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When you’re busy with the daily grind, it can be difficult to notice the signs that it’s time to rebrand. The New Year is a great time to take a step back and evaluate whether your branding still reflects your business’s identity, vision, and values. Here are 5 signs that could indicate it’s time for a brand overhaul.
#1 Your Marketing Materials Or Website Are Dated
Your physical branding is your customers’ first impression of you, and it should reflect your brand’s current identity. Your colors, logo, design, and how they’re used in a consistent and cohesive theme across your website and marketing materials is how customers identify your brand.
If you’re hesitant to hand out a brochure or send someone to your website, it might be time for a brand refresh. A slow, dated website, or mismatched marketing pieces can give customers the impression that your brand isn’t equipped to meet the demands of modern consumers.
To create a consistent, modern branding strategy across all of your customer-facing assets, you should have a brand standards guide. This should include standards for your brand including target audience, character and voice, and a library of approved logos at-the-ready to ensure consistent usage by everyone in your organization. If your standards are missing or outdated, it may be time for a brand audit or some brand development exercises to get your brand up to snuff.
#2 The Competition Is Lapping You
Differentiating your business from other similar brands is critical to continual growth. If your competitors are leaving you in the dust, take a hard look at what they’re doing differently, and whether a rebrand might help you gain an edge.
Reevaluate your brand’s value and unique selling proposition, and consider whether a rebrand can help bring it to light. It might even be necessary to make operational changes to create value where it was previously lacking. For example, an insurance company that switches to U.S. based call centers to improve customer satisfaction might update their logo with patriotic colors. A business that changes their shipping policy might want to add “Free 2-day Shipping” under their logo so that they’re identified with retailers like Amazon and Walmart.
#3 Your Business Has Changed
This is pretty straightforward. If your business has introduced significantly new products or services, has undergone operational changes that impact customers, or if you’ve physically moved and your mountain logo no longer speaks to your Florida audience, it’s time to rebrand.
Businesses change. They grow, evolve, and sometimes get completely derailed and come back unrecognizable. Because your branding tells customers what they can expect from you, it’s important that it reflects your business’s current identity.
#4 Your Target Audience Has Changed
When your business changes, your target audience naturally changes as well. In some industries, particularly fashion, beauty, and music, when your customers “outgrow” your product or service, you have to figure out how to sell it to your next generation of customers.
Often this goes back to reevaluating your value, identifying what matters to your new audience, and rebranding to appeal to them.
#5 You Need To Rebuild Your Reputation
No business is above making mistakes, and in today’s viral online environment, it’s easy to get your good name smeared, fast. If your brand has recently been the target of negative press, rebranding can help give you a fresh start.
While your in-house marketing team may be able to handle some aspects of rebranding, it’s usually recommended to partner with an experienced public relations firm to help with reputation management.
Time For A Rebrand? See What PixelPeople’s Branding Experts Can Do For You
Whether you’re creating a new brand or redefining an existing brand, the experienced branding experts at PixelPeople can help with everything from naming and logo design, to crafting your brand verbiage and defining your brand’s voice & character.
If you suspect it’s time for some branding work, get in touch!
