Why Should You Redesign Your Brand?

Written by Joe Hickman. Packaging Specialist of Charlotte Packaging and writer for Packaging of the World.

Branding is something should be of the utmost importance to every company. It contains the image that people automatically associate with your business, saying more about the company than you could ever hope to say in words.

Despite this, some businesses allow their brand to grow stale which can hinder sales and quickly become dated.

Redesigning Your Brand
The real question here could when rather than why as the most important thing is recognising that there is an issue and that it needs to be addressed. So, what are the main reasons you should be contemplating a redesign:

Image: Chris Carter

Revive your image
Have you had the same logo and packaging for 10 or more years? Has anybody mentioned to you that your brand looks dated? Does your image lack that vital edge? If any of these ring true, then it is time to redesign your brand. This can help to give your entire company a much needed revival of image, giving your products the edge they need to drive sales and user engagement.

Enhance your products
Packaging is something that needs to be redesigned much more frequently than logos or websites. This is arguably the area where your brand is most strongly represented, so it is important that it always stays fresh and up-to-date with your company’s aims. Having a thorough redesign of your branded packaging can ensure that your products look as appealing as possible to the customers. Simple things like block bottom paper bags can help to display your products in a more appealing manner, encouraging greater impulse purchases.

Image: MIAD Communication Design

Reposition your brand
Has your company changed direction recently? If it has, or you’re planning to, then rebranding provides you with a great opportunity to reposition your brand. This can give you a huge advantage over sticking with your existing image, as people will be more aware of the repositioning.

Better suit your business structure
Branding for small and medium sized businesses tends to be very different to that of international corporations. There is a reason for this, and it tends to be that businesses will rebrand in order to better suit a larger structure. If you’re rapidly growing, or your business is going international, then it is probably time for a rebrand.

Match current trends
There is always a latest trend that businesses should try to cater to in order to be successful. While it isn’t always a good idea to completely rebrand in order to cater to these trends, with certain things – such as being environmentally friendly – it can be hugely beneficial to your company. Even if it is just the simple step of swapping to economic packaging options, this can resonate with your audience and see your overall public perception increase.

Image: Craftapalooza

Shake negative image
Not the best reason to rebrand and it certainly won’t work if the issues that caused the negative image haven’t been addressed. That said, if you have fixed the problems then rebranding can give you a fresh new start allowing the public opinion of you to be based on current service and products rather than past blunders.

Potential Hazards
As with everything in business, rebranding is a delicate process that could go either way. A quick look at Gap’s attempt to change their logo in 2010 will show you just how wrong it can go. To avoid this type of issue it is always important to look at what you aim to gain through rebranding and ensure that you do thorough market research.

Some key tips to follow when rebranding are:

• Respect previous branding – try to stay similar to what you were, huge jumps in appearance can be very detrimental for long term customers.
• Make it timeless – you don’t want to have to rebrand constantly, pick a design that will last through current trends.
• Don’t change the colours – this is something not often thought of, but a brand’s colours can be just as recognisable as their logo. Change the colours at your peril.
• Make it better, not bigger – take some time to redesign the branding, you want it to be sleek, simple and customer friendly not just a louder version of the previous brand.
• Think packaging – the end product is what your customers see most, make sure that your rebranding makes your custom packaging look enticing and engaging.