Originally posted on https://reputationresults.com/need-a-refreshment-heres-why-a-brand-refresh-can-help-your-company/

Doesn’t every company need a brand refresh if it wishes to survive? We all saw those charts in college that showed how a company rises and inevitability falls. If you were one of those unlucky few who had to produce essays on how blue-chip companies manage to avoid the inevitable death of their company, then you will have written about how brand evolution worked to update brand principles, structure, and appearance.

Here is why a brand refresh is a good thing.

A Brand Refresh Can Help You Re-Target

Take the example of Pepsi that has re-branded itself plenty of times. It used to run as a direct competitor to Coca Cola, then as a tastier version of Coca Cola, then as a mixer mainstay, until it finally stuck with marketing to younger people as the “Cool/Radical/Awesome” version of Coca Cola. It was the skater’s choice, the cross biker’s choice, it was the sort of drink that attracted beautiful women in fancy cars.

None of this would have been possible without a brand refresh. Even the logos changed as their brand did, from pushing to be sold more in pubs, to hiring celebrities to sell to kids in their ads.

Brand Refreshes Can Test the Market

Instead of opting for a full re-branding or re-targeting, a company can run a subtle brand refresh and see how their users take to the changes. If the response is positive or neutral, it may signal the way towards a bigger branding exercise. A brand refresh allows a company to dip its toe in the water with something as simple as a website refresh from a company offering Web Design Mornington Peninsula.

It Reminds People That Your Brand Has Not Gone Stale

Have you ever worked with a piece of software that is great, but it is getting dated and you figure you will stick with it until something better comes along. Then, out of the blue, amazing updates arrive and suddenly the software is more convenient, easier to use, and has drawn a bigger online community; examples include Blender.org, WordPress, PayPal, Netflix, Capital One, and Bing.

Re-Directing with a New Marketing Campaign

Let’s say that you want to move away from selling to smaller businesses to selling to the public or maybe want to expand your brand in a different direction. A brand refresh can mark the first turning point. In fact, it can play an integral part.

As your new campaigns seek different audiences, your websites, logos, and brand principles are altered and advertised. A brand refresh doesn’t always have to be an issue of window dressing. Sometimes it can mark the start of deeper internal changes that stem right from the company’s core brand principles.

What Is a Brand to Do?

Why may a brand refresh be a bad thing? It is often a bad thing when the refresh is widely disliked. Any form of re-branding, brand refreshing, brand re-targeting or brand evolution comes with the risk that the target demographic will reject the changes. Yet, history has taught us that companies must push forward or perish.

Woolworth’s never evolved and its competitors kicked it into the dust. Xerox didn’t move with technology and sealed its own doom. In short, change is dangerous but necessary.

Reputation is everything, especially if you wish to run a successful brand. If you want to know more, then browse the other articles on ReputationResults.com.