How to Redesign Your Brand—And Why it’s Important

Establishing your small business in the marketplace takes time, persistence, and a constant review of your product and services. After your initial stages of growth, it's always important to track progress and take a look at the patterns involved with customer responses. Brand management is an important part of this process, a strategy that helps you learn how and why your business is favored over your competitors.

Even when your brand is a marketplace leader, it may be valuable to consider a redesign. Redesigns do not have to completely makeover your business entity, but they can help stay in touch with the latest trends and reach a wider target market. Rebranding has helped thousands of companies pick up after a sluggish sales cycle-think about how many times Pepsi and Coca-Cola have re-engineered their logos and colors during different seasons.

Ultimately, the image you present to your customers needs to resonate with your business philosophy and mission statement; brand recognition is your utmost priority, and making an already-established brand even more ‘likeable' will help you capture the attention of current and future customers with ease. A dramatic change isn't necessary in most cases, especially if you're a startup business. Simply creating a ‘hybrid' version of your brand a new concept or idea could be just what you need to get started.

How to Plunge Ahead with Redesign

The first step in a brand redesign or rebranding initiative is to consult with your market research team. Learna bout favorable trends, patterns, and themes that are showing up in your industry and pick out a few keywords and ideas that you can incorporate into your current philosophy. For example, the eco-friendly movement is rapidly spreading to multiple areas and industries; websites such as iVillage have jumped on board with a fresh launch of ‘iGoGreen' targeting the same niche target market but focusing heavily on everything related to living a greener lifestyle. The iVillage brand still lurks in the shadows, but iGoGreen is a spinoff of it; it's easily identifiable and website visitors can make the mental connection instantly.

After selecting your new brand and image, you'll need to develop a staged approach for your new brand release. If you're a small business, it's a good idea to focus on the website first, and then move on to the physical sales materials and mediums. Keep in mind the power of color, buzzwords, and effective sales and ad copy. You can coordinate your efforts over a 2-3 week period, and slowly phase out old material as you move ahead.

Finally, be sure to make a direct effort in letting customers know of your reinvention. Sending out press releases, announcements, and newsletters that help customers see what is happening will help you keep up the pace, and it gives you some news to share.

The perception of your business is very important, especially in your initial growth stages. As you develop a logo and brand image, it's important to be continually aware of how and where your business is being received, and this may result in a strategic plan for a company relaunch or rebranding campaign. If your business is in desperate need of a makeover, head over to the market research department and jot down some keywords for current trends and ideas!