10 signs you need to rebrand this year
You have ambitious growth plans, but does your current brand boost or slow down growth? Find out today.
When a company decides to rebrand, it's often a combination of multiple internal and external factors.
To quickly assess your current brand performance, score the relevance of each of the ten reasons to rebrand between 0 and 3. The higher your score, the strongest the urgency to rebrand.
1) Why rebrand? Your current brand feels too restrictive
Your brand is at the forefront of your business. It communicates your vision and mission to everyone who connects with you. Your brand needs to be bold, if not daring. It needs to enhance your vision, not restrict it.
The last few months might have been challenging, but you have surfed the waves and have now refocused your business mission and purpose. Your brand needs to reflect and project your renewed ambition.
2) Why rebrand? Your market and clients’ needs have dramatically changed.
2020 has been a year of global disruption worldwide in all areas of our lives. This created massive shifts in how businesses operate in every industry sector.
But most importantly, everyone has had to reassess their needs and aspirations, including our audiences and clients.
You have probably made some significant adjustments to adapt to these changes and better serve your clients, but is it enough?
Does your current brand reflect how your business has evolved or even wholly reinvented itself in the last 18 months?
Maybe it's time to make time for your brand.
3) Why rebrand? Your business has changed significantly, but your brand hasn't
The world has changed enormously since 2019, and many businesses have had to reinvent themselves to stay ahead in a changing world. But if you don't communicate it to the world, they'll assume you have nothing new to offer.
Have you noticed how many businesses big and small have rebranded in the last 18 months? This is because when you rebrand, you make a strong statement of your intent to stay relevant in an evolving marketplace. You show the world you mean business.
4) Why rebrand? You’ve changed your business mission and vision
Many businesses are reinventing in 2021 to stay ahead in a fast-changing world. A vision and mission which were in touch with the market’s needs in 2019 may be irrelevant today.
The needs of your market are changing, and while your proposition has been adjusted, your brand has not.
Your brand is how you articulate your mission and vision and share it with the world. When they change, your brand needs to change as well.
5) Why rebrand? You struggle to increase your pricing
If you find it hard to raise your fees, it's easy to fall into the trap of believing it's because clients are on a tight budget. The real reason is that they don't see your offering is worth the premium price you're asking for. Ouch.
You know it's true because you see them spending the amount you're asking for with others, and sometimes more. They will spend the money if they see the value they're getting.
The harsh truth is that you can be the best in the world at what you do, but if people can't see it, you'll always compete on price against less experienced competitors. How frustrating.
One of the main reasons is that your current brand positions you in a pricing bracket that is lower than what you ought to charge.
Online, perception is reality. By increasing the perceived value of your offering with a more premium brand, you'll naturally convey why you're a leader and why you're worth more.
And guess what, who doesn't want to work with the best?
6) Why rebrand? Your brand has become disjointed over time
When you launched your brand a few years ago, it was sharp and made a powerful statement, but it became diluted and watered down over the years. As a result, today, everyone in your team, including you, is unsure about what your core brand message should say.
How did this happen? When you initially launched your brand, there wasn't a clear brand guideline document to guide the different people who would create social media posts, write blog articles or update your website in the following months and years.
Without clear and actionable guidance on what kind of visual and verbal language to use, everybody interpreted your brand in their own way and made their own minor tweaks.
Today, your brand has become a mishmash of different styles and is trying to say too many different things at once.
When you communicate with clarity and consistency, potential clients will see straight away why you are the best option for them. But when you don't, the exact opposite happens.
7) Why rebrand? You struggle to stand out from an increasing number of competitors
Differentiation is something most business owners struggle with. Often it's because they're just too close due to the day to day running of the business that they can't identify their key differentiator.
There's nothing worse than being lost in a sea of me-too competitors. If you don't know why clients should choose you over competitors, why should they?
Differentiation is key to business success. Why? When you have a remarkable difference that makes you both rare and higher value, the best clients see why you are the best choice.
8) Why rebrand? Your brand is starting to look outdated and tired
You've known about it for some time but didn't want to think about it because you felt spending money on branding shouldn't be a priority at present.
But when you saw that one of your main competitors had recently rebranded, you started to question your assumption. If they did it now, they must have had a good reason for it.
Seeing your competitor rebrand also made you realise how outdated and tired your brand had become over time.
You're now at a crossroad: take action and start rebranding or keep your existing brand as is.
Rebranding can seem a daunting prospect at first, but with proper guidance and support, you'll get the results you want.
9) Why rebrand? You’re merging with another business.
We live in a time of massive changes, and that creates new markets and opportunities. You’ve decided to merge with another business to increase your reach and offering. How the new entity resulting from this merger will be perceived is key to success.
Sometimes one of the two businesses merging will evolve their brand to reflect this. Still, often it is much better to create a brand new, fresh, and powerful brand that shows that there's now a much bigger player in town.
Don’t leave it too late, a strong and highly visible brand will boost your exposure, reach and reputation.
10) Why rebrand? You need to expand in new markets
In times of change and disruption, the best growth opportunities are often further afield.
You want to take your business further. To do this, you need to quickly establish a presence with a wide reach in a new market.
Your brand will be at the forefront of how you’re going to be seen and perceived by this new audience, make it count.
Give your brand a 5-minute health-check
Do you want to attract more clients and grow your business faster?
In today’s digital-first world, you need a strong brand to cut through the noise, stand out from competitors and attract the best clients.
Branding is vital for growth. Get your brand right, and you’ll have raving fans queuing up to buy from you.
Get it wrong, and you’ll always struggle to cut through the noise and compete on price.
Take Acacia’s brand health-check scorecard to identify your current brand’s strengths and areas of improvement.
What’s your brand’s health score? Find out in 5 minutes and discover how to build a stronger brand.
