Businesses can wait too long to assess their business for a rebrand out of fear, lack of time or because they have ignored reoccurring issues. But staying in tune with what is happening inside and outside your organization can offer you valuable clues to know when is the right time to rebrand. Here are the top 10 reasons we see businesses rebrand.
Businesses can wait too long to assess their business for a rebrand out of fear, lack of time or because they have ignored reoccurring issues. But staying in tune with what is happening inside and outside your organization can offer you valuable clues to know when is the right time to rebrand. Here are the top 10 reasons we see businesses rebrand.
AMS (Armstrong Marketing Solutions) is a great example of this. Our old name said we do marketing, but, in reality, our business has evolved since its founding. Now, instead of solely focusing on marketing and advertising, we focus on branding as a foundational step to brand execution (marketing). We like to start with branding as it creates the foundation that sets businesses up for long-term success.
We see this in businesses that have been around for a long time. Over time, your voice can get muddied or diluted. This can happen when you have worked with different marketing agencies, cycled through marketing employees or tried various marketing tactics. By revisiting your company’s strategy and examining your goals, you can create an intentional plan to relay to your team and customers. This will steer your brand in the right direction. One Valley is a great example of rebranding to help resteer a business’s brand. One Valley struggled to communicate its purpose. We worked to define the One Valley brand and create a strategy to communicate it.
As trends, offerings and technology changes, it is important to stay true to who you are. But you also need to make adjustments to help customers feel confident in your business and help them connect with it. By not updating your identity to reflect changes in your industry, you risk losing customer confidence.
This can happen when a new competitor enters the market or when technology or another outside factor causes a shift. Regardless of the situation, if you are losing money to your competition for one reason or another, it is great time to reassess your brand. What is your current brand not saying or doing for your business? Why are your customers not choosing you?
We love Marty Neumeier’s well-known statement: “Your brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what they say it is.” Your customers will tell you what you need to know about your brand if you are willing to listen. If you have decided to target one segment of the population but you have noticed that your customers do not fit into that category, it is time to look at who is attracted to your brand so you can best speak to them. This can create new opportunities for your business and a new customer pipeline that you maybe hadn’t considered.
We see this a lot in Montana. Businesses have used words in their name specific to our geographic region. When their businesses experience a large amount of growth and it draws them out of state, being named something like “Montana’s Best Plumber” may exclude you from out-of-state job opportunities. This is a great time to consider the new competition that you will encounter in these new markets as well as your new target audience. Growing into a new geographic service area offers a great opportunity to revisit your business’s brand.
Growth is a good thing, but managing growth from a brand standpoint can be tricky. When deciding how to grow and how to integrate the growth into your current branding, it is a good idea to reexamine your brand. Will you have an umbrella brand that all of your services and products fall under? Will you create individual brands for your individual products? As growth happens, it is a good time to revisit, or perhaps visit for the first time, your brand architecture. This includes how your sub-brands will be organized and how they will relate to one another .
If you feel like you are starting from scratch every time you come up with a new idea or business solution, it may indicate that your business lacks the guardrails to help inform decisions. A strong, defined brand will equip you with the tools to make decisions for your business. Branding will provide you with tools like personas of your targeted customers, so you can evaluate whether a new product will fit their needs. It will help define your goals, value proposition, brand pillars and other brand strategy components. These will inform all of your decisions to determine what is right for your business.
If your brand has a reputation that attracts employees who are not a good fit, it is a sure sign that there is a disconnect and that you are sending out the wrong signals. If you are not getting the kind of talent you want, it may be a red flag that your brand could use some work.
This is a tough pill for business owners to swallow. If your business has a negative reputation or if you have purchased a business with a negative perception, rebranding can be the perfect opportunity to start fresh. It is important to define and communicate the brand internally to employees first so they can help reinforce the new brand positioning to customers. When the root of the issue is solved, the new brand identity can also help communicate the change. It also sets new expectations to your customers in the hope of righting the ship and rebuilding your brand reputation.
Do you have more questions about how to launch your rebrand? Check out our blog How to Launch a Rebrand.
If any of these examples we listed sound familiar or if you just want to walk through your current business hurdles with our team, get in touch with us. We look forward to talking to you.
Like our work, the Hardy Brands team is an embodiment of the perfect balance of strategy and creative. We’ve cultivated a team of certified brand specialists and strategists, designers, copywriters and marketing professionals who are ferocious about helping you succeed. We’re a Montana marketing agency that will constantly strive to improve your business.
As a branding, marketing and design agency, we partner with all types of businesses, from restaurants and breweries to building and real estate professionals, nonprofits to accountants and many others. Get a better idea of who we are and what we do by visiting our Work page.
