Let’s quickly take a trip down memory lane: Great Branding Matters.

From making you more memorable to inspiring communities and improving employee retention (among many other benefits) - when done right, great branding delivers results.

Why?

Because your brand’s identity is the essence of your who you are.

It sets you apart from your competition and injects confidence in your business and your people.

Great branding allows you to humanize your business, creating a deeper connection with your audience.

They hear you, they see you, and they relate to you – that ties your entire narrative together.

If that’s not happening with your brand identity, it might be time for a change.

Rebrand vs. refresh: What’s the difference?

Rebranding is when you completely change the look and feel of your identity. Refreshing is when you adjust certain elements of the existing design or you introduce new elements to the existing design to further develop its identity.

It’s important to note that the process of rebranding or refreshing is not without risk.

Take for example the ultimate rebrand fail from Tropicana® in 2009.

With new typography and imagery, customers used to the original branding anchored by an image of an orange with a straw, lost the brand among the generic and lesser-known brands.

Sales plummeted 20% nearly overnight.

Fast to react, Tropicana reverted to the original branding and managed to salvage the brand, but not before the damage was done.

The moral of the story is that rebrands or refreshes need to be thoughtful and strategic.

When they are, 20% declines become 20% increases.

5 Blatant signs your brand identity needs a change

Now that you know the difference between a rebrand and a refresh, let’s find out if you need to rework your brand identity.

Here are 5 signs that a change might be good for your brand.

Your brand guidelines have gone AWOL

Ideally, you don’t piece your brand identity together with a logo here, a graphical element there, and a few colors in between.

For an identity to become memorable, all elements need to come together in one cohesive manner to tell your brand’s story.

But a lot of brands start up small in a garage or home office where the brand’s identity came together via a series of Fiverr orders (not a knock on Fiverr) or a friend willing to cut a steep discount to build their portfolio.

Needless to say, a brand style guide (also known as a brand bible) wasn’t at the top of the designer’s mind.

You’d know if your brand is missing those guidelines if you’ve been experimenting with font styles, randomly selecting a ‘similar enough’ blue for your background from the color wheel or deciding which new “fun” text you’re going to use for a promotion.

Your brand lacks a cohesive look and feel

As a business, you should not be changing your brand frequently.

Why?

Because your goal is to stay consistent so that your audience can look at a logo, graphical element, or any other extension of your brand identity on any marketing medium and instantly connect it with your brand.

Like anything worth repeating, this is done by following procedures and guidelines, all of which should be found in a brand bible.

With usage rules on typography, colors, logos, etc. you allow your business to execute a cohesive look, effectively building brand equity through consistency.

Your visual identity is not connecting with your audience

A brand identity works well when all elements connect with the target audience. When redoing a brand identity, designers research the market to understand the target audience.

Factors such as gender, age, demographics, race, purchase patterns, and more help to shape the new brand identity.

Old Spice®, the 1938 men’s hygiene brand was better known for being old than it was spicy by the early 2000s.

A rebrand changed all that as Unilever set out to rewrite the misconception that Old Spice® was for your grandfather.

Old-Spice-Smell-Like-A-Man-Man-Rebrand-man-on-horse.jpg — *Image Credit: Old Spice®*

With fresh visuals and a new voice, “smell like a man, man” became an overnight success and propelled Old Spice® to the forefront of consumers’ minds.

How do you know if your visual identity connects with the audience?

You’ve got a great product. Customers love it, repeat purchases are there, and they write inspiring reviews once they buy the product…

…but when it comes to social media, you hear crickets chirping.

Your brand is growing

From new products to additional services, brands evolve all the time. While these new additions cast a wider customer net and often result in new customer profiles, you wouldn’t go off changing the brand identity to accommodate; in fact, this is the last thing you want to do.

Your brand identity should be able to grow with the brand.

Imagine an inspired entrepreneur who successfully brought to market a protein bar and branded his/ her company accordingly. The bar’s success led to the introduction of new SKUs and a business strategy shift from a protein bar company to a plant-based whole health delivery company.

Often, small businesses find themselves in this type of situation.

To best communicate the purpose and vision of the business, the brand would benefit from a makeover that factors in scalability and business growth.

Your brand is getting lost in the crowd

With so much competition in the market, your brand’s identity has a major responsibility: help create differentiation.

Without it, you’ll never be noticed.

Here’s a fun exercise for you.

Head to a local grocery store (or store where you can see your product finding distribution).

Bring one of your products into the store with you and find the location in the store you’d ideally want to be found.

Sit your product on the shelf and take a picture.

What do you see? Does your brand differentiate itself from the broader category?

Packaging design is a clear extension of your brand identity’s ability to differentiate.

If you blend in, it might just be time for a rebrand or refresh.

Is it time for a change?

Use these five signs to assess your own brand identity.

How would you rate your current brand identity?

Could it be time for something new?

Drop us a message or comment below and we’ll let you know our thoughts!

Rebrand or Refresh? How They Differ and 5 Signs Your Brand Identity Needs A Change