Digital rebrand: When is it time to rebrand your website?

In this article, we discuss why branding is important, the top reasons to consider a rebrand, and what to bear in mind when you are carrying out a digital rebrand.

A brand is far more than just a name and a logo. 

It is a set of associations, ideas, or images that people have about organisations, products, services, or people.

It is a blueprint to help a company present itself to the world consistently and authentically and is comprised of:

• Purpose: Why you exist
• Vision: Where you are going
• Mission: What you will do to get there
• Values: The beliefs and standard that guide how you do business
• Tone of voice: What you say and how you say it
• Visual identity: Any visible components that help customers identify you (logo, colour palette, typography, iconography, packaging etc)

So you see that a brand is an emotional mark, not just a physical one.

The world’s most valuable brand in 2022 is Apple, sitting at a value of $947.1 BILLION (Kantar, 2022). Yes, you read that right.

If your company were to merge or be bought out by another business, and they wanted to use your name, logo, and brand identity to sell products or services, your brand value would be the amount they would pay you for that right.

Investors now look to buy or invest in other companies not for the raw materials or employees but for the value of the brand attached to it.

So why are brands so expensive?!

Brand help consumers to recognise and choose

Brands help consumers make choices between brands. 

Take water as an example. Water is a free resource that everyone needs to survive. But there are hundreds of different companies selling it. How do they differentiate themselves within a category that always looks and tastes the same? 

The answer is with their brand. Their brand helps consumers identify them on the shelf, and make a choice to purchase one water over another.

Brands build connections

By building emotional cues, stories, and a wider purpose, brands can build authentic connections to their audiences.

Take Harley Davidson. It’s a company that builds motorcycles. Yet they have fostered a relationship with their audience so deep that people want to get their logo permanently tattooed on their body!

Brands foster trust, loyalty and advocacy

This emotional connection in turn creates brand trust, loyalty, repeat business, and advocacy. A brand that can inspire its customers to promote them to their own networks is onto something great.

Brands allow you to charge a premium

A brand that is trusted can also charge a premium for their products or services.

Take a simple cotton t-shirt. You might purchase one in H&M and it will cost you £5. Place a small white Nike tick on the left breast and you will pay upwards of £30.

Brands help you focus internally

A strong brand isn’t just great for consumers. It’s great for your employees too. It helps departments work with focus towards a common purpose and vision. And if done well, it gives employees something to get behind on a personal level, thereby improving employee retention.

Your offering has evolved

Perhaps you have redefined the products or services that you offer. Or maybe you are launching new products or services. Your brand needs to reflect this so that your audience can clearly understand what you do and what you stand for.

Your audience has changed

Your audience’s behaviours and attitudes can evolve or change. Perhaps you want to add a new segment to your audience, or target a different audience entirely. This means you may have to reposition how you are talking about and selling your products or services to better represent what your customers are looking for.

The market has changed

Perhaps your business no longer stands out in the marketplace and you need to redefine your offering in order to better differentiate.

Ensure your digital rebrand aligns with your overarching brand strategy

Remember that there should always be a justification for changing something. So invest time in research, analysis, and producing a clear brand strategy before embarking on a digital rebrand.

Communicate your digital rebrand with all your stakeholders

According to Label Insight, 94% of customers are more likely to show loyalty if businesses are transparent. So keep your customers, partners, investors, and suppliers informed every step of the way via all communication touchpoints. Do this across your website with pop-up or banner messaging that informs people of the change and reassures them that they have landed on the site they intended to. Send emails, and announce changes on your socials.

Rebrand consistently across all your channels

A digital rebrand is a big project, and it is not just the website you need to think about. You will also need to plan changes across every single other touchpoint: socials, print, email marketing, internal communications, PR, etc. If you are renaming, make sure that you can obtain your social media handles as well as your domain name.

Know what’s already working and what’s not

You don’t need to start from scratch. Make informed design decisions with your UX and creative. Audit your existing website to understand what’s working well and improve upon areas of the website that aren’t converting. 

Ensure your new brand identity works well in the digital space

When working on a rebrand, your website development team should be involved as a core stakeholder. This is to ensure that your design changes will be accessible and optimised for site speed. 

Mitigate for a drop in traffic

This is especially important if you are renaming your brand because the brand traffic that you used to rely on may not all make its way to your site without help. Set aside a budget for SEO migration and digital marketing to announce the change. This could include paid and organic search campaigns and retargeted ad campaigns. 

Propeller are a web design agency specialising in UX design, web development, digital transformation, and digital marketing. We work with clients on their digital rebrand to create a website that reflects their brand strategy, attracts their ideal audience, and converts customers. 

Get in touch to learn more.