Rebranding feels like a fresh start. The chance to reinvent, reignite, and re-capture consumer attention.
Done right, rebranding can spark renewed interest in a business, strengthen customer loyalty, and even set a company apart in a crowded market. Done wrong, rebranding can lead to customer confusion, loss of recognition, and a profits nosedive.
How do you avoid a rebrand fail?
Successful rebranding starts with a clear and deep understanding of your audience’s needs and perceptions. It requires a thoughtful rollout steeped in consumer trends, competitive landscape, and customer feedback intel to lay the right foundations for a thriving new brand identity.
What A Failed Rebrand Looks Like
Ever wonder what a failed rebrand looks like? Look no further than the graph below from Liam Maroney, a growth marketer.
This graph demonstrates traffic to a website pre- and post-rebrand. The blue line is Branded Search, and it indicates that independent of the rebrand, the general public continued to look for the brand and its website at a relatively steady rate. The rebrand did not impact brand awareness or interest.
But, the damning evidence is in the blue and red colored zones. The brand enjoyed strong and somewhat steady website visits before the rebrand. This is the blue area. But, the moment the rebrand hits, things go south. Traffic to the site, shown in red during this phase, takes a massive hit.
Why such a massive decline? Because they changed everything from the brand name and logo to brand colors and anything else that spoke to the old brand identity. The brand essentially started from the beginning, in spite of having spent years building brand awareness for their legacy identity. The market as a whole was unaware of this shift. And, when they did not see what they expected or were looking for, they did not click.
This is an extreme example. But, it’s a cautionary tale of what happens when you throw the proverbial brand baby out with the bathwater.
Why Pursue A Rebrand
Rebrands are no small feat, especially considering the graph above. Why take this risk? Because rebrands also have the power to…
- Modernize an Outdated Image: Rebranding allows companies to refresh their visual and messaging identity to keep up with changing market trends and consumer expectations. It ensures the brand remains relevant and appealing.
- Support New Market Expansions: When businesses enter new geographiess or industries, rebranding can help align their image with the interests and needs of the new target audience, ensuring broader recognition and relevance.
- Unify After Mergers or Acquisitions: Mergers and acquisitions often bring together distinct brands. Rebranding helps unify these entities under a cohesive identity.
- Recover From Negative Perceptions: A strategic rebrand helps businesses recover from past controversies or poor public perception. It signals a clean slate and demonstrates the company’s commitment to improvement.
- Highlight New Product Offerings: Companies expanding their product or service portfolios may rebrand to better illustrate their diversified capabilities and communicate their growth to consumers.
In essence, brands enjoy many materials benefits from rebrands…if the rebrand is done correctly.
Leveraging Market Research To Avoid A Rebrand Fail
A thoughtful, strategic approach takes an otherwise high-stakes activity and turns it into a manageable process with a strong chance of success.
1. Pinpoint Where You (And Your Competitors) Are Today
Before beginning a rebrand, take a moment to really understand the market. This includes everything from the competitive landscape and how competitors position themselves to determining shifts in customer behavior as well as how customers perceive the market and existing brands. Grounding yourself in this intel ensures that your rebrand is not just relevant and differentiated but also aligned with customer needs and expectations.
Start with a competitive analysis to uncover how rival brands are perceived, their strengths, and areas where they may be falling short. Pair this with customer surveys to gain firsthand insights into how your brand resonates with your target audience—what they love, what confuses them, and what’s missing. Interviews or even social listening can take this all a step further by providing a more nuanced picture of the broader landscape.
2. Isolate The Ideal Customer For Your Business
A successful rebrand isn’t just about creating a fresh look. It’s about ensuring your new identity speaks directly to the right audience. By isolating your ideal customer, you lay the groundwork for a brand that resonates with their needs, values, and aspirations, aligning your business strategy with the customer segments that matter most.
To identify the ideal customer during a rebrand, start by revisiting and refining your existing customer personas. Consider any shifts in your audience’s demographics or psychographics, especially if your industry or offerings have evolved.
Interviews and focus groups can provide fresh perspectives, offering valuable feedback on your proposed messaging, visuals, and overall direction. Companies with CRM systems should also look for trends in customer behaviors such as identifying what products and services they tend to select, average order volumes, and other purchase behaviors. Combined, these insights help with customer segment refinement to ensure you’re targeting the right group with your rebrand.
3. Determine How You Want Your Ideal Customer To Perceive You
A key stage in the rebrand process is reshaping how your ideal customer sees your business. This means honing your messaging, positioning, and value propositions to align with the goals of your rebrand and the expectations of your audience. How do you want your brand to make them feel? What core values or unique benefits should they associate with your business? Answering these questions refines your brand vision, ensuring the rebrand not only connects with your current audience but also attracts the new ones you want to engage.
To ensure your efforts hit the mark, use research to test and validate your rebrand’s messaging and positioning. Surveys and interviews can uncover whether your audience resonates with the proposed direction. A/B testing different taglines, visuals, or themes provides concrete insights into what works best. Or, consider focus groups made up of your target audience for detailed feedback on how new concepts are perceived and whether they align with your goals.
4. Develop The Brand & Marketing Elements To Build That Perception
Once you define how you want your ideal customer to perceive your brand, the next step is turning that vision into tangible brand and marketing elements. This includes creating a cohesive brand identity—logos, color schemes, typography, and packaging—designed to visually communicate your brand’s personality and values. Beyond appearances, marketing collateral such as brochures, social media templates, website design, and ad campaigns must also reflect the message and positioning established during your rebrand. These elements work together to create a consistent brand experience that reinforces your desired perception.
To ensure your brand identity hits the mark, research is essential. Focus groups can provide insights into how potential customers perceive your initial logo or packaging options, giving you direct feedback to further refine these elements. Meanwhile, surveys offer more targeted design direction by providing an objective read on how well specific elements rank across perception dimensions. Performing these last research stages before a full-scale launch ensures that every detail of your rebrand strengthens the connection with your ideal customer.
How To Prioritize Your Rebrand Research
Ideally, your rebrand would include all four of these steps. Realistically, you’re likely working with limited resources. This means you must make some strategic choices around where it’s worth spending your time and money.
To do this prioritization, take stock of your business’s current conditions and goals.
- If you’re targeting a new audience…focus on research to isolate your ideal customer and how you want them to perceive you. These steps provide the foundation for understanding this audience’s needs and crafting a brand identity that resonates with them.
- If your rebrand is driven by declining market share or outdated brand perceptions…focus on revamping and testing new brand identity and marketing elements. A refreshed, well-executed brand identity can reignite interest, signaling relevance in a competitive landscape.
- If launching new products or services is part of the rebrand…, combine a broader competitive analysis with focused research on target customer profiles. This will solidify internal clarity on the broader rebrand focus while identifying audience segments that align under this revamp.
As a whole, assess your pain points and opportunities. Where do you have the most to gain or the biggest risks if you fall short? This evaluation helps allocate resources to the most critical success areas. By focusing on the steps most suited to your specific challenges, you can make impactful rebrand progress while still working within your budget constraints.
