Rebranding: what is it and 11 reasons to abandon the old logo

The process of modifying or changing the brand image is known as "rebranding." How can your brand's image be changed? The answer to this question is based on the product, the market, and the target market.

In this post, we'll talk about circumstances in which it makes sense to do away with or significantly change an existing logo during rebranding. Under "logo," we mean both the corporate spelling of the name (text part) and the brand name (graphic part). Let's consider real-life situations when it is worth saying goodbye to the old logo without regrets.

1. The logo is bad

It sometimes happens that a company initially does not want to spend a lot of money, sketches something on its own, and then starts working. The company becomes successful in the market despite having a pure logo. This is a good case when you should think about rebranding. Of course, there is always a chance of losing recognition. To protect your company, keep maintaining aesthetic consistency and soliciting feedback from clients and partners.

2. The company's logo is incompatible with it

If a brand has updated values, position, price segment, hobbies, or passions, the current visual image may not correspond to them. In this case, the person goes for a new haircut and wardrobe, and the company goes for a new logo. All this is necessary for the world to notice the changes.

This category also covers the case where a business decides to produce products under its brand that fall into different categories, but the logo prevents these new directions from being naturally represented there. The most common method is to shorten the primary name and combine it with the sign.

3. The logo does not match the tastes of the audience

Let's assume you came up with the idea yourself, and the logo exactly captures your vision for the business. The company's appearance must be appropriate for your target market in order to run a successful corporation. It is reasonable to suggest that this justification is among the most prevalent and compelling ones for beginning a rebranding. The context may be changing because your audience's tastes have changed, you've grown into new markets, you've contracted your audience, or you've even narrowed it. All of this points to one obvious truth: people who you want as clients pass by or ignore you.

4. You need to get public attention

You can use this strategy to gain attention if your company is in desperate need of a news break but has run out of options or creativity.

Our daily lives are being increasingly influenced by design. Consequentially, news of creative and effective rebranding has long gone beyond the business world.

5. Logo cannot be registered or used

Those who start out with big goals or who have grown sufficiently may wish to protect their company by registering their trademark. Before registering your logo, it will be studied by brand registration services. This service was developed to find brands similar to yours among the thousands of registered brands. And they find it, and everything starts again from scratch.

6. You need to distinguish your company from competing companies

This reason is especially relevant for highly competitive categories of goods and services, where it is extremely important to stand out at the level of a logo, signboard, and corporate colors of advertising products. Most often, this manifests itself precisely in the color of the logo, since this is the simplest, one might say, “pre-signed” brand identifier.

7. You need to pretend that you are a completely different company

Reputational scandals often become the reason for rebranding. The reasons may vary depending on your bad reputation or the needs of the market, but the only thing left is to act as though you are someone else. It is uncommonly conceivable to resolve this problem just on a visual level. But without the support of graphic qualities, it will remain unchanged in customers' views.

You can pose as someone you are not in order to gain attention and satisfy the audience, which is a perfectly understandable motivation for everyone.

8. It's time to upgrade

The most popular brands update their logo at least once every ten years to demonstrate that they are relevant, evolving with their audience, and not about to fall into senile madness. At the same time, no one needs radical adjustments; simply tweaking the lettering's style, the sign's slope, or the color scheme will do. And presto! Like after a bath, you might feel completely new. If customers are not informed, many could potentially miss such changes. Read our post about logo design tips.

9. Logo cannot be used on new media

Every company is faced with the fact that now their logo must be placed in small circles of social media accounts and squares of applications. This is if we talk about modern requirements.

A brand may always have a need to use not only modern, but simply new media for them.

Owners that have their logos rejected for use in multiple logo orientations, color, colorless and monochrome versions, and other situations where adaptation was not designed in must deal with this issue.

The logo's versatility does not imply a lack of execution. Being responsive requires planning ahead for the numerous applications of the upcoming "face of the brand."

10. The logo has unwittingly become associated with something bad

It's not that you failed somewhere, but that the world around you has become different. Something new and negative has appeared, similar to you, or the attitude towards the old has changed dramatically.

11. Participation in actions

Such a change in the logo is of a temporary promotional nature and is necessary to declare the social position of the brand, “hype” on a hot topic, or simply not fall out of the general flow.

In conclusion, I would like to say that it is better to think carefully before replacing the logo. We are convinced that rebranding for the sake of rebranding is a waste of time, money and client nerves. But if you need to change the logo, you have to be strong and go all the way. To do this, you need to carefully consider the entire process of bringing your renovations to life.

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