If your business’ enquiries and sales have begun to stagnate, or perhaps your messaging has gotten a bit bland and predictable, it’s only natural to consider a rebrand.
Whether you’re thinking of going for a complete overhaul or just want to tidy things up around the edges, a rebrand is a great way of breathing new life into your business.
what is a rebrand?
But firstly, to understand what a rebrand is, you need to understand what a brand is. You can find a hundred different definitions of Google, but we think marketing strategist website SuccessWise sums it up pretty nicely:
“A brand is the personality of a company. It’s the first thing consumers think of, or feel, when they see a company’s logo or product or hear their name. In fact, you can use the word ‘personality’ as a direct substitute for ‘brand’ to instantly clarify its meaning.”
So, if you think of your business as a person and your brand as its personality, what specific attributes would make up its personality? Everything from its name, what it wears, how it presents itself, how it communicates with others, what it stands for and whom it associates with.
As no two businesses are the same, no two brands will deliver the same experience. Gucci and Lowes both sell clothes but that’s where their similarities end – their messaging, target audience and personality are completely different.
Following countless hours, late nights and early starts from our talented team of web developers, graphic designers and copywriters, Orion Creative were proud to recently celebrate our 25th birthday by showcasing our very own fresh new rebrand.
While there are many different ways to rebrand and there’s no one size fits all, ours involved a complete overhaul of our website, as well as rethinking and revamping our quotes, email templates, brochures and business cards.
In this article, we’re going to be taking a look at the five top signs it’s time for your business to also consider rebranding and also the benefits a rebrand will provide.
1. Your brand has a dated look and feel
Just because you still own all your favourite clothes from ten years ago doesn’t mean you should wear them. Fashions are often representative of their era and as time passes, fashions change. The same goes for your branding.
Businesses that look outdated and fail to convey a progressive message will more often than not be overlooked by potential customers who will instead opt for modernised brands with up-to-date messaging.
Horizon Homes got in touch with Orion requesting a total rebrand to ensure the quality of their digital presence and marketing collateral matched that of their outstanding builds. The rebrand involved developing a new logo, building a new website, creating signage for their design studios and ensuring quality and consistency in their marketing collateral, such as their business cards, letterheads, presentation folders and banner meshes.
2. Your business doesn’t acknowledge the digital age
There are many businesses that have a timeless look and feel that aren’t subject to the previous point – think brands such as Lego, Cadbury and Coca-Cola. Many brands, however, were created when we lived in a predominately print world and have failed to ‘digitise’, so to speak.
Digitalisation has had a huge impact on how businesses can market themselves and grow their brand identity, but it’s also added another layer of complexity to traditional brand guidelines.
Businesses now have to worry about websites, social media accounts, email marketing, video content and engaging digital content, with those that choose to go the more traditional route often ending up left behind.
3. Your website looks shabby or doesn’t function properly
A business’ website is one of the first touch points potential customers come into contact with. And while a good website doesn’t make a business, a poorly-designed or functioning website can certainly break one.
To get an idea whether or not your website is performing to high standards, ask yourself if it successfully completes these four tasks:
- Obtains traffic directly from search engines
- Informs potential customers about your products or services
- Encourages potential customers to buy from you or contact you
- Functions across a range of devices including computers, phones and tablets
If your website is failing to achieve one or more of these tasks, you need to take action. It mightn’t require you to build a whole new website, but making some small targeted changes is sometimes all it takes to get your website and your brand feeling brand new again.
We took it upon ourselves to design and develop a fully-rebranded website from the ground up to increase participation and create a sense of excitement for this year’s Cross Country Challenge. The end result was a responsive website accessible from any type of device with visitors able to register, view courses, form teams and find out other information about the event while on the go, generating a 40% increase in registrations.
4. Your marketing message is no longer resonating
Your business could be selling the best product in the entire world, but this will count for nothing if your marketing message isn’t resonating with your target audience. In fact, at Orion we deal with businesses experiencing this problem every single day.
They’re doing all the right things – they have an amazing product, they post regularly on social media, they experiment with paid social advertisements and they send regular EDMs to their customer base – but people have simply stopped buying what they’re selling.
If your marketing and advertising efforts seem to be falling on deaf ears, a brand refresh might be exactly what you need to breathe some life back into your business.
5. You’re struggling to build brand loyalty
Brand loyalty is a game changer and something that every business aims to win from their customers. If your customers aren’t loyal to your brand, however, it’s likely because you aren’t connecting with them in the right way.
It’s no secret that people buy from brands they love and trust, and sometimes all it takes is a simple brand refresh to hook your customers in for the long haul.
When thinking of a business with extremely high levels of brand loyalty, it’s hard to look past Apple. Millions of people across the globe will buy a brand new Apple phone every year, even it doesn’t do a great deal more than their previous model.
Why? Because people love their cool products, the shopping experience, the smell of the packaging and the way using a new piece of technology makes them feel.
Establishing brand loyalty is also a lot cheaper in the long run; experts estimate that it costs between 5-10 times more to acquire new customers than it does to retain existing ones.
looking to rebrand? Orion can help
Want to open up your brand to a broader customer base? Do you want to give your brand a modernised look and feel? Looking for ways to help your brand stand out from competition?
Through solid strategies and seamless execution, Orion Creative have rebranded hundreds of businesses just like yours. Rebranding with Orion means you’ll keep things fresh and exciting for your current customer base, while potentially attracting new customers with your rockin’ new brand.
Get in touch with us today to see how we can help – a modern, eye-catching new brand could only be a few short weeks away.
