If you are in an upper management position in a company, or if you are the sole propriety of your own business already, then you have a lot of responsibility on your shoulders. You need to be able to make the tough decisions at the right time, otherwise you risk compromising your business and the future of those in your team. No one is going to make the decisions for you, and nobody’s even going to initiate a major change in operations because it’s not their job. It’s yours.
When it comes to branding there are many vexing questions that you must have answers for. One of the most challenging questions is: when is it time for a branding overhaul?
The answer to this question would have been harder in the pre-digital era. Luckily, today there are a number of metrics available to make the decision easier. You can consider:
- Changing engagement rates relative to the most recent branding overhaul
- Changes in direct traffic and potential reasons why
- The success or failure of your most recent press campaign
Monitoring these metrics will give you a strong indication of whether or not it’s branding that needs to change in order to boost your business.
Changing Your Brand Means Knowing Your Audience
Making a branding change is all about knowing how your business resonates with your audience and then capitalizing on it. Here are three general tips to keep in mind while you contemplate the big decision of revamping the company’s image:
- Change your logo every 5 years. Changing your logo (even slightly) within a five year span is smart business practice for a number of reasons. The most obvious reason is that it keeps customers interested, and what’s more important than that?
- Does your business strategy no longer resonate with your branding? This is the tough question that you and your marketing team need to figure out. It often happens that business strategy changes so quickly that branding is left behind. Operating with an image that does not represent the specific service or purpose of the company will slice through potential revenue like a hot knife through butter.
- If customer loyalty is lagging, it’s time for an overhaul. This is another tricky intangible that you need to understand thoroughly before deciding to revamp. Gauging loyalty has nothing to do with press clippings, direct traffic to your homepage or any other fancy marketing metric. Loyalty is measured by word-of-mouth marketing and the number of social shares you get when posting a on Facebook. It’s your community of customers that stand behind your brand, partly because they like what you do, and partly because they like your branding (the story behind your company and the message it shares with the world). If this loyalty begins to lose steam, it’s definitely time to refine your message with a corresponding image.
It’s All About Timing
Measuring the impact of your branding relative to the voice of the company requires constant attention. There is going to be a right time every 5 or so years to change your image – it’s just important to figure out when that time is. At the end of the day, a change in the tone and aesthetic of your brand might have the kind of measurable impact on sales that you’ve been looking for.