I’m sure you’ll agree with our Essex rebranding agency when we say we are all unconsciously flooded with branding. Be it McDonald’s golden arches or the Nike swoosh, all humans are susceptible to companies. Furthermore, we unknowingly associate real feelings and opinions with organisations.
Even the best companies sometimes begin to feel jaded and dated. Many companies start out as offering one thing, but within a few years they’ve found that their strengths lie elsewhere. As such, the branding becomes obsolete. They’re marketing a product or service which they no longer offer which, obviously, is no good. Your circumstances don’t even need to have changed; sometimes you may just feel that your branding isn’t doing as good a job as it should be.
There are two main ways in which you can rebrand your business, both of which require extensive thinking and expertise. The team here at VerriBerri, well known for their rebranding in Essex, has put together this blog detailing the rebranding process and things to consider during it.
Logos
The first way in which you can change your business branding is in your logo. The big names in the consumer industry are known more for their logos than they are for their names. The swooshing tick of Nike, the golden arches of McDonald’s and the half-eaten Apple of, well, Apple are all prime examples of how effective a good logo can be. You see these images and you know instantly what the brand is. The best logos tend to be the more simplistic ones; an overly cluttered logo is harder to remember and conveys a more muddied brand message. A good graphic designer or artist knows exactly how to sum up your brand in a few deft strokes; no more and no less.
Brand Name
Aside from the logo, he obvious thing you can change in your brand is the name of the brand, itself. The first question you should ask is does your brand name give any sort of indication as to what your brand delivers as a product or service? If not, then we recommend this should be the first port of call for your rebranding. We’re not necessarily suggesting that you call your brand Braintree Best Bookshop; for example, but incorporating a literary term of some sort, even subtly, would convey what you do in this example. This is one of two options.
The only other really acceptable option is to plump for a name that you know will be recognisable; something short and catchy that you can see will work as a brand name in the way that those aforementioned global brands do. Nike doesn’t mean anything really, and yet you know what it is? That just goes to show how effective a well-chosen brand name can be. Of the two options, however, this is much more difficult to get right. A content team are well versed in coming up with brand names and slogans, so should your rebranding in Essex hit a stumbling block, then an agency would prove the smartest place to go.
Should I Change Both?
The name of a brand and a logo are so often intrinsically linked with one another, and this makes perfect sense. Your logo acting as a visual representation of your brand’s name solidifies your brand image and the amalgam of the two into one singular package is only going to help your brand. Because it’s more beneficial to have the two linked, many brands already do have their logo linking to their name. This means that more often than not, you’ll need to change both of them anyway so that they continue to make sense. So, in short yes you probably should change both your name and logo, at least that is, in most cases.
How Can PR Help
After you’ve rebranded, you may still need a bit of help to get yourself going. After all, most people will still know you under your previous branding and so you need a large-scale campaign to get people noticing that you’ve changed. A campaign that has character, charm and will have your new branding sticking in the minds of those people you’re targeting. That’s where a PR team can become incredibly useful. PR executives live for rebranding exercises because it affords them such creative opportunities and ideas; it’s a well-known fact that PR employees live for a brainstorming session and nothing else!
A PR team will construct a campaign to launch to the relevant press publications and media outlets so that your new brand gains maximum exposure and coverage. This is by far and a way the best means of establishing your new branding in the mind’s eye of the general public. A PR team will also make sure they target both mainstream media and more industry-specific publications so that you get an even spread of coverage.
What We Offer
Here at our agency, all our departments work closely with one another so that everybody is on the same page. For us, this is incredibly important, because the more you can incorporate a synergy and collaborative effort into these design and ideas processes, the more likely it is that the resulting brand name and logo will work as a perfect pair. Even if you’re only having one of the attributes changed, it’s still always better to have all departments chiming in with their ideas, because the best suggestions always result from a plethora of different perspective as opposed to one department’s and only one. This means our PR team will work with our graphic design team, who will work with our content team in turn. For your rebranding in Essex, we firmly believe that a holistic approach is the most beneficial to your brand.
A fresh lick of paint is sometimes all it takes to get a house looking as good as new again. It’s exactly the same as businesses, often a change in branding can kick-start your growth once more. So, if you’d like to find out more about how we can help with your rebranding in Essex, then get in touch! Contact VerriBerri today on 01376 386 850. We’d love to discuss your proposed change in direction and would be delighted to be a part of it!
Red and Yellow are the colours most frequently used by fast food brands.
The yellow signals happiness and sunlight whilst the red has been proven to be appetite inducing and insinuate speed- red cars are faster, right?
Within the last few years Maccy D’s have gone green, as you may have noticed. But why have they chosen to rebrand? Since the debut of the documentary ‘Supersize Me’ the fast-food chain received a bad ‘wrap’ (sorry) for the shameless pedalling of junk food. The bad press that followed lingered like a group of teenagers waiting for a table. Six weeks after the premier, McDonalds emitted the ‘supersize’ option. Since then they have since increased their entourage of goodies to include fruit smoothies, raw snacks and salads. Not only has the ‘green’ hit them right in the menu but it’s also splashed all over the walls. The new forest green decor is designed to persuade us to sit down, relax and ponder over a burger, very clever.
When executed correctly re-branding can breathe life into a product. More recently organisations such as Spotify, Facebook and Google have all gone flat, but not in profit. Shadowing and embossing is out, that’s so circa 2000. We are now back to the flat graphics and when you look at them, you wonder why someone ever bothered to fiddle around- it certainly would have saved Pepsi $1,000,000 in change.
Does anyone remember Opal Fruits (Starburst), Marathon (Snickers) or Backrub (Google…seriously)? There will always be those who regret losing the old brand name but for Opal Fruits the choice was imperative. 80% of fruit chews sold worldwide, were recognised as ‘Starburst’.
Only in the UK did Opal Fruits ever exist, and so it was inevitable that the two brands were rationalised.
Another rebranding success would obviously be Apple. Let’s cut to the core, peel back any niceties and other fruit based puns; in the 90’s Apple was NOT cool. Only with the 1996 return of Steve Jobs armed with the new slogan ‘Think Different’ did things start to reform. ‘Think different’ dared people to change and enticed rebelliousness in consumers whilst retaining old punters who were already revoking the mainstream. With the iPhone being the number one handset in the US and a brand value of 104 Billion dollars, it’s apparent that Apple made the right choice.
Instagram launched a new logo in a bid to unify its family of apps. The iconic camera now features a more streamlined guise set to a backdrop of rainbow colours.
Since launch back in October 2010, its family of apps have grown. Therefore, the company felt it was important to make them more consistent with each other. They felt it also better represented what the apps help you create – a collage of photos or mini video that loops forward and backward.
When rebranding your company, it’s important to consider what effect this will have on your existing and future customers. You can never underestimate the importance of market research. It’s difficult to make changes that are universally liked. The key to design is to apply principles of psychology and use neuroscience techniques. This will help you create a design that will resonate with consumers in both an immediate and lasting way.
To learn more about how our Essex rebranding agency can help you, get in touch with our hugely talented marketing company today.