Rebranding Strategy: 5 Aspects to Evaluate Your Current Branding Strategy

From our previous articles, we’ve covered a lot about branding; from what it is, why is it so important and how to effectively build a brand for your small businesses.

Suppose you are ready and are already in the process of building your brand.

Or, you could be a business owner who has already established a well-thought brand-building for your company.

It doesn’t matter which category you fall into; this article is for you.

In this article, we’ll talk about what it means to rebrand your businesses, what is a rebranding strategy, and why is it so essential to rebrand.

Then, we’ll provide you with five aspects to evaluate on, for your current branding strategy.

Without further ado, let’s get right into it!

What is Rebranding?

Rebranding is the process of changing the corporate image of a company (or product).

It is a marketing strategy that involves a change of brand name, logo, company profile, packaging, website and other graphic design collaterals for an already established brand.

There are several goals to rebranding your businesses, such as creating a different identity for your brand, stand out in the marketplace, ensuring the new image is attractive to customers, and overall raise awareness of the company or product’s unique identity.

The bottom line of rebranding is giving the company or product a new and fresh look.

Thus, reconnecting with the customers and influencing their perception about the products or services you provide.

After all, your company’s brand represents its image and personality.

By evaluating your current branding strategy, you can work on further improving the reputation of your company’s or product’s image.

Why Should I Evaluate My Branding Strategy?

Companies and businesses who regularly evaluate their branding strategy can reap multiple benefits for their company.

However, some neglect the importance of it.

They may decide not to rebrand with fear of making mistakes and losing the loyalty of their customers and the meaning of the brand.

The importance and why we should evaluate our branding strategy outweigh the fear and cost of rebranding.

For example, here are some reasons why a company or business should assess its branding strategy:

• Change perceptions. As much as we want to convey our business through our brand; it is still the face of the company and interpreted to what the public says it is. At times, a brand may not be perceived by the customers the way the owner wants it to be perceived; when a brand evaluation is conducted. Therefore, through rebranding, you can change and improve the perceptions of the public towards your company brand.
• Keep up with the competitors. Our surrounding is in a constant state of evolution that includes society, business and economics. With the state of rapid changes in our era today, it is only crucial for companies and businesses to keep evolving to stay relevant, up-to-date and competent with other competitors in the market. 
• Understanding if you need a ‘Proactive’ or ‘Reactive’ Rebranding. By evaluating your current branding strategy, you can decide if your company needs a ‘Proactive’ or ‘Reactive’ rebranding strategy. ‘Proactive’ rebranding occurs when you think ahead and see an opportunity for growth for your company. It could be to target a new market, changing focus, reconnecting with customers or a desire to innovate. ‘Reactive’ rebranding, however, refers to when your company responds or reacts to something or events that may have altered the image of your company. It aims to change or discontinue the altered company image that could be due to legal problems or negative publicity received.

5 Aspects to Evaluate Your Current Branding Strategy

With all that said, we hope that you get a gist of what rebranding is, its strategy, and why is it essential for business owners to evaluate their current branding strategy.

If you’re on board with assessing your current branding strategy, we’ve got just the thing for you!

There are tons of perspectives to consider when it comes to rebranding and what to evaluate in your branding strategy.

As promised, we now present you with five aspects to look into when you are assessing your business or company brand strategy.

1. Is your brand still relatable to your target audience?

It is an important question to ask yourself in the process of evaluating your current branding strategy.

It could be that your initial branding may have overlooked proper target audience research or focused on the wrong target audience.

No matter what the reason may be, sometimes our branding is not representative of the needs of our customers. 

It could also be due to our lack of updates or because our customers’ needs have changed.

Another possibility to think about is whether or not our branding is still relevant and engaging towards our existing customers.

After all, people change, and so do their problems and needs. When this occurs, then it might be a good time to rebrand and reach out to those people meaningfully.

READ MORE: Branding vs Marketing: Difference Between Branding and Marketing

2. Is your branding evolving and up-to-date?

When we talked about being relevant to our target audience in the first point, this will, in turn, lead us to another question to evaluate, and that is whether or not our current branding is up-to-date and relevant with the rapid change of the society and business world.

It is not only essential to stay relevant to our customers, but also to what is happening around us; the current issue and needs to be met.

Evaluating whether or not your branding is up-to-date can start with a simple step of taking a look at your logo.

Was your logo designed to match the trend from years ago?

Was the design of your brand associated with any negative cultural connotation that is considered inappropriate in today’s culture and society? 

If that is the case, changes in the form of rebranding should be made in order for the brand to be accepted well in the market, and without alienating your customers and potential employees.

3. Does the brand reflect the values you represent?

After maintaining your current brand for a while, it is also time to assess whether your brand still reflects the values that you have set from way back.

Initially, the process of branding involves brainstorming what your company’s values, mission and vision are.

Then, try to convey it to your target audience through your brand. 

Consumers who believe in the values behind the brand will place even more confidence and trust in the company.

The question is, after months or years of operating under the current brand; does it still reflect the value you want to represent?

When it comes to the value and importance of branding, consumers are not only choosing brands with values that aligned with theirs; but they would also want to be able to express these values to the outside world. 

With that said, it is all the more critical that companies are reminded of their values and ensure that they are being communicated clearly to their loyal customers.

Through evaluating the current brand strategy, business owners can assess and reflect if they are still on the right track, or if they have drifted from their initial values.

READ MORE: What does a Branding Agency do & Why you should hire one

4. Is your brand still competent and relevant in the marketplace?

As mentioned, we live in a time and day that is rapidly changing and evolving.

Local and global companies and businesses must keep up with the pace if they want to stay relevant and engaging towards their customers.

With that said, other competitors are striving to move ahead and capture your consumers’ interest. 

Hence, it is only essential for business owners to evaluate their branding strategy.

This process can lead them to rebrand themselves to be different and unique from the competition.

By rebranding, business and companies can explore ways on how to attract or re-attract their target audience. 

Companies can also rebrand to increase their social and environmental awareness. With that, they can also stand out from the other competitors in the marketplace.

They are thus representing themselves as a more credible, greener and socially aware company.

READ MORE: Branding in the era of IR4.0 Malaysia

5. Is there a shift in focus in your current branding?

In evaluating their current brand strategy, business owners must take into account whether there is a shift of focus or if they are heading towards a change in their marketing strategy.

For example, if businesses and companies realize that their customers’ needs have shifted or changed, they may need to shift their focus in offering their products and services, or how to relate to them through rebranding. 

Besides that, if there is a shift or change in the companies’ product or services; then a rebranding could be conducted to ensure the brand is representative of that new line of products.

Overall, whatever the shifts may be; be it from the perspective of the customers’ needs, a change in products and services, or even an improvement in your company’s vision and values; business owners can evaluate if they need rebranding to stay competitive in the marketplace.

There you have it!

We hope this article has shed some light on what rebranding is and how to evaluate your current branding strategy.

Overall, no matter what the reason is for rebranding; it should always be done with particular attention to the audience and the marketplace, with you being different from other competitors. 

If you think that your business can benefit from rebranding, then a well-thought-out strategy should be in place to maximize the impact and level of rebranding.

An excellent place to start is by discussing your ideas and vision for your brand with a trusted creative agency, such as Walk Production, to help bring your ideas to fruition.