Well, maybe.
If you are asking yourself that question and reading this blog it may be time to do one or the other. After all, you know your business better than anyone. But tread lightly as you move forward. Businesses should never take rebranding lightly. They should put as much thought, care, and effort into the process as if it was a new business and treat it as if they starting from scratch. You are in essence giving rebirth to your baby. And your baby is much older now.
There are two ways of going about your rebranding efforts when it comes to design.
First of all, is it rebranding or redesigning?
Rebranding is when you want to reach new clients and offer new services and products.
Redesigning or "refreshing" is when you want to appear current, more professional and in step with contemporary trends.
Some recent examples of "refreshing" if you will, are seen below. These examples are subtle redesigns that are made to be more adaptable to a mobile environment and to keep up with the current trends of typography and showing the world that you as a company is always evolving. This subtle approach is usually reserved for companies that need to retain instant recognition and do not deviate too much from their previous identities. They know very well the value their logos represent.
The other approach is throwing out everything that was used before and starting afresh. This works well when a company is expanding into new areas of product offerings or service and need to attract a new kind of clientele or demographic. Don't forget.. are you redesigning or rebranding? Remember, people get emotionally attached to symbols, logos, and colors of their favorite products and when those change drastically, there is a perception that the product may have completely changed resulting in lost sales and revenue.
A prime example of such a failure was the TROPICANA ORANGE JUICE debacle. Consumers it seems, were so emotionally attached to the original green logotype, paired with the graphic of the straw coming out of the orange, that they could not relate to the new minimalist design approach. It was too much of a deviation. One must ask why TROPICANA went for a complete 180? I never understood the reasoning. Where they going to attract new clientele with the new modern aesthetic? It is orange juice after all. As a result, the new design was seemingly misconstrued as being too generic looking, with an insinuation that the taste may have been also diluted (no pun intended.) It had lost its wholesome, "homemade" feel and when the new packaging was released, sales dropped 20%. Tropicana had to revert back to its original packaging and write off the $50 million dollars they lost in the process.
Rebranding efforts sometimes fail. One must ask WHY before attempting to change. The Tropicana Juice case study has become the poster child of failed rebranding efforts. Emotional attachment to product design and logos tend to have a huge psychological effect on our purchasing choices and devotion to brands.
Think long and hard to see which direction is right for you and your company. Subtle or not so subtle? The logo you have been using for all these years has a certain intrinsic value, equity, and recognizability. Could you imagine if Coca Cola changed its logo to blue and used a more contemporary font for its name... Oh my, Armageddon! But if your company has been using the same logo for the past 10 years and is moving into new areas of business and wants to attract a new kind of clientele then maybe a complete redesign is what's needed.
For example, we had a client who wanted to shift her more traditional design aesthetic to a more contemporary one without necessarily alienating her existing clientele. This would be considered a "subtle" redesign if you will. That shift obviously required a redesign to reflect her new approach and convey that new message. We wanted to bridge that gap and retain the elements of the original design so her past clientele could still relate to the brand. You see subtlety can be quite effective if done right. If interested you can view the JACKSON PAIGE work on our website by clicking here.
Other recent examples of "refreshing" work can be seen below:
Below are some rebranding efforts that take companies in new directions opening up new possibilities.
So which approach is right for your company?
I personally like to remind myself, in business as in life, it always comes down to three words:
Evolve or Die.
Christos Joannides is the founder and creative director at Flat 6 Concepts, a luxury branding, and marketing agency in Los Angeles. In his free time, he enjoys writing about branding, art, and design.
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