The what, when, and why of rebranding.

The visual representation of every business eventually becomes stale and requires an update. A rebrand is something that every business will have to face, but making sure a rebrand is done correctly and at the correct time is critical for the health of the business.
What is rebranding?
A rebrand is a change to the visual representation of your business. It takes your current brand positioning and shakes it up to a new, hopefully better, version.
A rebrand adjusts both the visual and messaging parts of your marketing plan. With the visual identity, a rebrand will require a new logo, color story, fonts, and tagline. With the marketing messaging, a rebrand could require new core values, key messaging, mission statement, and target audiences.
How often should you rebrand?
Different experts will say different things, but I recommend rebranding once a decade.
If you're branding too often, you lose trust and recognizability. If you wait a decade to rebrand, you don't have to worry about people wondering what is happening with your business. Generally, businesses pivot their goals and offerings once a decade which is an appropriate time to rebrand.
Why should you rebrand?
There are a variety of reasons why you should rebrand your business, but the following five items are the key times every business should think about a rebrand:
Your products and/or services have changed
You are struggling to stand out from the competition
Your visual identity is outdated
Over time your brand has become messy and overly complicated
You've had a merger, buyout, or new key staff members
What are the pros and cons of rebranding?
With every big change in your business, there are pros and cons and rebranding is no different. If done successfully, a rebrand can do wonders for your business, but if done at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons, it can tank it.
PROS
Gives you an opportunity to pivot your business
Rebranding is exciting! Generate internal and external excitement
Allows you to simplify and modernize your visual identity
CONS
You will lose recognizability and potential clients and/or followers
You can't undo a rebrand, so make sure your rebrand is done right
Rebrands are incredible expensive
In conclusion
Rebrands are exciting and sometimes necessary to give a business a new lease on life. But if done at the wrong time, a rebrand can be detrimental to the business.
Are you needing an update but are not committed to a full rebrand? That's ok! Give your current brand identity a facelift, select new like-colors, update your fonts, and use some new modern imagery.
If branding isn't your specialty make sure you reach out to a branding expert to help you take your business to the next level.
Keep STAKing,
Michelle Johnson
Owner/Founder STAK Marketing
Michelle Johnson is the owner, founder, and Chief Marketing Guru at STAK Marketing. Our passion at STAK Marketing is to create beautiful STAKs of marketing strategies that help small businesses grow and reach their goals. STAK Marketing's expertise ranges from SEO to branding, e-mail marketing to website design, PR to advertising, and much more - making STAK Marketing a one-stop-shop for all your small business marketing needs.