- 6 Ways To Refresh Your Brand And Maintain An Identity Essay
- 6 Ways To Refresh Your Brand And Maintain An Identity Agent
When you’ve realized your brand identity is out-of-date, out-of-touch with what your audiences expect, you might consider a brand new look. Yet a complete rebrand can be a major undertaking. There is another option.
If your current brand identity design has good recognition, a brand refresh builds on that recognition. It keeps a visual connection with your current identity. You can make your brand new again by simplifying, streamlining and establishing new design standards.
A brand refresh is simpler than a total rebrand. Because design exploration is built on using parts of the current visual identity, it takes less time–both for creative development and for review. It’s a quicker, lower-cost way to achieve a brand new look.
But even with a brand refresh, don’t give up the deep dive into who you are, what you stand for and what your audiences appreciate. Ensure your positioning and messaging lines up with the brand new you, too.
The Orlando Construction logo, created in the ’80s, needed an update. Simplifying and streamlining while keeping the orange and the script font created a strong brand refresh and a new brand promise.
Companies in business for more than twenty years often have a logo created before digital marketing and the internet took over. Although the design worked fine in print, it may not work well on the web. Or the design has evolved over time with different people applying it in multiple ways. Now there are many versions of the logo with different fonts and configurations, as was the case for First Federal, shown below.
The new brand identity cleans up what may have been a complex design or one that has morphed over time. It establishes new standards for colors, fonts, proportions and vertical or horizontal applications. It can update a mark, or solidify specific font treatments that “lock-up” with the mark to keep up consistency online and off.
Take what’s working, consolidate and streamline for a new brand
The green and the wheat symbol were updated and used to refresh First Federal. A new font and “lockups” were developed to create consistency in all applications.
Maintaining your culture when moving to another country can be difficult, in particular, if you've been trying to immerse yourself into the new culture to deal with culture shock and adjustment to your new community. But it's important to know that just because you're adapting to a new culture doesn't mean you need to let go of the old. Jul 10, 2017 However, don’t go after the very latest branding trend if that doesn’t speak to your company values and brand identity. The goal here is not to be bleeding-edge (i.e. Taking “leading edge” a step too far), but to keep brand longevity in mind. Make this a collaborative process. Part of tending to your leadership brand is a constant process of self-evaluation. Audit your online presence. Check your digital and social media footprint. This will often be someone’s first impression of your leadership brand, and you want to be sure the image you present meshes with your desired brand. New imagery can make your brand feel new again in an instant. Look at your photo collection. Are the hair styles or clothes from another time? Little giveaways such as these can make a brand look dated even if it is not. Invest in new photography or video that shows your brand or product in action. Make sure that images are high resolution and are cropped to standard screen sizes.
For First Federal, a brand refresh created the consistency a new brand would deliver. Leadership knew there was recognition for the wheat image, but font treatments were random and inconsistent. It was time to clean up their look and create a brand new system that built on what was already recognized.
We designed specific proportions and lock-ups, with two chosen fonts, to elevate their brand identity. The new polished and professional look works well both online and in print. Their brand new look retained elements of the old.
They moved forward with a new brand their existing customers still recognized.
While updating the brand identity, we also examined their positioning. Their strong local presence was emphasized by the brand promise, “we’re here.” Their history in Yamhill County and in the communities they served differentiated them from the competition–large, corporate, out-of-state banks.
A brand refresh can fix other issues
Often as a company evolves, the logo design morphs. Staff chooses colors they think are correct, or may stretch or crop an existing logo to fit a new application. New staff put their own spin on the old logo and may apply it in not so “creative” ways. The result is elements that, when compared side by side, don’t match.
Communication tools are not consistent. Brand integrity is damaged. And often no one knows which file is the correct one to use.
The Gormley Plumbing logo was difficult to work with in different applications. A brand refresh cleaned it up while retaining recognition of who the company is and what they offer.
