A Step By Step Guide Through The Rebranding Process.

Are you experiencing a decline in the market share? Is your brand identity becoming outdated? A well-structured rebranding process can help you regain market share and amplify your brand positioning. A carefully planned rebranding strategy can boost sales, revenue, and brand awareness. It helps companies expand their target audience and introduce new offerings without alienating their current brand positioning and identity. 

But if failed to plan and execute the strategy properly, a company can face serious consequences. The risks of rebranding include losing a hefty market share, alienating the current brand, losing loyal customers, and diluting the brand image. Therefore, a company planning to rebrand must carefully build its strategy and follow a proven rebranding template to avoid unwanted situations. 

This article has broken down the rebranding process into simple yet highly effective steps to increase the chances of success and reduce the risks along the journey. You will learn how to prepare for the rebranding initiative in the best possible way—building and executing the strategy for maximum results while avoiding common pitfalls. So, without any further ado, let’s get into it. 

Preparing for a Rebranding Initiative

Preparing for the rebrand is the most essential component that companies often overlook. During this stage, brands learn about their strengths and weaknesses and the main reasons for rebranding. Insights obtained at this stage help businesses to carefully lay the foundations for a compelling marketing strategy while keeping all odds in their favor. The following are the main steps to prepare a company for a successful rebranding initiative. 

Understanding the Reasons to Rebrand

Before the rebranding launch, a company must know why rebranding is necessary for its success. It must have a solid purpose before reshaping its brand strategy. A company may start by asking relevant rebranding questions. For example, does the brand align appropriately with the market interests? Is the current brand strategy resonating with the current audience? Does the brand want to shed off negative associations? 

While finding answers to these questions, companies must thoroughly assess their current performance and brand equity to learn and understand the exact purpose behind a rebrand. It involves measuring their market positioning, consumer perceptions, customer acquisition, and sales. 

Companies must invest their time and effort in conducting in-depth market research. They must adequately understand their target audience, interest shifts, and market trends. After gaining meaningful insights, businesses must compare the data with their current brand to identify the problems and reasons behind the declining market share. 

Market research helps companies determine whether the brand messaging aligns with the existing customers. It allows companies to decide between rebranding vs repositioning and what types of rebranding can help in certain situations. The following table gives a rough idea of different situations and suitable rebrands. 

Reasons for Rebranding	Most Suitable Type of Rebrand
Outdated Image	Brand Refresh
Modernization	Brand Refresh
Changes in Business Ownership	Complete Rebrand
Resonating with a Broader Audience	Complete Rebrand
Mergers, Acquisitions, and Demergers	Complete Rebrand
Tarnished Image	Complete Rebrand
Proactive Rebranding	Brand Refresh or Complete Rebrand
Reactive Rebranding	Brand Refresh or Complete Rebrand

Performing a Brand Audit

After conducting detailed market research, the next step is to perform a complete brand audit. At this step, it is necessary to compare insights from market research with the current brand strategy. It helps companies to learn about areas where they are lacking against their competitors. While performing a brand audit, a company must carefully analyze its brand personality and see if it resonates with the needs and wants of the target audience. 

Companies can use rebranding survey questions tailored to the audience to discover consumer perceptions of the existing brand architecture. It helps to understand whether a company needs a brand refresh, partial rebrand, or complete rebranding. Sometimes, only tweaking the brand elements can help restore the brand value. Properly evaluating the branded assets ensures they resonate correctly with the target market. 

Developing a Rebranding Strategy

After gathering enough data during market research and having clear objectives, it is time to develop a successful rebranding strategy. At this stage, companies must start by setting practical and achievable goals for the rebranding effort, such as improved brand recognition. A Goal-oriented rebranding project performs better with minimum chances of failure. 

Businesses must decide between a partial or complete rebrand depending on their situation and requirements. During the audit, a company may undergo a partial rebrand if it finds a problem with one of its brand elements. 

Otherwise, if the brand positioning is outdated, then it is time to consider a complete rebrand. Companies must develop a detailed rebranding checklist to ensure a smooth process flow without risking their brand value. 

A successful strategy must create a proper timeline for executing the rebranding project. Companies should adequately allocate time and resources to cover the cost of rebranding and execute the plan according to the specified timeline. The timeline must address launching the new brand identity and cover proper communication with internal and external stakeholders. 

