The perils of rebranding your organisation

When it comes to the branding of your organization, it’s important to remember that it has a big influence on how your customers perceive you. With long-standing brands in particular, the brand is synonymous with the company and its values so changing it can have far-reaching repercussions.

Know your reasons

If you do decide to re-brand your business, you need to have a good reason why. There is little point in changing your whole logo purely because you think it looks a little tired. You need to have a valid reason to make any updates and be sure that they are going to be for the long-term benefit of the business.

Remember that it’s not cheap cheap to rebrand an entire organisation’s corporate attire either; from name badges to uniforms, a rebrand will affect every facet of the company’s look and feel.

Consult the public

One of the best ways to be sure about whether you’re making the right decision in rebranding is to speak to your customers. Give them a survey to complete that asks them how they feel about certain changes. Even if you’re short on budget, then there are online options out there like Survey Monkey to help with this.

You don’t have to give the game away by telling them your idea but ask them some leading questions to garner some honest opinions. You may find that the vast majority of them are happy with the current logo and this should make you hesitate in changing it. However, if they do think there’s room for change, take on board what they suggest; after all, it’s the fans who care about the logo the most.

Don’t be afraid to go back

There are occasions when rebranding can go horribly wrong. Some of the biggest household names have tried to go down a new avenue and have failed miserably. In dire times such as this, one of the best things you can do is hold your hands up, say sorry and change it back.

Everton Football Club recently decided to change its crest and faced a public backlash from the fans. Consequently, the club apologised and committed to asking the fans their opinion before any future reviews of the club crest. The fans are the driving force behind the club so their opinion cannot be ignored.

Backlash

The backlash that you may face from the public can have serious side effects on your company as a whole. If you change your whole stance to try and appeal to a different customer base, you need to be aware that you will also alienate your current customers in the process. This is a risky business because your new client base may not buy into this new attitude, while the old clients will be lost to you. You run the risk of simply losing customers and not gaining any new ones, having potentially disastrous consequences on your business as a whole. Proceed with caution and try to appeal to as many people as possible.

If you do decide you want to appeal to a completely different clientèle, it may actually be a safer option to do this gradually over a long period of time. For example, if you want to come out of a budget market and into a luxury one, gradually rising prices will start to drive away the bargain hunters and lure in the ones who like to spend money.