If the thought of rebranding your business has been crossing your mind more often recently, you’re probably wondering how often brands usually rebrand anyway. As a brand designer who's worked with hundreds of founders and solopreneurs on branding and rebranding their business, I’ll keep my answer to your question short and sweet: “not that often”.
But if you want the long answer with all the details, read on. I’m sure that once you’ve read through to the end, you might be reconsidering if rebranding is the right option for you!
First, what does rebranding even mean?
Before we can go into when and how to rebrand in detail, let’s first be clear on what the definition of rebranding is, in the first place.
Rebranding essentially means giving a complete new look and feel to your brand, including visuals and messaging. The main goal of rebranding is to influence the perception your audience has of your brand.
So, now that we know what rebranding means, it puts the idea of having to rebrand back into perspective, right? If you are still wondering if this is what you really need, keep reading (psst...if you are starting to second-guess the whole rebranding thing, I got you covered with alternative solutions, so keep reading too!)
Is now the right time to rebrand my business?
Here's the most important thing to understand before making any decision: your visual brand identity is a reflection of your brand strategy. If your strategy hasn't changed, your visuals probably don't need to either.
This is where most founders go wrong. They see a competitor rebrand, or find an aesthetic they love, and assume that's a good enough reason. It isn't. Changing your visuals without changing your strategy just means you'll be back here again in another year, with a new logo, the same underlying problem, and a confused audience.
Rebranding is only the right call when something fundamental about your business has actually changed. Here's when that applies.
3 Reasons when you should rebrand your business
Here are some times rebranding should be in the cards:
Your business is going through a merger or acquisition
When a business merges with or is acquired by another business, they are now a completely new business and will have to rethink their marketing strategy and their communication strategy.
Things to consider here is how the target audience has changed, how the positioning has changed and what’s the hierarchy of the two business and how do you want to demonstrate this in the visual and messaging form.
Here’s an example: Did you know that Upwork was born out of a merger of two competitors in the freelancing space? When Elance and oDesk decided to join forces to help freelancers over the world connect with employers, they knew they had to completely relaunch the business as the new innovative, forward-thinking platform it is now known to be.
You’ve grown out of your mission statement
Has your business completely pivoted? Are you offering products and services that no longer align with the target market you used to have? If that’s the case, you probably have grown out of your mission statement and are now looking to reposition yourself or have to realign your branding with your new target audience.
The one thing that is worse than a brand that is boring and generic is a brand that is downright confusing!
It’s important that your brand is crystal clear in what it stands for and the messaging connects with your ideal customers naturally and immediately. So take the time to examine how well your target audience resonates with you and, if it feels like it’s not so much, then start planning your rebranding!
Here’s an example: Have you ever used Transferwise before? Initially, Transferwise was created as a local and international money transfer solution for individuals and businesses. However, over time the business has evolved into a full-service cross-border payments network.
Recently, Transferwise went through a huge rebranding campaign and changed their name from Transferwise to Wise. The reasoning was that it was no longer only about money “transfers” anymore and has, therefore, grown out of their initial mission statement.
