Changing your corporate identity can be a big move and can range from small tweaks to an organisation’s logo, to a full identity makeover, or even a change of the company’s name.
Whatever the scale of the change it is often is a result of a combination of reasons. In this series we want to explore some of those reasons.
Needing an update
Whilst designers will aspire to avoid harnessing a brand identity on the trends of the day, advances in technology and society are unavoidable and are going to impact on even the most thought through and well executed brand identity. If a brand fails to evolve it will soon appear old fashioned and failure to gain traction amongst new customers outside even the most loyal customer base will inevitably result in loss of revenue.
A brand update may involve reimagining or redefining any imagery, as well as palette, typefaces or reevaluating the formats in which they appear and whether they work for that context.
Another consideration for today’s socially conscious audience, is a brand’s tone of voice. Once widely accepted marketing messages can easily be seen as out of touch or even offensive. This is particularly the case for brands which have a large marketing presence and have traditionally been aimed at specific genders.
Even the best-loved brands and household names are not immune from the passage of time. For well established and successful organisations this can present its own tightrope to walk; updating and modernising to reach a younger or new marketplace without diluting a potent, recognised brand, or even alienating a loyal customer base.
We explored these challenges in our analysis of the Formula 1 rebrand.