March 20, 20255 Must-Have Elements for a High-Converting Roofing Website
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For a business, change is a constant factor. With continually evolving market trends, consumer behaviors and needs, industry shifts, and an ever-expanding competitive landscape, businesses more than ever have to be able to adapt and grow to keep up. But has your brand also adapted along the way?
Brands that don’t evolve risk becoming outdated, irrelevant, and ineffective. And to clarify, your brand is more than just your logo. Your brand is your reputation. It encompasses your story, values, messaging, voice, and personality, in addition to your visual identity (logo, fonts, colors, imagery, and more). Your brand is how customers perceive your business. And if your brand hasn’t evolved in a while, it may be a good time to assess its health.
If you’re unsure how to assess your brand’s health, our team would love to provide a free brand audit to measure its performance and opportunities for improvement. Request one here.
Deciphering Between a Brand Refresh vs. a Rebrand
That brings us to a brand refresh versus a rebrand. What’s the difference? And how do you decide what’s best for your company? While the names are similar, their objectives are different.
A brand refresh keeps the foundation of a current brand but refines it by updating its visual identity (i.e. logo, fonts, colors) and improving its brand messaging.
A rebrand involves redefining and transforming the brand strategy as a whole. It’s more than simply changing the logo but also establishing a new brand strategy, unique value proposition, messaging, and brand attributes.
To give an analogy, a brand refresh is similar to renovating your home. You want to keep the overall structure and character of your home but want to freshen it up with some new paint, countertops, and hardware. A rebrand, on the other hand, is like building a new home. You’re going to need a blueprint and first lay the foundation and framework before doing the interior design.
Both a brand refresh and a rebrand help your business adapt to change, but how do you determine which one is right for you?
A Fork in the Road: Which Brand Journey Should You Choose?
It can feel a bit daunting to know which path your company should take when it comes to a brand refresh or a rebrand. But let’s dive into what each of these really means and how it impacts where your business is at today.
Brand Refresh
A brand refresh is ideal for a business seeking to maintain its core identity, market position, and brand strategy. Additionally, if your brand has built equity (trust, loyalty, and recognition) over time, a brand refresh helps to maintain this by building on what you already have established and giving it an update to keep it fresh and relevant in the competitive landscape.
Why You Need a Brand Refresh
- Modernizing an outdated logo
- Updating your visual identity to stay relevant with current trends
- Improving your brand’s messaging to continue connecting with target audiences
Take Walmart, for example. Walmart’s brand has built incredible brand equity over the years. Consumers recognize that blue text and yellow starburst. However, the overall brand needed an updated look to stay relevant to target audiences while also adapting to changes in trends in the competitive landscape. Walmart embarked on a brand refresh that modernized their fonts, colors, and iconography while still maintaining their core identity.
Rebrand
A rebrand is ideal for a business needing to overhaul their brand strategy and visual system. This is a fresh start that allows a business to move from outdated strategies and assets to realign with new goals and focuses. But you may be wondering why a company would need to overhaul their brand.
Why You Need a Rebrand
- Connecting with new demographics
- Repositioning in the market
- Creating distinction from competitors
- Changing your mission and values
- Eliminating brand confusion and inconsistency
A rebrand is critical if any of the above are part of your business goals. If your business is growing in a new and different way, your brand also needs to be a part of that change.
Take Kia, for example. They made a dramatic change to their logo by emphasizing change and innovation as key attributes. But this rebrand was also a part of a shift in their strategy—to create bolder, better-looking cars, reach new demographics, and reposition themselves in the automotive industry.
A rebrand is also critical when going through a renaming process. If you’re in the ringer of renaming your business, chances are you’re doing so for some of the same reasons listed above. With that, you’ll need a new brand that matches your new name and brand strategy.
Forge Integrated, formerly Rise Construction, came to us needing help with a new name and new brand. Their former name and brand lacked distinction and even caused confusion with another business of the exact same name. They recognized the need to reposition themselves, and our team helped create a strategy and new brand to match their goals.
Taking the Next Step
In summary, a brand refresh retains your current brand strategy and equity but refines it to be stronger, clearer, and more compelling. A rebrand overhauls your brand strategy to align with changes in your business, such as entering new markets, reaching new demographics, standing out from competitors, and improving your brand image.
Change is a necessary part of business growth. The most successful brands also change and understand the need to adapt and innovate to meet the ever-changing needs and expectations of their customers. Whether needing a brand refresh or a complete rebrand, it’s important to be strategic and intentional with the decisions you make.
At PHOS, our team of creative experts can help you on your brand journey. We’ll help assess if a brand refresh or a rebrand best aligns with your business goals, and we’ll take an in-depth look at your target audience, industry, and competitive landscape to craft a brand that resonates with your customers and builds trust.
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