Everybody’s Doing It! Should Your Brand Consider a Refresh?
When planning a brand refresh, it’s crucial to have a clear reason for any changes. Whether it’s a logo update, a new website, expanding your target market, or a total makeover, a brand refresh should always align with the brand’s established values and purpose.
Before making any changes, answering the “why” question is the first step to ensuring your brand’s identity remains intact.
Differentiate Your Brand in the Market
Standing out in the marketplace among competitors is a challenge. However, it remains one of the most necessary things you need to do for your products.
Jon Gregory, Director of Account Services, suggests a brand refresh can be as specific as differentiating your brand in a crowded category. “Ways to differentiate your brand could range from making it more relevant to the average consumer, even the way you’re showing people using the product in question,” says Gregory.
An example of a brand genuinely differentiating itself in a crowded category would be many people’s favorite building blocks, Lego.
Lego was falling deep into a hole full of debt in 2003 when they realized that something needed to be changed in their stalling brand. So they decided to look at the public’s favorite things about their competitive category and use that toward their growth. This led them to make Lego movies, theme parks, clothes, and many more activations that differentiated them from their competitors, leading them out of debt and quadrupling their profits from 2008-2010.
Why would consumers choose you, if your brand does not stand out in a crowded market?
Staying Relevant
Simply claiming to be different isn’t enough in the world of brands. To truly stand out, you must prove you are different by showcasing distinctive characteristics or behaviors that set you apart from the competition.
Demonstrating unique qualities is vital to attracting customers and building a strong brand reputation. Ashlene Larson, Director of Public Relations and Social Media, says, “Saying you’re different isn’t the same as being different; to appeal to consumers, brands need to adapt in a measurable way and stay relevant.”
A great example is the brand refresh that Old Spice went through about a decade ago. The brand was tired and viewed by many as an “old man” brand. To differentiate itself, Old Spice rolled out a comedic new ad campaign targeting millennials; it changed its fragrances, introduced new products that were more relevant to the younger demographic, and freshened up its packaging. The result? A 60% increase in sales within the same year as the new campaign.
Why Audiences and Culture Matter
Your target audience needs to connect with your brand and fully embrace it. If you want to target a new market, adjust your strategies to ensure that your brand resonates with the new audience and continues to build strong relationships with new customers.
An example of a tone and strategy shift is Gucci. The brand was slowly fading. Their primary consumers were aging, and their bold lifestyle aesthetic wasn’t attracting millennials. The brand changed from a jet-set lifestyle to a contemporary and empowering style.
Jack Spaulding, Executive Director of Brand Strategy, offered another reason to stay true to your brand’s culture. “If your brand culture is no longer aligning with who you are trying to target, then it is likely that you will not succeed within your marketing.”
If you plan on targeting a new market, then you should be ready to change the culture and activity of your brand so that it effectively attracts and engages the new market.
Logo Redesign – Pepsi
Pepsi and its newly rebranded logo and style took 14 years to come to fruition. Whether they started thinking of this refresh 10 or two years ago, Pepsi wanted a bolder look with its loud, unapologetic branding. John Gamble, Brand Strategy Supervisor, says, “When it comes to a brand refresh, you want to get to market fast, you don’t want to cut corners, but you do want to be first to market […]Waiting to get to the market is easier for a company with a legacy, but cutting corners as a start-up could leave you with holes, and you don’t want that.”
Pepsi’s brand refresh will debut this fall in the United States and in 2024 globally.
Logo Redesign – Magnum Frozen Desserts
Magnum frozen desserts and its 2021 logo refresh took over forty years to come to fruition. The iconic Ice-cream brand wanted to be a ‘liberated force of pleasure.’
The inversion of the logo colors made a considerable difference, partly because the gold stamp drew attention while reinforcing Magnum’s status as a premium brand.
The new design increases the sensory appeal, boosting the perception of its premiums, which went up 33 points over its predecessor. All while maintaining Magnum’s reputation as an indulgent treat. It’s safe to say that the public saw what Magnum was trying to achieve.
Despite the relatively long time it took for a brand refresh to materialize for Magnum, the brand was fortunate to have the legacy of an established brand. Without it, the refresh could have potentially been prolonged, but the company took the necessary time to carefully consider all aspects of this redesign and implemented them without leaving any gaps.
Audience Expansion – Pedialyte
Not all brand refreshes are about the brand’s visual image.
Pedialyte underwent a brand refresh that involved the target audience rather than the image. Instead of changing its brand elements, it shifted its audience focus from kids with the flu to adults with hangovers.
Pedialyte converted social listening data showing customers referring to its product as a “hangover cure” into an actual selling point. The brand saw the positive connection and chose to leverage it.
Harry Hammel, PR & Social Media Supervisor, suggests a brand revamp is about an organization’s connection to its intended audience. “If there’s an underlying positive connection between the brand and its audience, those people will support the brand through change. The brand never claimed to be a legitimate cure for hangovers because there isn’t one, but they did emphasize the product’s rehydration properties, and the rest was history,” Hammel notes.