As marketing people, we spend a lot of time explaining to people that their logo is not their brand, it’s part of it sure…but it is not the whole she-bang. When someone comes to us requesting a rebrand, 9 times out of 10 they just need to define their brand in the first place. There is no perfect definition for “brand.” Your brand is the feelings or values that represent your company. It’s why rebranding can be a bunch of different things. Here are some myths about what a rebrand will and won’t do for your company.
Myth 1: Doing a rebrand is all about our logo.
No. Your brand is so much more than your logo. Your logo is just a visual representation of your brand. For some rebrands, we might not even touch your logo. Repeat after us: your brand and your visual identity are two different things. Some people may update a logo without changing the brand identity at all. This, friends, is not a rebrand. It’s updating your visual identity. You essentially gave your logo a facelift. McDonald’s is a great example of this. Over the course of the past 40 years, the logo has remained virtually unchanged, aside from a few small updates.
Myth 2: We’re going to lose loyal customers.
Sometimes doing a rebrand will change your company’s name, sometimes it will change your company’s visual identity, and sometimes it changes the features associated with your brand. These changes can often be met with a bunch of pissed off or excited people, which is why it’s important to make sure you have data that supports making the decisions you make.
If you’re making a change that is going to be favorable to your target audience (and why would you make a change that wasn’t), you’re not going to lose loyal customers. Capital One’s cafés are a perfect example of a successful rebrand targeting millennials to get more involved in their finances. They made finances relatable, fun and human, all without alienating older audiences.
Myth 3: We’re going to lose the essence of who we are.
Our first response to this one is, “Do you really know who you are?” Most companies don’t take the time to build out their brand identity. It’s so important to know who you are, be able to define it, and have it documented so that everyone in the organization knows it as well as you do. This is why we’re so committed to our process and making sure that we create a messaging strategy with our clients before we implement anything. We take the time to know our clients’ business inside and out. That’s why we’ll ask a lot of questions you haven’t asked yourself. Sometimes we do all of this and then realize that a company should rebrand. Other times, we just need to make a brand where there was once only a logo.
We love doing strategy work and helping our clients define their brand better than they could before. We’d love to hear your brand story or help you tell yours. Connect with us, and we’ll get something scheduled today!
