6 Crucial Business Reasons to do Rebrand

Rebranding is serious business. Do it right and it can be a game changer for your business. Do it wrong and it can cost you a pretty penny — Remember the GAP Rebrand disaster?!

A rebrand is not… I repeat not just changing your logo and a few images here and there. Recently, a casual conversation with a small business owner started a session on why there is or isn’t a need to rebrand.

While one would think, the answer is obvious, I have found that most business owners aren’t clear and therefore, not as intentional about their rebrand as they should be. For them, a rebrand is a superficial change of clothes for a company.

So here are 6 crucial business reasons why you might consider a rebrand for your company.

Ever walk into a store and think, “These guys must have expensive stuff”. Well, you’d most likely be right but have you ever thought of why that is. Expensive stores are laid out very differently than mass-market stores. Things are curated and there is a sense of space. The same goes for a brand. Take the classic difference between Apple and Microsoft. Everyone knows Apple products are expensive, their store reflects that, their words reflect that and so does the packaging.

If you are struggling to increase your prices or the customers aren’t buying, it means there’s disconnection between how your business is showing up and the value your customer is attaching to it.

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There are very few products/services in the market that are differentiated based on innovation. True innovation is hard to achieve and expensive to fund. Most products and services end up looking like commodities with hardly any differentiation. Brands are therefore left to differentiate on other factors like their story, their values, maybe a cause they support or a community they serve.

If your brand is dying a slow death in the sea of sameness, it might be a good idea to look at how you want to reposition your business to make the most of your core strengths as a business.

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This seems to be the most common and most obvious reason for a rebrand. If you want to broaden your brand appeal or niche to a specific target market you haven’t looked at before, chances are, you will need to change not just what your brand looks like but also what it says and how it behaves.

That’s one more reason why brands can’t use the “fake it till you make it” approach. You have to walk the talk because today’s consumers are smart. They have access to a lot more information and are spoilt for choice. Smart brands that understand this, immerse themselves in their consumer’s world and it reflects in the rebrand.

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This one, I see most family owned businesses struggle with. When a business has been operational for a few years, it starts to evolve. As it evolves, it starts to leave its old identity somewhere along the way. As fresh talent and ideas come into the company, ideologies seem to start to change.

Typically companies like these are already doing reasonably well and a rebrand can be a complete game changer for them. Some businesses like this have known to more than double or triple their revenue, by the second year of their rebrand.

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Whenever you think target market, you think customers. But your target market should ideally include all those who are associated with your company including your employees, partners, stakeholders and investors. These people are the support system for your business. As you grow, they grow with you. The right employees can in turn help your company reach far beyond what you can imagine. They can be advocates of your company. Nowadays, it’s so rare to find employees who speak well of their company that when someone does it, it makes me stand up and take notice.

So it’s only logical that you would want to attract top talent to your company and help them grow with you. If you are having trouble attracting employees of a good calibre, it is likely that your brand isn’t associated with industry standards that attract top talent.

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We’ve seen businesses create sub brands and sub companies to target different markets. In the bargain, they fail to leverage the equity of their mother brand. This creates fragmented parts that cannot use the goodwill of the mother brand. Since good branding is a long drawn process, it is important to play off the strengths of your existing brand.

Take the example of the FEDEX identity that has allowed the company to extend its brand to accommodate a variety of target markets and offerings. It has saved the company millions by creating a brand architecture that helps the brand expand its wings and retain its strong identity.

If your brand offerings seems fragmented and you are spending too much time and money on promoting each product or offering, it might be a good time to look at a Rebrand.

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While these aren’t the only reasons to do a Rebrand, these are struggles that a well done Rebrand can solve almost immediately. If you are experiencing any of these or know any others that I should include in this article, I’d love to hear about it.

As for the small business owner (who I should thank for inspiring this article), it turns out his reason for wanting the change, wasn’t one that required a rebrand and it would not have moved the needle in his business.

This article was first published on Linkedin.

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