Rebranding
REBRANDING: A COAT OF PAINT OR SOUL SEARCHING?
The brand gurus have left your office after a 4 hour long strategy session, and after filling your minds and ears with new found vigor inspired you to rebrand, rebrand and rebrand!! So you get your own team together and charge them to go out and find the best new colours that depict strength, loyalty, innovation, consistency and every new age adjective or noun you can muster. To the mix, you throw in a new logo as well, “one that is in line with what the brand represents” and put in a call to the guys at Dulux; “40 litres of your best silk finish royal blue paint for our head office please”. And the rush begins as you rebrand, rebrand and rebrand. But are you on the right course? What is it that your brand truly represents? Is your brand personality or character in line with all the new age buzz words and fancy colors and shapes you have put into the creative representation of your brand or are you just going devil-may-care into the market with a brand representation that you and your team do not have the wherewithal to defend if questions arise?
What is your brand character anyways? Why is it any different from what your colours and logos represent, why does it transcend the scope of the visual-intangible to the level of visual/non-visual-tangible? Your brand character/personality is a set of human characteristics that are attributed to your brand name. Something to which your consumers can relate; and your brand can increase its brand equity by staying consistent to these values. This is the added-value that a brand gains, aside from its functional benefits.
Five main types of brand personalities exist: excitement, sincerity, ruggedness, competence and sophistication. Here are examples of traits for the different types of brand personalities:
Excitement: carefree, spirited, youthful
Sincerity: genuine, kind, family-oriented, thoughtful
Ruggedness: rough, tough, outdoors, athletic
Competence:
The brand gurus have left your office after a 4 hour long strategy session, and after filling your minds and ears with new found vigor inspired you to rebrand, rebrand and rebrand!! So you get your own team together and charge them to go out and find the best new colours that depict strength, loyalty, innovation, consistency and every new age adjective or noun you can muster. To the mix, you throw in a new logo as well, “one that is in line with what the brand represents” and put in a call to the guys at Dulux; “40 litres of your best silk finish royal blue paint for our head office please”. And the rush begins as you rebrand, rebrand and rebrand. But are you on the right course? What is it that your brand truly represents? Is your brand personality or character in line with all the new age buzz words and fancy colors and shapes you have put into the creative representation of your brand or are you just going devil-may-care into the market with a brand representation that you and your team do not have the wherewithal to defend if questions arise?
What is your brand character anyways? Why is it any different from what your colours and logos represent, why does it transcend the scope of the visual-intangible to the level of visual/non-visual-tangible? Your brand character/personality is a set of human characteristics that are attributed to your brand name. Something to which your consumers can relate; and your brand can increase its brand equity by staying consistent to these values. This is the added-value that a brand gains, aside from its functional benefits.
Five main types of brand personalities exist: excitement, sincerity, ruggedness, competence and sophistication. Here are examples of traits for the different types of brand personalities:
Excitement: carefree, spirited, youthful
Sincerity: genuine, kind, family-oriented, thoughtful
Ruggedness: rough, tough, outdoors, athletic
Competence: