Thousands Of Businesses Are Rebranding. Should You too?

If you’re reading this article, you may be questioning whether or not your brand is really saying what you want it to say. By definition, rebranding is the process of creating a new feel and look for your established business. Look at Dunkin’ as an example. In 2019, Dunkin Donuts decided to drop the word “donuts” from their brand name and added more food items and non-coffee drinks to their menu, like the matcha latte and some refreshers. This just scratches the surface of what Dunkin’ has done to rebrand.

Rebranding can be risky. After all, you’re making big changes to the overall feel and look of your brand, thereby altering the message it gives out. This can potentially either gain you lots of support or lose support if your audience doesn’t like the new changes you made. While rebranding can ultimately be the best decision you ever make for your business, it can also be a hit or miss not knowing the reactions you will receive. That being said, it’s important to consider a few things before starting the rebranding process.

How To Decide If You Should Rebrand

• Conduct a brand identity and image survey

Knowing how your audience feels before making any moves is a good start. Reaching out to email subscribers, social media followers, etc. is a way to get survey responses. Ask questions about some of the aspects you are considering making changes to or ask general questions about how your audience feels about your brand. Here is a guide on formulating some questions. If the answers are not lining up with what you want your brand to be, then that’s the first sign that it may be time to rebrand.

• You aren’t standing out

Rebranding is a good idea when your brand has too much of a generic look to it. This can lead to your brand getting lost in the crowd while competing with other businesses with similar names, brand logos and colors. By making your brand more recognizable among many, you will build brand loyalty and gain potential customers who see something unique about your brand. Rebranding is a great way to break away from the norm and make your brand more distinctive.

• Your brand is outdated

If your brand has been around for a long time, you may want to consider rebranding to make your business fit in with the modernized company culture and to match the changing technology and design trends. Modernizing your brand means understanding that you need to be able to adapt to changes that occur in the market over time or you will fall behind your competitors. This is one of the circumstances where you may need to consider a complete brand makeover to make it relevant again. This doesn’t mean you can just update your logo and call it a day. While the visuals of your brand may certainly need an update to match more contemporary-looking graphic designs, you should also consider rebranding aspects within your business, such as updating the actual products or services you offer, revamping the way you interact with your audience by increasing your brand’s social media presence, start offering digital products, etc.

This is also important to consider when you are trying to reach a modern audience. For example, you need to adapt to the fact that almost everyone in the Western world owns a cell phone, so you need to adapt in order to fit that demographic and expand your business to reach that audience. As mentioned above, having an online presence is more important now than ever before. So rebranding is more than just looking different. It’s about evolving in the ways you interact with your audience and reach new customers.

• Your overall mission is changing or evolving

If your business has moved beyond your original brand, consider rebranding. If your brand has expanded, meaning you are offering new products or services that you weren’t originally offering, then rebrand to reflect those changes as you are also getting new customers with different interests. This can mean updating your logo or changing your brand’s name to reflect your changed mission and vision. For example, if your brand started out by offering custom phone cases and now you offer additional phone accessories and software issue fixing services, you may want to rebrand a bit so that you don’t mislead potential customers by letting them think you are purely a phone case business. In this case, it is actually better to rebrand before you start offering any new products or services.

• Other good reasons to consider rebranding

■ New location or market: if you’re expanding into a new geographic area and market, you will need to rebrand and create a new name and logo. This is especially important if you are expanding on an international scale.

■ Mergers and acquisitions: if your brand is merging with another, there are a lot of things to consider, such as whether your brand will be joining the other one or operating separately. For combining brands, you may operate under one of the existing brands or create a new combined brand identity.

■ Your brand isn’t clear enough: potential new customers should have a clear and good first impression of your business. No one will want to purchase a product or service from a brand that’s confusing. Consider rebranding a bit to get rid of this disconnect between what you want your brand to be and what the audience thinks your brand is.

Rebranding is ultimately inevitable. Businesses and markets are always changing and evolving over time, and your brand will need to change and evolve too whether you want it or not. Being adaptable is key to successful marketing.