Rebrand or Refresh? How to Decide What You Need

It’s always a little jarring when a brand you know suddenly changes their image.

One needs only to look at the swift, acute reaction to Instagram’s new logo to confirm that people definitely take notice when things change. 

 

These kinds of reactions can make companies hesitant to change or update their branding—but what happens when you feel like you absolutely have to make a change?

When your branding feels stale, it can impact everything you do. Your advertising suddenly all feels flat, your website looks outdated, and you’re hesitant to even launch a new campaign for fear that it’ll be uninspired. You know you need to do something, but is a total overhaul what you need, or will a slight refresh to the look and feel of your company’s branding do the trick?

Rebrand vs Refresh: What You’re Getting With Each

First, it’s important to define these two words. 

Instagram got a new logo and a few new functionalities (although users don’t seem particularly happy with some, like non-chronological feeds), which reflected the changing nature of the brand. 

Whereas their old-timey logo made sense when Instagram’s platform was based on adding vintage filters on photos, as a social media site, it seemed a little less applicable. However, even after the new logo, the company is basically the same—similar usage, similar overall branding, and generally the same product. They underwent a high-level refresh which maintains the current state of the site, but is a little more modern.

Compare that to the Tribune Publishing Company—the media corporation which owns the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune, and many other titles—who recently announced a completely new brand name, logo, title, and design to reflect a pivot in its business model. 

The company, now known as “tronc” (an all lower-case name that was swiftly mocked on Twitter), was described by ownership as “a rebranding” which “acknowledges our important evolution as a company and captures the essence of our vision for the future.” 

The difference between the two? Whereas Instagram just freshened up its look and feel and added a few new features, tronc adopted a completely new name, new look—and, ostensibly, new goals for the future of the company. 

Which is really what it comes down to when debating whether or not your company needs a new look, and how far you need to go: What are you hoping to get out of it?

What Do You Need? It Depends On Your Goals

For tronc, it was clear that the purpose of the rebrand was to reflect an entirely new vision in a changing industry (and to avoid a hostile takeover). As newspapers have struggled to keep up with changing demands for content and consumption, their owners have had a difficult time adapting to the pace. This has driven many companies to either pivot their model slightly, introduce or switch to new web-only properties, or try to give themselves a complete modern makeover.

However, these pivots or rebrands are rarely enough to float a company if their content doesn’t keep up. Consumers are less interested in the rebrand and more interested in what they get out of it. And yet, companies often blame their stale look and feel for slipping readership, rather than their stale content.

This is why, before beginning a rebrand or a refresh, it’s crucial to ask: What are we hoping to get out of this, and what are we going to do to make that happen?

If your goal, like Instagram, is to bring your look and feel up to date with your business in its current state, then a refresh of your website, blog, social media accounts, and logo will likely do the trick. It’ll garner attention—and give you a reason to wake up that cooling email list!—and may prompt you to create new content or ideas that you might not have otherwise.

It will not, however, likely drive conversions if you don’t also do some marketing around it. 

However, if your goal is to fully change your company—to move away from your old goals and completely become something new—to net a new kind of customer, to move into a new market, or to reflect a new product or service, a rebrand is likely in order. This typically takes quite a bit more time and comes with more risk (it’s possible your customer base may not follow you if you seem unfamiliar) and requires a bit of legwork to ensure you’re keeping your consumers in the loop. 

Either way, the fact remains that a refresh or a rebrand can’t bail out a company that’s fundamentally not keeping up with the market. While a new logo can certainly kickstart ideas and get some attention, it’ll never do as much work as a well-rounded business model or an integrated marketing campaign. 

Whether or not your branding needs a total overhaul depends less on the state of your company and more on what you’d like the state of your company to be.

Ready for a Refresh?

efelle creative is a Seattle-based web marketing firm that specializes in website design and development, website content management, search engine optimization, and other online marketing services. Since 2005, efelle has worked with hundreds of businesses to help them with their web development needs. Call us at 206.384.4909 or fill out our online contact form to get in touch with a custom web design specialist.