Are your closest competitors winning new business because they look and sound more relevant to prospects than you do? Do you fear that prospects are not connecting with your brand? Are you totally missing the “who you are” and “what you do” that helps set you apart from your competitors?
If any of these questions hits close to home, chances are good that your company is a prime candidate for an in-depth brand audit followed by a strategic rebranding process. That may sound daunting, but a rebranding can yield powerful results, including increased sales and brand prominence.
Every brand behaves in a certain way, delivers an experience and achieves a result.
For nearly all executives, the rebranding process can be stressful. However, if undertaken by an experienced and talented branding partner who can offer the required research, planning, care and attention, there will be many positive rewards.
For one thing, if properly announced and promoted, lots of eyes will be on your brand, creating numerous new business opportunities for your company. If you are contemplating rebranding your business (and we assume that you are if you’ve read this far!), there are some questions that you are likely wondering about, especially if you haven’t gone through the rebranding process before. For example:
- How much will the rebranding process cost?
- How many internal resources will need to be dedicated to the process?
- How long will rebranding take?
- How can I measure my ROI after rebranding?
These are just a few of the valid questions Trillion can answer for you. In addition, below are the top four questions Trillion is asked by executives who are considering rebranding their company.
How to Start the Rebranding Process?
The rebranding process needs to commence at the heart of whatever it is your business does. Suppose your brand’s mission and vision statements still hold true to who you are and what you do, but your brand’s graphic identity has lost its connection to what is relevant to consumers in today’s marketplace. In that case, you may only need to adjust the look and feel of your visual identity. A brand audit is a great place to start. Among many other things, a brand audit will review all of your marketing materials including sales collateral, advertisements, social media and websites, and reveal any inconsistencies that may impact how your brand relates to your customers.
If your company has grown, shifted its market position or merged with another, you should consider conducting a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). Hire an independent third party to interview clients, employees and key stakeholders to get an accurate picture of how your brand is perceived by all. These findings often yield surprising results that can be leveraged into the rebrand and provide unique value propositions for your company.
How to Stay Connected to Your Existing Brand?
If your brand hasn’t made any updates or adjustments for many years, it’s not unusual to be sensitive to change. Certainly, drastic departures can quickly confuse customers and generate a whole slew of problems that can have a negative impact. That’s why careful consideration should be given to any adjustments in messaging, colors, logos, and methods of communicating with your customers. Looking at the rebrand as an evolution of the brand is, many times, the best approach. Considering the interview and SWOT analysis findings, you can make educated decisions on how and where to position the rebrand.
For example, Titusville Playhouse, a professional theater producing over 15 shows annually, had a brand presence, but its visual identity and public-facing materials were not expressing it effectively. Consequently, their ticket sales and website traffic were not as strong as they should have been. Trillion recognized that they needed a refresh that reflected the buoyancy of their playhouse and gave potential audience members an emotional connection to their shows.
Trillion worked with them to improve the overall design aesthetic of the website and brand, refreshing the visual identity, logo, animated email signature, stationery materials, and email marketing templates. In the weeks following the launch of the new website, ticket sales increased by over 150%!
How to Select the Best Rebranding Team?
Making sure you choose the right experts to rebrand your company is a critically important decision. Several key factors should be carefully examined so that the process goes smoothly and you achieve the best results. The American Marketing Association outlines the key things you should be examining before hiring a team to rebrand your company:
- Talent and functional expertise: do they offer the depth in their team to execute the project?
- Relevant industry expertise: have they worked in your industry and are familiar with industry nuances?
- Creativity: is their portfolio displaying work and case studies you admire?
- Cultural fit: does the team share similar values and seem easy to work with?
If you begin your search with these points in mind, you will increase your chances of finding the right partner to help rebrand your company.
How Much Will the Rebranding Process Cost?
What is the cost of rebranding versus the cost of not rebranding? That is the question! Will the potential gains in future business outweigh the costs involved in rebranding? Depending on the size of your company, your existing customer base and the complexity and distribution of your brand, the costs associated with a rebrand can fluctuate dramatically.
Rebranding your business is not just the cost of a new logo and visual identity. If your brand identity is integrated with many components such as a fleet of vehicles, multiple retail locations with signage, uniformed employees or a plethora of pre-printed and digital marketing materials, the costs of rebranding can be high. However, with careful planning and strategic thinking, the process may be adjusted to accommodate these issues in a way that makes the most economical sense for your bottom line. Things like the potential elimination of extraneous printed marketing materials, resourceful digital signage usage and design or rethinking uniforms can help reduce the total cost of rebranding.
In some instances, brands may not need a complete overhaul so replacing logos and adjusting messaging is enough to get the rebranding job done. In other instances, company-wide education about the brand changes as well as marketing campaigns to inform the public of the rebranding will need to be executed and will have costs associated with it. The rebranding process can be similar to buying a car—there are many different makes and models of cars along with many options to choose from. A rebrand can cost tens of thousands of dollars and up depending on the scope of the project.
Trillion redesigned all of the brand assets for DataCapable, a SaaS threat detection platform.
Best Way to Get Started on Rebranding
The rebranding process begins with a conversation, and Trillion is happy to answer all of your questions. It’s not enough to define the brand, the brand must be clearly expressed across all assets. Our talented team of designers, marketers and writers have all been a part of successful rebrands that yielded excellent ROI. Our experience can help identify the scope of rebranding necessary to achieve your goals. Give us a call at 908.219.4703 or complete our contact form. We love what we do and would be excited to bring your brand to new levels of success.
