why you might have to rebrand your company very soon

I came across this post by Andy Ebon on The Wedding Marketing Blog and it inspired me to pull together this article. Creating a brand identity is expensive enough. Let alone having to rebrand your company a few years later because you’ve outgrown it. The following are 5 common pitfalls and how to avoid them.

1. You have no flexibility

A very important thing that companies need to think about before developing their brand identity (name, logo, tagline) is ‘how flexible do you need your name to be?’. Today you might specialize in flowers, but you may have dreams of expanding into event design. Using ‘Flowers’ in your name can limit your ability to sell yourself as anything other than a florist. You may start off as a local company, but have goals of being international – ensuring your name feels stable, established and large can be critical in securing international business. Knowing what you want to achieve at the start of the process can build in the flexibility you need in a name to ensure you don’t have reinvent the wheel a few years down the road.

2. You’re not unique

This is a big pet-peeve of mine in the events industry. A vast number of companies have names like Excellent Events, Beautiful Events, Wonderful Events, Stunning Events. The problem is that all of these companies sound exactly the same to me. I often find myself mixing up the names of two very high profile event companies…because they sound so darn similar. This can also be an issue from a trademarking standpoint. If your brand sounds like, means like, or looks like another you could be infringing on someone else’s trademark. This can mean re-naming your company.

Here’s a comprehensive checklist of trademark considerations.

3. Your name is the brand

Another consideration is whether you want your name to be evocative, descriptive or personality driven (there are many more naming options, but these tend to be the most popular). Evocative is a highly unique & ownable name that does not describe your product or service – an example would be Orange credit cards. Descriptive is a name that is describes the benefits or features of products or services – an example of this would be Amazing Events or Minute Rice. These types of names are not very unique or ownable (see point #2) but immediately tell your target what you’re about. Personality-drive names are built around a person – real or imaginary – an example would be Aunt Jemima. Many business owners make the decision to build a brand around their name. Sometimes this is a good, strategic decision. Other times, it can affect their ability to eventually distance themselves from their business or grow their client-service team.

4. You’re trendy

I’m not sure if you noticed, but right before the year 2000 a number of start ups called themselves…you guessed it, Millennium. How relevant are those names now? They seem outdated, right? Many businesses also make the mistake of building a visual identity based on what’s in style at that time (colours, icons, patterns, fonts). A good brand identity should feel timeless. Although brands, generally speaking, need to refresh their identity every 5-10 years (depending on their industry), this change should be subtle.

5. Your name is difficult to say, read or spell.

This point is pretty straightforward. If people can’t say your name, they probably won’t say it. How’s that for word of mouth? If they can’t read it, you’ve made them feel stupid. If they can’t spell it they’ll never find your website.

Photo via Caveman 92223 — On the 2010 US Tour