Simplify and streamline your rebrand by avoiding these time-wasters

My husband, Michael, and I were recently meeting with a prospective client team about rebranding their organization. We began by asking them, “So, have you ever gone through a rebranding process?”

One of the clients responded, “Yes—and it was awful.”

Michael, being a direct and curious individual, asked him why that was the case. The client’s response was simple:
“It took too much time.”

While rebranding a multi-million-dollar organization certainly could be a long and involved process, this client’s business was of a scale that their rebrand should have been much simpler for all involved. Without denying that the amount of time spent on a rebrand is often relative to the scale of the business, when I hear about a rebrand taking too long, I can often point to a few things that lead to long delays.

As a business owner, you know that your brand is one of the most important aspects of your business. It's the face of your company, and it's what people think of when they hear your business name. That's why rebranding can be such a daunting task (or painful, like this prospective client said). Not only is it a big investment, but it can also be a time-consuming process. However, it’s easy to avoid some of the most common time-wasters that delay or derail a rebrand, once you know how to spot them.

Let’s discover how you can simplify and streamline your rebranding process by avoiding some common branding time-wasting traps.

Lack of clarity on your brand message

One of the most common time-wasters during a rebrand is the lack of clarity on your brand message. Without a clear understanding of what your brand stands for, it's impossible to rebrand successfully.

Without a clear understanding of what your brand stands for, it's impossible to rebrand successfully.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen this happen when a client comes to us for a rebrand: often, their first brand was poorly thought-through or was simply a reflection of an aesthetic taste, rather than a reflection of their brand’s message. Now, they’re coming to us to re-do their original branding—starting from a place of clarifying strategy first.

Take the time to define your brand values, mission statement, and positioning first before you tackle aesthetics. Once you have a clear understanding of your brand message, you can ensure that all aspects of your rebrand align with your core values and brand identity.

If you don’t know what your company’s vision or mission is, take a step back and look at the bigger picture of why you sell your product or service. What is this thing trying to solve in this world and how are you going to go about solving that problem differently than everyone else? Start there and soon you’ll be able to properly communicate that brand vision and mission to someone else, thus reducing the amount of time spent in engaging a rebrand process.

Overthinking design decisions

Design is an important part of your brand, but it's easy to get caught up in the details and overthink every decision. From color choices to font styles, there are countless design decisions to be made during a rebrand. But it's important to remember that design decisions should be made with your brand message and target audience in mind. Don't waste time overthinking every small design decision. Instead, focus on the bigger picture and ensure that all design decisions align with your brand message.

Focus on the bigger picture and ensure that all design decisions align with your brand message.

In my early days as a freelance graphic designer, I had several logo design projects that went awry because of what I now call “Frankensteining.” I designed several logo concepts based on aesthetics only (yes, this was before I knew better than to break my rule above!). Naturally what resulted was my clients picking and choosing elements from each logo and “Frankensteining” a new design. Now, the combining of design elements wasn’t the problem. The real problem arose when we lost sight of the forest for the trees by endlessly revising and revising instead of stopping to ask: “Does this design reflect my brand’s message?”.

Now, our design process begins with a strategy that outlines the brand’s message and core identity based on its values, mission, and unique positioning statement. We then set the creative direction of the brand’s design so that we and our clients are aligned on the look and feel of their brand’s visual identity. From there, the design process is actually quite simple and straightforward, intentionally reducing the amount of time spent creating multiple needless revisions and, thus, saving time for everyone involved.

Not having a clear scope of work

When most business owners think of branding, they think of their logo, color palette, and fonts. So when they begin the rebranding process, they realize there’s so much more involved than that.

You may think that once your logo is updated, you’re all set: but what about your website? Your business cards? Your packaging? Storefront signage, client welcome gifts? A thorough rebrand often involves much more than just redesigning your logo.

Increasing the scope of work during a rebrand can draw out the process: which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if you’ve been expecting a sparkling new logo within a matter of weeks without considering the places where that new logo will live, you may be setting yourself up for missed expectations. 

