Brand Refresh: What is It and Do You Need It?

We recognise that it can be challenging to differentiate between the terms brand refresh, rebrand and redesign. Successful businesses occasionally modify and update their brands to suit the market, but what does this entail? Is it a branding or just a refresh? When you look closer, these terms are quite similar, yet they are also very different.

What Sets a Brand Refresh, Rebrand and Redesign Apart?

The main goals of a brand refresh are to update the logo and a few other brand design elements to reflect current trends. A brand overhaul is a more significant adjustment. This entails developing and putting into action a new marketing plan, as well as modifying your brand’s identity and messaging.

If you want to make your brand more appealing to the current market, you might need to renew it. It’s also an excellent option if you need to solve a market issue if the relationship between your offers and brand isn’t working. A brand refresh could involve modifying the tagline, the colours, the typefaces and the logo, as well as marketing collateral. This increases the brand’s relevance and ability to connect with a larger audience.

On the other hand, rebranding is more difficult and dangerous. It goes beyond simply redesigning the website or its logo. A rebrand aims to transform the perception of your business. You must develop a fresh philosophy and brand narrative, as well as possibly target a new audience. If you want a solution, this is it.

Do you Need a Brand Refresh?

Expanding into a new market

You’ll likely need a brand makeover if your company is growing or entering a new market. Starbucks is a prime example of this, as its initial branding was heavily focused on coffee. The brand’s imagery shifted away from coffee-centricity when it entered new countries and started to offer more items. Starbucks has claimed tremendous commercial growth after this modification.

Generate emotional connection to brand

Customers are more likely to be loyal and satisfied if they experience a tie or sense of connection with your brand. This indicates that people are more inclined to follow your brand, pay attention to your messaging, take your advice and refer others to you. Your customers will spread the news about you on social media and through word-of-mouth when you have a strong brand identity. It should be stated that it’s crucial to keep your team members’ sense of brand connection strong.

Changing market

People’s tastes in cuisine, aesthetics and clothing change frequently. Likewise, as technology advances, businesses are asking service providers for fresh and novel solutions. The market never stays the same, and customer preferences will always change over time. It’s time for a brand refresh if your brand identity isn’t appealing to consumers anymore.

Brand and logo disconnect

Your company’s brand should be consistent with your value proposition, messaging, and methods of speaking with customers, employees and partners. Your logo might not match your branding, but happily, a logo refresh isn’t a major undertaking. The logos of well-known companies like Google, Starbucks and Microsoft have all changed their branding over time. Visual components can age, and market shifts may require you to re-evaluate your branding strategy.

Telling a Brand Story

Full-fledged marketing strategies now include storytelling as a crucial component, yet many marketers and brands still find it difficult to distinguish between telling stories and writing promotional messages. I advise you to incorporate these five qualities of a strong brand story since they can help you create a narrative that will enhance your outcomes and make your brand more successful.

Five key features of a brand story

A successful brand story will have the following five characteristics: they are honest, transparent, and true; they feature characters and personalities; they include characters viewers want to root for; they follow a conventional plot line; and they withhold certain information till the end. Brand narratives must be emotional and vivid enough to engage your audience. Use character development and descriptive language to show your customers something rather than telling them. Making them experience an emotion in this way will enable you to establish a solid bond with your audience and promote your brand.

You need to develop a message that interests and engages your audience if you want it to be effective. You can achieve this by letting your story’s personality come through; by creating characters that people want to empathise with; by designing a character’s journey that customers want to follow; and by utilising perpetual marketing in a way that makes sure your customer wants to return to see what happens next in the story. In essence, you want your audience to identify with the character’s journey and accept the validity of your narrative since this will encourage their attachment to your narrative and brand.

Most importantly, keep in mind the foundations of branding by making sure that the messages you’re communicating with your audience are consistent with what your brand promises. Your brand’s promise and the expectations of your audience should be reflected in your tales, or your audience will go on to another company that regularly lives up to expectations.