Rebranding has gotten, dare we say, trendy, over the last few years. I mean, who doesn’t love all things shiny and new!

In addition to desiring a fresh and updated look, it can also be tempting to blame your current branding on any lack of success your business may be seeing.

We’re here to dispel some of those misconceptions and help break down when a rebranding may be a good idea for your business and of course when it’s not!

Rebranding should not be used as an escape for poor performance or poor reputation, and when it’s done for the wrong reasons, it generally reflects poorly on a company and completely defeats the purpose of rebranding in the first place.

Let’s use BP as an example. British Petroleum decided to do a rebrand after its disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. They spent a rumored to be $211,000,000 and are still paying to clean up their mess. A rebrand did little to improve their reputation.

However, when rebranding is undertaken with a solid goal and better intention the results are generally favorable and advantageous for a company, and the new brand becomes a legitimate reflection of the new and different values or mission being embraced.

So, what exactly IS a rebrand?

The definition of a rebrand is to “change the corporate image of (a company or organization).”
A corporate image can be everything from its logo to its colors, to how it communicates it’s services and values. Think of a company as a person and a rebrand as a makeover.

via GIPHY

Or a house, and it’s a fixer-upper:

BEFORE – I mean this house probably looked great when it was new… just like your logo.

AFTER – But at some point, you need to zhuzh it up!

Source.

When you started your company, you put thought into your brand. How it would look in the real world. What your business cards would look like, what your website would look like.

But every so often, you need to revisit your brand and all of the elements to make sure that it’s still working for you as it should.

We are a great example of a recent rebrand. Odd Dog Media has been around for a while now, and when we first launched, this is what our logo looked like:

And this is what our website looked like:

But, we’ve changed a lot since we launched. Not only has our business and focus shifted, so have the times! We wanted to modernize a bit so we would look fresher and show our clients and world what a sweet modern agency we are!

Some considerations that went into our rebrand:

Brand usage and easy-to-follow guides. We wanted to create a cohesive brand that could be used by our whole team along any touchpoints we have with our clients and audience. Our new logo was just the beginning of that process that helped to define and connect all other elements of our branding.
While our company name is Odd Dog Media, we found that most people usually dropped the “media” or were confused by it as we don’t really sell media like a traditional media company.
Our colors got a refresh. We kept our dark orange but added some highlights with a grey and a lighter orange and a complimentary light blue. This has helped all of our marketing materials and website look very uniform and more fun!
More dogs! We’ve always had some dogs on our website, but not as much. What can I say, we’re dog people and wanted to make our four-legged friends a bigger part of our brand throughout our website.

NEW BRANDING:

Why do companies rebrand?

From our example, you can see our reasons were both, just being time for an update, and to clarify our messaging. But there are lots of other reasons for a rebrand.

Some other reasons may include:

A company is under new ownership.
To re-establish a positive reputation after a PR disaster. (However, note that this doesn’t always work…*ahem, BP.)
Changing products and services and need to reposition in a different marketplace.
A company is out of touch with their customer and needs to course-correct.
To keep up with current technologies. i.e a logo now needs to perform well on websites, web-based digital mediums, technologies/screens with changing resolutions and sizes, swag items, and print. Designs need to be more diverse than they used to be. A good logo today should be simple enough to do this and yet be identifiable and unique to the business’s audience.

When should you consider a rebrand for your company?

If any of the reasons above apply to your company, it may be time for a rebrand.

If you are still unsure if a rebranding is right for your company right now, consider looking at your company through your customer’s eyes. How is it being perceived? Is your company perceived how you’d like it to be? What adjectives do you want to come to mind when people think about your brand and are you hitting those marks?
Is your company fun? Delicious? Trustworthy? Funny? Calming? Cutting edge?

It may sound a bit woo-woo, but bear with me and answer this question:

How do you want your customers to FEEL when they interact with your company?

AND

How does your company stand out in a sea of your competitors?

If your current brand isn’t achieving these things, it may be time for a rebrand!

How Often Should You Rebrand?

This really is an “it depends” answer. Rebranding can be costly and takes time, so you want to be sure that you are ready to take it on. Also, having too many versions of your company out there can get confusing. You want your brand to be memorable which is challenging to do if you rebrand too often.

Also note, that a rebrand doesn’t always mean throwing everything out and starting from scratch. Sometimes just choosing different colors, creating a color guide, using a new but similar font, using similar elements but creating them with new digital tools. This can all help as well. Coca-Cola is a great example of this. They’ve had a very similar logo over the years, they’ve just made slight updates as they’ve needed to throughout the years.

A good design should be able to withstand time with little updates to it over the future years. It’s important to go with a designer that keeps that in mind should you need to do a major logo or brand update.

Check out some of our rebranding projects!

Do you have any questions about rebranding your company? Drop us a line!