How to Ensure Success When Rebranding Your Business
Written by Team 365 finance
Branding is a lot more than picking out fonts and choosing the perfect shade for your logo. It’s the visual identity of your brand that should convey your message to customers, investors, employees and other stakeholders.
Your brand should act as a visual representation of who you are and what you do. If your brand doesn’t currently do this, it may be time for a rebrand to find your new identity.
Rebranding your entire business is a lot more than a logo change, a new name, and a website redesign. You’re essentially creating a whole new brand and brand identity.
If you’re planning a rebranding effort for your business, we’re here to help. This article will cover the importance of branding, when it’s time for a rebrand and 5 mistakes you should avoid at all costs.
How Important is Branding for SMEs?
It takes just 7 seconds to make a first impression on customers, which isn’t much time to show who you are, what you do, and why people should make a purchase. These 7 seconds are all about providing something interesting and relevant enough to make someone want to stick around.
Although a customer probably won’t understand your brand completely at first glance, in fact, it usually takes 5 to 7 impressions to build brand awareness, they should have a good idea of who you are. This impression is largely going to come from your logo, brand name, font, colours and tagline.
A logo redesign is an important start to your rebranding checklist, 50% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands with recognisable logos. Look at brands like Nike, Apple, McDonalds etc. – all of these brands have such strong logos they don’t even need to include their names. Logos are also the most identifiable brand recognition symbol, according to 75% of consumers, so if you can get this right, the rest of your brand should come easily.
When picking out your branding, be as authentic as you can. 88% of consumers say they are more likely to support a brand if they are authentic, so think about your values, mission, and USPs and make sure they are somehow incorporated into your rebrand. Even something as simple as having a signature colour could boost brand recognition by 80%.
Plus, it’s all about being consistent. 68% of brands consider brand consistency as a major contributor to a growth in revenue, this means having strict brand guidelines that are used throughout all online and offline materials. Using different fonts, logos, or even tone of voice across platforms can confuse your customers, impact brand recognition, and make you lose that all-important authenticity.
Does Your Business Need To Rebrand?
If you’re an SME with limited resources, we would encourage you to think about whether a rebrand is a necessity for business growth. Here are a few reasons why significant rebranding may be the best thing for your business.
- You don’t understand what your brand identity is
- Your brand identity is too broad and complicated
- You don’t think your business stands out from the competition
- Customers have given feedback that they don’t connect with your branding
- You’re entering a new market
- You want to reach a new audience of customers
- You’re significantly changing your product offering or business goals
- You’re not attracting a high level of talent
These reasons alone may not be enough to warrant a complete overhaul of your brand image but may start to send signals that improvements need to be made.
5 Costly Rebranding Examples (and How to Avoid Them)
The rebranding process can be long and expensive. When you’re a large organisation with plenty of cash, the cost of a rebranding project may seem like a drop in the ocean, but this isn’t the case for small businesses where every penny counts.
Here are some common mistakes businesses make with their rebranding strategies, and how you can avoid them.
1. Not Having A Clear Plan And Purpose
If you’re not sure why you are rebranding, your customers probably won’t understand the change either.
Before you even get in touch with design agencies, think about why rebranding is important for your business and what you hope it will achieve; higher sales, improved brand recognition, to help you stay relevant in a fast-moving industry, or just to stay ahead of the curve?
It’s also impossible to evaluate rebranding success if you don’t know what you want to achieve.
2. Not Setting A Budget
Rebranding can be expensive, especially if you work with a professional design agency. Not only will they be creating new assets for your brand, but will redefine how you present yourself to the world – it’s a bold move to make, and it doesn’t come cheap.
Setting a budget early on is important as it will help guide your initial meetings with the creative team and will dictate the scope of your rebrand.
The cost will depend on your business, but some agencies suggest that a basic rebrand could cost as little as £1,000, with a full rebrand costing anywhere up to £50,000+. Other agencies also say that the average B2B rebrand accounts for 5% of the business’s overall marketing spend.
If the cost of rebranding worries you, consider revenue-based financing to help fund your project, which can then be paid back as your customers pay you.
3. Rushing The Process
Creating a new brand identity that will resonate with your audience doesn’t happen overnight, in fact, the rebranding journey can take a minimum of 8 months to complete.
Over the 8 months, your creative team will need to assess your current situation, define your new brand, create new assets, pilot your brand to gauge feedback and then launch the final product. After the launch, your creative team will then need to monitor the reception of the new brand and improve any areas as needed.
4. Making Drastic Or Confusing Changes
Unless you are completely overhauling the core of your company’s operations, avoid making large-scale, drastic changes that could alienate or confuse existing customers that you hope remain loyal. If you do want to change everything, it may be worth making small changes first and testing the reception.
Just because you are rebranding, doesn’t mean that you have to change every element of your business’ image. Making more changes than necessary not only costs you more time and money but can also create some unexpected negatives.
5. Not Communicating The New Identity To Your Customers
Although we would like to think that our brand is an important part of our customer’s daily lives, it’s not always the case. If you don’t communicate changes through a rebrand marketing campaign, you may leave your customers feeling confused if they visit your website one day to find that everything has changed.
A simple newsletter to your email list, social media posts, or a press release to your B2B stakeholders can help to keep everyone informed of your rebranded business and continue your brand story while ensuring customer loyalty.
What We Learnt From our Rebranding Campaign
In November 2023, we went through our own rebranding campaign. We updated our branding and corporate website with a whole new look and feel while improving the UI and UX.
Although we understand the brand better than anyone else, one of the most important things we learnt was to trust the experts. In our case, it was global design studio, Athlon.
They took our vision and ideas and turned them into something that truly aligned with our values and product offerings. Through a collaborative approach, they refreshed our image and helped us position ourselves as an innovative Fintech leader.
Key Takeaways for Successful Rebranding
Rebranding your business is a big decision, but by following these tips and taking some inspiration from examples of successful rebranding, you should be able to create a brand that truly speaks to your business and values.
At 365 finance, we can offer revenue-based funding of £10,000 to £400,000 in capital, so your business can thrive all year round. Apply for funding today without affecting your credit score. Or speak to our team to find out how we can help your business. To find out more, head to our website.