Today we’re talking about the top 9 things that your business and directors should be considering before they embark on a brand refresh or a rebrand. These things are vitally important to make sure that you get the most out of the process and make sure that you’ve delivered the most brand value back to the organization or business that will last you the next 5 or 10 years.
Number 1
What is that critical pain point, that critical problem, that you’re trying to resolve?
Is the fact that you’re dating look worse than the competition? Is that that you lack internal clarity amongst the staff? Is that that your customers don’t know how to position you and understand your business? Is that your services are expanded but your brand and the story haven’t? So you’re not telling that story. Whatever that is make sure it’s clearly defined and then you can work towards resolving it.
Number 2
Is now the right time?
So many of our clients have a milestone celebration coming up, ten-year anniversary, 50 year anniversary – whatever it is – make sure you allow enough time beforehand to go through a reasonable process to make sure you can deliver the outcome that you want, resolve those problems. You want to do it once and you want to do it right.
Number 3
Are you financially prepared?
Most companies that we see haven’t done any brand work for five to ten years but you know budget and money has really been put aside for the work that needs to be done. So are you really financially to go through the cost of a rebrand process and also the hard cost of implementing that in terms of new signage, new printed materials, new uniforms, new websites, whatever it may be, to bring that brand to life once you’re done it. It’s as an important consideration and if you’re thinking down the track start putting money aside now so you’re prepared.
Number 4
Are all the key stakeholders/directors all aligned to what you’re trying to achieve?
Are they on board? Are they engaged with the process? If not, get them involved an understanding of why it’s an important process to go through what the benefits are and what the return on investment is going to be before you start. There’s nothing like having people through a process like this that are trying to undermine and negate it and you’ve got to fight against that and break down those barriers through a process that’s quite involved and intense as it is already. So make sure discuss it be open and honest and get aligned and get agreement with each other.
Number 5
How will you measure success on your return on investment?
There’s a whole myriad of factors you can go and measure in terms of sales, in terms of engagement with customers, in terms of sales leads, website visits, amount of store put traffic through stores, whatever it is make sure you understand it beforehand and you can measure it before and after a process to make sure you’ve got a valuable return on investment.
Number 6
How will this help our customers?
It’s all well and good thinking about what you want to achieve and the problems, but think about it also from the customers point of view. Is it going to make it clearer and give you a higher chance of those customers choosing your product and service over your competitors? So think about what the issues are that they’re facing, if you don’t understand maybe ask some questions, do some research into what they think.
Number 7
How will this help our staff?
This can come down to internal clarity and understanding of the business. How will we go through this process and make sure that the end of it that this process clarity among staff and this engagement, and a love for the business of brand has been increased. How can we how can we ensure that happens. Make sure that’s a consideration and a question that you’re asking any agency you’re looking at.
Number 8
Choose your agency wisely?
Assess them on the fact of costs for sure but you don’t want to choose the cheapest. You want to make sure that you’re choosing an agency that has got the capability to deliver upon a rebrand for your company. Brand we believe is your greatest asset so you want to make sure you invest in that and not choose the cheapest a person or agency who’s just gonna simply give you a logo.
You want to go and check their capability, what work are they done in the past, what results of that produced, speak to those previous clients and ask them you know about the process they went through how they understood your organization and was enjoyable.
Number 9
Who do you like?
You know this is a long six to twelve month process often and so you want to make sure that you’re choosing an agency and personnel and people that you’re actually gonna get along with. You know, if done right it can be a very fun, illuminating and engaging process but you want to make sure that over those six or 12 months you’re actually doing it with somebody that you enjoy. So make sure you choose wisely.
So those are our top nine tips about the key things you should be thinking about, discussing and getting agreement upon before you choose a personal agency to do your brand refresh. They’re really important. It’s a it’s a valuable process to any organization so you’ll want to make sure you choosing the right people and doing it right.
We hope this helps. Feel free to drop me a line and ask any questions. I’m more than happy to ask them for you. This has been Tim Dove from Re:brand.