When you rethink and clean up logo elements, establish standards and guidelines, new fonts and colors, a new brand is defined. You’ll have a brand new way to look at what was old and difficult to work with.
Establish standards and guidelines for the new brand identity
The old version of RootX was difficult to reproduce. We cleaned it up and retained the swirl while making it cleaner and bolder.
In our logo design process, we create lockups for vertical and horizontal, with and without the mark, and with and without a designed brand promise (tagline). We also create a complete set of digital files for color, black and white, grayscale and reverse in CMYK, RGB, HTML and PMS colors.
The client then has a comprehensive resource in an online folder which maintains brand standards no matter who is working with the new logo design.
Thus staff doesn’t have to search files and folders, or ask other staff members to find a logo to use on the website, or for signing or forms or emails or giveaways. The right file formats in standard colors are all available in one place.
Mess solved. Confusion eliminated.
A brand new look moves you forward
We live in a visual culture, people have less patience, everything is “at a glance.” When your brand identity blends in with the competition, or looks out of date and out of touch with what’s current, you run the risk of being ignored and losing potential business.
Change happens more quickly now than it did a decade or two ago. If your brand identity has languished for more than ten years, it may be time to refresh for the new year. Refresh for new recognition. Refresh to demand attention from the audiences you must reach to be successful.
Streamline. Simplify. Maintain consistency.
All excellent goals for any effective brand identity system. And a brand refresh is a way to have a brand new you for the coming year.
You may be interested in these other posts about branding and rebranding.
Any good rebrand program begins with a review of your target audiences. Who are they? What do they expect? Where do you reach them? Use our worksheet below to begin your analysis.
There are a million things to think about when you embark on a rebrand. You need to make sure you’re doing it for the right reason, you need to have the right team, and above all, you need buy-in from everybody. (See our total guide to complete a rebrand to make sure you’ve done things correctly at each stage.)
You may have the best branding ever, but if it isn’t implemented well or properly rolled out, it won’t make the impact you want it to. Thus, it’s important to make a rebrand plan—before you launch. Luckily, there are several things you can do to make your rebrand rollout less stressful.
5 Tips to Help You Launch Your Rebrand
From visual assets to briefing your team, here’s how to deploy a rebrand and set yourself up for long-term success.
1)Prep from the Beginning
As they say, “If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.” One of the best ways to make your rebrand go smoothly (and save everyone’s sanity) is to anticipate, prepare, and spot pitfalls as much as possible. Part of this includes planning for your rollout ahead of time.
Who will need to be notified? Who will prep assets? When will you launch? Who will need to prepare announcements? Who should answer press questions? Create timelines and checklists, assign point people, and try to equip every department with the tools and info they need. That way you can ensure everyone is hitting deadlines—and, even better, spot opportunities to use resources more effectively.
2)Prepare Touchpoints
You don’t want to launch your website with a fresh new logo, then hand out business cards with the old one. Once you launch your rebrand, it should be effective immediately, with any and all required assets boasting the new branding.
If you’re in limbo, it has negative effects on both the external perception of your brand and internal participation because:
- Visual inconsistency reduces the impact of the big rebrand reveal.
- It’s confusing for your team, making it harder for them to follow/enforce new branding guidelines.
To make sure nothing falls through the cracks, here’s a handy checklist of items that may need to be updated:
- Administration
- Email addresses
- Email signatures
- Business cards
- Internal documents (employee handbook, financial documents)
- External documents (sales materials, presentations)
- Financial materials (e.g., invoices)
- Trademarks
- Signage
- Ad words
- Update third-party directories
- Web
- Domain names
- Redirects
- Meta data
- Site titles
- Tags
- Logos
- Favicons
- SEO/keywords
- Marketing
- Brand style guide
- Media kit
- Brand asset library
- Content guidelines
- Newsletter templates
- Promotional materials
- Social
- Handles
- Profile pics
- Bios
- Hashtags
- Distribution plan
- Brief stakeholders
- Brief internal team
- Prepare teasers and public announcements
Some brands may not be ready to flip everything overnight for one reason or another. Even if you have to rebrand in phases, make it very clear what changes are happening when—and what the expectations are going forward. Also, major items, such as signage, website, and other definitive brand assets, should be prioritized.
