4 telltale signs that your business needs a rebrand
It’s becoming apparent that the brand you started your business with isn’t working for you anymore. Or maybe you haven’t pinpointed the problem yet, but you’re aware that something about your business isn’t clicking with your audience. In today’s post, we are going to explore a few of the situations you may find yourself in as a business owner that could be the reason you’re asking: “Is it time for a rebrand?”.
And before we dig in, no, it’s not just you. In fact, I recently walked this road with my own business. (Read on for insider info about my rebrand!)
If your business has experienced growth or change of any kind, it’s only natural that your brand will need to shift to accommodate these changes.
It may be time for a rebrand if…
1. You’ve outgrown the vision that started your business
When you started your business, you had a vision that got you through the first stages of growth, but your business is in a new season now. The original brand and strategy you used to launch your business don’t reflect your growth/where you are now, and you need a brand that does.
If your brand doesn’t represent who you are anymore, it’s time to consider a fresh start.
Try thinking of it this way: your business began as a tiny seed that you planted, and as you’ve faithfully tended the garden over time, the small seed has grown into a beautiful tree. Your business looks and functions differently now than it did when you started it. And like the tree, some branches need reshaping for steady, healthy growth.
As your business has evolved, you’ve likely gained new clarity about your brand mission and purpose through experience. Sometimes it takes time and actually running a business to flesh out a mission and purpose that you can really build a lasting brand on, and that’s okay.
We’ve helped multiple clients in this position, one being Naomi, founder of Evergreen Bride. Evergreen Bride began as a business that sold dried florals, but as time went on, Naomi understood that Evergreen Bride’s deeper purpose was to inspire lasting confidence in her brides by creating an empowering experience. Seeking to build not just a brand but an experience that surrounded her brides with high-end, elegant, and deeply intentional care, Naomi reached out to see if we could help her craft the brand of her dreams. Through a brand strategy intensive and subsequent design, we helped her create a brand and strategy that conveyed the intentional care and purpose behind Evergreen Bride. For more information, read our case study of the project here.
2. Your business has grown in size
Maybe your business has grown, literally. When you started, it was just you with big dreams, running things out of the comfort of your own home. But now, you’re bringing in employees to help with the heavy lifting and you need a more professional identity. Additionally, you’ve found that expansion has exposed weak points in your brand strategy or elements you hadn’t accounted for. Don’t worry though, this is normal! It’s impossible to plan for every outcome before it happens, especially when you’re starting out. Getting a good brand identity and strategy in place can help you anticipate and adapt to changes as your business grows, as well as help you know when it’s time to change your approach.
So how do you know it’s time for something more? Let’s take a look at a practical example: When you started your business, let’s say you had a handful of followers across your social media platforms. Now that you’ve grown, you have hundreds or thousands of followers that are viewing your posts and stories daily. Your blood, sweat, and tears, plus a homegrown logo and a handful of brand colors may have worked to get your business this far, but in order to successfully expand your business by creating engaging content for a growing audience, you will need a brand strategy (which includes a visual identity, compelling brand voice, brand purpose, and more) that can inform your decisions and be implemented everywhere your brand has a presence.
It’s possible that your current brand is holding you back. Your business has come a long way, but you will need to elevate your brand to compete with other players in your industry. You may have to part with some aspects of your current brand. Now is not the time to be overly sentimental. As Kenny Rogers would say, “You've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em.”
Your first brand served a purpose and you couldn’t have made it here without it. But now you’re ready to reinvest in your brand because you see that it is the most important asset in the future of your business.
3. Your brand isn’t speaking to your target audience in a valuable way anymore
Your brand is talking, but the audience you want isn’t listening. Sound familiar? It may be time for a brand refresh if your brand isn’t resonating with your target audience anymore.
It’s possible that what your brand is trying to communicate isn’t what you’re actually communicating.
Maybe you’re trying too hard to be relevant, and it’s coming across as out-of-touch. The way your audience thinks your brand should act based on what they’ve perceived isn’t lining up with what you’re presenting to them. The dissonance may be confusing the audience you have, or even attracting a completely different audience than the one you’re after. You want to show your target audience that you’re the right fit for their needs, and to do this, you will need to refresh and reposition your brand to attract that audience.
4. Your services have expanded and you need hierarchy within your brand
You’re starting to diversify your offerings and expand to new places. It’s fun and exciting territory for your business! But there’s a problem: your initial brand was indicative of your initial offerings, and you’re not sure how to organize your business within the existing brand. When your business expands into new territory, your brand gets more complex, especially when your new offerings are unrelated.
Whether your business is large or small, if you run a multidisciplinary company, you need to consider your corporate brand strategy. In order to bring balance to the force, you’ll need either a cohesive identity or separate identities for your different offerings. We’ve helped clients create a natural flow between their multiple businesses and offerings by “branding their house” around one main idea. If you’re looking for a strategic branding agency to partner with you in developing your corporate brand identity, schedule a free consultation to see if our team is a good fit for you.
Speaking from experience…
Needing a rebrand isn’t an uncommon problem to have. I walked this path recently with my husband’s and my coffee roasting business, Leatherback Roasters. We outgrew our starter brand identity in less than a year, and honestly, it was the result of good things happening in our business. I took it as a sign that we were on the right track!
When we launched, we needed a quick and basic brand to get us started, and even then I knew it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, but it was a start. At the time, we didn’t even know if our business would last, so we weren’t ready to invest heavily into a fleshed-out brand. Along the way, our business took on a life of its own as people interacted with it. We realized that our brand wasn’t fully communicating what it needed to, and our ideal audience wasn’t exactly who we were speaking to. Wanting to be taken seriously as a competitor in the saturated Orlando coffee scene, we knew we needed to make some changes.
One of those changes was our new roaster. When we made the choice to really invest in our business with a new roaster, I knew it was time to upgrade our brand as well (packaging, website, social media presence, merch, etc.) in order to maximize our efforts. As a result, we have continued to see unprecedented growth and unfolding opportunities. We have seen how a beautiful brand that reflects our values as a fair trade and organic specialty coffee roasting company makes it easier for our dream customers to get on board and share the love!
If you’re a small business owner wondering if it’s time to give your brand a facelift, here are a few additional things that helped us take the leap. We went from online-only to attending events as a vendor with a physical presence. Because of this, we needed to order physical signage and marketing materials. We also knew that more people would be interacting with our brand in person for the first time, so we didn’t want to invest in signage that we felt poorly communicated our brand, and we definitely didn’t want to have to turn around and buy new signage when we inevitably rebranded within the next year. Around the same time, we wanted to nail down more wholesale opportunities with established coffee shops and realized we would need to up our branding game to do so. In evaluating the intricacies of our situation, we asked ourselves: Do we feel that this brand really embodies who we are growing into? The answer was a clear no.
Because our business was expanding rapidly, we decided that we couldn’t afford to not rebrand.
Rebranding has truly been one of the best business choices we’ve made. We kept our name and same passion but adjusted the visual identity to better fit who we are. We got clear on our goals and incorporated that into how we present our brand to our audience. I’ll be the first to say it: sometimes you do have to start out with a starter brand, but you definitely don’t have to stay there.
If you’re considering taking the leap, we hope we’re the right team for you. To learn more about how we can help you get clarity on your rebranding needs, schedule a consultation today:
