A strong brand doesn’t happen overnight. Instead, creating the best brand for your business comes after you’ve had some success, and when you recognize that it’s time to conduct a brand update.
Updating your brand can be a wise business move but will depend on if you can make updates without compromising what you’ve already built. Maintaining the consistency and integrity of your brand is critical when doing a refresh or update.
Here’s more on how to update your brand the right way.
Determine Whether You Need an Update or a Complete Rebrand
There are many good things that can come from a brand update. Better brand recognition, increased authority in your industry, and deeper connections with current and potential customers to name a few.
However, favorable results depend on your ability to determine whether you need an update or a complete rebrand and if either of these are actually necessary for your business.
For example, a complete rebrand may be necessary if your target audience is entirely different from when you started your business. On the other hand, if you’re hoping to reach a new part of your target audience, a simple update or refresh is suitable.
In addition, be sure your reasons for conducting a brand update or complete rebrand are backed by business needs and goals. For example, the update should help you stay competitive in your market or improve your business reputation.
Be sure the option you choose keeps you aligned with your company’s mission as well.
Review Your Company’s Mission
Updating your brand shouldn’t move you away from your company’s mission. It should bring you closer to it.
Review your company’s mission and core values before making any permanent decisions about updates to your brand. Ensure that the updates you want to make don’t go against what your brand stands for. Also, the updates should make it easier for your business to do what it hopes to for its customers.
In reviewing your company’s mission, revisit your target audience research too.
Revisit Your Target Audience Research
When you’re ready to update your brand, you must ensure the update will align with your target audience.
Think about how they currently recognize your brand, consider how making updates may change their brand perception, and evaluate your target audience’s patterns, lifestyle, thinking, and demographics before moving forward with your brand update.
Drafting a comprehensive strategy for updating your brand and a plan for executing that strategy is the next step in the process.
Draft a Strategy and Plan for Updating Your Brand
Updating your brand the right way means drafting both a strategy for updating your brand and a plan for executing that strategy.
Your strategy is the blueprint for your brand refresh. It details why you want to update your brand, the goals attached to your brand update, and the resources you need to carry out the update successfully.
On the other hand, your plan documents step-by-step instructions for executing your strategy. In other words, what must you and your team do to bring the update to life?
For example, you may need to redesign your logo if your strategy is centered on updating your visual brand identity.
Keep Your Customers Informed
The last thing you want to do is confuse current customers with your brand update. You don’t want them to wake up tomorrow and your logo, mission, color scheme, and tone are entirely different than today. Keeping your customers informed about your brand update is the best way to go.
Let them know when you’re starting it and when it’s expected to be completed. Also, keep them involved in the refresh process. Ask for their input when appropriate. When you do this, your existing customer relationships remain strong, and you can help them adapt to your brand update easier.
Finally, continually improve your brand identity as you roll out the updates to your brand.
Continually Improve Your Brand
After updating your brand, you must continue building and developing your brand. Ensure your brand updates align with your business’s mission and core values. Your brand’s visual elements, tone, and messaging should also be consistent across all of your digital platforms in light of your update.
There’s no guarantee that your customers will take to your brand update. But a constant effort to improve your brand can help your target audience adapt to any current and future changes to your brand.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article gives you a good starting point for updating your brand the right way. You can create a powerful brand identity with a solid brand update. You just have to approach the process with best practices, patience, and direction at the forefront.