Good branding, marketing and graphic design are key to strengthening customer recall, communicating brand values and helping an organisation to stand out from the crowd.
As with any part of an organisation’s marketing strategy, there are times when a brand might need to be updated. Whether they’re proactive updates or a response to changes at an organisation, a brand refresh can ensure branding remains effective and relevant.
The decision to embark on a brand refresh is not one to be taken lightly. Our marketing agency in Melbourne has been engaged by many Aussie brands for brand refresh services – as such, we can help you determine whether your brand is due for one.
What is a brand refresh? Brand refresh vs rebrand
Brand refreshes, explained
While they may sound similar, brand refreshes and rebrands are very different things.
Simply put, a brand refresh (otherwise known as a brand renovation or brand restyling) is all about breathing new life into an existing brand. Refreshes add a new coat of paint to existing branding and visuals while maintaining their essence.
A brand refresh can include updates and refinements to:
- Logos and trademarks
- Colours and typography
- Iconography and image treatment
- Brand voice and terminology
- Slogans
Not all brand refreshes need to be comprehensive – for some organisations, only certain elements of their branding may need updating. Many organisations will update elements that look dated, but leave other aspects of branding alone. It all depends on the brand’s unique circumstances and needs.
What is a rebrand?
By contrast, a rebrand is total transformation of a brand’s visual identity. It’s much more than a simple update. Rebrands are often used to completely redefine a brand, and often involve redoing most if not all elements of a brand – completely new logos, brand colours, and more. Rebrands are much more dramatic, and are usually reserved for major changes in a brand’s:
- Business strategy
- Product or target market
- Core value proposition
- Mission
- Values
Which approach is more appropriate? Ultimately, it depends on the brand and its unique circumstances. However, both are important decisions and should be executed by a branding and design agency to ensure the best possible outcome.
Why do a brand refresh? The pros and cons
Branding helps represent an organisation and communicate its personality, values, and offerings. Over time however, branding may need periodic updates to ensure it continue to accurately reflect the organisation.
A brand refresh is key to maintaining a brand’s effectiveness. It helps a brand to:
- Stay relevant, up-to-date, and competitive
- Maintain cut-through
- Avoid feeling dated or out of touch
- Keep up with brand design trends
It’s important to not embark on a brand refresh unnecessarily. Unnecessary refreshes run the risk of watering down a brand and can even make it difficult to identify a brand if the change is too dramatic. Additionally, refreshes can take time as organisations work with graphic designers to plan and carry out the project.
How often do logos and brands need to be refreshed?
Unfortunately, the answer to this question is simply “it depends”. As a general rule of thumb however, organisations and brands should make an effort to re-evaluate their branding and logos on an ongoing basis. This can means a formal review very couple of years or simply assessing the mood on an ongoing basis.
This means assessing:
- Whether current branding is effectively projecting the right image for the organisation
- If it’s achieving the objectives set out when they were first created
That having been said, there are some common signs that can indicate a refresh might be necessary to keep the brand relevant. Each of these should be considered in depth and measured up against potential difficulties before contacting a branding agency near you.
Has your organisation changed? It may be time for a brand refresh
Branding communicates your organisation and everything it stands for. However, organisations are dynamic entities that change and evolve over time. A refresh can:
- Communicate the brand’s new identity and position in the market
- Resonate better with new target audiences
- Reflect a new offering or core value proposition
- Incorporate new product lines or services
Branding needs to be continually updated to reflect these sorts of changes. As such, any significant changes to the organisation should be taken as an opportunity to evaluate current branding.
Changes in customer preferences and tastes
It isn’t just organisations that can change – so too can customers. And when customer preferences change, a brand refresh may be needed to adapt and keep the brand relevant.
For example, Pepsi’s recent brand refresh incorporates black alongside the traditional blue. In addition to increased contrast, this refresh also makes Pepsi Max (their sugar-free offering) more prominent – a direct response to increasing health-consciousness among customers.
