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When is the Right Time to Rebrand?

Guest post by: Faith Seekings

Article Overview: Rebranding is much like the caterpillar to cocoon to butterfly evolution. After time in a cocoon your business has matured, your competitive advantage is becoming apparent, you know who your favourite clients are – the ones you want more of. Once you’ve been in business long enough and have some experience under your belt, you can seriously tackle your competitive advantage. From these experiences, processes and case studies you can draw a true differentiator. How you do what you say makes you different, often becomes what makes you different. If you figure this out, it should become the basis of all your messaging and marketing tools.

When is the Right Time to Rebrand?

Your business is a few years old and you knew when you started you would need basic ‘marketing’ tools like a website and business cards. So, you design/write them yourself and get them done as cheap as possible.

This is the best way to go, not just for financial reasons, but also because many new entrepreneurs haven’t really done anything yet to discover what their brand should be, what they stand for or who their ideal clients are. I know, I’ve been there.

Speaking from experience...

After time in a cocoon your business has matured, your competitive advantage is becoming apparent, you know who your favourite clients are – the ones you want more of. At this point in my own business I began to feel embarrassed by the tools I had. While I had no real plan when I started, I never imagined how much Faith Seekings Design would grow.

In order for me to grow a business that didn’t depend on me, I needed to rebrand. With help, we eventually landed a new name – Rapport – and a tagline based on what makes us special. Plus the new website was written by a pro.

The Evolution

Rebranding is much like the caterpillar to cocoon to butterfly evolution. Prompted by our client-base shifting from micro-businesses to mid-sized I rebranded again 1.5 years later – to something more sophisticated in look and language.

Never changing brands like Coca Cola evolve at least slightly over the years to stay modern looking. It’s more than just look – does your brand resonate with your ideal client?

Milestones to Rebrand By

Once you’ve been in business long enough and have some experience under your belt, you can seriously tackle your competitive advantage. From these experiences, processes and case studies you can draw a true differentiator. How you do what you say makes you different, often becomes what makes you different. We use the Essential Message method to uncover this - the result is often something the client does naturally and easily. If you figure this out, it should become the basis of all your messaging and marketing tools.

When you focus or refocus on your ideal client. For example, if you start out serving small businesses but change your focus to larger, your approach would have to change. With small businesses it’s all about the relationship and budget whereas big business is more about bottom line and the security that you can handle their project. Your look and messaging should go from cheap and cheerful to established and sophisticated. Does your brand resonate with your ideal client?

Yes, everything needs to be redone.

Everything you use to represent the company should represent where you are now and where you intend to be in the future. Everything needs to be consistent in look, message, and quality.

Think of it as an ‘all-inclusive marketing approach',making it all work better together.

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Article Tags: br, business cards, butterfly, caterpillar, coca cola, cocoon, competitive advantage, evolution, faith, font style, font weight, marketing, micro businesses, milestones, own business, rebranding, rsquo, tagline



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