Does Your Web Design Business Need a Rebrand?

Your brand and identity are what makes you stand out from the crowd and sets you apart from the competition. In a globalized economy, there is a lot of competition and always someone that offers exactly, or something very similar to, what you do. Staying ahead of the curve is a constant endeavor, not a “set it and forget it” type of deal.

Reinventing a company and a brand is something everyone has to do from time to time. There can be plenty of reasons to do that; maybe customer awareness is not on satisfying levels, sales are down, the initial design and strategy were not on par, or maybe you simply have grown bored of the old strategies. Usually, the main culprits are your brand and your website, as they are crucial parts of your success. If one is a little off, the other can suffer as well, so it can be difficult to figure out which one is lacking.

Let’s cover all the key points involved in a business rebrand. How, when, and why should you do it?

1. The Definition

What is a business rebranding? It is a change in the way a business or a brand presents themselves to the public. This encompasses all channels through which it can reach its audience; a partial solution is not the right one in this case. In fact, it could be quite detrimental. But, it always starts with a website and hiring the right designer. It can impact various aspects of your brand; the logo, color palette, icons, multimedia content, etc. all can be changed to reach a different design. Website redesigns and company rebrands are initiated and, down the line, shaped by new business goals and market conditions.

2. The Logo

The purpose of a logo is to instill instant recognition into a wider audience. Logos are the face of your business and brand, so they need to make a positive impression on new clients and be enforced with the regulars. Your responsibility is to back up your design with a substantial customer experience. As for new potential customers, it needs to spark interest and positivity in order to help draw people in. Humans are primarily visually-driven, so the design of your website is of the utmost importance, and the logo is one of the main parts of it. Basically, visuals are processed by the long-term memory center in our brains, while the plain text is processed by the short-term part. Logos come in various different shapes and sizes, usually appearing as word marks, symbols, letter marks, or emblems. But, they all have one goal in common: acquire and retain attention and customer loyalty.

So, when exactly do you need a logo refresh or rebrand?

No matter how long your business may have been around, it needs to evolve and change with the times. Every now and again, your website needs to be updated to ensure that you don’t appear obsolete to consumers. That is exactly your number one reason, as consumers want to feel like the company they are interacting with is up to date.

The second reason is that, if you’re not doing it, you risk falling behind because everyone else has evolved. In terms of competition, you need to grab every chance you get.

Finally, the consumption of online material is changing very rapidly. Your logo needs to change as well. Many very well-established companies have changed their logo multiple times over the decades. Pay close attention and you will see the distinct trend of minimalist design.

3. The Reasoning

As business owners, you can have multiple reasons to start thinking about rebranding. Aside from that, it is essential to write down all of your goals before actually committing. Failing to do so could hamper your actual business operations and could leave you wandering aimlessly. You need to know your objectives well in advance. These will prepare you for all that comes during and after the process of rebranding. It will also help you focus on completing the entire transition.

Let’s go through some of the most probable reasons why a company would want to rebrand.

Maybe the image of your company is getting old and stale and you want to keep up with modern trends. The market changes and your design might not be reflecting what you want it to anymore.

Next, you may seek to give value and appeal to new products that you are launching. Especially in the world of tech, new inventions and innovations are coming out regularly. Your current branding scheme might not reflect the kind of image your new line-up represents.

Previous business operations might have earned you a bad reputation. A rebrand is a good way of showing the audience that you are turning over a new leaf and taking things in a different direction.

Lastly, it can be done as a last-ditch effort. If a company is facing bankruptcy and is looking to overcome less-than-favorable odds, it is a good idea to showcase the good points.

4. The Changes

What are the actual changes that your company needs to make? It is an equally important question that business owners need to ask themselves. There are several ways you can go on about this.

• You can organize a poll within your business. Valuable suggestions and ideas can be gathered this way as your employees have a lot of insight that can benefit everyone. They can point out various faulty business aspects like packaging design, safety oversight, lack of customer feedback or potentially misleading or deceptive conduct, etc.
• You can always carefully select a few of your employees to be a crucial part of your rebranding team. Their in-depth involvement and participation in all areas of your company will greatly aid and smooth out any transitions the rebranding process might make.
• Feedback from your clients is always a gold mine that you just need to tap in to. It will help you know about the elements that are working in your favor and the ones that are not. They will point out what is damaging your process so you can cut those tails loose in future endeavors.
• Finally, let’s discuss surveys. You can contact your marketing team for conducting research-based surveys. Make sure that the focus of these surveys includes your existing products, services, and new launches. With these methods, you can get a grasp on what exactly needs to be changed and in what direction.

5. Associated Costs

Any and all costs associated with a rebranding process need to be combined into a sum total before you initiate transition. You do not want to reach the half-way mark only to realize that you have run out of resources. Coming up with and designing new graphic design items come with their own price tags. As an example, you may need to redesign your old catalog and produce new ones that address your new product and/or service line-up. Task responsibilities need to be designated to every individual. This will help you keep track of what’s being done and what’s left to be done.

6. Letting Everyone Know

If you have a sizable robust following, it’s best to communicate with that audience about the rebranding. People typically like routines, so surprising them with a completely out-of-the-blue redesign of all that they knew and loved is not a good idea. Social media platforms can be used to communicate these changes and make sharing very easy. This campaign should begin before the rebranding actually takes place. Teasers are a good starting point. Giving a small taste of what is to come will not only ease the audience into the coming changes, but it will also provide you with valuable feedback before you have actually done anything. This news needs to be enticing and exciting, containing a promise of something greater and better than what used to be. In the era of online communication, this campaign is very easy to follow through. It’s important to not leave anyone wondering what happened to the content they grew accustomed to.

7. Mission Statement

Your mission statement is what reflects the objectives that your company wants to achieve. As everything evolves, so can your mission. But rather than changing it, the best practice is to add to it and make it more appealing. Everyone can offer a product or a service, but the context is what sets one company apart from another. Why are you doing what you’re doing, how are you bringing value to the world and leaving a positive impact? Those are the questions that customers want answers to.

Takeaway

There is much work that goes into the redesign of a website.  Graphic design concepts, logos, business cards, advertisements, you name it. They all need to follow a common thread, something that connects all of it into a comprehensive whole. These are the tools you can use to catch up with the times while still staying true to what you always were about.