Brand Refreshes are a hot topic for businesses at the moment! We have just seen more major Australian brands refresh recently.

These have included; Foxtel and AGL, not to mention many real estate agencies including; Barry Plant, Hocking Stuart, Nelson Alexander and Ray White to name a few.

In our previous blog we discussed the importance of going through a process to refresh your brand. This post we are going to look at the Step 1 in the process - acknowledging the signs and start planning!

Step 1. Acknowledge the signs and plan

It is important as business owners or brand/marketing managers that you firstly recognise the signs or business challengers that would benefit from a refresh. A refresh is a powerful strategy as it can either; attract new customers, bring new referrals and or reignite previous customer relationships.

Below are some key questions that if you answer yes to 2 or more then this is an indication of why you need a brand refresh;

Are you are getting fewer leads than in the past?
Has your business's growth slowed or stopped?
Have new competitors entered the marketplace?
Are you are entering a new market?
Are you are introducing significant new services?
Has your firm changed significantly since you last
adjusted your brand?
Does your visual brand look tired compared to
the competition?
Do potential prospects or customers remember your
organisation’s name easily?
Do you struggle to describe how your business is different?
Are you losing a higher percentage of competitive
bid situations than in the past?
Are you struggling to attract top talent?
Have your customers changed significantly?
Are you trying to figure out how to take your business to the next level?

Once you identify one sign, start planning as it can be quite a process to refresh a brand properly. It’s critical you don’t jeopardise the business or brands growth by being either too early or too late in the market.

Once you know why you need to do a refresh. It’s time to do some initial planning to decide what resources you have to dedicate to the process including staff, time and budget. Brand refreshes require internally at a minimum a ‘project manager’ as well as Director/Owner involvement.

Key planning questions:

WHO:

Who will manage the project? Internal project manager or external Marketing consultant?
Who would be part of the team - best to include people from every level and area of the business at certain times. i.e. Director, Operations manager, Admin staff.
Do we have the expertise internally to build a strategy or do we need to seek external advice and support?

WHEN:

When can we start?
When do we need to the process completed by and why?

HOW:

Has this work been done previously? Was it implemented? What were the learnings?
What budget do we have accessible for the total project?
What budget do we have for the rest of the financial year and potential for following?

I hope these tips help you start the process of thinking about your business brand refresh. Of course if you're still not sure whether you need to refresh now or not or feeling a bit overwhelmed by the prospect feel free to reach out to us an ask any questions email: karin@sodablue.com.au. We would love to help you.

Blog post by | Karin Forster, Freelance Brand and Marketing Consultant, Sodablue.