Rebranding Requires Planning and Dedicated Strategy

Making any major change to your business—whether it be a full rebranding, adding a new department or services to your existing company, or revising internal procedures—involves a lot of planning. While some jump into a transition with solely their end goal in mind, it’s important to remember that the most successful rebranding/restructuring involves organizing and following through with a dedicated strategy.

At Designzillas, we recently experienced a major change like this during our transition from a Web design-only company to a full-service digital agency in November. During that transition, we created seven simple steps to ensure the company’s success throughout the process. Of course, every company’s individual strategy depends on its own objectives, but we’ve found that there are a few general ways to effectively reinvent a business, regardless of industry, company size, resources, etc. Here are our ferocious tips for success:

1. Be sure it’s the right time to revamp. First things first. We all know that a little change in life can sometimes be just the thing to remedy the monotony and staleness of routine. But when it comes to making changes to your business, you have to be a bit more strategic, as a lot depends on its success. You should start the process by asking yourself, “Is right now the time to be making changes to the company?” Because sometimes the answer is just plain “no.” If you have limited resources, staffing, time, skills, etc., you certainly don’t want to waste time and money on an on-the-fly reinvent that garners underwhelming results.

On the same token, don’t ignore the signs if they’re all pointing toward making a change. Maybe your business is missing out on a lead because it’s not offering the same variety of services that your competitors are. Maybe your company doesn’t offer a clearly defined UVP (unique value proposition). Maybe your branding is just simply outdated. 

Regardless of your individual circumstances, it’s important to remember that while change can be wonderful for your business, it doesn’t mean that it’ll always be the right time for it.

2. Brainstorm ideas (and throw out the bad ones). If you’ve decided that now is truly the best time to make a change, then start brainstorming. Get with your team and determine what it is that you want. Throughout your brainstorm session(s), you might find it helpful to ask some questions in order to spark ideas. Some questions might be:

• What are the specific reasons I want to reinvent my business and what are the goals I want to achieve with it?
• Which departments/resources/technology/etc. will need to stay the same and which areas will need to be changed/incorporated?
• What are our competitors doing right? What are they doing wrong? What are we both not doing that we could be doing?
• What is our target audience looking for from our company? Are we meeting their expectations?
• What is our budget and timeframe for this rebranding/restructuring?
• Have our ideas for change been proven effective or are they just fun ideas without purpose?
• Are we offering a product or service within a niche, or are we selling a broad range of things under one roof? Should we be doing this?

3. Make a strategic plan. Too often in a rebranding or business-model revamp do specific tactics get thrown to the wall in hopes of sticking. While it’s certainly important to have tactics put into place throughout your transition, it’s equally important to think about your plan as a whole. 

• The first thing to do when making a plan is to take the answers you provided from 
• the previous section and put it all down on paper. Some preliminary things to do to create a plan for your business are:
• List out your primary goals in order of importance.
• Put your secondary goals in a separate category.
• Add specific tactics under each category that show what steps are needed to take in order to achieve those goals.
• Create a timeline with specific due dates for each tactic and goal.
• Map out a budget for time, resources, etc. and stay within in it during execution.

4. Follow through and be consistent. As with many changes in life, there are some things that just take time to get used to, even if you’re the one advocating the change. It’s completely natural to fall back to old ways of doing things because they’ve been a part of your process for so long. But when the transition period is over and it’s time to flip the switch, you have to commit to doing just that. The changes might seem overwhelming at first, but they will quickly become part of your routine (and will hopefully help you become more efficient). 

So go back and see what things you’re changing and what you’re keeping the same, and follow through with them. Within a week or two, you might be surprised at how easy it was to get accommodated to the new process/tool/structure/etc.

5. Get outside help from mentors. Even the most educated, strategic, focused individuals can make poor judgment calls when they are too close to something. During this transition, it would be wise to bounce ideas and get feedback from an outside source—especially someone who’s implemented a major change in his/her company, as well. 

There are some people who tend to run with the wind of change and completely re-do every aspect of their company during a revamp. There are also those who are still too attached to what they’ve built from the ground up who go through a grieving/denial stage and can’t let go of the past. And then there are those who would just simply like an outsider’s perspective. But no matter what category you fall under, be sure to hear out others’ insights and learn more about how those could apply to your situation.

6. Be an advocate for your new brand/company structure and always find ways to support it. From your business’s social media platforms to the company blog and everything in between, each digital medium is an opportunity for your team, your clients and you to start promoting/supporting your company changes. The changes should be embodied in your day-to-day work life, from the top level down. 

If you’ve done a complete rebranding, it might be helpful to design a brand guide for your team to reference. If you’ve added services to your offerings, it would be beneficial to your clients to have those new services/team members highlighted somewhere on the company website. Whatever ways you can advocate your revamp, try it out and stand behind it every step of the way.

7. Be patient. If you’re only looking for instant results during the transition, you’re not going to find them. Remember that this is about the big picture—reinventing your business as a whole and bettering your brand for your customers. Those things come with time, even with the best strategy behind them. So don’t give up if it seems like you’re not generating results as immediately as you originally planned. 

Now it’s your turn to take our steps for success into your own hands. Grab this transition by the horns and go forward with confidence using these seven simple steps!

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