Many marketers have used the past year to take a hard look at their branding and make some updates. A rebranding initiative is a heavy lift for a marketing team, with a lot of moving pieces and can be an expensive endeavor for a company. Before you move forward on revamping your brand, make sure you don't make these mistakes:

Rebrand for the Wrong Reasons

A change to your brand should never be done out of boredom or "just because." Rebranding should be a strategic decision based on new knowledge of your target audience, changes in the competitive landscape, or limitations of an existing brand that is inhibiting company growth.

Many companies have gone through a costly rebranding exercise because of a new marketing hire or on the whim of an executive without properly identifying what needs to be changed and why. The results of a bad rebrand can be a loss of identity leading to reduced sales, a decline in customer loyalty and even potential media backlash.

Make Poor Logo Choices

If your logo works well in its current form, make sure you don't handcuff yourself by making changes that would make it more difficult to execute marketing assets. Some color choices and adding complexity in your logo can bring headaches down the line when it comes time to reproduce print collateral and promotional products. See our related article on "5 Costly Mistakes in Logo Design".

Reversely, if there are problems with your current logo, this is a great opportunity to get those fixed once and for all. Be sure to gather feedback from your graphic designers (and maybe your printer!) on what problems they have had with your logo and if they have advice for improvements.

Forget to Check Inventory

Be sure to seek out what materials you may already have in inventory for fulfillment. Smart marketers purchase print items like letterhead/envelopes and promotional products in higher quantities at a lower per-piece price and use up their inventory over a longer period of time. If the items in stock are still usable, you'll want to time your rebranding switchover when you exhaust your remaining inventory and you need to restock.

Be sure any automated re-ordering processes are turned off temporarily so you're not stuck with more product with the old branding. You can also use this time to re-evaluate your purchasing practices from the past year to determine the ideal quantities moving forward. Maybe you can place a bigger order upfront for fewer reorders, or a smaller order so you have less expiring product.

Inconsistent Execution

Brand consistency is important to get the full value of your marketing spend. So leave no stone unturned in your rebranding effort as every element of your company's public-facing effort should reflect the new brand. Some places that can get forgotten:

• Promotional products including employee apparel
• Social media logos and cover images
• Outdoor and lobby signage
• Email signatures

Ready to rebrand? Our team can help from design to execution.