Rebranding Your Business: When Do You Know… You Know?

An excellent brand not only reflects who you are to the world, but informs everything you do. A brand doesn’t just refer to your color palette or logo, a brand refers to the vibe your company gives off, or the public-facing personality of your organization if you will. A brand can also reflect the version of your organization that is perceived by the world. It’s no wonder so many orgs are dedicated to getting it right.

Rebrands can be many things; expensive, time consuming, tiring and divisive. But like all double edged swords they can also be an incredibly rewarding experience. Rebrands are necessary exercises that, if done right, can also be exciting to leadership and employees alike and inject necessary energy into your organization.

By now you might be thinking – so how will I know when it’s really time? Well, dear reader, stay with me and I’ll share some signs to look out for in order to be 100% sure it’s time to pull the trigger.

The Infamous 5 Year Rule.

In my early career, I heard about a rule that every company should rebrand every five years. When I first heard about it, my first thought was, “they must be joking!”. Five years is a crazy short amount of time in the life of a business – AND if actually stuck to, the entire process can rack up quite a bill. But after hearing this, and with the more professional experience I gained, I started to understand that rebrands don’t necessarily have to be as negative as we’ve all been led to believe.

You might even have more options at different price points than previously understood for keeping up with the five year timeline that accomplishes that fresh feeling and clearer direction. Your company might not need to switch everything up that frequently, but you might cycle through copy, website structures, photos and strategies to keep your brand feeling relevant. Kind of like a snake shedding its skin.

Your Brand Feels Stale.

Speaking of relevancy, the second most telling sign you’re in need of a rebrand is when your content starts to feel stale. A telltale sign of this dreaded irrelevancy could be low engagement rates across socials, lack of internal inspiration or lack of thought-provoking content in general. Again, your company might want to switch things up strategically, visually or with the copy you’re putting out into the world in order to turn the tables on the otherwise unwanted situation.

You Want to Outpace the Competition.

Feel like your competitors are on a winning streak? If services between companies are comparable, there are a couple ways you can stand out from a business perspective. But if you’re already maxing out on those strategies and all else is equal, what’s left? That’s where a stellar brand comes in. An inexperienced customer looking for a quote or a service might visit a couple sites before making a decision and I can tell you right now that the org that will win the bid already capitalizes on that first perception a customer will have. A brand that sounds and looks great can pick up and convert those additional clients while continuing to provide the excellent service customers are accustomed to.

Your values have changed.

The last way you can know whether or not to dive into the deep end (or just dip your foot) is to take a hard look at your organizational values. Have they changed? If so, how? If they’re still ironclad, that’s a great sign that your original founding messages have withstood the test of time! When an organization’s values have in fact changed, or at the very least shifted, I recommend that they turn to some deep foundational strategy to iron out messages and values which 9 times out of 10 results in a fun visual branding process.

It’s difficult to know when it’s time to enter into a rebranding process. Rest assured that upon recognizing any of the signs above within your own organization you are that much closer to embarking on an exciting journey to bring fresh and inspirational ideas into the world.

So happy branding!