Owning a brand means staying relevant without sacrificing your identity. It’s a balancing act that sometimes requires significant change, like a brand refresh. This can be a challenge, especially if a brand has become comfortable. But as growth is the main objective in many businesses, change will always be inevitable if a brand wants to thrive.
A brand refresh is only necessary when it’s outdated, dull, and doesn’t appeal to your audience like it used to. A brand has to switch it up a bit once in a while to keep people interested. Moreover, it helps a brand remain competitive in its industry.
But how much change is involved in refreshing a brand? To get a clearer picture, here’s a comparison with rebranding.
What’s the Difference Between Rebranding and a Brand Refresh?
Many commit the mistake of using these terms interchangeably, but they actually mean different things. Rebranding means to change the way the public perceives an organization or product. This is done when making way for a merger or acquisition, when the target market has changed, or when the core of the brand itself has changed. Meanwhile, a brand refresh is when you do some tweaking to your current look. It could be updating the logo or changing the color scheme to something more “in.” A branding refresh is a makeover but without changing the core of the brand.
To refresh your brand, you need to change some things. To be better guided in this transition, here are some tips worth knowing.
Update the Look
When it comes to social media, the goal is to be clickable. To be clickable, a brand needs to appeal to people, especially its target market. Study the current designs and styles that appeal to people today and observe your direct competitors’ marketing and branding, too. Observe what creative brand designers flesh out—the current color schemes, fonts, and aesthetics—and base your new look on these.
Speaking of direct competitors, do a competitive analysis. This enables you to look at the competition in your industry on a macro level. Take note of what’s working for your competitors and what they lack. A brand can find ways to stand out from the rest and become memorable to their customers by gaining some insight.
Keep Up With Trends
The first step is to do your research. This is a basic yet overlooked step that many businesses fail to take advantage of. Knowing the real numbers and facts aids in strategy and decision-making, which ultimately aids in brand growth. This is especially important in marketing, too. Observe the current internet lingo, taglines, and even memes. Take note of taglines, keywords, current trends, pop culture, and more. Being in the know helps you make more relatable and clickable content. It can even increase your engagement and brand awareness.
Hone in Your Brand Voice
Branding includes voice, too, and if yours is a bit outdated or dry, it’s time for a revamp. While listening to how your competitors communicate with their audience, listen to how your target market talks, too. To be an effective communicator, a brand has to “talk” in its audience’s language. However, it’s important to get too trendy. The brand voice should reflect the culture and personality of a brand. This is a balancing act, and it can get tricky.
While doing some trial-and-error, document and keep copies of everything. These can be useful for studying what works and what doesn’t. As your library grows, a brand can hone in on its voice more and more.
Be More Open and Authentic
To diversify social media content, add some behind the scenes, staff favorites, and other content that features the going on from the inside. People are naturally curious and appreciate seeing the process. Being upfront with customers promotes trust and increases a brand’s credibility.
It’s human behavior to be drawn to vulnerability, especially because honesty is refreshing these days. Share some struggles you’ve overcome as a brand and celebrate the achievements with your audience. Keeping customers loyal brings more value than attracting new ones. Moreover, this helps foster a sense of community.
Final Thoughts
Forming a brand cohesively and seamlessly is an art and a challenge in itself. But updating, refreshing, and reviving a brand is a challenge, too. It requires skills, research, and insight into the current trends today. Staying in touch with the times and your audience is critical in this change. But in the process, don’t forget to stay true to the brand, too.
