Rebranding Your Company: 4 Questions to Ask Before You Get Started

By Shelby Hiter

If any of the following scenarios are true about your business, it might be time for a rebrand:

• You've started to market a product or service, but don't know how to package it or how to find your buyer audience.
• You've acquired a company with a portfolio of brands, but you haven't figured out how to blend them into your existing brand.
• Your brand has been around for many years, but it looks tired, outdated, or no longer matches your company's core purpose.

Before you jump into a rebrand, however it's important to carefully lay out a plan. First, decide why you're doing the rebrand. This will help you evaluate what the current brand is communicating and how different that is from your goal for the brand.

A rebrand shouldn't be a random shift to an appealing color palette or new brand logo. It requires a lot of thought about what your customers want and need, as well as a deep understanding of who you are and how you want to be known among your competitors and your community.

Questions to consider before rebranding your company

1. What's your origin story?

Many people only think of the logo and color scheme behind a rebrand, but perhaps even more important than those design elements is the story you want to tell about your brand. Ask yourself, your staff, and existing customers the following questions so that you have a clear understand of who you are before you decide to illustrate it through a rebrand:

• When and how was your company founded? What was the idea behind it? What problem were you trying to solve?
• Do you have a mission statement? If not, define what it is and determine if your business truly stands by it in what you do.
• What problems do your customers face and how does your product or service solve those problems? How has that changed over time?
• What makes your employees most proud of the company?
• Why do your customers stick with your brand? Don't be afraid to ask them.
• What is your value proposition? What makes your business different from your competitors?

Knowing the answers to these questions before rebranding your business will benefit your company in several ways. You and your employees can ensure you're aligned with each other and with your customers' needs. You'll capture the current tone of your brand and be able to decide how to express it visually. And you'll also know what messaging to include on your website, brochures, and other company collateral to draw in new customers.

2. What's your buyer persona?

When you first started your business, who did you expect to have as your primary customers? Today, what does your actual customer pool look like? You'll answer both of these questions as you create a buyer persona.

Make sure that this persona is based on research rather than your assumptions. Interview a few of your long-standing customers about their experience with the company, put out a customer survey, and read online reviews to get a better understanding of the people who do business with you. The information that you learn about your customers will help you to redesign your brand in a way that makes sense for them. For a tool to guide you through the buyer persona creation process, check out this free buyer persona template from HubSpot.

3. What are your competitors doing?

Whether you're a newcomer or a longtime veteran in your industry, chances are you know a handful of competitor brands that drive you to improve. What do you like about these brands? Where do they excel and where do they fall short?

Take a look at their logos, color schemes, messaging, and differentiating factors that are promoted on their website and in their marketing materials. Better yet, do a side-by-side comparison of all your competitors to see if they share something in common that your brand currently lacks.

4. How accessible is your brand content for your audience?

Beyond building a brand that resonates with your audience, it's important to see how accessible your brand content is for your audience. Are your chosen colors hard to see on certain backgrounds? Have you chosen a font that's difficult to read?

Accessibility is crucial not only for your users' experience with your brand, but also for your company to avoid potential accessibility-related lawsuits. A few tips:

• Color contrast: Make sure there’s enough color contrast so people with visual impairments can read your content and see your logo. You can find several free WCAG color contrast checkers online, such as Monsido.
• Alt text and meta descriptions: Especially on your website, it's important to include alt text and meta descriptions so that screen readers can describe images to visually impaired users.
• Fonts: Pick easy-to-read fonts in colors that work well with a given background, and resist dropping your font below 16 pixels online.

More articles from AllBusiness.com:

• How to Successfully Rebrand Your Business
• How to Use a Font Manager
• When Designing Your Company Logo, It’s Important to Understand the Psychology Behind the Process
• Tips on Formatting Your Business Plan
• The 3 Basics of Startup Branding

Create a branding guide when rebranding your company

You've done most of the research that you need to get started rebranding your business, but don't forget the most important part: learning how to create and use a branding guide. Branding guides are design guidelines and rules that provide your team with information about logo layouts and options, color schemes, appropriate fonts, and other details that users need to keep in mind when displaying the brand.

If you can afford to have a design team or an in-house marketing department, they can help you design a branding guide. There are also a number of free and low-cost options available:

• Freelance graphic artists: If you don't have an in-house graphic artist, you can find freelance designers using online marketplaces like Fiverr.
• Graphic design: Try your hand at free graphic and web design tools. Some helpful, user-friendly tools include Canva, Snappa, Squarespace, and Mailchimp.
• Color psychology: If you're trying to choose complementary colors for a rebrand, check out this tool from Coolors.
• Stock photos: Free stock photo sites, such as Pixabay and Unsplash, give you quality, free photos to include in your branded materials.
• Messaging: Need help with messaging or strategy? Create an in-office focus group, or if you have the budget, work with an external messaging strategy team like StoryBrand.
• Social media: Social media is one of the most underrated free tools for building your brand. Make sure you have set up Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter accounts for your brand, develop consistent branding across those platforms, and communicate your story and offerings to your social audience.

When people think “rebrand,” they usually think about huge budgets and design productions, but rebranding your business doesn't have to be that way. With the help of tips, tricks, and tools, you can create a timeless and effective brand, even with a limited budget or design knowledge.

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