How do you know its time to rebrand your business?

How do you know its time to rebrand your business?

Is your image outdated, do you have new management, are you looking for rapid global expansion, or suffering a reputation crisis? These are all reasons you should consider for rebranding your business.

Quick question – why do you dress the way you do? Do you know that by looking at you, one already forms a perception of who you are and what you are like based on what they see? We live in a world largely driven by perception and that doesn’t just affect us as individuals but also our businesses as well.

A business’s branding tells the story of that business when a customer interacts with it. Subsequently, the branding should communicate exactly what the business owner wants it’s stakeholders, staff and customers to understand and perceive about the business. In a nutshell, the perceptions of these three groups are what guides a business’s branding. With that said, is your branding reflective of your values or is there a need to rebrand?

Here are a few factors to help you to determine whether your business is due for a rebrand

Your brand compass

Any comprehensive rebrand begins with solidifying your company’s purpose, vision, mission, and values. Your company’s branding should align with these tenants and a change is needed If your brand doesn’t match with:

  1. Why does the company exist?
  2. Where is it headed?
  3. How will it get there?
  4. Which values define the company’s culture?

Your brand name no longer reflects your brand vision

Your company’s branding tells your brand story. Cultural changes within the organization may also cause a need to rebrand. For instance, if a microfinance changes its vision from supporting medium business to supporting women in business, then there will be need to change the company’s image to reflect that.

Need to stand out and differentiate yourself from competitors

When a business fails to articulate its key differentiators, sales and business growth can become extremely challenging. Branding is all about competitive differentiation, you don’t want to look the same as other players in the market.

You’ve out grown your brand

A time will come where your venture has outgrown Its original iteration and then there will be a need to rebrand to accommodate growth. Rebranding to accommodate for growth doesn’t have to be completely a new look, an improvement of your old look works best as there some old brand strengths you’ll want to continue to leverage moving forward.

Mergers, acquisitions and demergers

When it comes to changes in business ownership, such as mergers, acquisitions and demergers, there will be a need to rebrand, not only to make the change visible, but also to comply with legal requirements. When it comes to demergers, the party that has split off is required by law to develop its own brand. For mergers and acquisitions, a completely new brand might be adopted or one brand may be absorbed into another hence retaining the host’s brand

These are just some of the major reasons a company might need to rebrand. When you decide to rebrand, take all the necessary precautions as rebrand comes with its own risks.

Yours faithfully

IMBA

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