Rebrand or Refresh? Get Your Brand Exactly Where It Needs To Be

Rebrand. Refresh. Rebrand. Refresh. It’s not easy figuring out exactly how your brand should be looking, should be feeling, or should be sounding.

Blumilk is on hand to help you to map out where your brand is now, where you would like it to be and exactly what steps you need to get there.

Rebrand or Refresh?

It’s a problem as old as time. The thought of going through an entire rebrand can be daunting so what if you don’t have to? There are lots of ways that you can better connect with your target audience while achieving a tangible financial result.

The difference between a rebrand and refresh is that the former is a fundamental change to an organisation, for example, changing your product or service offering, restructuring or merging with another business, or perhaps your brand is stuck in a scene of Stranger Things and gets to work on its Chopper bike?

There are brands from only one or two years ago that are already starting to look dated.

These are all elements that require an entire overhaul of the brand in a way that a brand refresh would struggle to achieve.

What is a brand refresh?

It may just be a case of sharpening up your brand’s messaging, visual assets or tone of voice? Except, how do you know exactly what it is that you need to refresh?

Remember, your marketplace and audience are constantly moving, growing, and changing and so, it’s absolutely essential that your brand moves with them.

If your company and brand fails to keep pace with the evolving marketplace, you potentially leave your organisation wide open to competitors who are there to step into your shoes.

Take a look at Starbuck’s brand refresh below. The logo itself has evolved over the decades but still manages to hold onto its iconic Siren and ‘Starbucks Green’.

“As we evolve to meet beautifully diverse customers all over the world, our brand has evolved too,” Starbucks explains. “Here we introduce a fresh new design system that maintains the core elements of our brand while keeping our customers’ experience central to creative expression.

“To achieve this, we’re thoughtfully incorporating beautiful, expressive moments with calm confidence in ways that are optimistic, joyful and recognisably Starbucks,”

A quick once over of your brand to check for originality, sincerity, understanding of audiences, value, visibility and consistency is a great starting block in ensuring that your brand is where it needs to be. If you’re lacking any of the above, it’s time to think about your brand and how it can live up to its responsibility of standing out in your chosen marketplaces.

What is a Rebrand?

A rebrand is something that takes your brand and completely transforms it. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse – so ensure that you either have vast amount of experience in rebranding established brands or collaborate with an agency who knows their rebrand onions.

A rebrand is something that is incredibly easy to get wrong and incredibly hard to get right. And don’t forget, your entire organisation’s success could depend on this exact stage in your evolution.

Take Tropicana’s 2009 attempt…

‘The new packaging design was rejected and criticised by the majority of Tropicana’s consumers. The launch of the new packaging was indeed such a failure that Tropicana had to drop it to come back to the original version of the packaging.’ (The Branding Journal)

That being said, it is absolutely essential that you keep your brand looking, feeling and sounding fresh and while a rebrand comes with a slightly higher risk factor than a refresh, it can propel you to the lofty heights of business success.

Take the Consumer Council for Water rebrand that Blumilk created.

The brand has been well received in the industry and internally at CCW. With a modern new look, the brand is growing from strength to strength and is growing in recognition. The brand is cohesive across all platforms as well as colourful, friendly and inviting for consumers.

Amanda Caton, Executive Head of Communications said recently: “Cannot recommend you enough! Look at the amazing job you did… you should include a “before” so people understand the difference you made to our brand! From our very first conversation, Blumilk have been a joy to work with and have provided us with a level of service above and beyond our expectations.

“They instinctively understood our organisation’s needs, helped us overcome several barriers with determination and positivity, and provided indispensable advice and guidance when we needed it most. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that without Blumilk’s energy, enthusiasm, tenacity – and commitment to providing an excellent service – our project wouldn’t have got this far.”

Whether you’re thinking a rebrand or refresh for your brand, it might be a great idea for you drop us a line or give us a call here.

Blumilk faces brand challenges every day so our clients don’t have to.