How do you know when it’s time to rebrand?

Tauranga-based business owner Sarah Jesson recently managed a re-branding exercise for her business and shares her top five indicators that a new brand is on the horizon. 

Most businesses reach a point in their journey where a rebrand becomes necessary, however it is important to weigh up the right time to make the change – it is after all, a massive undertaking.

Even though the past year has been a turbulent one and the idea of something as traumatic as a rebrand might be off-putting, a rebrand could be the fresh start your business desperately needs.

Sarah Jesson, director of Breathe Public Relations, has recently been through the process and shares her top five indicators that a new brand is on the horizon.

1. You’re not feeling it anymore – whether it’s the look of your logo, the name of your business or both, sometimes a brand that you once felt captured your business perfectly is no longer sitting right. It’s important to feel confident with your brand because it is something you share with your clients, customers, family and friends – you want to feel proud of the name and logo you are putting out there.​

2. Your products or services have changed – as your business develops it often evolves and your offering can change with it. When our business was first launched as Ellipsis Creative, we were offering both PR and marketing services and we were doing a lot more graphic design for our clients. Over the years it became more specialised public relations services, so the Ellipsis Creative name that fits so well in the design/creative space was not serving its purpose quite as well for the PR activity we had begun to do much more of.

3. You want to keep up with the times – logos and sometimes names can lose their relevance and become stale. A logo in particular is like an outfit in your wardrobe; you can’t pull the same dress or shirt out ten years later and expect that it will still be in fashion (although miraculously this does happen sometimes!). Of course, you don’t want to have to change your logo every season like with fashion, but a new logo or a logo touch-up every five years is a good goal to aim for. It keeps your business looking professional, “up with the times”, and helps you to put your best foot forward as a brand. You don’t want your customers or clients looking at your logo and assuming you’re out of touch with the latest best practice in your industry (which is exactly what a dated logo suggests).

4. You want to attract a different clientele – if you are struggling to attract the right clients, but you have identified an audience you want to reach, a rebrand can help push you along. For example, we decided we really want to work with more not-for-profits and corporates working ethically to provide better care for the environment and improving mental health and wellbeing for people, so we came up with the name Breathe Public Relations to resonate with these sorts of clients.

5. Your reputation is not great – sometimes we all need a fresh start in life, and it’s no different for a business. Whether your business has struggled through the past year due to the pressures of Covid-19 or you have experienced negative feedback, ratings or a media crisis – a rebrand can be the ‘restart’ button you are needing. This is a really good reason to rebrand, but it’s also important to take a good hard look at why your reputation was damaged in the first place. What mistakes can you learn from? What preventative measures can you put in place to safeguard your reputation in the future? Whatever tools and measures you need to take, make sure that you do – your brand is your greatest asset, protect it.

Breathe PR has clients around the country. They provide traditional public relations, social media management and influencer marketing solutions to a number of medium-sized business and not-for-profits. www.breathepr.co.nz

Photo: The team: (L-R) Rory, Sarah, Kahu and Aimee.