Five tips to ensure a successful brand refresh
Whether you’re looking to reposition your company in the marketplace, update your brand or attract new audiences, a brand refresh can help you achieve your business goals.
A brand refresh may be necessary to enhance your business’s message and visuals to reflect how your company and customers grow and adapt to current trends. However, a brand refresh is not to be confused with a rebrand – a rebrand is a much more comprehensive effort involving a top-to-bottom change that redefines what your overall business stands for.
In addition, retelling your brand story when your sales channels change is essential to the success of your business in the near and long term. We talked to Rick Holberg, vice president of creative strategy and branding at Gavin, about ensuring a successful brand refresh.
Here are his five top tips:
- Focus on your audience – As your business model changes, so does your audience. Reevaluate your demographics and go back to the drawing board on the customer personas you are trying to reach. Personas are efficient because they are projections of your potential customer. When revising your target demographics, ask yourself the following questions:
- What is my target market?
- Are we adding new personas? Who are they?
- Has there been a shift in the demographics of our ideal customer?
- Who could benefit from our new business model? Why?
- Study your audience’s psychographics – Psychographics are the interests, hobbies, attitudes, and personalities of your target market. The study of psychographics will tell you your audience’s habits, likes, and dislikes, which will help you evaluate how and where your business will fit into your customers’ lives. The goal is to make sure your brand refresh connects with the people you need to engage.
- Think about your brand’s image and voice – A brand’s image and voice can either make a brand stand out or fade away. This is even more crucial for a brand refresh because your business is already established, so the question is: How do I aesthetically retell my brand story? The answer is through the audience’s five senses:
- Sight:
- What will your audience see?
- How will they recognize the brand?
- Does the logo have shapes or colors that make your brand unique and memorable?
- Sound:
- What can the audience hear?
- What types of sounds will you include?
- Does your choice of sound make your customer feel something that connects it inherently to your brand?
- Touch:
- What will your audience touch and/or feel?
- Will you have customer interaction with the product?
- Are you going to have a launch party to celebrate the brand’s refresh?
- Smell:
- What will your audience smell?
- Is there a specific aroma associated with your brand?
- Which type of aroma will your brand evoke? (i.e., fragrant, fruity, woody, citrus, sweet, or industrial).
- Taste:
- What will your audience taste?
- This is easy to define if you’re a food & beverage brand.
- But if you’re not, can you imagine associating a taste with your brand? Would your brand taste sweet, hot, bitter, or savory?
Thinking about all the senses is a perfect way to gain a deeper understanding of how your audience will perceive your brand refresh. And that can guide your decision making.
- Research trends – You CAN’T retell your brand story without research, so make sure you keep up with current and anticipated trends for a successful brand refresh. For example, pay attention to social media trends, sustainable practices, brand engagement, and the current trend of minimalism in design. Stay up to date on business trends that align with your customer interests – your audience’s psychographics and demographics will help you with this.
- Trust the process – This last bullet point is for any business owner who is thinking about a brand refresh. Retelling your brand story might seem overwhelming and puzzling because it requires a thoughtful methodology along with challenging decision-making. However, we recommend you be flexible with the process and have an open mind.
Need to retell or refresh your brand story?
If you’re looking to revamp your company’s story or reintroduce your brand to the market, contact us today to talk to one of Gavin’s branding and communications specialists.
