Designing (Or Re-Designing) Your Brand Story

Pilot PMR
3 min readJan 25, 2023

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In a year like the one that so many pundits suggest we are into already, a great number of organizations are stopping to think, focus and then come out swinging. Rethinking the story your brand is telling can be a useful, empowering and urgent first step towards galvanizing your team for impact.

Whether you find yourself facing the challenge of economic disruption, or the opportunity of becoming the heroic disruptor your sector so badly needs, you’ll benefit from clarifying and distilling your brand story and market position first. Your sales, marketing and CX teams will all thank you. A fast-follow of brand assets to reflect who you’ve become, what you stand for, and why it matters to your audience makes a lot of sense too.

Our simple, customer centric process of designing stories your stakeholders and customers actually want to hear brings coherence, simplicity and a revitalizing rallying cry for your brand’s future.

9 Reasons To Rebrand In 2023:

1. Gain a Competitive Advantage

A well planned and executed rebrand can one-up your competition, excite clients, and counter loss of market share or falling sales. Identify what gives your company its unique edge then build your brand around it.

2. Fix Misaligned Marketing

If you operate without a branding style guide, your brand can become a jumble of resources. Using incongruent logos, type, color palettes, images, content, and tone of voice dilutes your brand. To present a consistent face to your clients and prospects, you’ll need to streamline and simplify your branding.

3. Modernize

Getting a fresh, modern image is one of the most common motivations behind rebranding. If your brand looks dated, it’s time to refresh or rebrand. Don’t confuse “dated” with vintage. Vintage is stylish. Dated isn’t. A strong brand is striking. It can help you retain existing customers and attract new ones.

4. Signal Significant Changes

To stay competitive, companies adjust business models, and add new services and products. If you used to do A but now you do A and B, it’s time to clarify your message to reflect it. This often entails rethinking your brand to reflect what you do, why you do it, and why people should care.

5. Show the Bold, Human Side of Business

Banish stiff, boring or stale. Especially if what you sell is stiff, boring or stale!. Tell your authentic story and illustrate it with branded marketing campaigns and valuable content that surprises, delights, teaches, and inspires.

6. Counter a Negative Image

It isn’t easy to distance a brand from negative press, past or even misunderstanding of intention. Rebranding is sometimes used as a corrective measure, but it’s not always successful — you need to pressure test your thinking.

7. Promote a Name Change

Changing your name provides the perfect opportunity to examine and rethink your entire brand from the ground up.

8. Reposition for Company Growth

Startups often begin without having a professionally designed brand. However, brand building becomes an important aspect for young companies so that you’re taken seriously as you scale and rise to challenge established brands.

9. Bring Together Mergers, Acquisitions, Ownership Change or Restructure

Changes of ownership or merging of cultures often requires rebranding to reflect new values, vision, priorities, and personality. This is also an ideal time to align your employee retention and marketing strategies.

Trust The Professionals

There are risks and rewards associated with rebranding, and it should never be taken lightly. Rebranding is built around sound strategy, a streamlined process, and a solid timeline. It’s best executed by an experienced branding professional who will guide you seamlessly through the process.

Your brand story tells the world who you are, what you stand for, and why they should care. It gives your organization and teams an edge and helps them stand out. Carefully design your brand and refocus it regularly so you can grow. And maybe even sleep at night.

About Dave

A strategist at heart, and a copywriter by craft, the process of change and re-invention fascinates Dave. Alongside the rest of the Pilot team, he dives deep into the sector demands, cultural insights, technology, and KPIs organizations need to solve for in order to more meaningfully connect with audiences.

david.hamilton@pilotpmr.com

Originally published at https://pilotpmr.com on January 25, 2023.

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Pilot PMR

Award-winning independent brand agency. We design stories that change things.