5 Mistakes to Avoid With Your Rebranding Strategy

March 30, 2017

There is more to be done than just changing your logo or your company colours.

by Maureen McCabe

Does your business need to rebrand? The last thing you want is to become outdated or out of touch with your target market. A successful rebrand can make your company or product seem more modern, cutting-edge and attract more clients.

While a successful rebrand can increase sales and overall can be a huge advantage for your company, there are several mistakes you can make when it comes time to plan and execute your rebranding strategy.

Rebranding is a major investment

Before launching a rebranding project, ensure your strategy avoids some of the most common pitfalls companies experience on their rebranding journey. The following are five mistakes to avoid when developing your rebranding strategy:

1. Changing things just to change them

While change is an important aspect of any good branding strategy, it should not be done for its own sake. Your company’s name has a history and your existing clients associate with your brand. While reaching new clients is important, you do not want to alienate your existing customer base.

If you decide to change your company’s name, make sure it still clearly communicates what your company is about and what it represents. Being too vague or whimsical can hurt a rebrand if it confuses your clients.

2. Not asking why

Before even sitting down to plan out your rebranding strategy with your marketing agency, ask yourself why you are doing it in the first place and what you hope to accomplish. A rebrand should always carefully outline your desired goals and results. Also, throughout the process, be sure to test things out as you go and respond to feedback as needed. If an idea is not working, do not force it.

Many companies have been forced through brand changes with a surprisingly low amount of feedback. The end result is rarely successful. While you cannot let your customer base lead on all decisions, their feedback is important and cannot be disregarded entirely.

3. Not being fully on board with the rebrand

There is more to a rebranding strategy than just coming up with a new logo. Many companies design a new logo as the only component of their rebranding. There is more to be done than just changing your logo or your company colours. There should be an underlying change to the way you do business and how you position yourself in the market.

Many bad rebranding initiatives not only fail to address this, they often end up using both their old and new logos at the same time by not going through with a complete rebranding or being slow to complete the transition. This lazy approach ends up being convoluted and confusing for employees, current clients, and potential clients.

4. Trying too hard to be cool

This is also known as getting too caught up in modern trends. Many companies try too hard to prove they are “with it” as it relates to modern popular culture. Pop culture moves fast, and what was once a cutting-edge design choice or phrase can look outdated within a year. There needs to be a certain timelessness to a brand’s design. Remember there was a time when gradients were considered a hot new design – now, not so much.

5. Following the crowd

An equally bad rebranding strategy idea is the opposite of trying to be new and innovative, which is doing something because everyone else did it first. Using design concepts that your competitors did years ago makes you look out of touch from the very beginning at best and like a poor knockoff at worst. There should be some originality to what you do.

Remember that any branding should be true to what your company is and stands for. Just because a competitor made a successful change does not mean it will work for your business as well.

Need help with your branding or rebranding strategy? Book your free marketing assessment.

Check out our other branding tips:

Branding Strategies for Your Business
How to Create a Slogan That Sticks
Avoid Logo Problems: How to Hire a Graphic Designer – Part 2

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