Cheat sheet: The four steps to nail your rebrand

I recently rebranded my business. Like many startups riding the COVID-19 storm, my former business Idiello had many iterations over its three-year history. But after transitioning to being a sole director with a fresh vision for the future, rebranding was an opportunity to set the record straight about what I now offer.

Even though I am a professional marketer with two decades of experience navigating rebrands for major FMCG brands like Black Swan and BIC, my own rebrand for my new business Campaign Del Mar was a good reminder of what you should — and shouldn’t — do.

So before you spend all your time thinking about your new logo and putting the champagne on ice, here’s what you need to do to nail your rebrand and capitalise on your launch.

Write your brand strategy

It may not be the sexiest part of a rebrand, but always start with a brand strategy. This needs to really nut out:

• Who you want to target;
• What you want to be known for; and
• How you’re going to achieve it.

The reality is, it’s easy to be all things to all people — the real skill here is to really zero in on each point.

Appoint a designer

This is one of the biggest and most important decisions you’ll make during your rebrand. Get it right, and you set your brand up for success from the start. Get it wrong, and it could mean a very costly disaster.

A good way to find the right designer is to find and follow designers on Instagram and see what resonates, then book a consultation with your top picks. Pinterest is another handy tool to create a mood board of what you like, which you can show to your designer once you’ve made your selection.

In the case of my rebrand, on top of a logo and visual identity, I needed a new name, website, a relaunch campaign and to change over my email address and every single company document.

I was going to have my hands full doing it myself, so I chose to outsource to a studio that was going to be a real partner in the process who I could rely upon.

Choose a name

What’s in a name? Well — everything. This is my tried-and-tested five step process to find the right name for your brand:

Five steps to finding your new name

1. Outline your non-negotiables

   Start with a list of deal-breakers aka the things your brand name absolutely MUST have). This can be specific (e.g. must include the word “digital”) or broad (e.g. must be easy to spell).

2. Fill your buckets

   In my experience, there are four directions you can take a brand name. Line up a page into four sections and fill each one with as many words as you can think of that fit that ‘bucket’. The buckets are: your product or service, your benefit, your personality, and your edge.

3. Research

   Once you’ve exhausted your brainpower for every word you can think of that fits in your buckets, turn to external sources for inspiration, whether it’s social media, cookbooks, a TV series, thesaurus or foreign cultures, and keep filling.

4. Wordplay

   Start mixing and matching your buckets until lightning strikes.

5. Availability check

   Before you get too excited, check your business name is available in your national business name registry or trademark database. You should also jump on a domain registry or a site like namecheckr.com to ensure availability for a domain and social media handles.

Get ready to launch

As part of your launch, you’ll have to tick off all the must-dos, like ensuring your social media channels, new website, domain and email redirection are all set up. But there’s something else that you should also make time for: a marketing campaign.

A launch without a campaign is a missed opportunity. There is always excitement around anything that is new, but that window of excitement doesn’t last long so you’ve got to make hay while the sun shines. 

A well thought out relaunch campaign can generate interest and engagement around your new brand, and help avoid brand confusion. It can also help build suspense and momentum for the unveiling of your new brand, and start to familiarise your existing audience with your new visual identity.

So before you hit the go button on your launch, upskill in how to create a marketing campaign. It’ll not only mean you can capitalise on your rebrand, but will help get your new brand the very best start.