8 Signs It’s Time to Rebrand Your Business by Kieran Fallon



Rebranding is often part of the natural cycle of many established brands, and even not so established.

Rebranding your business at the appropriate time introduces a fresh perspective into your marketing, and widens your base to new market segments.

Moreover, business rebranding helps you reconnect with lapsed customers, as well as creating new ones.

Co-op’s Rebrand by North

How do you know when it is time to rebrand your business?

The decision to implement a rebranding initiative is never an easy one.

Here are some clear signs that it is time to rebrand your business:

1. Your Brand Name Does Not Reflect Your Vision Anymore

A suboptimal brand name is one of the most obvious signs that you need to rebrand. What may seem like a great and unique name at the start of your business at some point may no longer represent what your business is all about.

In some instances, changes in cultural context can alter your brand name’s meaning. Perhaps the brand name no longer feels appropriate for your brand’s next iteration.

One of the most common examples of such rebranding is Google. Google began as BackRub, later rebranding itself to Google courtesy of Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Google began as BackRub

Regardless of the reason, do not let your brand’s name be a drag on the brand itself. It is your brand’s calling card that appears clearly on every touchpoint your target clients engage with. As such, your brand name should be differentiating, unique, and memorable.

2. You Can No Longer Differentiate Yourself from Competition

When your brand starts to look like every other brand in your industry, a rebrand is necessary. Generally, branding is all about competitive differentiation. Unfortunately, most companies nowadays find it hard to determine their key differentiators.

Such a situation translates to extremely challenging sales and stunted business growth. Your clients and employees need to understand why your brand is more superior to the competition.

Rebranding helps you identify and redefine the key differentiators, for example, your competitive advantage. A strong brand allows you to compete regardless of whether or not you have a tangible advantage over your competition.

Gumtree Rebrand by Koto

3. You Are Not Attracting Your Target (the Correct) Market Anymore

At the start of every business, a well-established business tends to have a specific target market in place. Unfortunately, with time, you may soon discover that the target audience is not as you expected.

Sooner or later, you realise that your target market is not interested in your product/service. Chances are it is because of your pricing or some other underlying issue.

Regardless, a rebrand is an ideal way to elevate your brand’s appeal with your original target market. In addition, it can help you change your brand’s identity and refocus your efforts on an entirely new and more invested target audience.

Usually, a rebrand, in this case, could be as simple as changing your brand website’s layout and design.

Maybe hiring a logo designer will help your target market see you in a different light.

Mastercard Rebrand by Pentagram

4. A Change of Ownership or Mergers

By purchasing a company from a different party, you are entitled to rebrand the business to suit your goals and visions. Rebranding a newly acquired business is a perfect way to embrace ownership and align the company with your goals for the business.

In the case of a merger, the goals of the new acquisition will generally differ from those of your original entity. With mergers, brand architecture is equally vital.

Ensuring optimal relationships among the newly merged services, products, and brands hinders inconsistency, redundancy, and confusion. Such inefficiencies can undermine the merger or acquisition’s ultimate value.

A rebrand represents your need and effort to align the new business’s goals and vision for clients with your current company.

One of the most common examples of such rebranding includes AT&T that made significant acquisitions and merged with GTE. Due to these acquisitions and mergers, the company came up with a name (Verizon) to cover all the entities.

5. You Have Expanded or Moved Beyond Your Original Geography

If you have expanded or moved beyond the state or city where you started your business, it is time to rebrand your business. Typically, regional businesses face the reality of a rebrand when faced with expansion.

A business rebrand is called for if your brand’s name is tied to its original home. Moreover, expansion into new territory will typically entail new clients with yet unknown needs. Customer research is the only way to comprehend new client needs.

In-depth customer research is always the foundation of comprehensive rebranding. It allows you to locate the unique challenges of the audiences in your newly acquired territory.

In addition, customer research insights help ensure your rebrand is not simply a creative exercise but an evidence-backed approach intended to answer the needs of the precisely targeted audience.

Frameline Rebrand by Mucho

6. You Are Attracting the Wrong Workforce/Employees

A developing business requires a passionate workforce that believes in your business’ goals to promote business growth. However, if you are receiving applications from a below-than-average workforce (or individuals who don’t believe in your brand as you hoped), chances are your branding is to blame.

If the individuals are getting the wrong message about your business operations, there is also a good chance that your target audience is getting the same mixed message. Rebranding can help reinforce your brand’s message and allow you access to a more desirable workforce.

Most importantly, rebranding gives you the opportunity to hire employees fully dedicated and aligned to your business goals and successes.

7. You Want to Dissociate Your Brand from Negative Perceptions

A negative image does a lot of harm to your company. Thanks to social media, business faux pas, and political missteps can spread fast, damaging what would otherwise be a good business reputation.

A typical example of such a rebrand is Uber. Uber had to undergo a rebrand in 2017 after being involved in multiple scandals such as sexual harassment, among others.

Best Rebrands of Recent Times

A rebrand is often the easiest and most effective remedy in such situations, starting with an internal brand audit to assess how and where the damage is done. A comprehensive brand audit provides vital insights into exactly where the negative perceptions root from.

Rebranding is a simple way to change or salvage your clients’ image of you. It helps your business move forward from potential complete annihilation.

Auto Trader Rebrand by Studio Output

8. Your Business Is Struggling to Raise Its Prices

If the market prices for your service/product seems hopelessly fixed, despite the rising costs of materials, rebranding is the ideal way to break the loop.

Ultimately, brands boil down to customer perception. As such, your product/service’s value is entrenched in your customer’s mind.

A rebrand allows you the power to redefine the value clients place on your products and services—and increase your asking prices reasonably. Fortunately, proper rebranding has a notable Return On Investment(ROI).

Well-established brands build more equity, are more profitable, and sell at higher multiples. Branding involves more than putting clever taglines and hiring a professional logo designer to recreate your business logo. A strong brand has significantly more pricing power than its weaker competitors.


Ministry of Sound rebrand by Spin

How to Rebrand Your Business

Below are typical steps on how to rebrand a company:

  • Redefine your business’ mission, vision, and values
  • Rebuild your brand identity
  • Reconsider your brand’s slogan
  • Rename your company
  • Re-establish your brand’s audience and market
  • Recreate/Update Your Brand Logo.

Working with a professional logo designer can help you accomplish the above requirements by providing valuable insights and recommendations.

Bottom Line

Rebranding your business is more than changing a company’s name. At times, it may involve tweaking your business values and goals to adapt to the change.

Once you have decided to proceed with the rebrand, you need to keep a few things in mind. Of importance is to ensure every employee in the company is ready and willing to embrace change.


8 Signs It’s Time to Rebrand Your Business, was written by Guest Post Author, Kieran Fallon.

Kieran is the owner of Dublin Graphic and Logo Design Company, Éire Graphic Design.