Rebranding your business is a huge commitment to make and a decision that requires planning. Whether you recently discovered a cool new color scheme or your logo is so outdated that you cringe, rebranding can be a great option with huge benefits. Rebranding often includes a variety of design elements that may consist of an updated color scheme, revised logo, or more comprehensive branding throughout all business materials. With a little planning, the rebranding process can be easy.
When clients come to us for rebranding, they often don’t know how to describe what they are looking for. Instead of leaving the guesswork or mind reading to us, there are several steps that you can take regardless of who is handling the design work for your rebrand.
FYI: A few months ago, we wrote about “5 Tips for Successful Rebranding“, use this post to receive more in-depth insight on how to make your rebranding a success along with our supplemental checklist below.
Practical Ideas on How to Start the Rebranding Process:
- Collect images that reflect your business’ mission, values, culture and more. Think of this as a mood board that can help spark ideas on where you want your branding to go and want your new message to be! Here’s a great example: maybe your company is going global, if so, an idea would be to incorporate more international photos into your updated branding items. Share these photos and inspiration with your design team to help them understand the new direction.
- Take a look at your current color scheme. Are the colors reflecting a positive and updated message about your company or are they just simply outdated?
- Define your services and figure out if there is a service that is not performing well, or a service area that should receive more attention. Now is the time to cut out services that aren’t making money, and give more attention to the areas that are! Make these changes when any new promotional materials are developed.
- Review how clients are currently finding out about your business. Is it social media, word-of-mouth, or magazine advertisements? Find out what’s working and continue to improve. If social media is a huge boost for your business, get serious and include a social media plan in your rebranding process. It will help to define relevant goals, set a schedule, and put your business out there!
- If you don’t already have a website, purchase a relevant domain name and get a website up! (We highly recommend having a source of all go-to information for your business, this could even be a temporary landing page with contact information and business hours). Not sure where to start on this, start putting together an outline of important information that you can use as the foundation.
- Brainstorm areas on how you can standout. Recently we had a client that wanted their letterhead to standout from other day to day papers on a desk. The solution? A beautiful speciality paper was selected in a fresh color of cream. Not only did it provide a texture that said, “hey, notice me, I’m different” but it also stood out in the shuffle of papers.
Rebranding doesn’t have to be hard. When making the change, don’t plan for a temporary design fix that will last only a year, meet with your design team to find out how a rebrand can have a long and lasting impression.
Don’t have a design team? Contact us today to learn more about our rebranding solutions for businesses of all sizes.
R2F Creative LLC provides graphic design + branding and web design solutions for clients nationwide and locally in Ankeny and Des Moines, Iowa.
