Does Your Brand Need A Re-Haul or Refresh?

DOES YOUR BRAND NEED A RE-HAUL OR REFRESH?

Today, we're going to be talking about whether or not your brand needs a re-haul or just a refresh. This is something that can feel really confusing, because you're not really sure how much attention things need - if you should start over, or if you should just do some tweaking. So I just wanted to bring in my perspective to help you analyze this and figure out what would be the best move for you. 

If you have not dug into the Color Masterclass, I want to encourage you to do that. It is such an amazing 60 minutes that will really give you a lot of background in color psychology and what the biggest brands in the world are doing strategically with color. I would love to see what you think. A lot of people have really been loving it, and I’m sure you will too!

We will discuss:

• Key components when considering a brand re-haul or refresh
• A brand refresh versus a brand re-haul
• Upcoming episodes of The Visible Entrepreneur

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KEY COMPONENTS WHEN CONSIDERING A BRAND RE-HAUL OR REFRESH

So when you're looking at what your brand needs, there are some key components to consider. I'm going to walk you through these step by step, so that you can do a mental assessment to see what is working and what is not working in your current branding.

1. How long have you been in business?

You want to consider how long you have had this same branding.  Has it been a few months, a year, multiple years? If it’s just a few months, or you haven’t even really started the process, you may need more of a re-haul. If you have had the same branding for a year, maybe you just need a refresh.  If it’s been multiple years, like three or more, I would suggest it is time for a re-haul in your branding.

2. Why did you pick your brand colors?

Sometimes people will say they picked their brand colors because they liked them.  If that is the case, as you have probably heard in the last few episodes, that may not be the best indicator if these are the right brand colors for your ideal client as well as for your brand in the future.  If you only selected your colors because you liked them, I would definitely consider a re-haul.

If you hired a branding expert or web designer who chose the colors for you, then it is probably time to look at what those colors really mean.  If the meaning of colors wasn’t taken into account in that process, then what you’re really looking at is the (unintentional!) bias of the branding expert or web designer who chose what they thought was best.  So in this case I would do some research and decide if you need to re-haul your brand or just refresh it.

If you picked your brand colors after much research and study, then you are probably on the right track and won’t need to do much work.  The only thing that you may need to do is work on your tonal color harmony and making sure you have the right shade to match your business’ personality. 

3. Can you tell someone in one sentence why your colors resonate with and support your audience or ideal client?

If you can do this, fantastic! You are on the right track.  If you cannot or it would be really challenging, then you need to do some more intensive study on color.

4. How is your business doing overall?

The next step is to look at your business overall.  Is your business attracting followers quite easily on social media, or wherever you are chatting with people on a daily basis?  Are you struggling to grow a following? Is it happening, but very incrementally? Or, is it really stagnant? 

If it’s stagnant, or if there is very slow growth, then you’re going to be looking at more of a re-haul.  Something needs to change in your client attraction process, and so much of that is visual.  It involves color.

If you are attracting ideal clients very easily, then chances are you either need a slight refresh or you can leave things as is because the branding is clearly working for you.

When people go to your website, I want you to identify which of the following is true.

• Number one, crickets have taken over.  There is no activity, hardly any traffic, and you’re not seeing consistent opt-ins or sales from your website. 
• Number two, subscribers and customers trickle in slowly. 
• Number three, subscribers and customers are coming from your website consistently.

Again, if things are really slow or stagnant, you’re probably looking at a re-haul.

Sometimes people will come to me and say that they feel like things are working pretty well, but they just aren’t feeling aligned with the brand.  If that’s the case, then I know that the tone of color was chosen for them, usually by a designer.  It’s the wrong shade.  So we can leave things as is, but analyze the tonal color harmony and figure out which palette they truly fit into.  Then we can adjust the branding colors to the new palette.  Sometimes this requires a new photoshoot, but not always. 

It could just be a small tweak that brings things into alignment and makes someone feel better about their brand and marketing.

5. When people buy from you what do they tend to do?

• Are your customers devouring your content?
• Do they want to buy from you again quickly or interact and engage with you? 
• Are you having an ongoing relationship? 
• Or, are they immediately going quiet and not renewing their subscriptions, or not purchasing the upsells? 
• Is it somewhere in the middle?

It’s really important to look at this because you want to see what happens after people buy. You want to support them not only with your offers, but also with that visual fuel.  Remember, you have a primary color and a secondary color. 

 The primary color represents the first emotion you want someone to feel when they look at your brand. 

The secondary color represents how you support them through their client process. 

So if people are buying but not staying, we want to look at your client retention process to make sure you have everything done on the back end.  If those things are done, however, and retention is still a struggle, that is an indicator that your brand is not resonating with your clients.  If that is the case, it would definitely need a re-haul. 

6. What is your current emotional state regarding your brand?

You need to consider your emotional state about your brand the way it is. 

• Are you feeling really doubtful about it?
• Do you feel like you are on a sinking ship? 
• Are you not getting on camera, taking photos, doing live streams, or however you deliver your free public content?
• Are you shrinking back from that?
• Are you feeling a little bit bummed or not super creative?
• Are you sailing along, not in the down in the dumps stage yet? 
• Or, are you feeling really excited and energized? 
• Are you in it, posting, and feeling great about things?

If you’re not feeling great about things, then something needs to change. Nothing is going to magically happen to bring you out of feeling down about your brand unless we change something.  If you’re feeling that way, we definitely need to do either a refresh or a re-haul because something is not working.

A BRAND REFRESH VERSUS A BRAND RE-HAUL

All of these questions are going to help you figure out whether or not you need a brand refresh or re-haul. So, let’s define that.  A brand refresh involves doing some tweaking.  Sometimes this can be as simple as doing an updated photoshoot with the brand you feel really confident about.  Get out there, have your brand colors going on, and really just enjoy the process.  It could also mean getting a website refresh and making sure things are working there.  A refresh could also include changing out your secondary color or changing some of your accent colors.

A brand re-haul involves making big moves in your branding to ensure you are attracting your ideal clients and personifying what you intend to. Maybe you haven’t done this before, and you need to look deep into the meaning of the colors, into your ideal client and where they need support, and into your customers’ feelings, thoughts, and goals.  If you aren’t crystal clear on those, you’re not going to choose the right brand color. 

About 90% of the decision on your primary brand color is based on your ideal clients, and if you don’t know them in detail or feel confident about what you offer, you won’t choose the right color.

With a brand re-haul, we break that down and figure out the colors you want to use in your brand with the intention behind them.  We put together the brand palette, and that’s when everything changes.  Social media, website, photoshoots, stock photos, brand videos, and everything else that is part of your visual presence. 

Your brand colors affect everything, and that is why it is so key to get them right. 

Do you think your brand needs a refresh or a re-haul?  Feel free to reach out to me @visibilityvixen. If there is a specific part of color psychology you want me to cover, please send me a DM. I'm always taking that into consideration as I build these episodes. 

UPCOMING EPISODES OF THE VISIBLE ENTREPRENEUR

In upcoming episodes, we are going to be talking even more about color.  Specifically, we will discuss why your ideal client determines 90% of your brand color choice, why your website is not converting traffic to subscribers, the biggest branding mistakes of top businesses in 2021, how to create a brand that leads to a high-converting visual presence, and why your brand needs both a primary and a secondary color. So stay tuned!