World Finance recently published an article by Jean Majid, entitled ‘The difficult art of rebranding’. In the article, Majid shares some thoughts on what makes for a successful rebrand – as well as six tips for naming.
Rebranding a business can offer an opportunity to refresh the identity of a brand or move away from negative perceptions, but requires thorough planning and audience understanding to succeed.
In today’s world of rapidly evolving consumer preferences, businesses typically rebrand every seven to 10 years, although this isn’t always necessary if your branding is strong.
At Novagram, we agree that any branding project requires ample research and planning – and many of the brands we have developed for our clients have lasted for over a decade. In contrast, Majid provides an example of what can happen when a rebrand isn’t properly planned:
In the past year, one of the most noteworthy business rebrands was Elon Musk’s decision to transform Twitter into X, which was met with a wave of criticism. With the backlash Musk and Twitter faced, it begs the question, what is the best way of going about a rebrand? Why does branding matter?
The answer is simple: branding is an essential business tool. It helps you to differentiate your organisation and position it to compete effectively, whilst helping to grow your audience and deepen connections with existing clients. Majid writes:
Rebranding can be a great way to refresh your brand, reposition yourself in the market, or address negative perceptions. However, it’s important to do it right. If you rebrand at the wrong moment or make changes that don’t align with your audience, you can alienate your customers and damage your brand reputation. Here are six things that businesses looking to rebrand should consider.
Though branding is about much more than naming, Majid uses naming as an example to illustrate some important points.
Conduct research
At Novagram, we start every project – however big or small – with research. This is the essential foundation that the rest of the project will be built upon, so it’s important to be thorough at this stage.
Lean on resources like Google Search, Product Hunt and the Fortune 500 list for name inspiration, and tools like Google Trends and Trend Hunter for more advanced research into brand names and current trends.
Generate ideas
Experimentation is important: your first idea will likely not be your best one. Inspiration can come from a range of resources, including your imagination. A name can be drawn from existing lexis, or a brand new word altogether (like our own name: Novagram).
Explore all possible synonyms and related terms to come up with as many ideas as you can. Remember success will be gauged by how well it relates to your market, not you personally.
Compile and evaluate your ideas
Keeping your audience and industry in mind, you can begin to assess which of your ideas might work best for your brand. There are many considerations that will come into play here. Majid provides some examples:
Keep your brand name ideas flexible. Consider Amazon; their transition from an online bookstore to the broad retailer they are today would have been impossible had they included the word ‘books’ in their name. Owning a single, generic word, like Apple, is also challenging and requires time to establish, trademark, and secure the domain name.
Test the waters
You can trim your longlist by considering how each option will fit with the rest of your brand:
To effectively gauge a name’s suitability, consider the name’s language and cultural connotations to ensure it won’t be misinterpreted. Say it out loud and get an understanding of what it sounds like. Are there any potential mispronunciations? Finally, is it memorable? This can be one of the most important points for ensuring the name resonates with your target audience and sticks in their minds.
Final ideas
Once you’ve narrowed your ideas down to a final shortlist, you’re almost there. A few final checks will determine which name you will ultimately choose.
It’s important to check that there are no legal or trademark conflicts, that there is availability in terms of social media, domain names (both local and international) and mobile app name. It is useful to have some good taglines that will work with your brand name.
Feedback
Your brand name isn’t just for you – it’s for your clients and customers. Therefore, it’s important that it will communicate well with your target audience. Collecting feedback will allow you to ensure this.
This stage encourages a well-informed decision that isn’t swayed by personal preferences. This should help you decide on the overall name that best fits your brand going forward.
At Novagram, our branding expertise encompasses all brand elements – from naming, to logo, to a total rebrand. Get in touch to learn more about what we can do for you.
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