The Do’s and Don’ts of Rebranding
The Twitter rebrand was less than ideal. There are various opinions on the matter. Admittedly, there are more negative than positive reviews. But ultimately, only time will tell if the platform can shake off the blue bird and make a name for itself as X.
But this case study does bring up an important question—when should a brand take the risk in rebranding?
Some reasons why you might consider a rebrand include:
● To differentiate a brand from a similar competitor
● To attract a brand new audience or hone in on a smaller demographic
● To reflect a new goal or mission of the company
● To distance yourself from poor reputation or PR mishap
● If the company is merging with or bought by another company
But choosing why to rebrand is only half the battle. How you execute the transition is just as important. Below are four crucial strategies you need to consider:
1. Rebrand the whole experience
Rebranding is not for the faint-hearted. It is not just simply changing a website’s logo and color scheme. It can include changing logos, email addresses, advertisements, packaging, social media handles, and entire product lines.
When rebranding, ensure that every point of contact with customers sends home your new message. If there are inconsistent assets or traces of your old brand still present, it can confuse customers.
Using ‘X’ as an example, many people, including news websites, still use the word ‘tweet’ and refer to the site as Twitter. Many of the platform’s URLs still use
twitter.com as domain addresses, further adding to the confusion. This can make it difficult for customers to ‘follow you’ through a rebranding.
2. Protect your brand from cyber threats
When rebranding your business, you’ll no doubt download and upload many new assets to your various websites, social media, and more. You might also need to install brand-new software on your company devices.
While managing this can be a tall order, it can also open up risks to your cybersecurity, as an employee might download malware, compromise your systems, and sabotage your work.
Antivirus software is an effective way of avoiding this risk. The best software should be able to scan files for viruses, remove threats, warn you when you’re about to visit malicious websites, and ultimately offer real-time protection throughout the entire rebranding process.
3.Explain yourself ahead of time
When rebranding, it’s essential to explain why it’s happening and how it may affect your customers. After all, they will want to know what to expect, including any potential new benefits they can look forward to.
Businesses can easily explain the entire process in various ways, including through informative videos, advertisements that roll out before the official rebrand, and social media teasers.
Using these messages to ‘celebrate’ your rebrand and bring new attention to your business can reaffirm your position in your market.
4.Secure your intellectual property
When rebranding, companies invest heavily in research and will no doubt collect lots of data to help guide the transition. This data may include customer information, sensitive financial information, market research, company secrets, etc.
All this data can make a company a prime target for a cyberattack, as criminals aim to seize and leverage the information, holding it to ransom. The non-profit Identity Theft Resource Center tracked over 2,116 data compromises in the first nine months of 2023, the highest on record. The three most targeted industries included financial services, healthcare, and professional services.
When conducting research, collecting and analyzing data, and storing your files, you must take sufficient measures to protect yourself from a data breach.
Simple steps you can take to avoid a data breach include:
● Only keep essential data, never hoard extra information.
● Destroy files from devices before disposing of them.
● Regularly update software and procedures.
● Restrict access to sensitive files to a few select people.
● Create regular backups and store these securely.
The threat of a data breach is enormous. Not only can it delay your rebranding, but it can cause substantial reputational damage to you in the eyes of customers and business partners.
Lukas is part of the content writing team at GraphicSprings, bringing his marketing expertise to the forefront. With a degree in Marketing, he crafts informative articles on social media, branding, and logo design.