Corporate rebranding is a high-risk, high-reward endeavor.
Completely overhauling identity of an enterprise business isn’t for the faint of heart. But when done right, the risks involved can be mitigated. And the upside has the potential to be game-changing.
If you’re considering rebranding your corporation or simply want to learn more about what corporate rebranding entails, you’ve come to the right place.
In this post, we’ll outline corporate rebranding dos and don’ts that we’ve learned firsthand from more than hundred rebrands over the course of more than two decades.
You’ll walk away with a solid understanding of what corporate rebranding includes, what you should always consider in any corporate rebranding project, and what you should avoid at all costs.
CONTENTS
What is Corporate Rebranding?
Corporate rebranding is the process of reshaping the way a corporate entity is perceived by its customers, its employees, and other key stakeholders.
Corporate rebranding is more important than ever in a modern market landscape of unprecedented corporate transparency.
Corporate rebranding begins with defining a framework for the brand in question, before developing a strategy for communicating that framework to stakeholders.
Corporate Rebranding Dos
Corporate rebranding is an investment just like any other business expense. But it’s an investment with the potential of exponential returns over many years. And there are a few things you should absolutely do to ensure your investment pays off.
Here are some corporate rebranding “dos” that every rebrand should include.
1. Do Thorough Brand Research
If there’s one thing every corporate rebranding project benefits from, it’s brand research. Thorough customer research, including one-on-one customer interviews, gives you critical insight into the way your customers experience your brand.
Research helps you better understand your target audience so that you can build a brand that addresses their unique goals and challenges.
2. Do Differentiate Your Brand
The whole point of corporate rebranding is to differentiate your brand from the competition. But the reason you stand out should be authentic to who you are as an organization.
This is what we call meaningful competitive differentiation.
Identify your brand’s competitive advantage, determine your unique value proposition, and meaningful differentiation will follow.
3. Do Create an Unforgettable Tagline
There’s nothing like a great tagline to ensure your audience remembers you.
Clever, pithy, poignant or powerful, taglines speak volumes with just a few words. Talk about an economic use of words.
Beyond conveying your brand’s value proposition, a good tagline sticks in the minds of your target audience, associating your brand with positive positive and relevant benefits.
4. Do Define a Brand Compass
A well-defined brand compass is among the most valuable branding tools available to any corporation.
Working with key stakeholder within your organization to define each element of your brand compass is arguably the most integral part of the corporate rebranding process. We recommend hands-on, interactive workshops geared to uncover fundamental truths about who you are as a company.
Only by understanding and clearly articulating your company’s purpose, vision, mission, and values will you be able to position your brand for success within the competitive landscape.
5. Do Define an Authentic Brand Personality
An authentic brand personality is central to attracting the right types of customers—and keeping them.
Customers relate to brands they identify with on a human level. Defining your brand attributes and using them to define an authentic and relatable personality is key to creating more consistent and compelling brand experience.
Corporate Rebranding Don’ts
Now for the other side of the corporate rebranding coin. When you’ve rebranded as many companies as we have, certain patterns emerge. There are some approaches to corporate rebranding, like those above, that prove time and time again to pay valuable dividends.
And then there are some that inevitably lead to costly failures.
Avoiding the following corporate rebranding “don’ts” will save you a lot of time, money, and aggravation when all is said and done.
1. Don’t Skip Internal Brand Research
You might think you know how your employees feel about your brand, but the reality may surprise you.
Internal brand research gives you a comprehensive look at how your team members perceive your brand, which directly impacts how they interact with customers and team members alike.
Since they are quite literally the face of your brand, it’s important to know whether your team members share your core values and are aligned with your brand’s strategic objectives.
2. Don’t Overlook Brand Architecture
Few things are more important to consider in a corporate rebranding project than your company’s portfolio of brands, sub-brands, products and/or services–i.e., your brand architecture. This is especially true if your rebrand is the result of a merger or acquisition.
Companies that come out the other end of a rebrand with a unified, cohesive brand are the ones that take the time to think carefully about which brand architecture is right for the future of their business.
Those that don’t are destined to deal with the consequences of confused customers and frustrated stakeholders.
3. Don’t Make a Promise You Can’t Keep
Your brand promise is a fundamental commitment to your customer.
There are many qualities that make a brand promise great—authenticity, uniqueness, believability—but the most important part of your brand promise is that you keep it—every time.
When customers trust you to keep your central promise, brand loyalty is sure to follow.
4. Don’t Forget to Establish Brand Metrics
They may not be the sexiest part of the corporate rebranding process, but brand metrics are the most tangible way to measure your rebrand’s ROI.
Three types of metrics are important to track: Perception, Performance, and Financial.
Each type provides different insights into your brand’s performance, allowing you to make course corrections for future performance.
5. Don’t Haphazardly Roll Out Your New Brand
Months of diligent work and emotional energy go into rebranding a company. Yet when they finally get the chance to unveil it, many companies think the work is done.
It’s not.
A great new brand deserves a proper rollout, which involves advance planning, strategic unveiling, and coordinated events. A well-executed brand launch will ensure you get the most out of your new brand.
The Takeaway
Not only is corporate rebranding well worth doing, it’s well worth doing right. Remembering the corporate rebranding dos and don’t will save you time, money, and no small amount of heartache in the process.
Our final piece of advice: Find a qualified branding agency to help you do the work.
With all the things to consider when planning a corporate rebrand, it’s rarely a project an internal team can handle on their own. But, since corporate rebranding is a collaborative process between you and your agency of choice, heeding the advice above will ensure you’re well-equipped to get the most out of the process.
Brian Lischer
A prolific blogger, speaker, and columnist, Brian has two decades of experience in design and branding. He’s written for publications including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc. Magazine, Fast Company, HuffPost, and Brand Quarterly.
