. That said, here’s when it is time to rebrand:

• Your brand does not stand out among competitors 
• Your audience has changed or their needs have changed
• The cultural landscape has shifted 
• Your business offering or direction has changed 
• The current branding is not paying off 
• You’ve faced a PR crisis where perceptions were damaged 

Step 1: Branding Audit 

To understand the existing perceptions of your brand, you need to conduct a full assessment - don’t assume you know what your audience thinks. Find out by actually talking to them. If you’re a new brand altogether, then you’re building from scratch, which can actually be a beneficial starting point. You’ll need to assess your competitors and your current spot within the market too. The more information you have to work with, the better. You want to dig at the all-important questions, like brand associations, willingness to recommend it, and how the brand makes a person feel.

It is important to note that rebranding does not always require a complete do-over. After conducting an audit of your brand, you may notice that a certain element needs to be refreshed. For example, it could be that you just need to change the packaging or introduce a new colour scheme for your brand. 

Other times call for a complete rebrand. In this case, it all begins with the business itself. With your brand as a clean slate, consider what you would want it to represent. This calls for you to draw out the metaphorical aspects of your brand, as well as the values to build upon. The biggest mistake a lot of businesses make is glossing over this part. The truth is, this is the all-important foundation for success, and it plays into a very important part of branding - consumer psychology. 

Step 2: Devising the Branding Strategy

Some businesses find it helpful to come up with a personality profile of their business. When you have this to work with, you can have an easier time defining your brand as a persona, the way you would with your target audiences. After all, your target audience will make these kinds of associations with your brand, so it’s best to drive it in the desired direction. From this, you’ll be able to develop the tagline and your USP. 

Consider the Myers Briggs model, for example, and see how it applies to your brand. You can determine whether your brand is more inclined to be:

• Extroverted or introverted: Is it a quiet hero or a statement solution?
• Intuitive or sensing: Is your brand about living for the day and seeing the moment, or geared towards long-term idealism?
• Feeling or thinking: Are values and emotions a driving force, or is it more of a rationally inclined brand?
• Judging or perceiving: That is, to the book and buy the minute, or spontaneous and laid back?

Once you have understood the brand identity at its core, you can find its position in the market, and transform this into a visual representation. 

Step 3: Putting It All Together 

Now that you’ve assessed the brand in full and devised what you would like it to become, you can put it all together. When you’re working with an agency, they’ll compile this for you, but it’s important to have a document with all of the details either way. It needs to include the key messaging, the explanations for the decisions and strategy presented, and where you’d like to be positioned. Notably, this is not a generic overview - this needs to include the exact shades of the colour scheme, the fonts to be used, the graphics, the core values, and so on. This is referred to as your branding toolkit.

Step 4: Create the Visuals 

Once all of the branding elements are planned, it’s time to focus on the visual elements. This is the stage where the logo is created and applied to all of the signage or marketing collateral. It also ties into the planning of the branding relaunch, where you devise the kind of marketing messaging you’re going to share through captions and so on with a focus on content creation and branded videos.

Step 5: Sharing the Brand 

Once you have developed all of the materials, you need to share them. The goal is to create brand awareness among audiences by being present and visible. Repetition is key, so helping your audience understand your brand and becoming familiar with it is the main goal. Once your brand has been launched, it is important to monitor feedback and perceptions to measure the performance of the rebranding efforts. 

Keep in mind that it takes time to build a brand, so don’t feel the need to buckle within the first few months if you’re not getting the kind of feedback you hoped for. Changing a brand needs to be intentional, and flip-flopping your way through new identities can also cause a great deal of harm. That said, ignoring calls of a terrible rebranding is equally as bad, so proceed with carefully considered caution.

Step 6: Working on the Intangible Aspects 

Finally, we have the elements of a brand that exist beyond what you physically create and promote. This comes down to the overall experience people are having. Customer service ties into a brand - every interaction counts. This is why you need to look at the bigger picture and aim to please all customers. Perceptions are made over time, and consistency is key. Each and every move your business makes will contribute to its reputation, so be sure to also focus on your brand’s PR strategy, since you need to be prepared to deal with a crisis should it arise. 

The Branding Wrap Up

That wraps up the 6 all-important steps to follow when rebranding, from planning to post-launch reviews. Is it time for your business to rebrand? Book a quick call with us at Nexa. We can discuss the vision for your brand and how our agency can bring it to life.