Executing a Successful Rebranding Process

Executing a successful rebranding project is a multi-step process. Each step is equally necessary to ensure a smooth execution flow and reduce the risks of failures. The following steps help companies to execute a successful rebranding plan and increase the chances of success. 

Crafting New Brand Assets and Identity

Brand assets such as logos, colors, typography, and imagery are the first interaction points. Therefore, companies should start by updating these elements first. Collaborating with a design team is necessary to create a modern and relevant logo that reflects the brand’s personality. 

At this stage, companies may face common challenges, including maintaining elements of the existing brand to ensure brand recognition while infusing new ones to signify change. Again, market research can help overcome these challenges by understanding the most recognizable elements and finding ways to incorporate them into the new design. 

The next step is to update all marketing materials. Consistency is essential to build a cohesive brand voice and avoid confusion. Updating each marketing material ensures the new brand identity is effectively communicated to the audience. 

The main challenge here is the cost and time, especially for larger organizations with extensive collateral. Companies may prioritize their material based on audience reach and impact to overcome this challenge. 

Establishing the Brand Voice and Guidelines

A well-established brand voice and guidelines help to set the tone for all brand communications and maintain consistency and cohesiveness. Companies must define their brand voice, personality, and guidelines for communication, including language, tone, and style, in the early stages. At this stage, companies may face difficulties ensuring all employees and external partners understand and adhere to the new brand guidelines. 

The company may face internal resistance towards the rebrand. However, providing comprehensive training and resources to the internal and external stakeholders ensures a clear understanding and removes ambiguities. This way, companies can keep everyone on the same page, which helps support the new brand architecture and ensure success. 

Announcing the Rebrand Internally

After making the above changes successfully, it is time to introduce the brand changes internally. Businesses may start with crafting a compelling rebranding template first. It helps to ensure consistency in messaging and communication across all internal stakeholders. 

The template must include a new brand identity, messaging, and guidelines for proper communication. Develop an effective rebrand presentation deck to explain the need for change to the key stakeholders adequately. This step is necessary for clarifying the purpose and ensuring everyone is on board with the new brand identity. 

Schedule the rebranding announcement timeline. It helps ensure that everyone is informed about the necessary changes in a timely, organized manner. The timeline must include the proper dates of the announcement and the internal and external launch dates.

Launching the New Brand Externally

Launching a new brand can be challenging for many companies. This is because the new brand identity may risk alienating the existing customers if not communicated properly. Therefore, companies may develop an effective social media strategy to directly engage with the target audience. Social media is a powerful tool for promoting the rebrand and building excitement. 

Companies must develop engaging content that adequately explains the new changes and their needs. The social media content must reflect the new brand identity and message correctly. Businesses must ensure that all content is thoroughly reviewed and approved before posting. It is necessary for making an excellent first impression. 

Collaborations with influencers and brand ambassadors can be highly effective at this stage. It helps to boost brand awareness and reach a wider audience, leveraging the influencer’s fan base. Companies may offer sponsorships or collaborate with celebrities to expand their reach. 

Transitioning Existing Customers

A successful rebranding campaign helps communicate the new brand identity and messaging to existing customers and retain brand loyalty. Transitioning the existing customers can be challenging. Companies must provide incentives to encourage them to adopt the changes. These incentives may include discounts or promotions. 

Businesses must ensure consistency in brand messaging across channels when transitioning existing customers. It guarantees that all customer-facing channels, such as the website, social media, printed materials, etc, reflect the new identity. Brands may leverage direct response and persuasive copywriting techniques to engage their audience emotionally. 

Promoting the Rebrand

After implementing the strategy successfully, the next essential step is to promote the newly made changes. This step helps to enhance brand recognition and attract potential customers. To facilitate the effectiveness of the rebrand for maximum reach, companies may leverage various channels and strategies. 

Digital Marketing 

With their new brand architecture, businesses must solidify their online presence to get a global reach. For such reasons, a company must invest time and money in digital marketing. It includes targeted ads, email campaigns, and content marketing. 

For instance, in 2020, Burger King rebranded its digital presence with a new logo and visual identity. The food brand then launched a digital marketing campaign to promote the changed brand, reaching a broad audience across multiple online platforms. 

Social Media Marketing 

Social media is a powerful tool for businesses to connect with their target audience. Using social media handles, FMCG brands can directly communicate the rebrand with their target audience. For instance, a detergent brand may offer direct incentives such as promo codes, coupons, etc. 

