Often when rebranding is spoken about people are thinking about their business identity or visuals. It might be a change in the way you service your customers or you might be bringing new products to the market. Usually, there’s some kind of trigger that can spark a reason to change your identity or visual branding.
Let’s look at your personal clothing style as an example. Some of the reasons you change your clothing can be because of growth, your lifestyle and the environment around you. Well, your visual branding is pretty much the same. It needs to evolve with the growth and changes in your business.
Good visual branding should communicate your business message, tell its story and attract your ideal target market. It influences how your customers perceive your business and the experience they have with it. So as you can see, it’s pretty important.
Changing your visual identity
Recognising when to rebrand can be a frightening decision for some, but it isn’t as scary as you might think. Branding is the complete package. It’s the foundation of your business brand and your identity or visual branding are the visuals that you are putting out in front of the world.
Think of it like this. ‘Branding’ is the service and quality of your products. Then the ‘identity or visual branding’ is the signage, logo, flyers and visual you use on social media and websites.
Here are my top 10 reasons to rebrand
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Outdated
You have outgrown, don’t love and are embarrassed with your current visual branding and marketing materials. They just don’t represent where your business stands today. Every time you hand out your business cards or flyers, you feel the need to explain that they need to be updated.
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Message/mission
The message/mission of your business has changed from what you started with. Your current visual branding doesn’t represent or communicate that anymore.
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Marketplace expansion
You’re expanding into new areas, maybe international, and the target market thinks and responds differently in those areas. Your current visual identity isn’t targeting them.
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Competitors
Your competitors have grown, evolved and refreshed and your visual identity doesn’t stack up to theirs. You need to keep up, stand out and be differentiated from them.
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Consistency
You have grown so fast that you haven’t taken the time to make sure your marketing materials are all consistent. You need them to be perceived as a collective and unified part of your business, not miss-matched.
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Service/Product
Your services and or products have changed since you started the business and the current visual branding isn’t in line with them.
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Reputation/positioning
You need to change the perception of your reputation or the position you have in the marketplace.
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Target market
Your target market has changed or evolved and your current visual identity is not speaking to them.
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Pricing
You need or want to up your prices due to an increase in costs of materials, time spent to make or provide service or the technology and tools you use. To increase your prices you’ll need to change your customer’s perception of your product/service. You need to make sure your visual branding reflects the new pricing level.
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Technology
A change in technology has made your product/service different. It may have also made a change to the way you deliver them to your customers and this no longer fits with your original visual branding.
Choosing a graphic designer
Considering these reasons above, if you are ready to rebrand, the next step is to find a graphic designer that can make the process stress free. When choosing a graphic designer take into consideration their experience. Check out their portfolio of work to see if their style fits with your business.
Ask questions about what file types you’ll receive and what their design process is. A good graphic design should ask you lots of questions about your business before designing. They might also send you some type of document that allows you to share information about your business with them.
How the design process works
I work very closely with clients from the start. My comprehensive questionnaire provides valuable insights about the ins and outs of your business, brand essence and brand mission. Then it’s time to get to work researching the industry and competitors so I can truly begin to understand the business positioning in the marketplace. Next, begins the brainstorming and conceptualising of ideas.
This is when the magic starts to happen. Through sketching those ideas down on paper I take the best of the bunch and digitalise them into designs. A colour theory exploration is done on the concepts and a comprehensive review of the final concepts. This ensures they’re in line with the client brief prior to being delivered for approval and feedback.
I provide all of my clients with several file types that can be used across all printed and digital materials as well as colour, black and white versions of their logo files.
If you’re considering rebranding your business for any of the above reasons, I would love to help. I’ve worked with many business owners who have been in business for 3 to 5 years and have needed to rebrand and make a fresh start on their visual identity.
Contributor:
Chrystie Hile – Graphic Designer Boss Babe: Graphic Lane
Description
Situated on beautiful Lake Macquarie, Graphic Lane is client-focused and provides creative graphic design solutions that capture the essence of your business and attract your ideal target market.
My passion is to provide women in business with a brand they love and are admired for by creating a unique logo design and full visual branding to match.
The services I offer include full Visual Branding Packages, Logo Design and design of various marketing materials such as Business Cards, Flyers, Brochures, Social Media Graphics, Signage, Letterheads, Email marketing, Advertisements, Gift Vouchers and much more.
P: 0438206542
