Why should you rebrand?

One of the questions we’re asked most frequently is “Why should you rebrand?”. The simple answer is, the time to consider a rebrand is when your organisation wants to achieve a different outcome. Something better. Something new. Possibly something it hasn’t achieved before. This could include launching a new product, trying to break into a new market, growing the size of your organisation, or just reaching a higher volume of sales. To achieve this different / better / new goal you may need to change. You may need to rebrand.

It’s important recognise that, if you want to achieve a different outcome, you are going to need your target audience to do something different too. You will need them to change their behaviour in some way. The greater the change you’re asking of your target audience, the greater the change you may need to make too.

To understand what scale of change might be necessary, and the question “why should you rebrand?”, you need to consider two factors: The existing relationship you have with your target audience and the scale of the change you are asking them to make.

So let’s take a look at your existing audience, an audience who are familiar with what you do and the way you do it, and have a clear expectation about what you do and the way you do it. If what you need to do, in order to achieve your goal, is similar to what you already do, your audience will probably be very comfortable with that change. You’re not challenging their expectation.

But what happens if the changes you need to make are more of a challenge to your audience’s perception? Maybe a new product that is very different from what you’ve produced before. Or a new way of delivering your service. In a situation like this your audience can become confused – you look the same, you sound the same, but something’s different. There is something unfamiliar about you. You’re challenging their expectation.

In this situation you can’t change one thing. That’s inconsistent. You need to change everything. You need to create a new “normal”. You need to rebrand.

Now with a new audience you face a different challenge. They don’t know anything about you. They have no expectation, so you need to create one. If this new audience are similar to your existing audience, it’s quite likely that your existing brand will be just as effective with them. There is probably little need to change.

But if the new audience you want to target doesn’t share the same characteristics as your existing audience – if they’re different – then maybe you’ll need to be different too. It might be time to rebrand.

So, why should you rebrand? There is no simple answer, but if you want to ACHIEVE something new or different, then maybe you will need to DO something new or different. Maybe you will need to rebrand.

To talk about the right time to rebrand your organisation, drop Jonathan an email.

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