On the flip side, not knowing what branding you need updated (your website, packaging, etc.) before beginning the process can lead to a lot of time wasted part of the way through as you decide what you can or can’t afford, do or don’t need updated, and how soon. It will save you—and your design team—time and money to consult with them up front about what all should be updated, and how soon.

If you’re unsure of what to include in your rebrand, consider looking for a brand design package that includes a predetermined scope of work.

If you’re unsure of what to include in your rebrand, consider looking for a brand design package that includes a predetermined scope of work. Our studio carefully creates each of our packaged brand design and brand strategy offerings based on what most clients typically need, taking the guesswork out of knowing what is most important to include in your rebrand.

Not involving your team in the process

Your team is an important part of your business, and they should be involved in the rebranding process. Overlooking important voices in your rebrand can lead to miscommunications and wasted time. Make sure that everyone involved in the rebrand understands their roles and responsibilities, and encourage open communication and collaboration throughout the process.

Make sure that everyone involved in the rebrand understands their roles and responsibilities, and encourage open communication and collaboration throughout the process.

I help my clients avoid this issue during rebrands by defining early on who is the person responsible or with the final say in the rebrand, and ensuring that if this describes multiple people, they are all present in the process. Often agreeing by committee works out fine, but at the end of the day, we’ve found that discord can happen if everyone has their own opinion. In this case, it’s best to involve all players with your brand design team, rather than consulting their feedback separately (more on this below), since your designer should be experienced in navigating multiple opinions and keeping the project on track (remember what we learned above about losing the forest for the trees?).

If your multi-personalitied team isn’t able to unify around the overall brand strategy and message of your rebrand, one option is to delegate one individual to be the chief decision maker. This person will be responsible for ensuring that every opinion is taken into consideration within the brand message your rebrand is trying to communicate. This will save time during the rebranding process as only one person is gathering and filtering feedback. Which leads us to our last point….

Getting bogged down in feedback

Feedback is an important part of the rebranding process, but it's easy to get bogged down in too much feedback—especially from outside voices. Too many opinions can lead to confusion and wasted time. Make sure that you have a clear process for gathering and incorporating feedback only from those who serve as important stakeholders of the brand.

Too many opinions can lead to confusion and wasted time.

One of our studio policies is to request that our clients limit the amount of outside opinions they gather on the designs. Because so much of the brand’s strategy is developed before the design, and the design is created upon this foundation, often these individuals are not involved in the strategy process and so they are seeing the designs isolated from the brand’s overall message and strategic positioning. This has led to delays in the rebranding process for our clients, and often we end up right back where we started—at the cost of additional time and expense—before these outside voices began to influence the brand design.

If additional outside feedback is that significant, you may want to stop the rebranding process and take a few steps back. Is the need for additional input coming from a lack of clarity around your brand’s vision or mission? Do you feel a lack of trust in your designer based on the work they’ve done for you so far? Should these individuals be formally brought into the rebranding process so they can have a clear seat at the table and can be provided the necessary context to understand the purpose and goals of the rebrand based on your brand strategy? When you’re beginning a rebranding project, identifying the players in the process, their specific roles, and having a proactive plan to navigate feedback will ensure your rebrand is simplified and streamlined.

Rebranding can be a time-consuming process, but it can at the same time be simple and streamlined. By avoiding these common time-wasters, you can keep your rebrand on track, making the most of your time and resources. Remember to stay focused on your brand message, clearly define how you’ll involve the most important voices, and stick to your project plan. We hope your rebrand is efficient, smooth, and a simply wonderful experience with these tips to guide the way!

If you’re looking to save time and simplify your upcoming rebrand, consider a thoughtfully-curated brand design or brand strategy package offering. We’d love to offer our help during this exciting time in your business with one of our design packages or semi-custom branding kits. View our package offerings or schedule a complimentary consultation call to get started today.