3)Have Your Style Guide Ready
People will always resist change, so make it as easy as possible for your team to understand and implement your new brand guidelines. A brand style guide is crucial here. Make sure yours is easy to navigate, includes plenty of real-world examples, and is as comprehensive as possible. (Here’s how to assemble a style guide your whole team can use.)
Your team should also know who to contact if they have questions about usage, and make sure the brand style guide lives in an easily accessible place, whether it’s distributed in print or online. Along with the brand style guide, all assets should be easily available, including things like logos, color palettes, fonts, etc.
4)Launch Your Rebrand Internally First
An internal launch can be considered a soft launch. It’s the best way to get everyone on board, work out any kinks, and bring the whole team into the brand story so that they can best represent the brand. A few ways to do that:
- Launch 4-6 weeks before the public launch.
- Explain not just what you’ve done but why you rebranded at all. Talk about the problems you were trying to solve, the strategic thinking behind your creative decisions, etc.
- Consider throwing a special unveiling event.
- Have the creative team walk people through the brand story, from inception to final execution. (A good rebrand is a good story; if you don’t have that, that might be a red flag.)
- Encourage feedback and questions, and designate point people to field these.
- Put the brand in their hands (fun swag, games, quizzes, or brand color-themed parties can generate a lot of excitement).
- Coordinate across departments if you are deploying in multiple offices across the country or world, along with any remote employees.
- Identify where brand style guide and assets live.
Most importantly, make sure everyone knows who they can go to for questions, approvals, etc. going forward.
5)Make Your External Launch an Exciting Event
Once the big day comes, there’s no going back. So make sure your team is ready and confident to unveil the new branding.
1) Prep your press announcements, blogs, marketing newsletters, videos, etc. Note: If you’re an international brand, you might need content translated.
Example: QVC created a demo video showing off their new branding.
2) Create promo assets for every platform (think videos, infographics, Instagram, etc.). Also have assets on hand for easy sharing with press, partners, etc. Make sure everything is high-res and sized correctly.
Example: To announce that they were dropping their name from their logo, Mastercard created this infographic detailing the evolution of their infographic.
3) Know your brand story.How does the new branding reflect the brand’s journey? Why is that interesting to the outside world? You can walk people through the story like Uber (their design team created an in-depth case study) or take a casual approach (like Slack’s new logo announcement).
Example: This super creative Zendesk rebrand video is a brilliant (and on-brand) behind-the-scenes look at their rebrand.
Remember: Your Brand Wasn’t Built Overnight
A rebrand is an exciting endeavor, but it’s not the end of your brand story. Preserving your brand integrity is crucial to help your brand penetrate the consciousness and have true staying power, and that requires diligent work.
6 Ways To Refresh Your Brand And Maintain An Identity Essay
Post rebrand, it’s your content that plays a huge role in telling your brand story, so make sure your team is empowered to do it well and consistently. A few tips and resources to help:
- Find out how to build the right content team (even if you’re a small department).
- Learn how to craft a content strategy to help you tell the right stories.
- Optimize your content creation process so you can work more efficiently.
- Work smarter, not harder with these 100+ tools to create quality content.
- Show people who you are by turning your culture into interesting content.
- Think of unique ways to tell your brand story.
- Experiment with different mediums, whether it’s infographics, videos, or interactives.
- Track the right metrics for your buyer’s journey to figure out if what you’re doing is working.
6 Ways To Refresh Your Brand And Maintain An Identity Agent
And if you’re struggling to create high-quality content at scale, don’t feel bad about calling in re-enforcements. Try these tips to vet a content agency, and let us know if you ever want to talk shop.