A brand refresh is not always needed if you follow these tips

By Amos Unkovich

The rebrand decision can be slightly challenging as sometimes, the existing consumer base may not react to it positively. Take the examples of Gap or Kraft here. Both the companies launched their new brand identities, only to change them back within a short period. Since rebranding may not work for every brand, it might be a good idea to stick to a brand identity known to the target audience. 

 

According to a survey, brand consistency in messaging and imagery can lead to a 33% increase in businesses’ total revenue. You might be wondering how you can be consistent with your branding, given the trends that keep changing over time. Well, regular health checks might be one way to achieve this. 

If you think about it, an assessment of a brand’s health might actually be able to clarify the situation on rebranding and help you figure out the next step forward. 

How to Measure the Health of a Brand

Basically, a brand’s health is just an observation or analysis of its current position and how well it’s doing in the market. So health checks for brands are about collecting data and feedback on consumer responses, brand awareness and position in the market compared to the competition. When you talk about measuring or assessing the health of your brand, you have to focus on these critical factors:

Awareness

This is about finding out if your audience is familiar with your brand’s visual identity, colours, packaging and various products or services. With surveys and social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, businesses can easily monitor their brand awareness. 

Reputation

It is essential for consumers to know a business and recognise its products or services and look at it positively. The reputation of a brand in the market is critical for its growth and health. So if you want to get an idea of what the consumers think of your brand, you can check the reviews and follow engagement on social media trends. 

Market Value

Since the competition is quite challenging, each brand has to increase its market value over time. To do this effectively, you have to see how your competitors are frequently doing. This will help you figure out how your brand is doing compared to the competition and its value. 

Engagement with Employees 

The perception of employees about a brand can help business owners get an idea of their brand’s health. If the people working for you are happy in their place and committed to the brand, then there is a higher chance of success and good health for your brand. 

Once you can measure your brand’s health, you might be able to reduce the risk of going through a complete rebrand. 

Can a Regular Health Save You from Rebranding?

Well, yes. If you carry out the measurements of health regularly, you can get a clear picture of whether the current brand identity works or not. If you think about it, there are quite a few brands such as Apple and MasterCard, that have successfully rebranded and attracted a broader consumer base then before. 

However, the idea is to make minimal upgrades or changes to the colours or tweaks in fonts that do not make your brand appear entirely different. Apple’s logo went from multi-colours to a monochromatic one while MasterCard recently dropped its name from its brand identity design.