Rebranding Mistakes Your Organization Must Avoid

When deciding to change your brand design, messaging or other key elements of your public image, there are some things you shouldn’t touch. Consider these tips.

You’ve decided it’s time for a rebrand.

You’ve already done a lot of these tasks before, when you first launched your brand. The work was probably as exciting as it was aspirational, and it makes sense that your rebranding process is going to be more or less the same. This should be pretty straightforward, right?

Think again.

The rebranding process can be a more arduous process than you would expect, and many would argue that it is a harder journey than the initial branding process.

If you want to ensure that your own rebranding experience is a success, look out for these common mistakes:

1. Just changing the logo

When you undertake your rebranding process, don’t expect to be able to merely change your logo and call it a day. Though your logo is one of the most crucial aspects of a brand, it is not the brand itself.

Your brand is the culmination of your firm’s identity and its values. It should embody the very reason for being. If all you do is change your logo, you haven’t changed much at all, nor have you addressed your reasons for the rebrand in the first place.

What’s worse, it is likely that your customers will notice the change as a merely superficial one, call your rebrand lazy, and move on to a different company.

2. Failing to do your research

 Research can be difficult, time-consuming and tedious. Even so, you need to do it.

Before you being your rebrand, it is essential that you do your homework. Look at the market and get a good idea of your competition. Then, devise a plan based on what you find out. If you don’t investigate the marketplace, your rebrand is likely to be a waste of time—or risks blowing up in your face.

3. Failing to move past the previous branding

It can be difficult to let go of the past. Everything always seems easier and simpler with the benefit of hindsight. Plus, your old branding feels comforting because you already know how it is going to turn out.

The purpose of the rebranding, however, is to forge an entirely new identity. The fastest way to get this wrong is to hold on too tightly to what you have used in the past. If you don’t make a big enough change, your audience won’t even notice you underwent a rebranding, and your efforts will have been wasted.

4. Reinventing the wheel

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Many companies fall into the trap of tinkering with something that is already successful—and fail dramatically. When you go through your branding process, you also need to consider what works and keep it.

5. Forgetting your target market

Though some rebranding efforts are aimed at capturing new audiences, the purpose of most rebrands is to refresh a brand’s image. In these cases, the biggest mistake you can make is forgetting who your existing demographic is. Regardless of how you feel about the look and feel of your rebrand, you must get the stamp of approval from your existing customer base.

What mistakes would you add to this list?