

The pros and cons of a rebrand

Rebranding is a marketing strategy: The brand and, along with it, your business take on a new identity in one form or another. Rebranding can include a change in your company name, logo, design or a combination thereof – basically the bits and pieces that make up a brand.
The reasons for a rebrand are many, but usually it’s done to stay current with the times, end a long run of stagnation or to stay ahead of the competition. The success of a rebranding strategy depends on planning, research and execution, so everything involved with it must be considered beforehand.
Reasons to rebrand (a short list)
• Change of your company’s focus
• You’re entering a new market
• Your old brand is getting dated
• Your brand opinions differ from values
• Your brand name does not reflect products or services offered
• There’s a risk of brand confusion
The pros and cons of a rebrand
Pros
You can target a wider market
By rebranding you change your external look without necessarily changing much internally. People are much more likely to buy a product from a new brand than from an old brand they associate with a different set of services and procedures. (Example: If you are currently only selling your products from physical stores – or via phone ordering, you may consider changing your website from being a ‘shop window’ only to an e-commerce platform where customers can order products and services directly – that exercise could comfortably be accompanied by a rebrand or a brand refresh.)
You can communicate a more accurate representation of yourself
Your old brand may not quite fit with what you are actually doing today. Taking the time to think about your brand, and how you should be representing it, means that you can reimagine your logo, name and general brand identity to better suit your business.
You can learn from your mistakes
Whether you’re a start-up business or a well-established company, there will always be new experiences to learn from: PR disasters, logistical issues, competition threats, or even poor interactions with customers. You can put this knowledge to better use in the future. For example, if you find that your logo or name is too complicated or muddled to be recognisable (or to even make sense), you can take rebranding as an opportunity to trim the fat and adopt a logo more suited for your purposes.
It can help build a story behind your brand
A brand is a promise of consistency with the customer – this can be consistency in being good or low-priced, or consistency in being low-quality and expensive. Using a rebranding period to lose one or two flaws will ensure that your customers will see the rebrand as a positive change in your company’s evolution.
Cons
You lose out on recognition
Rebranding usually requires a sacrifice: this could be brand recognition and/or the accumulated equity inherited in your brand. Even if you clearly announce this change, a certain portion of your customers will be guaranteed to ignore or miss that information. It could pay off to take some time to assess the worth of your brand before you go ahead and change it completely.
It’s a significant investment
You have to re-rebrand everything, from website domains to employee uniforms, from packaging to signage, and you have to spend both money and time to get it right. This could quite easily become a liability if handled poorly.

List of the pros
1. It can help you to achieve new goals.
2. It can increase engagement levels with your customers.
3. It can help to streamline your messaging.
4. It can help you to expand into different demographics.
5. It doesn’t need to overhaul everything about your company.
6. It can change your internal perspective.
7. It can help your business stay current.
8. It can help you to obstruct aggressions of the competition.
9. It can help to shape new ideas.

List of the cons
1. It can create confusion.
2. It can cause you to lose customers.
3. It will cost you money.
4. It requires research before you start the process.
5. It can be met with suspicion.
If you need a fresh look at your brand, don’t hesitate to contact Platform29.