If your business growth has stalled or started to falter, the natural reaction of many business owners is to rebrand their company and offer a new, exciting take on the products and services that they provide. This often pays off extremely well for businesses of all sizes, but there are also often times when the re-branding effort actually backfires and has a negative effect on the business. A rebranding effort should be conducted carefully and with great planning in order to ensure that it is received well by your current customer base while still allowing you to reach out to new prospects that otherwise would not have been interested. There are a few basic mistakes that many businesses make when undergoing a rebranding effort that should be avoided.
1. Failing to Retain Current Brand Equity
Rebranding your business is new and exciting. It can refresh your current customer base and attract new customers to your business. But, you must undergo the rebranding with careful thought toward retaining the current brand equity that you have. If your new branding will scare your current customers away, you will put yourself in a worse position than you were before. Ask yourself, and your customers, what it is that attracts them to your brand. What aspects of your branding are make-or-break when it comes to retaining their business? If your business offered your services to corporate clients and wanted to reach out to a larger market, a rebranding complete with cartoonish logo and new-age hipster lingo would probably not be well received by your current customer base. Failing to retain brand equity during a rebrand is a huge mistake.
2. Failing to Understand if (or why) a Rebrand is Necessary
When you first set out to rebrand your company, ask yourself why you are doing so. What is the point of rebranding your business? Is this something that must be done in order to grow your business or are you simply throwing darts at the board and hoping that one will stick. Outline the specific aspects of your branding that you wish to improve upon, and list the aspects of your current branding that are going well and should remain relatively unchanged. This will help you to identify the goals of the rebranding project as a whole, while retaining current brand equity.
3. Avoiding Consulting
Many business owners undertake a rebranding effort and eschew consulting from a third-party. The problem with this is that many business owners are not able to reliably see through the fog of their own brand. Additionally, they may not know how to perform adequate market research, which can lead to poor decisions during the branding process. Working with a consultant that doesn’t have a stake in your business (until they are hired by you) will allow you to ensure that you are receiving quality feedback from an honest source.
4. Lack of Consistency Across Branding Channels
Your rebranding effort should be complete and obvious across all channels. Too many companies set out to rebrand themselves and are unable to roll out the new branding across all advertising channels. Your customers should interact with the same branding no matter where they interact with your company, whether it is in your physical location, on your website, or in a PPC advertisement.
5. A Lack of Focus on Objectives
When rebranding a company, you must focus on the objectives of the entire project. What are the goals of the project? What aspects of your brand would you like to improve upon? Without clear goals, it is hard to evaluate your efforts and determine if you were successful.
If you would like to rebrand your company and would like help planning and executing an effective rebrand, please reach out today and contact us at McAllister Marketing to speak with our branding experts. We’ll evaluate your business and give recommendations for a smooth and beneficial rebranding process for your business.