Rebranding takes time, effort, and coordination – but can be the single most effective factor to improve your business performance and boost sales. Most Fortune 500 companies have gone through major branding for various reasons, but their results speak volumes. As times change so does your audience, and these fundamental shifts of consumer attitudes are sink-or-swim.
So your first question probably is: When is the right time to rebrand your business?
As long as you’re sure you won’t risk losing trust with your audience or value in your brand, the time to reevaluate your branding is:
When you’re trying to reach a new target demographic
If your logo looks blurry or outdated
Your competition is performing significantly better
When you introduce a new service or feature
These are just a few examples – never compromise your brand’s reputation by distancing your audience from their familiarity with your brand. Once you’ve decided your business is ready to move forward, it’s time to consider which aspects you’re going to change. All too often, our design team has to reject logos or other designs because they were not created with versatility or printing capabilities in mind.
To prevent any possible setbacks with your new logo and other materials, here are three of our most helpful design tips to think about before you rebrand:
Follow Design Guidelines
- One of the best rebranding design philosophies is to pair your fonts and colors in a complimentary manner. Online pantone color matching charts and font pairing guides can help you find colors and fonts to represent your brand and produce visually appealing artwork.
- When it comes to rebranding, remember that less is more. Logos that have too much going on can distract your audience, while simple logos create a lasting impression in just a glance.
Avoid Common Mistakes
- Make sure your new design is a vector image that can be rescaled to any size – common vector image file types are EPS, SVG, or PDF. A good way to tell if your file is in a vector format is to zoom in on the image and see if there is any blurriness. If your image looks fuzzy, you should recreate it with an image processing software like Adobe Photoshop or use a low-cost design service to help you create a new logo for print.
- We often have designs submitted that don’t work with all of the products the business owner would like to use, which limits their marketing capabilities. Consider all of the different brand applications your marketing team will use to promote your business. Will your new logo look great printed on a lanyard, a keychain, and a t-shirt?
- Choose an easy-to-read font that can be printed on a variety of surfaces and sizes. Don’t use fonts with italics or thin lettering to avoid problems during print or production.
Creatively Represent Your Brand
- Brands in niche industries can feel trapped within certain color schemes or font pairings, but think outside the boxwhen creating your logo. What can you do to set your brand apart from the competition? The best examples of rebranding from history show that the most effective logos have an even mix of creativity and simplicity.
- Stick to what your customers know. Don’t surprise your audience with a new logo that looks entirely different than what they’re used to – take what has worked for you in the past and put a new spin on it. If you’re stuck, seek outside counsel from a professional design or marketing agency.
Give yourself time before you commit to your next great idea – rebranding isn’t a quick and easy process. With these tips, we hope you’ll be able to consider some new ideas that can improve not only the performance of your promotional products, but also the performance of your business in general. What are some questions you have about rebranding that we didn’t answer? Leave your answer in the comment section below!