The Leap to a New Brand

How do you know if you are ready to make the leap to a new brand?

There’s a reason the biggest brands are always working on their own brands, and that every brand of any substance has a brand manager, or a whole team, to care for it. It’s because a brand is a super valuable asset, often your most valuable asset. Or it should be.

The branding process is not for everyone. It’s hard work. It can be difficult to imagine your organization sporting new logo and tagline, let alone a new name. (If it’s easy for you to imagine, call me now!) The branding process (yes, there is a process) can be tough. But when you do it the right way, it is absolutely rewarding.

The process, even if it’s just a new logo, is introspective.

• It requires focus.
• It requires you to answer tough questions.
• It requires you to make some tough decisions.
• It requires you to invest for the long term, not the immediate return. (Believe me, I know this first hand.)
• It requires you to spend time on a thing you think you have no time for.
• It requires that you really listen to clients, key staff, key stakeholders and referral sources.

So when do you make the leap to a new brand?

• You leap if you want to actually understand your unique market position.
• If you’ve tried, haven’t made any good progress, and can’t put it off anymore.
• You have a clear vision, mission and core values for your company.
• You have competition, but you’re not that worried about them.
• Your company has a super inside culture.
• Your market is experiencing change.
• You have not taken the time, in a long time to understand your audience.
• You have the money.

There are other reasons, like pressure from your Board, a new service or product focus, a new facility, you just acquired a new business…

Here are a few reasons our clients took the new brand leap:

• I have to invest in identity graphics for a whole fleet of trucks and I hate the way they look now.
• I want to lay my stuff down on Mr. Giant Healthcare CEO’s desk and have him take me seriously.
• We have been working on this for two years with my inside team and the board and have not gone anywhere.
• We have three different names that we use.
• We need a total re-boot in the way the community thinks about our organization.
• We have no idea why our clients choose us over the competition.
• We have a name nobody uses and 17 locations referred to by the street names.

I have found that when companies make the leap, they trust that we will take them down a rewarding road.

It’s proven to be true.