Fixing inconsistencies can be an opportunity to refresh your brand
Good branding is about more than just logos. Branding covers all aspects of your organisation’s visual identity from preferred fonts, to brand colours, to document templates. Unfortunately, inconsistency can sometimes be hard to avoid. This is often the case when organisations:
- Haven’t engaged professional branding and design agency services to create a unified brand
- Create material on an ad-hoc basis
- Have recently made acquisitions or undergone mergers
Creating a unified brand also provides a good opportunity to evaluate existing brand elements and visuals and refresh any dated elements. In cases of mergers or acquisitions, a brand refresh agency can also create branding that encompasses the brand’s new post-merger identity.
Graphic design trends change over time
Graphic design is not immune from trends. Different eras are defined by certain aesthetics, which can influence brand design and creation. For example:
- The 90s were defined by busier designs and more vivid colours, bold typography, experimental patterns, exaggeration, distortion and maximalism.
- Designs in the 2000s often incorporated rounded shapes, drop shadows and gradients
- The 2010s was clean and flat design with a modernised vintage feel, removing these bright colours and gradients previously seen
- 2020 to today is seeing a shift to clean, minimalist design with colour and typography used carefully, to ensure design will work across traditional print mediums, as well as the ever-evolving digital world
The defining aesthetics of an era can quickly become dated, necessitating a brand refresh to avoid being seen as out-of-date. If it’s been a while since the last update, it may be prudent to engage a brand refresh agency to keep a brand current.
Functionality matters
Brand elements such as logos, colours and typography are being increasingly chosen not just for aesthetic reasons, but functional ones as well. This is especially important as the number of touchpoints a brand has with important stakeholders increases. In addition to traditional contact points, brands now need to consider:
- Web thumbnails
- Usage in apps and software
- Email signatures
- Different screen sizes and resolution
Brands need to be versatile enough to be usable across all of these additional contact points. For example, 60.67% of internet traffic is on mobile devices now – as such, logos and typefaces need to be easy to view on small screens. Incidentally, this is why many brands are working with graphic design agencies to simplify their logos, stripping them down to the core elements.
Your industry can have an effect
In some cases, how often you refresh your branding can be dictated by the industry you operate in. Take for example start-ups and organisations operating in fast-moving industries such as tech. With change happening so quickly, more frequent brand refreshes may be necessary just to keep pace. Regular refreshes can also help communicate dynamism, nimbleness, and responsiveness, which can be critical in some industries.
Conversely, there are some industries where brands will want the opposite. Retaining existing logos and branding over long periods of time conveys continuity, conservatism, and stability – all of which are crucial in industries such as finance and legal practice. In these cases, frequent brand refreshes can be inappropriate, and can even cause more problems.
Your competition
While it’s never wise to embark on a big project just because your competition is doing it, you don’t operate in a bubble. The competition still has an influence over brand refresh decisions.
One of the most important attributes of good logos and branding is that they’re distinct from competitors. However, certain graphic design trends can come to dominate some industries, resulting in a lot of similar-looking brands.
If you’re concerned that your brand is hard to pick out from the crowd, a brand refresh may help make you more distinctive and increase cut-through.
Looking for a brand refresh agency?
Our branding agency in Melbourne has extensive experience in brand design and refresh projects
Executing a successful brand refresh often requires making refinements and tweaks across the brand, from major elements of branding such as logos and colours, to the little touches. This requires a strong understanding of marketing graphic design principles, and a good eye for visual communication.
As such, it’s a job best left to a professional marketing and graphic design agency.
MOO Marketing is a full-service branding and design agency in Melbourne. We work across all aspects of visual communication and brand design from start to finish, giving us the comprehensive skills needed to pull off a successful brand refresh.
Our multidisciplinary team has worked with a number of nationally-recognised brands for their branding needs, from brand development to refreshes:
Whether you’re interested in a minor refresh or a total rebranding, our branding and design agency can help. Get in touch today to learn how we can make your brand stand out from the herd.