New Year, New Strategy: 4 Signs Your Company Needs a Rebrand

In business, your brand can be gold, or it can be your downfall. A strong brand helps you authentically connect to your audience and evoke emotion to strengthen brand loyalty. Meanwhile, a brand that isn’t distinct, cohesive, or accurately representative enough can lead to your brand fading into the background, confusing customers, and seeming disorganized or even incompetent. But how do you know when it’s time to refresh and rebuild?

Recently, I helped lead a rebrand at a company that determined in early 2019 its online presence didn’t align with its current offerings. Taking a look at its website, which was designed 2 to 3 years ago, company leadership realized it was being portrayed as its past self and not as its current, evolved self. On average, companies tend to redesign their websites every three years to keep up with tech trends. This website redesign was the company’s third in 10 years, so it was a timely change.

When it comes to deciding whether it’s time to redesign your website or even rebrand entirely, it’s crucial to look at a number of barometers and assets -- your website, your social media messaging, your logo, and even your organization itself. However, beyond a full assessment, there are some easy red flags you should look out for that should spark rebrand talks immediately.

Here are four signs you need to take a good look at your brand and seek a makeover in 2020:

1. You blend in with your competition

If your brand isn’t distinctive enough to stand out, you’ll be dispensable to your customers. If you’re all alike, they might as well choose one of your competitors. Leaving this up to chance hurts your business. It’s crucial to find your point of differentiation and center your branding around it, making sure your brand stands out enough to sway your audience.

2. People are having trouble navigating your website

There are many signs that your current user design isn’t working. People might be having trouble finding things. The information may be presented in a way that’s difficult to understand or isn’t visually appealing. Or perhaps the site was top-tier 5 years ago, but now doesn’t hold up to industry standards. If you don’t know whether your site is user-friendly, it’s a good idea to conduct some research and find out from randomly selected users. Once you know where you stand and where problems lie, you can go about hiring a team to either fix what’s wrong or start over again entirely.

3. Your messaging doesn’t align across platforms

The message you convey must be cohesive and consistent across all of your platforms -- your website, direct mail, social media, ads, and even internal communications. Everything should align. You must convey messaging that matches up to your brand identity, image, culture, character, personality, and essence. Otherwise, you’ll appear inconsistent and unreliable. At best, your audience might perceive you as disorganized, and at worst, they’ll dismiss you as incompetent. If your messaging doesn’t align, it’s a sign that your brand doesn’t accurately reflect your organization, which means it’s time for a change.

4. It’s been a while, and you’ve evolved

In a similar vein, you don’t want your audience to think you’re out of touch or erratic. Organizations change just like people do; it’s a simple fact of life. Look at your brand and ask yourself whether it fits where you are now, or where you were when you first built it. If the answer is the latter, it’s definitely time to rebrand. Ensuring your brand matches your organization is key to cultivating strong brand loyalty -- after all, if your audience can’t trust how you’re portraying yourself, why should they trust you with their time and money?

We work frequently with small-to-mid-sized businesses who need a rebrand but don’t know where to start. Parklife offers consultations and rebranding services at affordable prices, from web design to copywriting to social media marketing. And as experts on the fly who learn as we do, we’ll work with any industry. This new year, consider giving your brand the makeover it deserves, and don’t hesitate to reach out today!