Is Now the Right Time for Rebranding Your Company? 6 Signs To Help You Decide

Rebranding your company is no small task. In a previous post, we discussed the hard questions to ask during the process —?have your target audience’s core values changed? What about your “why”? Is the current branding truly reflective of all those you serve??

Asking those questions is a good place to start because your company needs to have a strategic reason to rebrand. Without that, you could spend significant time and money on a process that doesn’t deliver the ROI you’re looking for. When you’re considering rebranding, take a step back and explore your motivation. Below, we offer six signs that point to strategic rebranding opportunities. If any one of these describes your company, you have strong reasons to consider rebranding.?

Rebranding Your Company? What To Consider

What Is Rebranding?

“Rebranding is when your company rethinks your marketing strategy with a new name, logo, or design, with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of customers and other stakeholders.” – HubSpot

Notice that the rebranding definition isn’t just about coming up with a new name and logo. It’s rethinking your marketing strategy, and that may include a new name, logo, and design.

Most of the time when we’re talking about rebranding, we are actually talking about renaming a company. It’s not just about making the visual components of the brand more appealing or up-to-date, but it’s also about strategically renaming the organization.?

But there are also times when a company doesn’t need a new name. It’s their messaging that isn’t working because something has changed. Maybe the company’s face has changed, or the industry as a whole is experiencing shifts. The target customer could be focusing on different values, or the company may want to expand into another niche market, geographic area, or industry.?

In any of these scenarios, the current messaging isn’t going to resonate as well, and the company needs new messaging even if the name doesn’t change. The process of crafting new messaging is also a part of what it means to rebrand your company..

6 Signs That It’s the Right Time To Rebrand

Now that it’s clear what rebranding is, let’s look at the signs that point to a strategic opportunity for rebranding your company.

1. Increasing Brand Value and Positioning To Sell – When we think of a brand only as logos, colors, and fonts, we miss the connection between branding and business value. At Hummingbird, that’s one of the most important connections we make with our customers.? A company’s core values, customer insights, archetypes, voice, and brand persona all make up its brand. When they’re presented cohesively, they make a strong statement about the value of the business. If you question whether the components of your brand are presented cohesively enough to maximize its value when you’re ready to sell, you may consider rebranding.?
2. Updating Your Brand for Investors – Another opportunity for a rebranding campaign is when your company is seeking investment funding. Because a strong brand is more attractive to investors, you’re more likely to attract the right investment funds when you present a highly valued brand that’s set apart from competitors by strong differentiators, a clearly defined personality, and growing awareness and loyalty.
3. Removing a Partner’s Name –? Does your company keep changing the company name every time a partner moves on from the business? If so, you’re essentially starting over with the reputation of the new named partner rather than doing business based on the reputation of the practice. Law firms and doctor’s offices often find themselves in this situation. Rebranding to remove the name of the person and put in place a strategic name for the practice will give your business branding consistency going forward and will increase its value over time.
4. Addressing a Legal Issue – When a legal matter impacts the reputation of your business, you may consider a rebranding campaign to put it behind you. One example of this would be when a trusted business partner violates your industry’s code of ethics and leaves the company as a result. To move forward and rebuild the company’s reputation without it being tainted by the former partner’s lack of ethics, you may consider rebranding altogether.
5. Expanding to a Different Geographic Market – In the early stages of a business, many companies tie their name to their geographic location. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) provides a strong argument for doing that. When potential customers are searching for services in the Triangle, for example, it’s easy to find a variety of companies with “Triangle” in the name.? But what happens when a company is ready to expand to the Triad or to another state? A geographic name makes expansion harder. Several years ago, Fayetteville Psychiatric came to Hummingbird questioning why their expansion into Raleigh and Fuquay Varina hadn’t been successful. We explained that someone in Raleigh wouldn’t have confidence that the company would stay in Raleigh because the name tied it to another geographic location. We worked with the clinic to rebrand as BestDay Psychiatry and Counseling, and now they’ve expanded throughout the state of NC because they can carry the name with them wherever they go.? When your company’s name is tied to one place and you want to expand to another, it’s a sign that it’s the right time to rebrand.

1. Creating Clarity in the Marketplace – Confusion around your brand in the marketplace also points to the need for rebranding. A 2023 rebranding of the NC Biosciences Organization (NC Bio) showcases the importance of brand clarity. With NC Bio, NC Biotech, and NC Tech all competing for brand recognition locally, discerning the difference between them wasn’t always easy. Following NC Bio’s 2022 strategic planning process, their consultant made a strong case for changing the name of the organization, and Hummingbird stepped in to help. The name, graphics, and brand message all changed as a result of the rebranding strategy we developed. NC Biosciences Organization is now NC LifeSciences Organization, and their position in the marketplace is clearer as a result.

Why Rebranding Strategy Is Important

Rebranding strategy is so important to the success of a rebrand. From choosing a name to managing the internal and external messaging, it all needs to be well-planned and cohesive.?

We live in a world where very little is unique anymore. Artificial intelligence (AI) is generating company names and taglines, for example, and there’s so much competition for original ideas that it’s really hard to land on one industry-specific phrase that’s trademarkable and has an available URL.

But when you do land on a new name or new message, it’s important to consider how it’s going to impact the way people navigate an online search to find you. What does the customer journey look like? Whether customers search for your name, your tagline, or the descriptor of what you do, it’s important that their journey to you is easy. That only happens with an effective rebranding strategy.

Rebranding Internally Is Part of the Strategy

Rebranding today is more about culture than it’s ever been before. At Hummingbird, in addition to the competitive landscape, we always look at a company’s culture, its core values, and its “Why” when we’re rebranding. Rebranding internally first means communicating to all the stakeholders: “We’re going to express culture in this way, we’re going to express our “Why” in that way, and these are our core values. These things are why this new brand is going to work well for us.”

So the team members, the leaders who are pushing the new brand forward, the board members, and others who are champions and advocates need to understand what the brand is all about. They need to know why the rebranding is happening, what the strategic purpose of taking this step is. The more they know, the better they can tell the story. And internal people telling the story the right way is a key to rebranding success.If you’re seeing any signs that rebranding your company could be a strategic opportunity for you, reach out to Hummingbird Creative Group.

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