Is it time to rebrand your business?

This year marks year 5 for ME Marketing Services. That also means it’s time to freshen up my branding. And I don’t like change.

I love my branding. I love my logo. I love my colors. I don’t want to change, but I also know things need to be freshened up every few years.

I have a loving friend who continually pushes me to my comfort limit on this and beyond (in a good way) and she began nudging me a few months back about this. So with 2016 being year 5 I decided to bite the bullet. But you’ll have to wait until June to see the end result 🙂

Meanwhile, I’ve been to the Southern C Summit put on by the Southern Coterie and there was a session on re-evaluating your brand, which was perfect timing for me. The session was led by the ladies at Stitch Design Co. and fostered some great conversation and thought around re-branding a business.

When you get to the point to re-brand you have to have to first look around at the landscape around you – what has changed. Were you left behind? Are you still in the game? How has your brand evolved over time?

While doing this, if you’re like me, you’ll know the emotional and personal connection you have to your brand and how much you just love the elements of it. This business is my baby – I built it from scratch. I designed it all and am fiercely protective over every pixel of it. BUT we have to let go of that personal connect and be willing to be open to change if we want to continue to evolve and stay in the game.

That’s where my friend came in (thanks Mallie!).

As you look at completely re-branding or even just freshening up things, you need to take a long, hard look and ask yourself some tough questions –

• Does your logo represent all that you stand for?
• Is there equity in that logo or can you scrap it?
• Are you reaching the right audience?
• Are you showcasing all of your companies’ skills and such as compared to your competitors?
• Has your brand reputation changed?
• What is unique to your brand?

You can’t take those questions lightly. It may take you weeks, even months, to answer those, but you have to answer them.

Once you do answer them, there’s another set of questions you need to ask yourself (I know, it’s like an ever-spinning wheel of questions)…

• What brand equity have I established and what is worth keeping?
• What are my long-term plans?
• How can I engage my customers in new ways?
• How can I change things and keep it all relevant? <—– This is the money question!!

Now that you have everything answered, you’ll know whether or not it’s time to re-brand or freshen things up. As much as I love my logo, I’m ready to tweak it. You still have to wait until June to see it 😉

If you do not ever freshen things up, your brand will go stagnant and run the danger of becoming irrelevant. Look at some of the major brands in this world – how many times in the past 20 years has McDonald’s re-branded itself? Coca-Cola just freshened up it’s branding. Burger King has re-branded with it’s slogan multiple times as well. Wal-Mart has updated their logos a few times too. If the large companies of this world recognize it needs to be done, shouldn’t you?

Who’s ready to get started?