This is a surprisingly uncommon question. However, its been asked twice this week, so we wanted to answer “What is a rebrand and should I consider it?”. This article aims to define what your brand is to your customers and do they relate and engage with it.  Could you tweak what you already have, realign the values to attract more customers?

Let’s start with your brand.

What is a brand?

Let’s tell you, it isn’t a logo and a business card. A brand is your customer’s perception of your product or service. Your brand is the engagement your staff have with what you offer and how you approach it. It’s the single most important entity in what your customers perceive you to be.

Depending upon how and when your brand was originally built these elements may have not been considered. You might be doing good business but could it be better? Always.

Will a brand encourage my customers to pay on time?
Yes, it does. The power of perception does indeed help. If your business looks like it has a solid structure and foundation, then you can’t be overshadowed by their prowess – instead you align yours with theirs. Never forget, you also have processes which need to be respected. When your business looks like a ‘cheap offering’ then although you might have the work, it doesn’t possess the integrity on which your values align.

Why would I rebrand?

Have a look at your competition. How do your industry peers present themselves?  Are they a five star hotel which get the majority of bookings? Are you a three star hotel but offer better customer experience? Your brand can certainly help define the first impression and once you have them, you know how to offer them a great experience.

If you are a coffee shop, restaurant, bar, spa or other customer facing business – competition is vast – with the buying decisions vastly changing along with your demographic, your brand positioning needs to as well. If you carry on targeting the same customers you were five years ago you’ll lose them – they get older and their tastes change. Think of your favourite restaurant five years ago, and what it is today, you’ll have your answer!

AdBrand don’t just build brands, or refresh them to gain a portfolio or even revenue – we do it because we really do care about our craft in which we’re embedded, but also the psychology of the customer and their buying triggers.

Back in 2011 we rebranded a business in Dubai which was generating around $2.1m per year. We rebuilt their brand visuals, worked closely with them to define their values, and show their customers how truly great they were, how professional their service and how they products would and could give them greater results without the need to pay such inflated rates.  During the downturn, this investment was a gamble (or so they thought).

Since then our client (who is still a client today) has seen a dramatic turn in receiving RFPs, large government orders and is now valued at over $14m in common stock and a further $5.2m of ‘in-hand’ contracts. I received a call yesterday to tell me the good news, they are being acquired by a large multinational and wondered what their brand equity would be valued at. This is now a valuation for EY to calculate. It’s a major deal.

Although we would never take the credit for this upshift in their business, they hold us in regard to honour us with this honour (to validate this, I can supply their details on request).

What did this rebrand cost them?

About five hours of workshops and meetings followed by a cash investment of $19,000. As I said it was a ‘risk’ for them at the time, however, they thank us for helping them understand the value of a brand now.

Should you consider a rebrand?

The answer to this will most certainly never be imposed by us (its not our way), the top considerations are:
•  When was our brand last revised?
•. What do our customers think of our product or service?
•  Are we visually aligned with our competition?
•  Does our brand represent our product or service?
•  Are our staff proud of our brand?
•  Is the investment worth the ‘risk’?

What is a rebrand?

It’s a realignment of your visual architecture, comp[rising of all your communication touch points, from the marketing material you broadcast, your website, social presence down to your staff understanding of the business, leading to uniforms, business cards, signage and messaging.

How do we rebrand?

That’s a discussion to be had over a coffee. We can explain the entire process including the timelines and from here we can decide whether it’s a consideration to take seriously.

If you would like to have a chat with our creatives, please say hello@adbrand.tv. If you’re ready to have a conversation with myself, then please do get in touch I’m adam@adbrand.tv.

I really do hope I’ve explained the importance to consider a rebrand for your business, answering ”what is a rebrand” and we look forward to hearing from you. If you have any other questions you might well find the answers here.

Thank you so much for reading.

Adam Ridgway
Creative Director
AdBrand.tv