Some companies do rebranding because their visual brand identity became outdated or their new products just don’t fit within an old one. Others just want to attract attention and stand out among competitors. Despite the reason, when doing rebranding you have to stick some common sense rules, which will help you not to fall into the pit of brands which failed and sit comfortably among those which succeeded.

1. Don’t rebrand for the sake of rebranding

Management of some companies thinks that “slight” rebranding can be a real sales booster. By “slight” they mean change of the company’s logo, package design, general color scheme, etc. In the majority of cases, such attempts fail drastically. Imagine a Lego castle that is built according to the manual. It’s fancy, good looking and properly shaped. Then, suddenly someone decides to “improve” it with Lego Technic pieces. How would it look? Inconsistent at least. That’s what happens when you change some parts of a brand’s identity – the whole image becomes distorted. Proper rebranding is global, not selective.

2. Play with and test colors

It’s of a paramount importance for brands to work on logo and packaging colors that ensure differentiation from entrenched competitors (if the competition all uses blue, you'll stand out by using purple). The importance of colors for branding is hard to overestimate, but it doesn’t mean that your customers will rush into your shops if you paint your logo in yellow and black. Colors are very tricky and what can be relevant for the brand of vacuum cleaners can be completely ineffective for a brand of baby food. That’s why colors require research. Always test how the chosen color patterns will influence your target audience. Eye-tracking and emotions measurement will allow you to get maximum of data out of such tests.

3. Know your target audience

The best way to get acquainted with your target audience is through the dialogue and research. You can get a lot of information about your consumers via surveys, feedback exchange in social media, but with the help of research, you can get a lot more. It’s always good to know what people say about your brand, but it’s much better to know what they really think and how they feel about it. EEG, eye-tracking, implicit priming tests and other neuromarketing tools are very helpful in this regard. They allow to receive and analyze data about unconscious and uncontrolled reactions of the human brain to the products and elements (logos, colors, design patterns, etc.) of your brand. They are smart spying tools, which on the one hand help you attract more customers and on the other better meet their needs.

4. Go and get a story (in case you still don’t have one)

Your brand must have an interesting story to be attractive to customers. If you don’t have something which can fascinate a specific audience in the history of the brand or company then just invent it. Even if you didn’t have a story from the very beginning, you might have acquired one in course of your company’s development and rebranding is a great opportunity to highlight it. When thinking about your brand and its makeover, always think about what attracts you in other people. It will help you create a good story and tell it properly.

Aforementioned tips are not something new, but still very relevant, even though companies often forget to use them when doing a rebranding. Don’t forget to present a consistent story rendered in proper colors to your target audience and it will make your rebranding done right. 

Planning rebranding or just want to test your new logo? Request a demo and try our tools.