Rebranding your company is common for many businesses as they grow and develop over time. Just as humans grow and change their image, style, goals, and ideas, companies do the same thing. Many of your favorite and well-known brands have undergone multiple rebrands since they first began, and for various reasons.
Why Do Companies Choose To Rebrand?
Rebranding a company is something that you shouldn’t take lightly. Making a drastic change to how your company presents itself to the public can be risky if poorly executed. A great rebrand can help propel your company upwards, whereas a bad rebrand can ruin your public image or worse. Because the stakes are so high, you want to ensure that you’re changing things up for the right reasons. Here’s a few common reasons companies choose to overhaul their branding.
You’re Changing Your Narrative
Companies are constantly looking for new ways to improve themselves. Maybe they’ve added a new geographic market or a new product or service. Regardless, the branding should also evolve as the company evolves. For example, suppose your company was once a local business and has since opened more locations in different states. In that case, a rebrand might be necessary to help engage those new markets. Your company might have also gone from selling product x to now selling product x & y. In this case, your branding may need to address that change in products.
You Aren’t Standing Out Enough
If you have a plain and generic company name and logo, you likely aren’t going to pull in many interested customers. Similarly, you might also use stock photos in your branding or website, which can portray your brand as cheap or disingenuous. By updating your name and design, you can better differentiate yourself from competitors and attract more interested customers. For example, when Google first started gaining recognition in 1996, they were known as “Backrub” and was just a web crawler. Since then, the popular search engine has gone through four different rebranding initiatives. In fact, they just recently implemented the multi-color “G” as a part of their new branding.
You’re Having An Image Crisis
While this is typically not the ideal reason to undergo a rebranding initiative, it can be helpful in changing the way the general public views you. Many companies under scrutiny think they can just release a new logo and image with hollow promises of being better. The average customer can see right through this, and if you don’t follow through on the promises you make, it can be catastrophic to your business. A prime example of this was when Uber came under scrutiny for the way they treated their drivers. The drivers wanted to be treated as full-time employees with benefits rather than contract workers. Nearly 350,000 drivers protested, leading to an eventual rebranding of Uber to coincide with their commitment to being a better company to work for.
Thinking of Rebranding?
As previously mentioned, rebranding your company is not something to be taken lightly and should be done to help your company’s growth. If you’re thinking about rebranding, ensure you have a good reason for it.
Before starting any rebranding initiative, make sure to do a brand assessment. Check in on how you appear in the media, what customers are saying about you, and other indicators that tell you how your brand is doing. Once you’ve objectively reviewed your company, you’ll need to address the problems associated with it and work to change them to coincide with the rebrand. Be sure to elicit opinions from people outside of your company and consider all the feedback you get when executing your rebranding strategy.