Navigating Rebranding in B2B Tech: Refresh vs. Overhaul Considerations

Rebranding can be a scary concept. Between logos, colors, graphics, messaging, positioning, templates and more…it's not difficult to see why it makes people run for the hills. Even a small refresh can be a huge undertaking to launch.

But when your brand is central to staying competitive and relevant in today's market, running for the hills isn't exactly an option.

B2B tech marketers can find themselves stuck between a full rebranding initiative or simply zhuzhing up existing brand items. So where is the line? When does it make sense to do a light refresh over a full switch up?

Here's some considerations to help you decide.

Define Your Goals and Objectives

Before embarking on a rebranding campaign, it's essential to set clear goals for what you actually want to achieve, and why you're considering a revamp or refresh in the first place.

Some common rebranding objectives:

• Repositioning your brand to appeal to a new or expanded target audience
• Updating your brand's visual identity to reflect industry changes
• A shift in company services or product updates/advancements
• Improving brand differentiation in a crowded market
• Revitalizing your brand's image following a merger or acquisition

To ensure the success of your rebranding campaign, it's crucial to align these objectives with your overall business goals. For example, if your company's strategic goal is to expand into new markets, your rebranding objectives should focus on appealing to the preferences and needs of potential customers in those markets. This may be a case for a full overhaul in order to ensure your branding appeals to your current market and the ones you're moving into.

By aligning your rebranding objectives with your business goals, you'll be able to understand quickly how much will need to change.

Conduct Market & Customer Research

Make sure to conduct thorough market and customer research. If you're shifting anything about your brand you need to understand what your competitors are doing, any industry considerations and what your current and target customers perceive about your brand now.

Competition & Industry Trends

The tech industry is notorious for some pretty consistent trends for branding, but look to your competitors in particular:

• Are their logos modern or classic?
• Do they have similar messaging or a tone that repeats across the board?
• What do you think stands out about their brands graphics?
• If you pull messaging from completely unrelated spots on your site and theirs, can you determine who's is who's?

Finding a way to stand out in the "sea of same" is a great way to check just how much of your brand needs to be adjusted. It could be that your visual identity blows everyone else out of the water, and your messaging just needs tweaked or vice versa.

Current & Target Customers

Asking your current customers about your brand doesn't need to be some scary event. Reaching out to your Evangelist crowd may provide you with surprising answers, and by involving your customers in the rebranding process, you can ensure that your new brand identity aligns with their preferences and expectations. This not only increases the likelihood of a successful rebranding campaign but also fosters loyalty and trust.

If you don't feel comfortable going that far, see if you can identify patterns in A/B testing. Try out some slightly modified messaging or designs in a campaign and see what performs better!

Employees

Hear the truth straight from the horses mouth: what do the people that work at your company think of the brand?

This goes beyond asking the marketing team. What does sales team struggle with when it comes to your messaging when they try to pitch business? Do your designers despise your color palette? Or maybe a few folks have ideas that your marketing team didn't consider.

To avoid outright chaos, surveys can be a great tool in this scenario. The responses you get combined with your other research may reveal a pattern as well.

Budget & Time

You knew it was coming. The big old monster of rebrand vs. refresh: money and timelines. The average branding project can range from $5,000 to $50,000 depending on complexity and the elements needed. In our experience…it can be much higher if you're including your website in the mix.

If you're a smaller company, you may not be able to justify the budget needed to do a full rebrand. So splitting costs between certain elements, or opting for a refresh instead may be a more realistic option.

Even if you handle your rebrand with your in-house marketing team, considering your timelines and their workloads as a whole is critical with so many items involved.

Aligning Rebranding with Your Overall Marketing Plan

Consider how your rebranding efforts will support your existing marketing goals and objectives, as well as how they will complement other ongoing marketing initiatives. Consider:

• How does your rebranding campaign fit into your overall marketing strategy? 
• Are there any potential conflicts or redundancies between your rebranding efforts and other marketing activities?
• How can you leverage existing marketing resources, such as content or ad campaigns, to support your rebranding efforts? 

Ensuring that you have the resources to align the rest of your marketing plan to support your rebrand or refresh is critical. Maybe the rebrand can be done in multiple smaller refresh phases to align with your strategy?