5 Ways to Refresh Your Brand and Why You Should
Over the years, your business and customers change. Your brand should evolve as well. However, it’s not always necessary to do a complete rebrand to stay relevant with your target audience--sometimes your brand just needs a refresh.
Here’s the difference: A complete rebrand looks like tearing down what exists and building up a completely different brand from scratch, while a brand refresh is like putting on a new coat of paint that gives you a fresh, new look.
Is it time for a brand refresh?
It’s easy to become stagnant by doing the same thing for a long time, but change just for the sake of change isn’t always necessary either.
Here are a few signs that your brand could use a refresh:
- Your logo isn’t flexible: maybe it’s too long, too detailed, or difficult to use
- Your message isn’t reaching your audience
- Your brand identity isn’t visually consistent online and offline
- Your packaging or marketing materials are outdated
- You look too much like your competition
- Your sales have stalled
Staying relevant in today’s fast-past economy is critical. Without a clear identity or a message that connects with your audience, it can be the very thing that creates stagnation in your business.
Here are a few things to consider for a brand refresh.
For companies who may be struggling with growth or change, one of the first things we consider to help draw renewed interest with both current and potential customers is a brand refresh.
Like we mentioned, a brand refresh is like a new coat of paint not a complete overhaul. Here are a few ways you can refresh your brand.
Update Your Logo
Your logo is oftentimes the first impression a potential customer has of your brand. It should be powerful and easily memorable and something that stands out from your competitors. This is a great area to focus for a brand refresh.
Refresh Your Imagery
Keeping your presence fresh and active, especially online can help connect with your audience. If you haven’t updated your presence in a while, it can be a great place to start: photography, fonts, icons, patterns and colors. Make sure you create a set of visual brand guidelines along with it.
Update Your Website
Doing a complete overhaul of your website isn’t always necessary. Consider small changes that reflect current customer needs and wants. For example, optimize the checkout process, adding video to a product page, boost site speed, install chatbots, or play with discount tactics.
Re-think Your Message
What you say and how you say it is key to your ability to connect with your audience and the emotional connection they have with your brand. In fact, most purchasing decisions are based on emotion so it’s critical that your message evokes an emotional connection. If not, it’s time to address what and how you’re speaking to your audience.
Clarify Your Vision
If your communication strategy hasn’t been rethought in awhile, it may be time to take a closer look. Re-visit your vision and how you share it. Is it aligned with what your audience needs and wants? Every company should be evolving in response to changes in the market, and if that’s not happening then you may find you’re losing the ability to connect with your audience.
Where to start.
If your company or organization has plateaued, refreshing your brand with one of the activities listed above can be a quick and relatively easy way to infuse new life and energy into your brand and capture the attention of your audience.
The best way to start on any of these projects is to do a discovery process to get clear on the challenges you may be facing and what change is most needed.
Here’s where we can help. Every client project starts with discovery so it’s something we know well. If you’d like to learn more about our process and how we can help you determine is a brand refresh is what your business needs, let’s connect.
