Too many business owners start off a business with the things that are primary for them, ignoring brand strategy and branding. They quickly come up with a name, create a logo and a website and they launch the business. No fault on them…small business owners have a lot to do on their own and most lack knowledge on branding as well.

They eventually understand the need to rethink their identity, overhaul their website, etc. after getting their main operations up and running, but they still lack clarity on many internal branding elements like purpose, vision, and mission.

You won’t go wrong with using clean and impressive logos, nice images and a good looking website. But from where it all starts, the internal branding needs to be done in a very clear way so that everyone can understand it, remember it, and live by it.

Why Rebrand?

Rebranding can help you communicate better with your target audience or adapt to changing circumstances in your market or industry.

The first thing to do is to take a step back and be honest with yourself.

Let’s look at a few situations when rebranding would be necessary for a firm before we dive in and learn what it is to brand a business from the inside out.

Are you genuinely in need of rebranding your business? Take a glance at the questions listed below for answers.

1) Does your business has a new offering that requires revising your vision and values?

You have been in business for a while and need to change your brand’s image.

Your company is saturated and so you introduce a new line of products or services that your current vision and brand values no longer sounds good enough.

This often happens when a business reaches rapid success within a short period of time and becomes too big too fast for its own good.

2) Business model or focus changed

Change is inevitable. While you may have been successful with your initial business model, there might be a few reasons why you decide to pivot.

Your product or offering might be the same but the way you operate, execute or deliver might have changed. You might have an entirely newer value proposition for your consumers.

You may have realized that there’s an opportunity for something bigger than what you were doing before — like going from selling coffee beans to selling coffee machines or from selling food to selling restaurants.

3) Logo and visual identity feel outdated and out of place

You might have designed the logo and identity when you started your business and so much your business might have evolved that your logo and visuals feel out of place.

If your brand feels outdated, you’re probably missing out on a huge opportunity to grow your business. You might not be getting the results you want from your marketing efforts.

People don’t buy from companies that look like they haven’t been updated since the 1990s – they want something fresh and modern that matches their own tastes and interests.

4) You are trying to capture newer market segments.

If your business has been around for a while, chances are you might want to appeal to new markets or customers. You are expanding into new regions and want to create a more consistent brand experience across your locations.

Or maybe you’re hoping to gain more customers in a particular geographic region. Or maybe you just want to change the way people perceive your brand and give it a fresh look.

5) You have a new competition

You have a new competitor or your competitor base has increased from the time you started your business.

If there is an influx of competitors in your industry, it could be because there is more demand for what you do. You need to stay ahead of the competition and show customers that you know what they want.

6) Mergers or acquisitions

Your company has undergone a merger or acquired by another company and want your brand to reflect your new positioning. This is especially true if you’re moving into the same industry as another business with similar offerings or target demographics.

In this case, it’s important that both brands work together seamlessly instead of seeming like two separate entities trying to share the same space (and failing).

How to rebrand

When a company is launched newly, the branding part is done with the strategy mostly assumptive and little market research information.

Without saying, rebranding should begin from within.

But, whereas, if you have identified the need to rebrand or revamp your business, it is possible to employ a lot of market research data and consumer insights to guide the rebranding decisions.

With the insights & data gathered from a detailed market study (How to do market research: a topic for a different day. Watch out our blog section.), we can develop internal strategies that are strong & foundational for all the external branding activities.

So, what are these Internal Branding Elements that act as pillars to build a strong brand from external? Read on.

#1 Purpose: (Why)

Small businesses that are purpose-driven create a positive impact in the market.

If the purpose is non-existent, you have to create one that aligns with your product / service and business strategy.

If your business already has a purpose in place, you must revisit the purpose and analyse if it needs a change and how well it can be communicated to your target audience.

Nowadays’ audiences are more sophisticated and well-informed. They can tell the difference between purpose-driven brands and those that exist for no apparent reason. People now want to interact with and build relationships with brands that operate on a purpose beyond their profit.

“The brands that will thrive in the coming years are the ones that have a purpose beyond profit.” – Richard Branson

Purpose is meaningless without being put to use. There is no point in writing the purpose in the branding document and not having it reflect in the way the business is operated.

Ensure that you have the resources and support for executing the purpose and thereby making a mark in your industry. Make it a part of everything you do every day, that it inspires your entire business and defines your offerings or services.

#2 Vision: (Where)

Vision describes the aspiration future state of the company or the brand. There would be no need to modify it afterwards if it had been carefully crafted before the company ever got off the ground. Since it serves as the brand’s guiding compass, the vision statement is not supposed to be changed.

However, if you had no vision earlier, rebranding is when you get an opportunity to define it and be clear for yourself of where you want your company to get to.

IKEA’s vision is “Our vision is to create a better everyday life for many people.”

It’s simple and a few words which captures the essence of where the brand intends to reach. The point where the company’s goals aligns with the customer needs is a perfect intersection to come up with a vision that is defined for tomorrow.

#3 Mission: (What)

Your mission defines what will you do every day, every month, and every year to attain your vision & live up to the purpose and your promise to your customers.

It’s completely action packed which clearly articulates what your company does and how it intends to make an impact in the lives of the people it cares.

Newer set of goals & objectives, that helps your brand to live up to the expectations of the consumers, employees and the stakeholders, must be relooked and redefined. 

Ask yourself:
Is your mission still relevant in the changing market landscape?
Does your brand still impact the everyday lives of the people?

Reviewing the mission statement in the process of rebranding your business, be it a logo design or a website design revamp, strategies & goals needs to be clearly defined for everyone to be aware and to take action accordingly.

Google’s mission is “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”.

#4 Values: (How)

Values are the guiding principles or beliefs on which the company operates. It’s simply answers the question, ‘how a business is conducted?

As how as a person, you have a set of values by which you live by, so do your brand. If not defined concisely earlier, brand values would still exist in any company or business, be it a small petit shop to a massive corporation.

When your company is small, your beliefs and values would reflect in the way you do the business. But as your small & medium business scales, it is essential to define these as guidelines on which your employees would operate your business where you cannot be physically present at all times.

For eg., if you have inculcated integrity as the value, your colleague needs to know about this brand value and practice the same with your customers.

Our brand values are “Never Settle, Being Driven, Be Curious and Do Good Work” and we strive hard to stand by these beliefs when we work with our clients.

Conclusion:

Any brand transition or transformation will be fruitful only when it is done from internal to external. Discovering your brand’s core is one of the non-negotiable steps in branding a business or rebranding an existing business. Along with this foundational step, identifying consumer profiles, their pain points, competitor’s strengths and weaknesses, positioning your brand and establishing a brand personality and voice are all multiple levels of branding which have become integral for businesses of any size.

So, do not neglect or take for granted what vision, mission, purpose and values can do for your business’ greater success. Reach out to us to take your brand transformation to the unimaginable levels.