3 signs it’s time for a brand refresh
Your brand identity is more than just your logo. It’s how the organization looks, acts, and feels.
According to Ana Andjelic in Harvard Business Review, “To successfully reinvent your brand, you must rethink your approach to product, story, culture, and customer.” In other words, brand reinvention is not just marketing’s problem to solve. It is fueled by organizational and operational decisions that support the brand.
Here are three indicators that it may be time for a brand refresh.
1. You have a new vision or programming strategy.
A hallmark of a successful brand refresh starts with the product. I often see dated, tired, or “safe” brand identities that do not adequately convey the exciting vision of organizational leaders or bold new programming aimed attracting a broader audience.
Similarly, I sometimes see clean, modern, and bold brand identities matched with staid or stagnant product lines that haven’t changed much over the years.
Ask yourself: Does the product match the promise? Which one needs to shift—or do both product and brand promise need to evolve—to reach and resonate with the audiences you seek to serve?
2. Your brand story is not being told.
I once bought a bagless vacuum at the beginning of the brand’s popular rise. A small booklet came packaged with the product that told the perfect underdog story of how the inventor was stymied on his entrepreneurial journey by a money-grubbing industry leader and went on to patent his invention at great cost and sacrifice—all to bring me the glorious product now in my hands. I felt like a hero using my new vacuum, which further cemented the story.
If a vacuum company can tell a compelling story, chances are you can too.
The vacuum story resonated because it was human. It made me silently cheer the underdog. That the product worked as advertised was important, but the story made me brand loyal. According to Harvard Business Review, “Once consumers buy into a brand story, they are less likely to leave or switch than when they just buy a product.” People buy your brand when your story becomes part of their story.
Do you know what your story is? Is it simple, relevant, and repeatable? If your brand story could be developed, refined, or better communicated, it’s time for a brand refresh.
3. You don’t really know your customer.
Many “companies have plenty of customer data, but they often lack customer insight,” according to Harvard Business Review. Knowing your customer is key to any brand reinvention. Can you answer these questions:
Who are your core and aspirational customers?
What are their motivations and interests?
What are their media habits and key influences?
What are their barriers to purchase?
What main characteristics do they value?
Know what your customers value, things like status, community, luxury, creativity, adventure or novelty. This goes beyond bland qualifiers like quality or excellence. Those are expected; they are table stakes.
Brands sometimes focus on features—like what’s on the upcoming program, or on price—because it’s easier for everyone, including consumers, to wrap their heads around. It’s much harder to focus on what your customers value and how your brand delivers it.
Creating an actionable target audience framework, based on your research, is an important step to building messages that will resonate with them.
Consistent with Jim Collins’ flywheel theory that consistent action over time builds momentum, the results of a brand refresh take time to manifest, sometimes measured over years and even decades. The decisions you make—strategic, creative, and operational—can put your brand on the path toward growth and relevance.