8 Reasons to Rebrand
Rebranding. It’s a big word—and an even bigger decision. Change is always hard, especially when it affects every aspect of your livelihood and hits your bottom line. But whether your brand’s been chugging along for one year or 100, there are times when a brand-new brand is not only helpful, but necessary.
At Big, branding is what we do (and we’ve spent decades doing it). Over the years, we’ve spotted some situaitons and symptoms that almost always point to the need for a rebrand. If you’re thinking about taking the leap toward a new brand identity, read through this series. If any of these points hit a little too close to home, you know who to call. (Hint: It’s us. Call us. Obviously.)
So, you have a big campaign in the works. You’re plugging away—spending hours figuring out the media mix, the message points, customer preferences, impressions, clicks and all the rest. You’re thinking about what you want your audience to do. But more importantly, you’re thinking about how you want them to feel.
If you’ve gotten that far, you’re not just planning a campaign. You’re shaping your customers’ brand journeys. Which means you’re already thinking about branding, whether you realize it or not.
If you’re planning a big campaign, don’t put the cart before the horse. Before you embark on a huge ad spend, make sure you have something meaningful to say—and a reason for customers to stay—by dialing in your branding. Branding unifies your efforts and makes them more powerful. It makes sure that the promises you make in an ad will match the customer experience. And it ensures consistency and clarity in every communication.
When you begin crafting an ad campaign, there are so many questions to answer. Who, precisely, is your target market? What, exactly, are they looking for? How do people currently feel about your brand? Where do they buy or interact with your products and services? How could their experiences be improved? A comprehensive branding tune-up or revamp answers all of these questions and more. It sets your ad campaign up for success by targeting the right people and with the right message—and missing everyone else.
At the end of the day, advertising is expensive. If you don’t have clear, consistent brand strategy holding your messages together and woven throughout your marketing mix, you’re not likely to achieve the repetition needed to make your message stick in people’s minds.
That’s because no matter how clever, or beautiful, or hilarious your ad campaign is, it won’t move the dial or earn the click by magic. Action happens when you make a real, authentic connection. And connection happens when you build a brand that reflects who you—and your customers—really are.
Client Case Study
American Specialty Insurance
American Specialty Insurance reached out to us with a request: could we help them craft assets for a big advertising campaign? We said, “absolutely!” And then we dug into the details. In doing so, we realized they had a great story—but hadn’t spent time thinking about how they would tell it. With that in mind, we went back to them with a follow-up request. Before we both spent precious time and money on ads, could we help them frame up their brand?
We presented the evidence, made our case and they agreed. Besides building messaging that better communicated their value proposition, we also gave their visual assets a long-overdue update. The new brand better reflected their expertise and the customer experience. Which meant that when we did create ads (because we never forgot the initial request) they had something to say—and they said it with conviction.