When we talk about a brand, we are not only talking about a company name or logo but also its identity. The corporate identity is referred to as a brand. This brand later influences the audience’s perception of a company. Rebranding is a marketing strategy carried out by creating a new identity to change the image of a business or brand. This is common in the business world as rebranding helps connect with new audiences and sets your business apart from competitors.
Rebranding can take a lot of effort in the process. However, it helps your business grow and make a profit.
Therefore, it is important to carefully rebrand your business. If not done properly, many would leave negative reviews over your changes.
When you’ve rebranded your business, try to be subtle about it and use medium like explainer videos to showcase the reason why your company needs to rebrand at the moment.
If you are still confused about whether your company needs to rebrand or not, here are eight signs you need to know before rebranding.
1. You’re Not Connecting With the Right Audience
Pay attention to how you find the right audience. If you have a different target market than your original goal, then that is a sign you should do rebranding.
If you have loyal customers, but there’s a slight opportunity you’d be losing them in the near future, you need to rebrand right now.
The market is expanding, and your audience will have a better option to choose businesses they find more helpful. Keeping an old company value will not help you grow your business, you should create a new company’s value that helps you connect with the right audiences.
2. Your Brand Name No Longer Reflects Your Brand Vision
This may happen to businesses that have been around for a long time. At one time, your business brand may be able to represent what you offer, but sometimes changes in culture, context, and language can change the meaning of your business brand.
So, if this happens, your business will need a rebranding to re-adjust to the business vision. Changing your business name to be more relevant and memorable is great for your business.
3. Your Market Can’t Differentiate You From Your Competition
If your audience fails to differentiate you from your competitors, it may be time for you to rebrand. You also need to put yourself in your customers’ shoes to find out why they can’t distinguish your products apart.
This way, you’ll find some insight into your target customers and market so you can re-identify your key differentiators from the competition. So, when you have a strong brand, it will be easy for you to compete with your competitors.
The tight competition between brands is also a factor for rebranding as you can establish a clear competitive edge. The need to differentiate yourself from competitors is an effective way to make a brand stand out to attract more potential customers.
4. Your Business’ Strategy Has Changed
When you run a company, your business model or strategy can change over time. Sometimes this happens due to unexpected changes in the market, such as advances in technology.
When your business model changes, rebranding needs to be done quickly because it will affect how people perceive your product in the future.
Rebranding will help identify your company’s brand again so that it gives a positive perception of your brand to the public. You can start by strengthening your company’s goals, vision, mission and values.
5. Your Business Undertakes Company Merger
Two or more companies are merging into one to get bigger or not to go bankrupt. This acquisition process requires a rebranding to fit a new business value.
There are many things to consider when rebranding if your companies are to merge. For example, evaluate the old brands, develop your four Ps of marketing, consider multiple brands, and announce the rebrand.
When two companies are merging, a few things happen immediately, such as change in management, company internal atmosphere, leadership model, and others.
Sometimes it is necessary to change the name and logo if it has become a mutual agreement between the two merging businesses.
6. Your Business Needs to Eliminate Negative Issues
When running a business, there will be turmoil and problems that can arise at any time. It is undeniable that this problem can sometimes cause negative issues about the business in the public.
One of the best solutions to handle these negative issues is to rebrand your business. Changing the brand’s name, design, logo, vision, and mission can attract new customers and eliminate these negative issues.
7. Reduced Response from Customers
If you start losing positive responses from existing customers, such as they begin unfollowing your channel or canceling membership, you need to reconsider evaluating your brand.
While a total rebranding is necessary for this situation, low customer response could mean that they experienced poor service from you, your product failed to live up to their expectations, or your brand failed to demonstrate its value.
It’s not enough to handle these problems by changing the marketing strategy. So it is necessary to rebrand your business because it lets you create a new image or impression that’s more attractive to consumers and able to meet their expectations. This way, you can easily increase customer satisfaction, gain customer trust and loyalty.
8. Launching New Products
When you want to come up with a new product for some reason, especially if the product you offer is not in line with current trends, then this rebranding needs to be done if you want to market the new product.
For example, conventional printing is no longer needed in today’s digital world. People rarely use printed information, like brochures, if they can access it online.
Especially if your company tries to experiment by releasing a new product that is completely different from the previous one. You need to think carefully about your new product, whether consumers can accept your new product which has a different concept than before with your old brand.
Takeaway
Rebranding is a big deal. You can’t randomly rebrand your business without considering a few factors that have been mentioned above. That way, you can easily determine whether your business needs to be rebranded or not.
However, rebranding can also be an effective way to increase profits. Since customers like strong, high-quality brands that can meet their needs, this will build a new impression that attracts more consumers.
Andre Oentoro is the founder of Breadnbeyond, an award winning explainer video production company. He helps businesses increase conversion rates, close more sales, and get positive ROI from explainer videos (in that order). Twitter: @breadnbeyond
Rebrand stock image by Olivier Le Moal/Shutterstock
