Your brand is made out of several components that are recognizable by your target audience. You can think about the usage of colors, logos, tone of voice, typography, and more. These are often portrayed in the branding guidelines. When starting a business you often create a branding strategy but you can certainly update your current ways of portraying your brand with a rebranding strategy. This is what we look at in this article, let’s start.
Business reasons for looking into a rebranding strategy.
There are multiple reasons why organizations decide to focus on rebranding their business. We just discussed that people can recognize your brand by the logo, colors, fonts, and more. However, this is the tip of the iceberg. Branding is not only this but also your strategy, brand identity, vision, mission, and much more.
What is the aim of most businesses when they rebrand their business? The aim of a rebranding strategy can be to create more recognition amongst your target audience. It can also be to create more consistency within your design when using certain visuals, colors, fonts, etc. On top of that, a rebranding strategy can help to create a framework for the tone of voice that you and all your employees can use. Often, in a rebranding phase, you don’t only look at the visuals and text, but also at the overall message your brand is sending out.
In a rebranding phase, it’s very important to not only properly communicate the changes to your internal staff but also to your target audience. They have to understand the changes that are being made. You still want them to be able to resonate with your brand, despite the changes. You want to take them from the current to the desired state, together with you. How do you do this? Let’s discuss some rebranding strategies.
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Rebranding strategies: a checklist for a step-by-step approach
When you (or together with an agency) look at rebranding your business, you want to, at least, look at the following 6 steps. You first want to look at where your company is currently standing. Which assets does your brand already possess, and where is room for growth? Let’s look at a six-step checklist that will help you find the answers to your rebranding questions.
1. Look at your vision and mission statement
When you revisit your vision and mission statement, you start at the beginning. The core of your brand is based on these statements. Are they still true? Are they up to date? Are they still resonating with the current zeitgeist? Do these statements still represent the direction your business wants to grow in?
If yes! Perfect, it’s time for step 2. If not; try to see where you can alter, change, or edit these statements. But what is the difference between the two again? A vision statement is a short description of your company’s aspirations and which impact you would want to create. A mission statement is a short description of your company’s focus, purpose, and aims.
2. Revisit your target audience
One of the most important things in any business is to truly understand your target audience. Who are they? Where are they from? What do they like and more importantly, dislike? You want to dive into the pain points your target audience has. What could you, as a company, simplify for them? Which challenges can you help them overcome?
Here it’s important to keep in mind that you don’t want to target ‘everyone’, you just want to target the ‘right ones’. Your target audience might have changed over time. This is why it’s extra important to keep on monitoring if you are still talking and trying to resonate with the right people. Keep in mind if you’re talking to a B2B or B2C audience and what their wants, needs, and pain points are. Write them down again.
3. Get updated insights into your competitors
When you are revisiting all things branding, you can’t skip looking at your competitors. Are they still the same businesses, or did some companies enter or leave the market? It’s always a good idea to keep an updated list of your competitors. What are their strategies, where are they winning, and there is room for growth for them? What are their Unique Selling Points?
After analyzing this, you can lay these new details and data next to your strategies, USPs, and ways of communicating. However, you want to keep in mind that you have to ‘assess your market and competitors with blurry eyes’ meaning that you have to be mindful and aware of what your competitors are doing. But don’t be so fixated on it that you feel that you need to mimic everything they do. You do you because that’s what you’re good at!
4. What are the reasons to buy in your niche?
It can not hurt to take another look at the niche you are operating in. Maybe you’ve chosen a certain niche when you created your branding strategy. Is this niche still in line with your (revisited) mission and vision statements? What do people like to buy in your niche and can you make your niche even more specific? Or do you have to go a bit broader?
Dive into what your brand can offer. What are you specialized in and what is that one thing that your brand solves for the people that buy from it? Let’s look at Maslow’s hierarchy. There are different needs that you can fulfill with your brand, such as; esteem needs, safety needs, self-actualization needs, belongingness, love needs, and physiological needs. Do you know which needs you fulfill for your target audience?
The 5 needs that Maslow describes are:
5. Create new branding guidelines
Branding guidelines give a format and framework for the colors, fonts, tone of voice, and other branding-related things you and your employees can use in your brand’s communication. If everyone sticks to these rules, you will most likely be able to send out a coherent message. By communicating according to guidelines you will more easily be able to create trust amongst your target audience.
Your target audience will be able to understand your brand better, form more positive emotions and connotations, and therefore feel more aligned with your brand. You can read more about creating branding guidelines here. There are visual and textual elements you can look at. On top of that, there are also some tips on creating branding strategies.
6. What is your new desired communication style?
What is your brand story? And how would you like to communicate this? For example, there is a difference between emotion-based and rational communication styles. When you’re, for example, basing your communication style on emotions, everything you do and portray is to make people ‘feel’ something. Using emotions in marketing allows people to connect to your brand, which makes this communication style quite powerful.
On the other hand, you can also base your communication style on facts and other information such as price benefits. Do you know which communication style suits your business best? Did you know that different cultures perceive information differently? Some cultures tend to prefer emotional-based communication whilst other cultures prefer being spoken to with facts. Generally spoken, of course.
Do you want help with your rebranding strategy?
When it comes to marketing and rebranding, there are many decisions to make. We get that this can get overwhelming at times; that’s why we are here to help. Let’s look at what strategy works best for your business. We can help you implement all the necessary changes. You can get in touch today and book a call with us. We’ll be happy to assist you in further growing your business.
