Is It Time for a Rebrand? Part 1: External Factors Will Let You Know.

Factors beyond your organization’s control can change the world your brand operates in. Successful businesses know when to change with it.

Times change. Consumers change. Perceptions change. External factors like these can affect the way your brand performs in market, especially if it gets left behind or can’t keep up, and are a key indicator that it might be time for a change.

But don’t go scrapping your entire brand identity, marketing collateral and advertising just yet. Before you start over, understand that there are varying degrees of a rebrand—you could just need something as easy as a refresh. 

While a rebrand and refresh both reinvigorate your brand, there is a difference. A refresh is an update to your tagline or your brand’s visual aesthetics—things like logos, colors and typeface or packaging. It’s like bringing in your brand for a new hairstyle.

A rebrand is a refresh, and then some. It’s more than a new hairstyle, it’s a whole makeover. From the strategy up, everything about the brand is rethought, including the visual identity, tone, vision and mission. Even the product offerings might change in order to improve business and reshape the company. 

But if you’re wondering how you’re supposed to know if you need a rebrand and when to do it, well, it’s when these external factors say so.

Cultural Shifts
Sometimes society decides that part of your brand image is no longer acceptable. What was appropriate 20, 10, even 5 years ago may no longer be the case, and it’s good to evaluate your brand, top to bottom, to avoid an incorrect, negative or even outdated perception.

Competitive Landscape
When your brand was created, you may have had very little competition. But with success comes copycats, and now customers can’t tell your brand apart from the imitators. If you’re failing to differentiate yourself from the competition, a rebrand can grab attention in your market and give you a competitive edge.

Evolving Targets
Customers’ tastes and needs will change over time. If you’re losing relevance to your target based on what matters to them at this point in their life, it’s time to rethink your strategy to meet them where they are.

Legal Snags
As your brand grows, it becomes more visible – both to consumers and other brands. While this is good, it may run into issues with trademark infringement if, say, an initial visual identity or tagline search missed copyrighted intellectual property. In this case, it’s best to strategically pivot to continue building on the success your company has enjoyed.

As you can see, different external factors can force you to rebrand, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The way we see it, rebranding is a natural progression, and that a healthy, objective evaluation of your brand should happen every 4-6 years. It helps keep brands from becoming stagnant, allows decision makers to reevaluate their strategy and are a way to stay relevant to consumers when you don’t necessarily have any news or fresh offerings. The degree to how much of a rebrand you need depends on some of the factors we discuss here (and there are even more factors we’ll talk about in future articles). But a slight adjustment in messaging or a shift in color palette, all the way to reimagining your logo and pivoting your brand’s vision and beliefs can be the difference between further success and a slide into irrelevance.

Which leads us to the big, important questions:

When you look at your brand, are you happy with how it’s held up? If not, are you unsure what steps to take next? Have you evaluated which external factors your brand is up against? Do you need help making a gut check to understand if you need a refresh or rebrand? Finally, when was the last time you rebranded? Now may be the perfect opportunity to evaluate what’s working and what isn’t based on things beyond your control.