5 Reasons to rebrand pt.1
Don’t be alarmed, rebranding is absolutely a common move for both large and small businesses. There are many reasons to want to go about a rebrand, each with their own justifications and have mostly led to positive change. Rebranding can be as subtle as making a few tweaks, a refresh if you will. Or can be a large declaration of intent announcing to the world you’re here to grow, and evolve.
Is it time for your company to consider a rebrand?
When you start a business, it’s crucial to invest in the things that are going to help you draw in the right audience and grow. Showing the world that you’re investing in your brand, directly reflects the quality of the good/service you are offering. I get it- quality branding isn’t cheap and perhaps in the first few years as you were setting up shop, the budget allocated to branding and marketing wasn’t there. But now you’ve got the wheels moving, you have a better understanding of what you’re doing and it’s time to invest in what your brand represents.
I’d like to yell this really loud for all the logos written in script fonts, the bitmap mascots, the dropshadows and 3d bubble wordmarks. Unfortunately having a logo that looks like it came from the dark ages (not in a cool way) can leave your audience feeling confused about your brand. Is it a gimmick? Are they supposed to be funny? Or have they really not gotten with the times to update their look and feel? Change is difficult, especially changing a brand that has taken so long to build, but look, even some of the biggest brands had refreshes (FedEx, Microsoft, Starbucks!). There are ways to keep the heritage of a brand while making small and minor adjustments to freshen it up.
I’ve worked with a few clients in the past who inherited their company through family and adopted a logo that they had no part of initially creating. The style of the logo wasn’t in line with both the company and the new owner so it was time to adjust. I’ve also seen this happen when people buy companies from other business owners. The initial branding may have been placeholder knowing that they eventually would sell the business. In this instance a rebrand is a great way to create some hype and PR around the new owners/leadership of a business and the changes they’re going to implement.
Canva is great in the way that it’s giving non-designers a platform and tool to be able to throw together visuals. This should be used as supplementary design support, not to create your entire brand aesthetic. First of all, so many people now have access to this platform so the templates and looks are beginning to look all the same. Your brand needs to stand out, not blend in. Second, Canva is limited in its capabilities, a designer uses multiple programs that will take your design from ordinary and generic to customizable and unique. Additionally, logos created in Canva cannot be exported as vectors (hello red flags). It’s also worth noting here that logos created in Canva using templates cannot be trademarked.
Are you not getting the right people engaging with your business or making the purchase? When you have your brand created by a professional, it is their job to identify your ideal audience, and discover what it is that would captivate them to connect and fall in love with your brand. Throwing some random elements together and calling it a logo lacks any strategy on how to make a meaningful connection and can put a consumer/customer off wanting to engage with your business.
