A brave new re-brand
We’ve talked about this before, but it’s really worth mentioning again: yes, your brand is your baby, but it’s not a crime to update it every now and then. Just like children grow up, or amoebas evolve into multi-cell organisms, or cheese becomes tastier, time does change things. Let go of the brilliant logo your son-in-law did for you back in 1998 while listening to the Spice Girls’ “Wannabe” because it was just that good. The logo, not the song. Well, both, really. Because if you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends, you know?
It’s easy to point to the classic examples of branding revamps over time – Coca Cola, Volkswagen, Ford, MasterCard, Qantas – they all live long and prosper and benefit from the occassional update every few years. So can you. But let’s go a little deeper than that.
Vivant is putting a lot of effort into making 2017 the year of revitalisation for our clients. For this reason, we’d love to give you a bit more insight into what exactly rebranding does and what it involves.
- It’s a good thing. Rebranding – whether dramatically or just as a minor tweak – keeps your brand modern, relevant and appealing to your target client base. All major brands update their look and feel periodically to prevent their products or services from becoming run-of-the-mill. Every few years, approach a branding agency to see what can be tweaked.
- … Which brings us to the second point: It doesn’t have to be major. Rebranding does not have to be drastic at all. In fact, most of the time, logos and corporate colour schemes and style guides are updated only subtly, because even small shifts in direction can make major differences in aligning your goals with those of your clients.
- Ask to see how it will look in the real world. We find that it’s tremendously helpful when you can see a simulation of how your rebranding will look, for example, on a branded pen, on a signboard, or on a new business card. Ask your designer to superimpose the proposed new branding onto images of likely real-world scenarios. At Vivant, it’s a standard service we offer with every corporate identity design.
- You’ll get insight into the current state of things. Because design trends evolve all the time, approaching an agency to do a rebranding exercise with you will give you a glimpse of what other businesses like yours are doing, how they’re staying ahead and appealing to their audiences. It’s a wealth of knowledge you can use to improve your own approach to modern business.
- Keep an open mind. We’ve seen it countless times before: business owners are reluctant to hand over the reins every once in a while and take that leap of faith. But in reality, if you don’t like your proposed rebranding, you don’t even have to use it! But that’s something we’ve never encountered. Truly: each and every company that has asked us to refresh their branding has ended up accepting the designs enthusiastically.
Give it a go. If you’ve had the same corporate identity for some time, it really can only do you a lot of good to have it looked at and perhaps re-evaluated. You might surprise even yourself.
