Terrible Rebranding Mistakes Your Business Should Avoid

Rebranding your business could be a need of the hour for many reasons. The top reasons for business rebranding include mergers, poor reputation, and repositioning. The scale of rebranding varies per company. It can be just minor rebranding where only logos and visuals are altered, whereas some significant changes include changes in leadership and a complete brand overhaul.

While rebranding is sometimes necessary to end the business’s struggles, some mistakes can have severe or fatal implications.

Drastic changes that may make the brand unrecognizable: Remember, the whole point of rebranding is to grab eyeballs. Drastic changes can often make your brand unrecognizable, hurting your brand identity and sales. For instance, Tropicana was already a well-known brand when they rebranded. However, they failed to come up with impactful graphics. Instead, the customers got confused, as they couldn’t distinguish Tropicana from other inexpensive juices.

Inconsistent marketing and changes:

A rebrand is a fresh start for the business, and it means a lot more than just redoing the logo. It is a promise that the brand makes to its customers that the customer experience will now be better. However, the changes need to be consistent. All marketing messaging and collaterals need to carry the new logo and statement. Failure to do this can confuse the customers about what the company does or stands for.

Incomplete research:

Rebranding is not something that you can do abruptly. As a prerequisite, you must understand how the customers and competitors perceive the brand. Reviews and surveys can help understand the brand’s current image and marketing efforts. You must also find out what your competitors are doing better and handling the customers.

Once you have this data, you can start planning. If your audience cannot understand your intent, they will get confused, which can be detrimental to your business. The international apparel brand GAP is an excellent example of this mistake. They replaced their already famous logo with a new one that customers found difficult to connect with, and there was outrage. This change shocked the loyal customers as they had already formed a bond with the old branding. As a result, they had to revert to their old logo within six days of launching the new one.

Not changing the digital assets:

If you consider moving to a new brand or domain name, ensure that your traffic is redirected. You need to update the name everywhere on the web. This includes listings on Google My Business, Yelp, Bing places. This will ensure that you do not lose your positive reviews and the traction these channels bring you. You must also update your social media accounts even if you don’t use them as primary marketing channels. Also, ensure that any backlinks on your old domain are redirected to the new one.

Conclusion:

If you are considering rebranding, make sure that you need it. Rebranding out of a whim or without proper research could backfire as it did for GAP. Also, remember to keep your customers in the loop. Let them know that you are rebranding for better and their needs will now be addressed more than ever. Also, seek regular feedback to ensure your rebranding efforts show positive results. Talk to us today to know if you need a brand overhaul and what you can do to make your efforts worthwhile.