A company’s brand is much, much more than just a logo or company name. It’s your company’s identity! It sets the tone, positions your business, and tells everybody who comes into contact with your business what type of company you are, your market position, ethos, and what customers and suppliers can expect from you.
Establishing your brand is very important, as it dictates a lot of decisions you’ll make as your business grows. This can be everything from who you hire to how you communicate in emails, the brand of coffee you serve to customers, and even what colour and style of shirt you wear to an event, and even what lengths you go to when it comes to sustainability.
But a brand should never be set in stone. It should evolve with you, changing as you and the habits of your customers change. If you haven’t allowed this to happen, it might no longer represent your business goals.
Today we’re going to discuss the reasons to update your branding, and the best way to go about it.
How to Tell if your Brand Still Works for You
This is trickier than you may think. Even in fast-growing companies, it can be difficult to notice when your brand doesn’t quite fit anymore, until it no longer represents you at all.
Sometimes it’s the opposite way around – the changes you’ve made to your business might have propelled you forward, but you left your brand behind in the process, and it no longer accurately reflects the business, or your customers’ needs.
Looking forward is important for business growth, but it’s also important for brand positioning. Your branding should always be projecting your business ambitions. Whilst heritage can play a large part in an established business, it should not become a millstone. You only have to look at some of the most established brand to see they have evolved, just look at Harrods, British Airways and even Coca-Cola – They have all evolved to stay fresh and relevant to their market.
A great way to see how things have changed is by taking a look at some of your older blogs or social media posts. Has the style of content changed? Do you now use a different structure that looks more or less formal? What imagery are you using and have you used snappy videography?
Your content is one of the few things that remains as a permanent representation of the older version of your brand. Not page content however, as that is often replaced when you update your website or incorporate more SEO strategies. If your style of content has changed, has it been a conscious change that better reflects the business, or do you feel like your company has lost something as time has progressed?
Why Branding should Change over Time
Change is good, especially when it’s a conscious change and is consistent with changes within the business of customer requirements and habits. Very few companies make a dramatic change to their branding, it’s usually something that happens naturally as you grow, or you follow a strategy planned out by your marketing team.
The latter is very important for businesses of any size or age. When you start a business, you create a strong brand and push hard to develop your products and services. After a few years or even decades, you might have either changed tack completely or are still doing what you set out to do in the beginning.
The brand you created might have suited the business in its formation. If you started with a small team, presenting yourself as a plucky underdog who wants to do things differently to the big names is a great brand to have. But after years of growth you are now one of those big names and are now trying to prevent the underdogs from stealing your customers or clients.
That feisty brand you created may no longer feel quite so fresh, or competitors entering the market may have replicated or out manoeuvred you. It could be you are now an establish brand in a more mature market, so it may be time to re assess and push on again.
Brands should also change as you target new demographics. Let’s say that you used to focus primarily on people aged 35-55, people with busy lives, assets, and a family. But now you want to expand your audience and target younger people, people fresh out of education who aren’t on the property ladder yet but are planning on starting a family soon. A brand that appeals to an older demographic won’t necessarily appeal to the younger generation too, but with the right changes you can, or even appeal to both equally if the product line and branding allows.
When to Change your Brand
Knowing that a brand update is needed is one thing, choosing the right time to do it is another. If you make a drastic change immediately, it could send the wrong message, and your regular clients/customers who relate to your existing brand could be put off.
On the other hand, if your branding changes are too gradual, it could take years before it represents you the way you want it to. If you’ve already traded for a while without a representative brand, you don’t want to wait much longer than you need to.
The key to branding is staying relevant to your target audiences. Just look at car manufacturers, they may have a great brand and hold market share, but they are constantly looking at how they can re appeal to the same and different customers.
They tend to work on a 3–4-year cycle in terms of styling, interiors and technology. They have learnt that purchasers of new cars want and demand something fresh every 3 – 4 years, not because the car no longer does the job it was intended for, but because their competition will be looking to turn the heads of their customers.
The logo is likely to stay the same, but their overall brand image will evolved to stay ‘customer relevant’ – That being said, their logo branding may also need a refresh, just as Coca-Cola and British Airways have done in the past. Thankfully, we’re here to help. With the right branding experts in your corner, you’ll be able to refresh your brand and see immediate results.
How we Change your Brand
The biggest benefit of choosing Williams&Crosby over a dedicated branding expert is that we have everything you need to change your brand in-house. It needs to be a coordinated effort, switching up your website, social media, print media, and even your branded merchandise at the same time. A company that only helps with branding, and no other aspects of marketing, will express the importance of all this, but will have to put you in touch with multiple other companies to get it all set into motion.
We have all the branding solutions you need under one roof. If you’re redoing your website, we’ll handle that for you whilst also organising a professional photoshoot and some business videos to promote your new brand. For future events or trade shows we’ll not only design and build an exhibition stand packed with branding but can also provide you with the merchandise to hand out to attendees. And last but not least, if you or any of your team wear branded clothing, we’ll create a fresh new line for you.
If you’re worried about your brand, and aren’t sure if it still represents you, we’re ready and waiting to help you get back on track.