Determining the Most Important Company Changes During a Rebrand

Rebrands shouldn’t be done on a whim, you have to know what about your company must change during a rebrand to better communicate with your audience.

Photo by Polina Zimmerman

Consumer interests, values, and needs constantly change. With each generation, new ideas and values take hold that can have a significant impact on buyer decisions. As such, businesses need to adapt and change along with their target audience. 

A company’s brand is not just its identity — it is the story or message you convey to the public. If your branding isn’t in line with consumer ideals, they won’t continue buying your products or services. 

Rebranding may increase sales, allowing your company to redirect its messages and values to be more aligned with current consumer interests. Rebranding can even help you give internal policies, values, and overall company culture a refresh to satisfy your employees. 

This article will take a closer look at why branding is important, the difference between internal and external branding, reasons to rebrand, as well as the most important things to change during a rebrand.

Why Is Branding Important?

Branding isn’t just important, it’s a must. Without a brand identity or voice, your company may struggle to appeal to consumers. Your brand is essentially your entire image, and the message you convey to the public lets them know what to expect from your company. 

If branding is unclear, inconsistent, or even outdated, it won’t leave a good impression on your customers — which means you will likely start to lose business. However, it’s important to understand that while external, customer-facing branding is often what is most discussed when referring to branding, your internal brand is just as important. 

Your marketing department is most involved in external branding. It’s what your customers see and interact with regarding your content, ads, website, social media, and products.

In contrast, your internal branding is what your employees see, experience, and interact with. This can include company policies, benefits, values, communication and management styles, and overall company culture. If your internal branding results in a poor employee experience, it can affect your sales and customers. If your employees aren’t happy, they won’t be as productive or inspired to do good work. This means your customers likely won’t get quality service.  

When it comes time for a rebrand, it’s a good idea to consider all aspects of your company to ensure your internal brand is in line with your external brand. A disconnect can leave both customers and employees feeling jaded. If either one of these brands is resulting in a poor experience, it can negatively affect the overall success of your business. 

Reasons To Rebrand

Though a rebranding can be highly beneficial for a company, it’s important to make sure you are doing so for the right reasons. If you throw all of your money into a rebrand for the wrong reasons, it can do more harm than good and potentially put you in a financial deficit. 

For example, the wrong reasons to rebrand can include doing so to simply get attention, because of boredom, or to cover up a crisis or scandal. The intentions behind your rebrand should be honest. If you are only doing it because you’re tired of the same logo, you want to get attention and make an impact as quickly as possible, or because something bad happened and you want to distract people as a coverup, the results are likely not going to do your company much good. 

Instead, rebranding should come from a place of genuinely wanting to benefit your customers and your employees — not from a place of simply wanting to make more money. Some of the best reasons to rebrand can include:

• Repositioning;
• Opening up in new locations, such as internationally;
• Merging with or being acquired by a new company;
• A new CEO;
• Outdated image;
• New company values and philosophies;
• Similar branding to another company.

Once you choose to rebrand and have identified the genuine cause for doing so, it’s time to create a strategy.

The Most Important Elements of a Rebrand

Rebranding should be a thoughtful process. You should never jump into a rebrand for the wrong reasons, and you should also keep potential risks in mind, such as creating a new image that is less appealing than the old one and losing audience interest. 

It’s important to take your time with a rebrand and go through all the important stages of the decision-making process to ensure the time, money, and effort you put into the rebrand will pay off. A hasty rebrand decision that you haven’t thought through could be disastrous. 

Once you’ve decided to rebrand, weighed the pros and cons, and developed a solid rebranding strategy, then you can take action. When you do finally decide to get the ball rolling, the elements below are some of the most important things to change during a rebrand. 

Logo and Packaging

Your logo, color palette, and overall imagery that you use for packaging, marketing materials, ads, and online content are crucial when rebranding. This is because your logo, colors, and imagery are what people first notice and connect with your company down the line. A logo rebrand can be tricky if consumers are already used to your established logo, so choose wisely.

The company logo you create can leave a positive or negative impression on people which can influence their purchase decision. When creating a logo and packaging redesign, make sure it will have the right impact and is in line with other changes you make when rebranding. Keep the same color scheme and overall feel that represents the shift your company is looking to make.

Brand Positioning and Voice

When considering an image change, you also want to consider updating your company’s mission statements, values, and vision. Make sure that what your company stands for and what you believe in are in line with current customer interests and values. 

Your brand voice is the content and messaging you use to convey your brand position and values. This will also need to change because if your marketing is not consistent with your brand position, it can leave customers confused and unsure of what to expect from your company.

Social Media and Ad Strategy

In addition to changing your brand voice, you will need to update your social media and overall ad strategy when rebranding. The content you post on social media and any ads you create will need to also be in line and consistent with your new brand position and voice. 

The majority of today’s consumers use social media, so getting your new social media strategy right is critical. If the way you advertise and present your company on social media does not match your new values and messaging, it can give the wrong impression and result in a loss of trust and customer loyalty. 

Internal Policies

As previously mentioned, your internal branding is just as important as your external branding. Don’t forget to take a close look at internal operations and practices to see if they need a refresh as well. 

If your policies, benefits, and overall practices are not supporting a healthy and productive company culture, then it’s likely time for some changes. Your employees matter just as much as your customers, so it’s important to listen to them and give them what they need to ensure the growth and success of your company as a whole. 

Wrapping Up

The right rebrand can help you reposition your business more effectively. Just remember to do it for the right reasons. Jumping too quickly into changes without consideration and a thorough decision-making process can result in a rebrand failure. However, by doing your research, understanding your audience, and going into the rebrand with good intentions, you will be more likely to have success.