When It’s Worth Considering Rebranding Your Business

The idea of a comprehensive rebranding project can feel a little like throwing away your identity and starting from scratch. Nevertheless, it can sometimes be the most sensible and advisable course of action.From dealing with increased competition to repairing reputational damage, poor performance in general can often be turned around through rebranding. It’s simply a case of knowing when and where the time comes to consider rebranding your business, prior to going ahead with a workable strategy.But what are the specific scenarios when it would be worth considering rebranding your business as a whole?When looking to reach a new demographicWell, you might want to think about rebranding if you are interested in changing your current target audience. If wanting to reach an entirely new demographic, chances are you’re going to need an entirely different approach and perhaps a new brand image to boot. One prime example of a brand having successfully transformed its approach to reach a new demographic over the past couple of years being Old Spice. As of 2010, this once cliché fragrance associated with older audiences has been pushed on a far younger target market with extraordinary effectiveness.When in need of a reputation repairIt could also be that your business has developed the kind of reputation that simply isn’t working with modern audiences. Cast your mind back a relatively short time and you may remember a period when fast food giants like McDonalds and KFC found themselves on the receiving end of a massive health-group and consumer backlash. The result – a completely new image with a firm focus on nutritional awareness and the availability of countless alternatives to traditional burgers, fries and so on. In some instances, rebranding is necessary simply to remain relevant.When looking to establish or reclaim your identityIn some instances, products, services or entire brands find themselves becoming associated with negative connotations or audiences, due to no fault of their own. Certain brands of beer associated with drunk and loutish behaviour, clothing brands associated with unsavoury youth culture and so on. When this happens, you essentially have two options – run with it and exploit your audience, or consider rebranding to reclaim your identity – or perhaps build a new identity entirely.When targeting an increase in salesLast but not least, rebranding and taking your professional image in a new direction can also be effective when looking to increase sales in general. The idea being that a successful rebranding effort has the very real potential to both hold onto your existing audience and bring new business your way at the same time. Of course, it’s a very difficult balancing act to pull off as you run the risk of alienating your existing target audience and failing to appeal to new customers if you misfire. Hence the importance of determining whether rebranding is the way to go, or if you should focus on your existing audience and the enhancement of customer retention.