Is it time for a brand refresh?

How a brand refresh could revive your business performance?

A brand refresh is one of the most impactful ways you can breathe life and new relevance in to your brand. Conceived primarily as a cosmetic solution, a brand refresh can have a powerful, wide-ranging impact.

Depending on issues that your current brand may face, a refresh can also include adjustments to slogans, services and culture.

What is a brand refresh?

A brand refresh is a reimagining of the look and feel of your business. It’s a way to create a new front for your business if it starting to feel a bit stale or outdated.

Rejuvenating the look and feel of your brand can go a long way toward injecting new life into business performance. Companies that remain stagnant while their competitors reinvent themselves with fresh looks and relevant ways to communicate can expect to lose their competitive edge in no time.

A brand refresh is often undertaken to ensure a brand is keeping pace with current marketplace trends.

You’re not redefining who you are as a company – just finding a new way to re-connect with your target market.

Why is a brand refresh necessary?

A brand refresh places your business front-of-mind with current and new customers alike, it gives your customers something to talk about and can lead to an uptick in sales. A new logo and tagline are enough to remind customers your brand exists and that you’re still relevant to their needs.

The more often your current customers and potential leads are thinking about your brand, the more likely they are to opt to buy from you as opposed to one of your competitors.

Attracting new customers is one thing, keeping them long-term is another. Brand refreshment signals to your existing customers that you are evolving alongside their needs, and staying one step ahead of the competition. Customers like to feel that the brands they associate themselves with are current and relevant.

The majority of employees would rather work for a company on the leading edge of its industry than a brand spinning its wheels. A refresh signals to employees that your company is abreast of current trends and tuned in to employee needs.

When is the right time to do a brand refresh?

For most companies, a brand refresh is necessary every three to five years, depending on how quickly their particular market changes.

Consumer products across industries like fashion, food & beverage, beauty, and wellness generally need to refresh their brands more often to stay abreast of trends and maintain relevance.

business to business brands, across industries such as technology, financial services, healthcare, and information technology, will typically need to refresh their brand every five years or so.

Signs it may be time for you to consider an update

Your brand feels outdated
The most obvious sign that a refresh is necessary is a brand that looks and feels like something from a previous decade. You don’t need to be a multi-media guru to recognise an outdated brand.

Increased Competition
With the Sunshine Coast growing at a rapid rate, one tell-tale sign your brand needs a refresh is the mounting threats from the competition. This could come in the form of innovative new players entering the competitive landscape and threatening to take market share.

Or it could be simply that your closest competitor has revamped its brand and is speaking to customers in new and more appealing ways. In either case, a brand refresh is the best way to stay one step ahead of the market.

Your marketing is underperforming
If you’re not seeing the results from your marketing campaigns that you once did, it may be time to refresh the driving force behind them – your brand.

Appeal to new audiences
Looking to your expand offerings into new markets? To do so, you’ll probably have to attract a new set of eyeballs. One of the best ways to appeal to new audiences is to refresh your brand with them in mind.

How do you successfully refresh a brand?

Like all branding initiatives, the most successful brand refreshes start with research. This could take the form of a brief online survey around what they expect from your brand.

Working with the insights from your customer research, think through the ways in which your brand positioning and messaging needs to be adjusted.

Typically, the most central work to any brand refresh is an update of visual identity. This includes your logo, color scheme, photographic style, etc. A crisp, clean new logo is one of the best signals that a brand has its sights set firmly on the future.

Reactivate the brand

The final step of any refresh is to reintroduce your brand to the world. Updating your website and social media channels is one of the first and most immediate steps, but a refresh is only truly successful if your target audience is aware of it.

This means a proactive marketing campaign to get your rejuvenated brand in front of the eyes of those who need to see it. Think through the channels where your customers already are (social media, television, radio, etc.) and craft a brand activation campaign designed to get attention.

Disclaimer: This article contains general information only. Regrettably, no responsibility can be accepted for errors, omissions or possible misleading statements or for any action taken as a result of any material in this guide. It is not designed to be a substitute for professional advice, as such a brief guide cannot hope to cover all circumstances and conditions applying to the law as it relates to these items.