The benefits of a brand refresh
Feel like you’re tired of your brand? Does it no longer excite you? It might be time to consider a brand refresh.
A brand refresh is one of the easiest ways to breathe new life into your business. Although a seemingly cosmetic solution, a brand refresh can have a powerful impact on all aspects of your business. The design of your brand and what it conveys has big implications as we’ve covered in previous blogs.
What is a brand refresh?
What exactly is a brand refresh and how can you tell when your business is in need of one?
Firstly, let’s look at the difference between a re-brand and re-fresh, they sound similar on the surface but a brand re-fresh is just this, surface level. You are usually revitalizing your visual identity including logo and design, slogans, fonts, colour palettes and marketing materials.
Think of a re-fresh as a lick of paint and upgrading the furniture, yet the layout underneath remains the same.
A re-brand on the other hand is a much more in-depth overhaul of your entire image, creating a whole new personality and designing a new background for your company. A refresh cannot solve deep-seated issues such as broken brand architecture, large shifts in company’s positions, internal misalignments, or negative brand perceptions.
If this is where you are at, an overhaul re-brand is the more fitting solution. Often a refresh will have a big impact on how your company sounds and feels internally and looks to your customers.
What are the benefits of a brand refresh?
1. Generate Excitement
Loyal customers get excited by a company’s rebrand as it often signals that you’re about to offer something new and exciting. It can lead to some organic PR coverage as it generates a buzz amongst consumers and gets people in your community talking.
2. Stay Relevant
In a fast-paced market place with so many emerging brands, a brand refresh can help you to stay relevant in the eyes of consumers. In a consumer-led market place if a brand is seen as outdated or no longer relevant customers may believe you no longer understand them or their needs and choose to shop elsewhere.
3. Refocus your business
As a business grows your products and messaging may evolve over time and your current logo/branding may no longer reflect your business offer. A brand refresh helps you to reposition yourself in the market and provides a great foundation to re align your brand’s messaging to its target market.
4. Create a consistent brand identity
If there are multiple people creating your business assets the overall look your brand may be inconsistent. A brand refresh will provide you with clear brand guidelines. These will provide a clear set of rules that define the overall look and feel f your brand. They will outline what font, style, tone of voice and colours that can be used in all of your brand materials to create a cohesive brand identity that customers remember.
5. Centre your marketing activities
Your brand should be the starting part of all your marketing efforts. A company’s branding reflects the ‘why’ behind the business. When the ‘why’ becomes lost your marketing efforts become diluted and ineffective. A brand refresh will help you rediscover the why behind your business to create a clear and defined brand, this will give you the foundation on which to centre all your marketing efforts around.
How do I know I need a brand refresh?:
Whichever industry you fall into, here are some of the common themes indicating a refresh is on the radar…
1. You’ve changed!
2. Your audience has changed
3. You’re inconsistent
4. Increased competition
5. Entering a new market
6. Your identity feels old
7. Industry expectations have evolved
Brand revitalisation is necessary for all businesses at one point or another, even the most successful well-established brands can’t remain static, they have to adapt with the times to remain fresh in the minds of consumers. Just like Paypal did earlier in the year with their new ‘people first’ brand refresh which aimed to “build stronger connectivity” between the brand’s mission and communications.
However, make sure to consider your brand carefully. Be objective, you personally might be sick of the site of your brand and want a full overhaul, but many others will not be so familiar with it.
If you are confident a brand refresh is in order, consult an expert designer. Although we love Canva as much as anyone, when it comes to your branding and guidelines - get a professional designer involved! There’s nothing worse than ending up with a brand that looks worse than when you started!
Looking for expert advice with your marketing? Get in touch