So, You Want to Do a Rebrand?

By: abbeyharrison Thursday April 1, 2021 comments Tags: Branding, Brand Standards, Personality, Rebrand

 

We see you, small biz owner. It’s been a long year, hasn’t it? 

 

Much has changed over the last twelve months and you may feel a bit like a caterpillar ready to finally transform into a butterfly. As you emerge back into the world, have you considered rebranding your business?

 

Doing a business rebrand can be quite effective and, it’s possible, that now is the perfect time to undergo the rebranding process. However, it’s important to think long and hard about WHY you want to take your business through a rebrand. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

 

• What do your clients or customers want from your business?
• What feels ‘stale’ about your current brand?
• What does it NOT represent about what you do and who you are?
• What do you have to lose if you rebrand?
• What problem will rebranding solve for your biz?

 

Now that we have that sorted out, I have a couple more things for you to consider before taking the rebranding plunge.

 

First, You Must Understand Branding

 

For the love of everything branding, the first rule of branding is that YOUR BRAND IS NOT YOUR LOGO! If you learn anything from me this year, please, when you think of your brand stop connecting it to your logo, your website, your colors, and your fonts. This is such a common misconception about branding and it does small business owners no favors at all.

 

Yes, it’s important to like your stuff, but it’s even MORE important that your audience and clients CONNECT with it. Color psychology is proven science. So, while you may love, love, love the color orange - how does your audience feel when they see your orange website, your orange logo, and your orange marketing materials? If you are a coach that specializes in helping people manage their anxiety, the energetic and enthusiastic shades of orange are really not what you want. Blue makes people feel calm and peaceful, even if it isn’t your favorite color.

 

Think of it like this – You can’t think of your brand as a wall with a couple of colors and a picture (because how the hell do you connect with a wall?). Think of your brand as a live person that you connect with instantly. You know… when you’re going to your 500th coffee networking date that week and you hope and pray that the person you meet has an actual personality? How do you want THAT person to feel when they see and engage with you and your brand?

 

The person with the real power in the branding relationship isn’t you, it’s that person. And your brand needs to be designed with them in mind.

 

Second, You Need to Understand Your Audience

 

This is the part where we make you pick a target audience. Yes, I understand it’s hard to pick just one. I also get that it sometimes feels silly to make up a group of invisible people that you want to be your customers. However, not knowing who you are talking to makes your marketing not resonate with anyone at all. And you want your messaging to be sticky, right? Sticky messaging and great branding is how you get remembered!

 

Still stuck when it comes to picking an audience? Let’s do a short exercise:

 

• Where does your brand shop?
• Which Enneagram would your brand be?
• What kind of car does your brand drive?
• What is your brand’s most endearing personality trait?

 

Now, ask yourself, does your current brand actually reflect these answers?

 

If after reading this article, you feel a need to go back to the drawing board and rebrand your business from the bottom up - I’d say it’s definitely time for a good rebranding! 

 

If Assist for the Win can help you take action and move forward with your brand, we’d be happy to partner with you this year.