This article originally appeared on the Prime Design Solutions website.

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Has your brand become stale? Are you finding it increasingly difficult to attract new customers? How do you know if it’s time to revisit your brand in its entirety or simply put more effort into your outdated marketing strategy?

Remember, rebranding is a chance to start fresh — it doesn’t mean you’ve failed or that what you had wasn’t great at one time, it’s simply a reminder of how quickly market trends are evolving, shaping your customers’ perceptions of both you and the competition.

On the other hand, your company may not need a total revamping of its identity. If your competitors are keeping up with the ever-changing times and you are not, you may want to revisit your marketing plan.

So, how do you know when it’s time to consider your brand and if rebranding is the right move? There are five important points to consider before making the decision to rebrand.

Your brand and your story

Evaluate your audience and find out what resonates with them – give your brand a story they can follow and relate to. Verizon Wireless brought on the now famous, “Can you hear me now?” character, who is very relatable to majority of the population, specifically, Verizon’s target audience.

He’s a typical spokesperson, average looking and for some reason, very likable. He’s telling us that Verizon is one of the best providers of cell phone services, as well as how attainable they are to ordinary people like us.

Can you afford to lose your identity?

Your brand is your company’s identity — and by brand, we don’t just mean your logo. Your brand is your logo and all of the design elements that go into it — colors, fonts, messaging, graphics, images, etc. Your brand is also how your audience and future customers know you and set you apart from the competition. In general, people tend to associate a long-standing brand with reliability —  therefore, you’ll want to make sure you aren’t sacrificing the equity that you’ve built in the brand you do have.

A great example of this concept was demonstrated when Tropicana put a new design on their cartons and the response was less than positive. Customers felt the trust factor was compromised. Several weeks later, Tropicana reverted back to the original packaging — flip flopping again — and sales fell over 20%.

It’s important to note that if you do make the mistake of rebranding when you shouldn’t have, it’s worse to go back and forth. You’re simply reinforcing the idea that you are not trustworthy.

Keep it simple

Your brand should be clear, concise, easy to recall, and streamlined to avoid cluttering your company’s identity. If you offer a long list of services or have multiple sister companies/affiliates, be aware that it still falls under one brand. Don’t make your customers work to understand who you are and what you do.

Federal Express spent a year trying to streamline their brand and what they came up with is considered to be one of the most successful logos to date. Simply, FedEx. We all know it, trust it, and understand that there’s a lot more to it than a simple delivery service.

Work on brand relevance

Brand relevance means broadening the interest of your company. Think of it like this — rather than opting for plastic surgery, try a little makeup instead. Subtle improvements that make your company and brand more appealing can be just as effective and likely to increase your chance of bringing in new customers as re-branding.

You may not need to go as far as rebranding if what you have is working, but there’s no harm in polishing up your overall delivery and extending your message to reach additional demographics. This can include an update or refresh of your existing graphic look.

Take Old Spice for example – they did some research and learned that women are responsible for 60% of body wash sales. Their response was to catch the attention of the female audience with a new campaign – not a new brand. “The Man Your Man Can Smell Like” campaign literally doubled their sales in one year. They also reported a substantially notable increase in website traffic and subscribers too.

If you don’t need a rebrand, don’t rebrand.

Simply put, if your sales are consistent and business is continually good, don’t change your identity. You can tweak every part of your marketing plan to keep up with evolving trends and work a little harder to learn what your customers are looking for without compromising the trust and familiarity of your brand.

Overall, rebranding is 100% on a case by case basis. You need to delve into your brand and your business, evaluate your audience and consider the trends that are currently impacting how your customers perceive the products and services you offer. Then you can decide if your next move is a total brand makeover — or simply a shift in your marketing strategy.

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