Preparing For a Rebrand: 5 Steps to Ensure Success

Rebranding, or the change of a corporate image, is a little bit like making a meal. You prep all the ingredients, do the cooking, plate the food in an appealing manner, and then present it to the eager and hungry crowd. What few people realize is that the preparation is the hardest yet most rewarding part, because that is how the meal comes together so seamlessly. The same is true for a rebrand. It’s not just what comes out in the end but what goes into rebranding that makes it a flop or a success.

You may come up with the best branding to ever grace your industry, but if you’re not prepared and can’t implement or roll it out well, the impact will be less than extraordinary. So, it’s always smart to prepare for a rebrand long before you launch.

Here are five things to make your rebrand unforgettable:

5 Steps to Ensure Your Rebrand is a Success

We looked at the strategies available from other branding firms in Philadelphia and decided on the best steps to prepare for a rebrand. You will notice that many of these steps involve laying out the groundwork for a smooth and exciting launch.

1. Get Buy-In For Every Stage

Buy-in is integral to the rebranding process. The first step is snagging the support of the upper management. It might seem surprising, but many marketing teams assume that the administration is going to understand why a rebrand is important and cost-effective. More often than not, you’re going to have to convince them of its necessity. Before you even begin drafting up plans for the rebrand, you should lay out a persuasive argument explaining rebranding and how it could help the corporate image.

Upper management should also be willing to play a role in rebranding. Success with a rebrand project starts at the top and works its way down. If the leadership is backing the new image, everyone else will, too.

As the project progresses, don’t overlook the importance of having other departments sign-off on it. If the new brand image doesn’t resonate, your rebrand will never get off the ground.

Make sure you collect and analyze feedback on the designs and keep visiting the people who have bought in. Always get the approval of the necessary people before moving onto the next phase of the project.

2. Consider Your Goals, Timeline, and Budget

Rebranding is a large scale project, and so you have to think in terms of SMART goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable/Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. In other words, you should be able to set up a clear timeline that everyone can follow, as well as any outcomes that you define as a successful rebrand.

At the same time, think about the budget. The cost of a rebrand and the time it takes to complete it will differ between companies. More complex enterprises take longer to do a rebrand than smaller businesses.

3. Ready Your Touchpoints

How horrifying would it be to have a new logo on all your social media but letterhead that reflects the old brand? Or outdated business cards with the wrong company colors? This could potentially offset the benefits of a rebrand, because visual inconsistencies can deduct from the overall brand image. It is also confusing for employees and customers.

So, to prevent any mistakes with updates, here is a list of all the things that should be redone during a rebrand:

• Email addresses and signatures
•  Business cards
• Internal documentation, such as the employee handbook
• Sales materials and presentations
• Invoices and other financial materials
• Adwords
• Signage
• Trademarks
• Third-party directories
• Meta data
• Domain names
• Logos
• Tags
• SEO
• Marketing media, such as content guidelines, promotion materials, brand style guide, newsletters, and more
• Social media accounts, handles, bios, and hashtags

Be clear on what changes are being made and when. That will help curb expectations while keeping people excited. Make sure you prioritize any significant assets, such as your website and signage.

4. Revise The Style Guide

Have you ever heard of a brand style guide? Technically, it’s kind of like a branding rule book that is meant to give web developers, graphic designers, marketers, social media managers, and even packing departments a unified vision of your brand image. By creating a style guide, you can help team members understand what is changing and ensure that everything will be implemented correctly.

The best brand style guide will be easy to read and navigate. Incorporate real world examples of what you want, such as images of your new logo, preferred fonts, color palettes, and imagery. Put the brand style guide somewhere accessible, such as a shared cloud server, so team members can refer to it whenever they need it.

5. Make The Launch Both Internal and External

Think in terms of a soft and hard launch. In the beginning, you want to launch internally, or within the business, so that everyone can give feedback and any kinks can be smoothed out.

You want to do an internal launch about 4-6 weeks before the public (external) launch. Ask the creative team to talk about the brand story—all good brands and rebrands come with a story. Talk about the reasons behind the rebrand, too.

Once the soft launch has been concluded, problems have been dealt with, and everyone feels excited about the rebrand, it is time to do an external launch.

Before the big day, you should create some newsletters, videos, blogs, social media posts, and press announcements. Promote the rebrand across every platform your business utilizes. Make a huge event out of the rebrand on the day it’s unveiled to draw even more attention to the new image of your business.

Final Thoughts

A successful rebrand is all about committing yourself to the initial process and staying on track. The more you do to prepare for the future of the business, the more efficiently the project can be done. No rebrand has ever happened overnight. By following the 5 steps outlined above, you will be able to guide the rebranding down the right road and have major success with it.

Struggling to create quality content at a scale needed for a successful rebrand? Call in a professional branding agency in Philadelphia. Our team at Hyland Graphics can produce all your new marketing materials and help you roll out an amazing rebrand. Call us or fill out the contact form today.