What a nightmare: I was thinking of blog ideas when into my head popped the phrase “Getting the brand back together”, a title so good that I simply had to write it down, but then, sitting here staring at it, I realised this now meant I would have to write a guide on how to rebrand, which nobody asked for and which is probably going to be a total dud.
We know how rebrands work, we do them often, and actually, they’re pretty enjoyable. But documenting the process in a blog? Maaaaaan. Should’ve been a gardener. Ah well, I’ve made my bed, might as well sleep in it. Oh, I bet you’ll all be sleeping long before this blog is through.
Step 1: Decide whether to rebrand
There’s hope for us yet! It’s not too late for you to decide that actually, maybe a rebrand isn’t what’s needed at this time. After all, it’s a bit of an investment, and change isn’t always a good thing.
It’s worth asking yourself, why are we doing this? Is it because a competitor of yours recently rebranded? Are you a new manager on the block and you want to make your mark? Did you see the Jaguar rebrand and think, “Well damn, we can’t do any worse than that!’
As the kids say – valid. But these are probably not the best reasons to rebrand. A better reason is if your brand is old-fashioned, or if your company is headed in a new direction, or something like that. So, your heart’s set on this? Very well, we shall proceed.
Step 2: Audit your brand
If ever there was a word that manages to suck the fun out of literally everything, that word is surely ‘audit’. Real stinker of a noun (and even stinkierer…er? of a verb). Audit? More like violation! With that in mind, let’s audit your brand.
Basically you want to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your current brand, because there are almost certainly elements of it you would like to keep, and most certainly elements of it you would like to cast into the fiery chasm of Mount Doom.
Before you go walking into Mordor, it’s best to get a wide range of opinions on your brand. Speak to employees, customers, stakeholders, and that one guy you always pass on the street who never speaks but always smiles – that person knows things.
See, Lord Sauron never asked any of his orcs for their opinion on rebranding as a Great Eye, and look where that got him. Dark Lords tend to lack the level of self-reflection and willingness to listen to others that is required for a successful rebrand. But as one of the good guys, you’re now ready for the next step.
Step 3: Create your brand strategy
The previous two steps were important but at the same time it felt a bit like we were procrastinating. Now it’s time to begin the rebrand in earnest… by writing a strategy document! Isn’t this great!
The easy mode for putting this document together is to answer the following questions: What’s the purpose of the rebrand? What’s the vision? How are you positioning yourselves? What are the key characteristics of the business you want to bring to the surface? Who’s your target audience? How do you want to come across, both visually and verbally? Did you catch the game last night? What are the deliverables (i.e. new logo, new website, new sales brochure, etc etc)? And finally, what’s the timeline?
I think we’re getting somewhere now, which is a real shame, because I’m pretty sure you stopped reading a few paragraphs ago. My mistake was not promising there would be ice cream – you live and learn. Anyway, I’ll carry on, for some reason.
Step 4: Craft your verbal identity
Yeah so… words. Here is where you get the words to say the things you want to say and in a way that sounds like it will sound good to the people reading who are or might be interested in the super stuff you’re selling. Elevate your business!
It’s very important to get this part right, or you will end up with something like the above. Someone might say to you, “just use ChatGPT?”, but that would be a crazy suggestion because ChatGPT doesn’t even exist! And even if it did, it sure wouldn’t do a better job of describing your business than you.
Whoever’s in charge of copy, they don’t have to get it exactly right straight away, just as long as you have a grasp on where you’re headed in terms of voice, tone and general vibe. A good place to start is with the tagline and the elevator pitch. The rest can come later.
Step 5: Craft your visual identity
The graphically-inclined people have been waiting patiently in the wings, and now it’s their time to shine. Give ‘em the brand strategy document, give ‘em some of the copywriting you put together in this previous step, and let them go hamburgers on the new and improved visual identity of your business.
New logo? Darn straight. But that’s not all, we want to see a colour pallet, typography, imagery, graphic elements, everything. Play around, let the creativity shine, experiment with colour and form. Get jiggy with it. Nothing’s off the table (except the things which definitely are off the table, like using more than three primary colours – this is a business, not a Picasso painting)! Now we’re rebranding.
Step 6: Have a gander
What I should have mentioned in the last step is that whoever is designing your new brand should be documenting all the visual and verbal elements in something like a brand book. A better person than me would go back and edit the previous step so it includes mention of a brand book, but a better person I am not, so here we are.
Once the brand book is done, it’s time for a review. And will it be prim and perfect and ready to go? Absolutely not. Imperfections at this stage are to be expected. There may be something major you want to change, for example you might wish to “make it pop”, but assuming you laid out your goals and visions clearly in the planning stage, there should only be minor tweaks left to be made at this stage.
Step 7: Update all brand touch points
Once your verbal and visual identity is set in stone, it’s time to update all your brand touchpoints like website, social media, physical spaces, packaging, and sales collateral accordingly.
I say that like it’s an easy thing, but truth be told, this is probably the most time-consuming part of a rebrand. When you think about it, updating brand touchpoints is probably something like 80% of the whole process, which would mean we’ve committed 6 steps out of 8 to a meagre 20% of the guide. What a shambles! Is this bloggy dysmorphia?
Step 8: Oh thank heavens it’s finally over
Yes indeedy we’ve made it to the end. All there is left to do is launch your rebrand. You might consider doing an internal launch first, i.e. announcing it to employees and stakeholders with perhaps an explanation of why you’ve made the change. Hopefully they like it… if not, sack ‘em! (no wait, don’t do that, it’s just a brand!)
In any case, now it’s time for the big reveal, the public launch, which you will most likely do via social media. Again, this launch could involve an explanation of why you’ve made the change, but more importantly you should communicate how the ‘new you’ will benefit your customers. And just like that, you have rebranded!
There could easily be another step which is about tracking and measuring success. That’s super important, no doubt about it, but hell’s bells, you’ve worked hard enough on this rebrand and deserve to put your feet up for a while. Just keep an eye out for feedback and don’t be afraid to make adjustments to your brand here and there.
We did it, we got the brand back together. But I suppose the thing about brands is that they are never truly finished, unlike this blog, which is.