07 Feb Improve Your Brand Identity by Redesigning Your Logo
Improve Your Brand Identity by Redesigning Your Logo
Our experience and elementary logic teach us that the logo design is the guard of every brand.
When a logo contains the essential elements of a business and emits its core message to the target audience, that company is likely to succeed.
Still, even the most beautiful logo designs can become monotonous.
Due to the rapid changes occurring in the world around us, sometimes it is necessary to breathe new life into your logo, to make it contemporary.
But how far should a business owner go when redesigning your logo and how it can affect the brand in question?
When is the right time for redesigning?
Every brand redesign begins and ends with the change of the logo redesign.
Since the entire visual identity of a business is concentrated there, the necessary move is to spot the right moment to start with the change.
Although it sounds a bit complicated, you can collect information and conclude this matter pretty fast:
- Look at the sales figures. If your business has experienced a decline in sales recently and you have been losing customers, it is time to innovate in the branding department.
- After that, launch a social media discussion with one major question at its core – do you think our logo should be modernised? It is a perfect way to get feedback from your customers on logo creation tips.
- Organise a meeting with the marketing team. Analyse the data from the previous two points and let them speak their minds. Only such a sincere and honest attitude will yield valuable results for reshaping your brand and its vital ambassador – the logo.
Set the target audience
If your brain trust has decided a logo redesign would improve your brand, the rebranding process can begin.
The first thing that should be done is determining who you are making it for.
This decision can vary in different contexts.
For instance, if you want to target younger people, the colours, lines and message you want to send will have to be shaped by the particular preferences.
Attracting millennials to your brand is a demanding process, and it can take months to come up with drafts, analyses and different strategies that will manage to get to the millennial target audience positively.
Middle-aged customers and their elders have different tastes – doesn’t mean they will be easily pleased.
Whatever you do, avoid making massive changes to the logo.
It could have a terrible outcome if the customers dislike innovations.
This is what happened to Gap in 2010. Their clients rebuked them.
Read more about logo redesign fails in a piece published by Vanity Fair.
Staff brainstorming
Now you have the target audience and a basic idea that you should adopt the existing logo to the new tendencies in the community.
What you also have is feedback from your customers on different social media channels.
The next step is to summon your team leaders and the chosen employees to start the brainstorming sessions.
Before you set your foot on that path, you should know that it is a slippery terrain.
You might spend days sharing hundreds of original ideas and still end up in a blind alley.
So inform the participants in those brainstorming sessions that they might last for months.
If you decide to hire a professional branding agency to improve your brand, go through these guidelines beforehand, so to learn how to help a designer understand what you want for the best logo redesigns.
Keep the relevant bits
Your old logo is not something you should completely discard.
As described in the previous example of the unsuccessful Gap redesign process, a total change can cause irreparable damage.
This is why it is essential to keep the relevant bits of your old logo.
How can you know what to keep and what to discard?
Again, try to collaborate with your customers, to get a solution that’s by their expectations.
You could make a questionnaire about the old logo, publish it on your social media profiles and ask your clients to fill it in.
When you have obtained their opinions, you will know what parts of the logo should be included in the new versions and what bits can be left out.
Pursue simple solutions
When a logo has too many details, it fails to emit the message behind the brand.
It might succeed in conveying that message, but the audience will not be able to understand it.
On account of that, stick with simple solutions when redesigning your logo. The reason for such an approach is three-fold:
- The modern design trends incline towards minimalistic ideas. But this does not mean you should completely abandon your tradition. Think of Adidas. They use the Trefoil logo for traditional products and the three-striped Triangle for modern items.
- Lighter lines can be easier to memorise. Think Airbnb if you need an example of simplicity and a great visual appeal. Their redesigned logo called Bêlo stays in your mind the moment you see it.
- Too many colours can kill the symbol, making it gaudy and kitsch. But fewer, well-chosen colours can have a stronger impact on the audience.
Mind the tagline
The tagline could be called a logo’s next of kin.
More often than not, these two features appear together, and people usually associate one with another.
For that reason, your reshaped logo should come with a new tagline or a different version of the existing one.
The former should be applied if you are planning to aim at a different target audience or conquer a new market.
Furthermore, the tagline should entail the essence of your business and correspond with the logo.
Simply put, these two branding features need to work together, to represent your brand in the best light possible.
For instance, the long-lasting logo of Coca-Cola that emphasises the tradition and duration of the brand goes well with the tagline “Always Coca-Cola.”
Also, the term you choose as your tagline must be memorable and witty.
To conclude, a great slogan will sweep the audience off their feet.
A bland tagline may not only neutralise the power of a well-redesigned logo, but it could ruin the entire rebranding process.
Market placement
After all the steps described above, it is time to test the market and see how your customers, the general public, and the critics will react to your new logo.
Moreover, just like with any other visual solution, it must include a few testing stages into the market placement of the new visual identity of your brand:
- Invite 50 chosen customers to a closed Facebook group and ask them to express their opinions on the new solution.
- Contact a few professional designers and ask them for their opinions. Set the budget for this purpose, as well.
- Prepare several products with the new logo solution on it and repeat the first action from the first bullet. It is different when the logo is used in the context of a product.
If the comments and grades you get are negative, repeat the entire process described in this piece.
If the feedback is positive, you can start spreading the word about your new brand identity to your old and new markets.
While the previous ones may fall for your new looks, the latter ones will demand to invest extra efforts.
Here it is important not to overrate your capacity when trying to win over new audiences.
Think about adding new workers or outsourcers to your business when expanding the brand.
For instance, asking experienced brand developers to help you is a wise way to avoid overloading your staff with too many tasks.
The pros will work on brand positioning, and you will be able to focus on the production process.
Conclusion
Giving a business a fresh visual identity is always a double-edged sword.
While every business owner who decides to liven up their brand wants the best for their business, many factors will affect that process.
Every movement along that road should be done by the feedback received from the audience.
After all, they are the end goal of every such operation.
Because of that, always make sure you have support from the community for your logo redesigning solutions.
Combined with bright ideas implemented simply and efficiently, redesigning your logo will increase the value of the brand and ensure a better position in the market.
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