Five elements of a rebrand
What are the key elements of a rebrand? In recent weeks, we’ve completed the CMC rebrand and project-managed a global rebrand for a client. In scale and complexity, the two projects couldn't have been more different, but many of the steps involved were similar. Here’s our thoughts on five elements to consider when refreshing a brand.
1. Positioning
Start by understanding where your organisation is now, and where you want to get to. Consider questions such as:
- What is your core purpose and who do you serve?
- What are your organisational values and how do they play out in what you do?
- How do you want your organisation to be perceived and by whom?
- What work do you excel at and want more of? What should you stop doing?
- Where do you bring most value?
- What company do you want to keep - who do you want to partner with?
The answers to these questions help refine your business goals and form the basis of a focused branding brief.
2. Stakeholder feedback
Seek feedback from your stakeholders - including customers and suppliers. Test whether your understanding of your customers' priorities matches theirs, find out what they value and whether there are gaps in the service you provide.
Depending on budget, this can either be a simple online survey to your contacts, or could involve larger scale digital listening work or customer/prospect focus groups. The important thing is to take the opportunity to listen to your stakeholder base and use that feedback to inform your future positioning.
3. Design
The visual identity is the exciting part and made much easier with a strong brief, combining the above with practical considerations such as what materials and assets you need and how your branding will be used.
The values, audiences and objectives in your brief will give your designer the direction needed to explore broad approaches or themes, before shortlisting concepts to hone as you work together to refine final designs. Seek early feedback from a defined group of internal stakeholders on initial concepts to spot potential conflicts, refine ideas, and secure buy-in to the process.
4. Application and testing
New brand assets need to be applied and tested, ideally with employees not directly involved in the project. Common tripwires include challenges with office templates, applying new fonts, one off events or sponsorships that “need something urgent”, or image sizing issues – particularly on websites. Inevitably some of these issues will come up post launch, but investing time in testing the assets people will rely on the most is time well spent.
5. Launch
The big reveal is an exciting moment to share with your stakeholders. How you do this depends partly on the scale and purpose of change and the size of your business. A rebrand is often an opportunity to re-energise and excite employees and engage them in the positive journey your organisation is going on. But this aspect can often be overlooked. Plan your internal communications so that the opportunities and values that underpin the rebrand don’t get lost in the list of requirements to update presentations and change email signatures.
And while a brand refresh alone may not be priority news for your clients, it’s important to plan how you will share any changes that will affect them or promote new services they could benefit from as part of your rebrand communications.
How can CMC help?
Since launching CMC 12 years ago, we’ve worked on several rebranding projects, providing project management, brand positioning, communications and design services depending on the brief.
We specialise in helping organisations develop their brand positioning before working in partnership with our design associate or your own design team/agency to develop a visual identity that supports your positioning and aligns with your business objectives.
Take a look at our case studies or contact us for more information.