A simple guide on how to successfully rebrand your business.
Anyone can tell you that a good brand has power. It’s why you choose Apple over Samsung. It’s why, when faced with two types of pasta in the supermarket aisle, you’re more likely to choose the brand you’ve heard of. Brand power transcends its service or product and symbolises something greater to the consumer. But change is constant, especially in the highly technological world we live in today. What happens when things change so much that your brand is no longer achieving your company’s vision? What if your existing brand doesn’t reflect who you or what you offer any more? Rebranding is common – in fact, some may say it’s a healthy sign of growth. Managing a company rebrand, however, comes with its own set of challenges. To help navigate this exciting and sometimes tricky process, we’ve created a step-by-step guide to help you successfully rebrand your business.
1. Know your brands vision, know it’s values and plan for results.
Vision: At this early stage you may not have a complete picture of what your re-brand will look like, but having a clear vision of who you are and what you stand for will help you make all the decisions along the way. Focus on your overall vision and take steps that bring you closer to your vision.
Results: What is your end result? Are you re-branding to target a new audience? Are you re-branding to reflect major changes in your company? How is this measured? Ensure you have the end user in mind when making these changes to ensure you’re meeting your goals.
2. Define your key stakeholders.
Regardless of whether they’re internal (leadership team, board members, investors) or external (clients, the market or general public), stakeholders are the people who will directly be affected by your re-brand.
3. Establish a communication plan.
Include things in this document like dates of key events/meetings, what the key messages are, delivery methods and responsibilities.
4. Create a project timeline.
A simple spreadsheet will do the trick in helping you create an effective project timeline. A timesheet will keep you on track in terms of key dates and times but also the responsibilities and delegations of those assisting with the re-brand. Some suggested things to record would be Phases, Internal/External Team Members and a Calendar.
5. Create a project plan.
The final step in the re-brand process is implementing a system that gives you the ability to stay on course. Create a document with ALL the information you need (including your project timeline and communication plan) to give an overall view of how the project is progressing. Create a status code as to where each of the project items are up to (if you colour code the status’, you’ll be able to keep visual track of where the project is at in a quick glance). You can also add key notes to the overall project, any outstanding information and any details preventing a hold-up on individual tasks. A budget column is also advisable for tracking project costs such as logo, website and any external services.
Planning for the unplanned.
During the process of a re-brand, it is important to stay on task to ensure there are no budget blow-outs and ensure you’ve covered all aspects of a re-brand. A couple of key areas to keep track of are:
1. Your current brand inventory.
Make a note of all the current places your brand, logo and identifiable assets are used. This includes social media pages, websites, advertising and marketing collateral, business cards, business directories, voicemail, signage and Google/SEO spaces. These will all need to be either created, consolidated/converted or re-branded for the new business.
2. Anticipate budget spend.
Re-branding might not be cheap, but having a project plan will ensure you’re on budget and have captured all spending required for the re-brand. You will most likely be budgeting for design fees including a new logo/website and marketing and advertising collateral. You may also look at allocating a portion of the budget to promotional items (in house and client-facing), PR services and SEO services.
We’ve launched! Now what?
Congratulations! A re-brand is not an easy feat. It takes an enormous amount of collaboration from all parties involved to stay on track and stay on budget. Following all celebrations, it’s important to give yourself space to recap what went well, what could have gone better and what lessons you learned along the way. It’s also key to keep in contact with new businesses or clients you’ve made. In your project plan, include what comes after the project launch as well. Engagement between new and existing clients is vital to ensure they feel kept in the loop and valued. It also places your new brand top-of-mind despite the big change.
At Creative Curiosity we are able to offer competitive prices on branding and identity, graphic design and web design services. Contact us today to talk to us about your exciting new re-brand.