Companies must effectively utilize trending social media platforms such as TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Facebook and Instagram Reels. Since short-form content is trending, investing in short, engaging videos is wise. Old Spice used social media to communicate its rebranding message effectively, resulting in increased brand awareness and engagement.  

Driving Awareness Through PR Campaigns

Companies may always leverage the power of public relations to drive awareness. They may combine PR, influencer partnerships, and community engagements. For instance, Oatly, a famous plant-based milk company, launched a public relations campaign and partnered with influencers to communicate its new brand positioning. It resulted in widespread media coverage and consumer attention. 

Tracking KPIs for Success

Only building a successful rebranding strategy and implementing it is not enough. Companies must actively track the newly made changes using key performance indicators to measure the success. This step ensures that everything goes according to the plan. 

Tracking KPIs also helps brands optimize their strategy with time and tweak it further according to market needs and changing consumer interests. A brand may track the following essential KPIs to measure its rebranding success. 

• Brand Awareness can be measured through metrics such as website traffic, social media followers, search volume, or surveys that assess brand recognition among the target audience.
• Customer Engagement gauges the level of interaction and involvement with the brand, such as social media engagement (likes, comments, shares), email open and click-through rates, and website bounce rates.
• Brand Perception involves measuring changes in how customers and the public perceive the brand. It can be assessed through surveys, focus groups, and social media sentiment analysis.
• Customer Loyalty can be measured through metrics such as customer retention rates, Net Promoter Score (NPS), and repeat purchase rates.
• Market Differentiation involves tracking the brand’s position relative to competitors. Metrics may include market share, customer satisfaction, and brand loyalty.
• Employee Alignment measures the internal impact of the rebrand. It can be assessed through employee surveys, turnover rates, and employee advocacy on social media.
• Financial Performance includes revenue, profit margins, and customer lifetime value. These metrics can help determine the impact of the rebrand on the company’s bottom line.

Sustaining a Successful Rebrand

Sustaining a successful rebrand is essential for long-term growth and relevance in the market. It ensures that the new identity remains compelling, current, and competitive. By maintaining the consistency and integrity of the new identity, companies can effectively resonate with a broader audience and navigate the market’s ever-changing landscape. 

Updating Internal Branding

Companies must update their internal branding to reflect the new changes properly. It involves educating employees on the new identity. To maintain consistency, businesses must develop clear brand guidelines and training materials to reinforce brand consistency internally. It is essential for long-term success as it ensures everyone is on the same page. 

It also helps companies effectively train their employees to represent the newly made changes. They must effectively communicate the new values and messaging to external audiences. Internal buy-ins help businesses foster a strong brand culture, which is necessary to maintain strong brand integrity and achieve long-term success. 

Continually Evolving the Rebranded Brand

Companies must continually evolve to stay relevant in the market and meet the changing needs of consumers. Only this way they can sustain a successful rebrand. For this reason, they must conduct regular audits of their brand and monitor their brand positioning with time. Conducting regular audits helps to identify areas for improvement and plan future rebranding campaigns. 

Continuously rebranding a company is crucial for achieving long-term success. It enables businesses to adjust to shifting market dynamics, remain pertinent, and preserve a competitive advantage. Companies can guarantee that their brand remains attractive, up-to-date, and relatable to their intended audience by continually assessing and improving the rebranded brand, leading to sustainable growth and success.

Key Takeaways and Conclusion

• Know the reasons for rebrand. Never approach rebranding without having a solid reason to avoid risks.
• Conduct market research and brand audits to learn the strengths and weaknesses of the current brand.
• Develop a foolproof rebranding strategy using the insights obtained from the research phase. 
• Prepare a rebranding proposal to communicate the changes to key stakeholders and internal teams. 
• Establish new brand guidelines and adequately educate the team to ensure consistency. 
• Create a timeline for rebranding announcements and allocate resources and budget for each step.
• Execute and promote the rebrand across all touchpoints to develop a cohesive brand voice.
• Identify KPIs and track them regularly to measure the success of the rebranding campaign.
• Use insights obtained from KPI tracking to fine-tune the strategy. 

Data-Driven Rebranding For CPG Brands

If you’re looking for a reliable way to rebrand your business and ensure top performance, we can help. Our expert strategists and testing specialists conduct thorough research, design effective strategies, and validate all brand assets to ensure they perform exceptionally well in the marketplace. Book a call to learn more about how we can help you find the perfect name and discuss your project with our team.