How To Rebrand
Companies
will at some point come to that milestone known as “the rebrand.” For some, it
happens early on once they’ve discovered who they really are while with others,
it occurs after many years of having grown (or outgrown) their brand.
THEN AND NOW
You’ll
discover that some brands go along an evolutionary track that one could
basically follow. (Personally, I am not a fan of the current Pepsi logo and
consider the legacy and heritage was tossed out the window with the current
logo, whereas Coca-Cola has done an amazing job of maintaining and refreshing
their brand.)
And while a brand is so much more than a company’s
logo, the logo is one of the key ambassadors to any brand. Hence the examples
shown above.
There
are various reasons, assorted catalysts or numerous
“straws that can break the camel’s back” of the old or existing brand.
Yet,
there are a number of questions that routinely
come up when I start with a company to rebrand them. Here (in
no particular order) are many of the questions that need to be answered to keep
the brand:
·
True to Itself,
·
Meaningful so
people take notice and care, and
·
Powerful enough
to make the difference everyone hopes for.
19 QUESTIONS THAT EVERY REBRAND NEEDS TO ASK
1.
Why are we doing
a rebrand?
2.
What problem are
we attempting to solve?
3.
Has there been a
change in the competitive landscape that is impacting our growth potential?
4.
Has our customer
profile changed?
5.
Are we
pigeonholed as something that we (and our customers) have outgrown?
6.
Does our brand
tell the wrong (or outdated) story?
7.
What do we want
to convey? To whom?
8.
Why should anyone
care about our brand?
9.
Have we
isolated exactly who
should care about our brand?
10.
Have their
needs, or the way they
define them, changed?
11.
Are we asking our
customer to care more about our brand, and what it means, than we do?
12.
Is our brand
associated with something that is no longer meaningful?
13.
Is our brand out
of step with the current needs and desires of our customers?
14.
Are we leading
with our brand direction?
15.
Are we following
with our brand direction?
16.
Is the goal of
this rebrand a stepping stone (evolutionary) or a milestone (revolutionary)?
17.
Will this
solution work in 5, 10 and 15 years from now based on what we can anticipate?
18.
Have we assigned
some committee to manage the project versus someone (or at most, two people)
who is/are focused, inspired and can lead?
19.
If we were
starting our business today, would this be the brand solution we would come up
with?
Use the questions above to isolate why you rebrand and how
to keep your rebrand from the “cliffs of insanity” (i.e., cliche crud like
much of the current wave of homogenized, committee-drenched crap being put out
by several of the big Fortune 100 corporations over the last few years).
Written
By: David Brier
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