The Opportunity
A rebrand is always an exciting opportunity for a business. It's the chance to take all of the things that your company has done right and remind everyone about them, while also introducing new ideas to keep you moving forward.
Back in October, you would have no doubt seen Facebook, one of the biggest brands in the world, unveil their new corporate brand 'Meta'. Whilst their individual brands such as Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp have remained the same, the company said it would better "encompass what it does, as it broadens its reach beyond social media into areas like virtual reality (VR)."
However, when we speak to clients about improving their brand strategy, it often emerges that the perceived issues they have with their brand could be solved by carrying out a brand refresh instead. Whilst similar processes, there are different benefits associated with each so we wanted to take the time in this article to explore both options and provide some insight into which branding strategy might be best for your company moving forward!
What is the difference?
Rebranding and refreshing a brand are two different things. Rebranding is defined as a marketing strategy that involves changing your business's corporate image by developing a new name, logo and accompanying visual assets such as marketing collateral. The end goal of rebranding is to develop a new brand identity, changing how your business is perceived in the minds of consumers, investors, competitors, employees and/or the wider general public.
A brand refresh focuses more on a cosmetic update than as opposed to a complete rehaul of the brand. In many cases, we focus on visual changes for clients who just need to update or modernise their brand image. This requires the company to rework just one stage of the branding process rather than creating a brand from the beginning. When clients approach us looking to make changes to their brand, a refresh is often the way forward when they have a solid brand strategy, story, and philosophy that still tells consumers who they are and what they do.
What route should I go down?
So what's better? Rebrand or Refresh? Which one should you choose for your business? This can only be answered by knowing what objectives you are trying to achieve.
For example, one of our recent projects involved Cattanach, a Scottish charity funder who approached us to help them with their brand. They didn't know what they needed or how much work was involved, but they just felt their current brand didn't reflect who they were.
After sitting down and finding out what they wanted to achieve, it was clear that they required a rebrand that was contemporary and instantly recognisable, whilst highlighting their Scottish roots.
We introduced a new brand palette, a clean yet distinctive logo that linked to their core values, as well as a new strapline that better conveyed their purpose.
However, as we mentioned earlier, a full rebrand is not always the right choice for your business, and this was the case with our client 2i Testing.
They actually asked us to pitch for a full rebrand after falling out of love with their brand and wanting to try something new. However, after speaking to them to understand their pain points, we came to the understanding that what they really needed was a brand refresh with an 'evolution not revolution' mantra.
We kept the existing layout elements of 2i's logo, allowing the new font and brand colours to have a more mature look and feel. Small changes made a big difference, introducing darker, deeper shades of blue and green to convey a stronger and more professional image.
However, the biggest change was around the introduction of a suite of supporting assets that would accompany the refresh and give the updated brand more presence across the business. New iconography was designed to tie the services together and provide an abstract visual language for the brand. Illustrative elements were introduced to convey key messages, and graphical overlays were applied to web pages and other social graphics that ensured consistency across the brand assets that convey quality and assurance.
We also developed a comprehensive set of brand guidelines to guide them on how to use their new assets properly and ensure there was consistency and integrity across all mediums once they started rolling this out across their business.
The end result is a brand evolution that stands out in a crowd and cements 2i's reputation of clarity from complexity.
Need help with your brand?
Here at Gecko we love getting to know our clients' business from the ground up. We work with you to understand and define your brand to deliver a clear and consistent message to your customers. If your thinking about making changes to your brand, why not get in touch and let us see if we can help you with that process! In the meantime, learn more about our recent brand projects by checking out our case studies below.