When – and Why – to Change your Brand

When is the right time to change your company’s brand?

How do you do it?

B2B businesses tend to struggle with this process. Either they put it off and end up losing relevance in their market, or they over-invest in a big rebrand project, or they don’t take it seriously enough and make tactical changes that don’t work (and maybe even confuse things).

I’ve found that the businesses that do the best with brand changes are the ones that really understand what a brand is for, for their business, and how it works.

Here are some ideas for you to consider before you embark on brand changes for your business.

What’s your motivation?

Why is it that you want to make changes to your brand?

Is it intrinsically driven? Is it you looking at who your business is and realizing your brand doesn’t reflect that?

That’s a great reason to make a brand change and it’s likely to be successful

If it’s extrinsic – seeing a market opportunity or market changes for which you’re going to artificially change your brand to take advantage of, you’re probably not going to be successful.

That’s because, at the end of the day, your brand is about expressing your true value to your customers.

It has to be based on who you are to be successful.

Evolution, not revolution

You don’t want a brand change to be disruptive; don’t try to reinvent yourself all of a sudden with a brand change.

Your business is made up of your people, your culture, your values and a long history with your customers. All of that doesn’t change on a dime overnight.

It’s important to question things if your brand change is totally reinventing your business.

Another reason it’s important not to make such drastic changes is your customers. You have this precious asset, which is your reputation, your clients’ expectations of you that you’ve earned over years.

If you make a sweeping change to who you say you are, you risk impacting that very important asset.

Be yourself

At the end of the day, it’s about being yourself, your company owning who it is.

Brands work best when they tell the truth.

There are so many examples of companies that spend an almost infinite amount of money redefining themselves and are unsuccessful because they tried to be something they’re not. They try to manipulate their customers or the market.

You’re much better off being yourself.

Before you make a big change to your brand, take a close look and decide if you are living up to your current brand.

It may be that you just need to tell your current true story better.