6 Reasons Rebranding Your Business Is Worth the Investment

Just the thought of rebranding your business can feel daunting. Not only can it be a relatively costly and time-consuming undertaking, the results can be potentially disastrous (just ask companies like Gap and Tropicana). But, we’re here to argue the very valid case for rebranding, especially in light of our recent Marketing Supply Company brand refresh. Our own experience has made it clear that the benefits of rebranding far outweigh the drawbacks. “After growing from a startup into an established growth marketing agency, we saw a need for a more polished, elevated brand aesthetic that reflected our trajectory as a company,” said KK Henneghan, MSC’s lead designer. “The rebrand was bigger than just design—it was about looking inward, refining our brand voice, and accurately positioning our agency within the market.”

Company growth is one of the many reasons to consider a rebrand. Refreshing brand assets can also help businesses evolve with current design trends (see Google, Apple, and Pepsi logos over the years), or maintain competitive edge over new companies and trendy products that threaten to infringe on market share. Whatever the reason, the objective of any rebrand, big or small, remains the same: to bring in more business. When executed successfully, there are countless benefits of rebranding—it should pay for itself many times over, ideally at least once within the first year.

Once you’ve answered the “why” and worked with a branding agency to formulate a foolproof rebranding strategy, you can start to reap the benefits. Below, read up on the various benefits of rebranding and why investing in one can essentially pay for itself within the first 12 months.  

1. You can appeal to a new target audience.

Pivoting facets of your brand identity to target a new audience is one of the most common reasons to rebrand. Look at Old Spice’s data-driven rebrand in 2015, for example. After discovering that 60 percent of men’s body washes were purchased by women, Old Spice rebranded to speak to a female audience and created their “The Man Your Man Can Smell Like” campaign. Within a year, website traffic increased by 300 percent, while YouTube subscribers and overall sales increased by 200 percent. Dozens of other companies have rebranded in an effort to target the largest generational cohort in American history: millennials. Keds, McDonald’s, Burberry, and Target all rebranded aspects of their business or product offerings in the last 10 to 15 years in an effort to capitalize on millennial buying power.

2. You can improve your Google ranking.

As SEO expert Neil Patel reports, “Google has been placing more emphasis on brands,” he wrote in a new blog post entitled “How to Dominate Google in 2019.” “In other words, if you have a strong brand, you’ll rank faster.” He points to his own brand as evidence of this shift. His traffic on neilpatel.com jumped from 240,839 monthly users in June 2016 to 454,382 in August 2016—right when he started taking brand-building seriously. Considering that SEO is the second-highest ROI marketing practice out there, beating content marketing, paid search, and affiliate marketing, investing in your brand is a sound financial decision. A rebrand is an effective way to rectify poor branding or improve an existing brand. If more users recognize and engage with your brand, Google will take notice and elevate your company in the SERPs.

3. You can compete with new, cutting edge companies.

The internet has significantly lowered the barriers to entry for businesses—anyone with a laptop and an idea can launch their own product or company. In other words, the competition is fierce. Rebranding can help more established, old school companies remain relevant and complete with “trendier” brands. Take sportswear company Adidas, for example. The brand has been around since 1949 and has reinvented aspects of their brand many times over to remain relevant. To speak directly to the millennial market, for example, they stopped production of the iconic Stan Smith sneaker in 2011 and debuted an athleisure-inspired rebrand in 2014. To create buzz around the launch, Adidas teased the new look on social media, controlled the supply and demand to engender a sense of rarity, and partnered with exclusive retailers and influencers in the fashion, music, and design industries to advertise the product before it went to mass market. By rebranding the Stan Smith, Adidas was able to remain relevant, capture the hearts of a new target audience, and significantly increase sales.

4. You can attract top-tier clients and talent.

It’s not uncommon for young startups to get caught up in the day-to-day grind of starting a new business and view branding as an afterthought. As a result, small business logos, websites, and brand messaging may lack the professionalism necessary to attract top-tier clients. But, young companies can utilize branding to reflect growth and signal movement past the startup phase. Working with a branding agency to revamp assets and debut a polished website and brand aesthetic can speak volumes to prospective clients and talent—especially if your company exists within a creative industry. Rebranding is a necessary, worthwhile step to take when scaling your company and attracting new, high-paying business and talented employees.

5. You can improve brand awareness and loyalty.

Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools in a branding agencies’ [ [link to our services page] arsenal. Humanizing your company via an eco-conscious mission, heartfelt background story, or thought-provoking video campaign will make your business stand out in the minds of customers. People are more likely to engage with a brand that delivers an experience, aligns with their beliefs, or makes them feel a specific emotion. Take Dos Equis, for example. Their branding story was so clever and powerful, customers associate drinking Dos Equis with being “the most interesting man in the world.” The campaign was memorable, well-executed, humorous, and award-winning. As a result, Dos Equis’ sales went up 22 percent, even as imported beer sales decreased by four percent.

6. You can reduce internal costs.

Ideally, your company will come out of a rebrand with a stronger brand aesthetic and a sharpened structural identity. If your company doesn’t have clearly defined objectives, values, strategies, client plans, or a general long-term vision, a rebrand can force you to consider these important tent poles and restructure accordingly. Not only will this structural clarity help your lower-level employees sell your services and work in a more efficient manner, it will help managers improve business operations, hire the right employees, and manage teams more effectively. When business decisions can be connected to a company tentpole, the company integrity can remain intact.

Interested in rebranding your business? MSC is a branding agency that can help you with that. Fill out this form to get in touch.

Related: 

• 6 SEO Keyword Research Best Practices You Need to Know
• Design Trends: The Top Colors of 2018
• InstaGrowth: The History of Advertising on Instagram