Should You Update Your Brand?

Every once in a while a business owner calls me to discuss the pros and cons of updating their brand. The conversation ranges from developing a new logo (image) to completely revamping what their company stands for (identity).

Your brand is meant to be a reflection of your company, not just a projection of what you want it to be. It should communicate clearly and create credibility, provoking feelings about your company that makes your target market want to do business with you. Your brand should be developed through consistent use of your message throughout everything you do and say and then living up to the message you project.

Your brand is important and you should spend time and marketing dollars on ensuring you develop it correctly. Doing it right from the beginning is the best option, but rebranding can be done successfully. I have personally rebranded two software companies, but both times, the names didn’t change and the rebranding was done while the company was small and before any major milestones were established.

When should you change your brand?

There are times that justify some change, although in most cases change still should be minimal. Consider updating your brand if your brand is:

• Associated with a negative feeling
• Weak, poor quality or non-existent
• Out of sync with your identity

In these cases, your brand is not benefiting your business. It is inconsistent, ambiguous, or projects something you don’t want to be associated with. Develop a strategy to update your brand and then focus some marketing efforts to help build awareness around your brand. Remember that your brand is developed through an entire customer experience and needs to be reinforced consistently through your Web site, sales tools, promotional items, customer service, word-of-mouth and other aspects of doing business with you. Use the new brand as an opportunity to develop new client relationships while re-connecting with your current clients.

Take small steps
When changing your brand, take small steps to enable you to transition from the old to the new. Refresh the design by keeping key elements that still work and eliminating those that don’t. Keep your name or alter it only slightly. The key is to update your look without losing its recognition by those who have bought into it.

Giving your image a subtle facelift does get people to notice that something is different and may stop to look at what you have to offer. Note the subtle changes to the logos to the right. Adding dimension updates the look without changing it drastically. A little evolution of your look may be beneficial before you embark on a new marketing campaign. The majority of the time, however, you should resist changing your brand at all as there is value in your name and image. Like all things in marketing, just because you’ve gotten bored with your look or message, doesn’t mean your customer or prospect has.