In visual storytelling, a logo is much more than a pretty detail. It represents a brand’s key tool for creating recognition among consumers. A logo should be memorable but also withstand the test of time, making your products more than just an option, but a habit consumers rely on. Before deciding to change your logo, every brand needs to consider these essential facts.
While many resources exist for creating a new logo, we provide insights into our logo redesign process. Through this comprehensive guide, we’ll show you how a logo should be reshaped and adapted to the current moment to capture the spirit of modern consumerism while retaining everything research shows is crucial for strengthening customer loyalty. Are you ready to start?
When is it time for logo rebranding?
The decision to suddenly and abruptly rebrand a logo will always be a bad idea. Unfortunately, many brands engage in that strategy, often leading to a loss of recognizability. More important than the rebranding of the product itself is having a clear “when” and “why” for logo redesign, which should be the primary item on the rebranding list. Here are a few key rebranding questions to consider when deciding when it’s time to refresh your brand.
- Shelf competition – Do you feel like you’re getting lost in the crowd? Consider redesigning your logo during the packaging redesign process to stand out on the shelves of retail stores.
- Consumer trends – Have consumer trends evolved to the point where your logo now looks outdated? Your logo design should be refreshed to easily attract today’s consumers.
- Retailer demands – In some situations, retailers may suggest that your brand is too similar to the competition. You may need to redesign your logo to satisfy retail partners.
- Product range expansion – Introducing new, diverse products and the need to adapt your brand architecture? Updating your logo to fit your brand and line extensions may be necessary.
- Name change – Are you forced or voluntarily changing your brand’s name? Logo rebranding will be necessary.
- DTC (direct-to-customer) in retail – Are you a brand entering the retail market directly? These new channels will require a reconsideration of your logo’s appearance in retail stores.
- Global markets – Are you seriously considering international expansion? You may need to change your logo to be adaptable to cultural differences.
- Innovation – Are you on the brink of a paradigm shift in your industry? If your product brings about as much change as you think, make sure your logo reflects the impact you’ll have on the market.
- Digital transformation – Is your brand becoming digital or already digital without considering a logo redesign? Optimize your logo during a website redesign to make an impact on all screens and platforms.
- Mergers – Have you recently joined forces with another company? Creating a joint logo that encompasses the new brand identity may be necessary.
What does the logo rebranding process look like?
Like any aspect of changing a company and its products, having an effective rebranding strategy is crucial to the campaign’s success. But before you get into the strategic side of branding, you first need to understand the brand.
Let’s start with market research
Market research is a key component of the rebranding process. It’s a 30,000-foot view that gives you an overview of the terrain so you can identify the sustainability of consumer trends and have historical insight into your industry.
Make sure to conduct a brand audit
Are you aware of how much brand recognition you have? Do you understand what existing and new customers think and feel when they see your brand’s logo? Before even considering changing the graphic design of your logo, conduct a brand review to establish a basic understanding of the brand’s identity by conducting a customer sentiment analysis.
While you can do some of these things yourself, as we’ve written in one of our blogs, working with a data-driven branding agency will make this process much easier and more detailed. This way, you’ll gain insight into what customers and those within your target audience think about your brand right now. And how to properly and easily conduct a brand audit, read our blog where we explain this process through 5 steps.
Prepare a logo rebranding strategy
With an understanding of the market and the brand, the next step is to create a logo rebranding strategy. This strategy establishes different positioning strategies, where the team considers which one is best for the brand to move forward.
Create design concepts
Once you’ve decided how to position the brand through logo redesign, it’s time to hand over the comprehensive task to a graphic designer or a firm that will create different concepts for consideration.
This is also a great time to read our blog about 7 logo design mistakes that can destroy your brand. There you’ll learn what not to do just before the first sketches of your future logo arrive.
At the outset, the brand provides input on which initial concepts best suit the company. When working with a rebranding agency, they will present you with several refined concepts to offer consumers to remove subjectivity from the final decision.
Testing, testing, and more testing
Consumer testing is the most important yet least considered aspect of logo redesign. This is how you ensure that customers will accept this refreshed brand identity. Testing the brand’s impact on logo design and overall on customers and their perception also includes validating the memorability of a specific design solution.
Prepare for changes, as there are always some
Including multiple iterations in the logo rebranding process ensures that you take advantage of all the opportunities such an initiative provides. Even if testing shows that one logo design is better than others, there is still a lot of redesign work to be done to improve its overall impact on the target audience. This is the process that separates good from great.
Thoughtful and creative branding with Titans
Finally, if you need a new logo design based on a strong connection to your brand, Titans know how to bring those two together. We’ve been doing logo design for many years and understand how it can impact all segments of your brand, as well as product sales and brand recognition among the audience. So contact us to work together on redesigning your logo and making your company recognizable in the market.
