Got Stuck? Try These 5 Tips To Refresh Your Brand Successfully
You might have a big brand that has a hugely successful past but with the changing trends, you want to break away from the former mold or make some changes to the way your brand is defined. A brand refresh is the one solution to all your worries about changing the perception of your brand in the minds of your consumers.
Many major companies, over the past years, have successfully refreshed their brand without losing their customer base. From the multinational brand, P&G, who went on to add a round blue background to their logo, to the major music channel VH1 who went on with a major change in their logo from the bright colors to a more solid look. So how did these brands successfully refresh their brand and how can you possibly perform brand refresh?
Rebranding is much more than a logo change
It’s true that a logo change is actually the front to announce a brand refresh, but it is much more than that. Rebranding logo symbolizes the change brought in to the organization but you also need a much grounded and realistic reason to attribute to the brand refresh.
It may be something that signifies the expansion of the company to more services, the inclusion of new features or may even define a whole new aspect to your brand. But whatever step you are trying to achieve by this brand refresh, it must tell a story behind it; a story that is rational and convincing and holds water.
You can refresh your brand logo by consulting with a website design company and make changes to it according to your brand vision. Generally, companies update their existing logo and sometimes their bylines too, in accordance with the logo and might even make minor changes to the brand name.
For example, Starbucks removed the word ‘coffee’ from its logo and updated the existing logo to just the image without any words to signify that Starbucks is much more than offering just coffee.
Do you what you know what makes a great logo? Watch this video from Vox:
Choose the right time for the brand refresh
The time when you have decided to go for a brand refresh should align with some significant change. Some believe the time when the response for the brand goes down or when there is a lot of request from consumers to include or do away with certain services is the right time to introduce a brand refresh. At times when your brand looks obsolete, it is high time that you come up with a brand refresh idea to promote your business or brand.
Also, the time when you are going to announce your brand revitalization should fall in line with a major announcement that backs up the reason for refreshment. It is all about the timings – you do it right and the brand refresh could bring in the lost crowd and further improve the brand image.
Keep it simple and long lasting
You may be tempted to come up with a brand refresh that reflects the current trends but keep in mind that these trends may or may not last. Hence go for a lasting underline that will sustain your brand image for a much longer time so that you don’t have to go for a brand refresh time frequently.
To keep it long lasting, the best way to go is to keep it simple. Don’t complicate it too much and make sure that it is understandable by all your consumers easily. Try the direct approach – a brand image that directly reflects the products or services that you provide.
Cut out all the other clutter that covers up your brand till you are left with a clean and simple image that when seen should immediately remind the customers about who you are and what you stand for.
The logo of Harvard University Press had a lot of confusing elements earlier that cramped up the letters but the new logo simplified everything down to just the words ‘Harvard University Press’ with a minimal visual element added to it.
Try to retain your brand’s image
If you already have a strongly defined image of your brand in your customers’ image, try not to change it too much and find a way to include it in your new brand refresh strategy. It may a byline, or a symbol in a logo or a slogan that was seen synonymous with your brand. Try to keep it intact as it is one of the few things that are embedded in the minds of customers about your brand and it is best to leave it that way.
Consider Nivea whose image was first defined by the round blue tin for a long time. When Nivea decided to expand and release more products, it used the tin itself as its logo on all of its products thereby gaining the trust of its loyal consumers of the tin product to branch out and try its other new products too.
Promote your brand refresh widely
When you have come up with a strong brand refresh and have made the necessary changes to your brand image, it is time to promote it. By promoting, it means to retain all your existing customers and get more new customers who can connect with your new brand image. Get many outdoor banners and hang it outside your physical stores and in public places to strongly promote your new brand image. You can also use social media marketing techniques to promote the business or brand.
For those major clients of yours, you can hire a printing services company and get business calendars printed out reflecting the brand refresh. You can also go for personalized mug printing if you want to keep it less professional and more casual if that’s what the style of your brand is.
If you have used custom stickers for the branding somewhere and want to remove them for new branding campaign then you can learn how you can remove sticker residue.
Brand refresh can prove to be very effective to promote your brand to a much larger audience. All it takes is a clear vision of your brand, a strong reason for the brand refresh and the proper steps to go about with refreshing your brand and get it right across to the target customers.
Refreshing gifts for your employees
Keep your employees refreshed and agile by gifting custom stainless steel bottles. These would have a printed name of your company along with the new logo. It will make your employees feel refreshed. Your company will grow without getting slow because of the employees’ dedication.
