When looking into branding, it’s important to think of a branding strategy as dynamic. Sometimes a brand may feel outdated or need some tweaks to improve its online presence and stay competitive.
To help you decide if it’s time to update your brand, here are some things to consider: keeping your brand relevant, correcting imbalances in your existing brand, improving brand perception, customer loyalty and digital functionality. If you find your reasons are more complicated, such as a merger, negative reputation, or your products have changed, then a rebrand may be more appropriate.
So if you’re happy that most of your branding is successful, then updating your brand through a refresh is a great option.
With this in mind, here are 5 ways to update your branding:
1. Update your Logo
2. Colour palette
3. Website Refresh
4. Tone & Voice
5. Explore New Channels
Logo
Anyone with knowledge of branding will be aware of the importance of a logo, it is essentially the building block for your brand. When it comes to updating your brand, it’s no wonder the logo should be in the spotlight. Making small changes to your logo, rather than an entire overhaul, can ensure you stay connected to your values, but just modernise your image at first glance.
Some great techniques to improve your logo are to remove text, play around with colour combinations, or simplify the design. As long as you’re careful not to distort too far from your original logo, you may well end up with a revamped logo that aligns with the adjustments your company is making.
Colour Palette
Refreshing your brand colours is a great visual aspect to consider. Take time to think about the impact colours can have on emotions and feelings, and they can be a great tool to differentiate you from your competitors.
When deciding on what colours to go for, there are a couple of routes you can take. You could add a secondary colour to the current palette, or alter the existing colours to be bolder, lower contrast or more subtle. Be conscious of these common trip hazards; too many colours can become disorientating, and the new colours should complement your overall branding strategy.
Website
If one of the reasons you’re thinking about updating your brand is to remain relevant and meet the needs of your consumers, then refreshing your website is a relatively quick and easy way to do this. It’s important to keep an eye on your website because it should constantly evolve with your brand as well as your products. A modern, interactive and well-functioning website will generate traffic and a perfect platform to reflect your brand.
Examine your current web design and analyse the features that don’t support your customers. These adjustments could take the shape of boosting site loading times or uploading relevant images of the products that are your new bestsellers. Perhaps you need to optimise the purchasing process by prioritising the products your customers use most in the navigation bar.
Tone and Voice
Whilst lots of these brand updates focus on visuals, it is also a great opportunity to tailor your brand’s messaging. The tone and voice of your company should reflect your company values as they convey the ‘person’ behind the brand personality.
Many consumer purchasing decisions are made on emotional connections, so use your brand voice to connect to your target audience.
How does your target audience perceive your tone? Is it friendly and casual, or is it more appropriate to have a serious and professional messaging style? Your company voice should demonstrate your individual values and be implemented cohesively in all types of potential customer interactions, including social media, your website, and campaigns.
New Channels
You can improve your brand’s reach and visibility by expanding your presence into new channels.
If you feel your brand could benefit from becoming more dynamic, then visually-focused, trendy channels such as Instagram or TikTok could have a large reach and allow you to experiment with the more playful tone of your brand.
Conversely, if you aim to nurture the long-term relationship your brand has with your clients and consumers, then creating blogs or podcasts could reach the right audience. Another approach is to build a community through collaborations or public relations. These new channels could be rolled out with an updated logo or revisited tone for maximum impact and publicity of these brand updates.
Could I help?
Whilst I’ve shown you some great approaches to refresh a brand, it’s important to do it right. It’s important to take the time to look at what’s currently working with your branding and where there’s room for improvement and invest in those areas.
If you feel you’d like some help with a branding refresh, Rebus can help. I specialise in brand identity, logo design and web design. Take a look at my work to help visualise how I could support you.