Does your brand feel outdated compared to competitors or disconnected from your brand’s future? It may be time to convince your c-suite that you need a brand refresh.

Change can be a good thing.

While we don’t recommend giving your brand a face lift on a whim, strategically refreshing your brand in line with company shifts can have a positive impact and feel authentic across audiences. The key to a seamless refresh? Getting internal stakeholders, primarily your C-Suite, on board.

Should Your C-Suite Consider a Brand Refresh?

In a fast-moving digital world that boasts over 30.2 million brands, it’s more important than ever to stand out and capture the elusive consumer’s attention – that means having a strong, unified brand. Even powerhouses like Microsoft, Apple, Coca Cola, Nike and more have refreshed their brand to remain competitive over the years.

Some common justifications for considering a brand refresh:  

• When the market requires a company to evolve or shift.
• To realign and remain competitive with the industry.
• To reposition a brand with the audience or broaden its appeal to new audiences.  
• When a brand is expanding offerings.
• Following a merger or acquisition.

What to Include in a Brand Refresh

One point of clarity, as the two often get confused. A refresh is quite different than a rebrand. A refresh takes a current brand and evolves it, maintaining elements of the original while modernizing aspects. A rebrand, on the other hand, is a complete overhaul – leaving the original brand behind and emerging anew.

When pursuing a brand refresh, there are multiple components that should be considered. Our brand & marketing experts recommend starting from the ground up with your brand mission, vision and purpose. Understanding how your business has shifted at its core will determine the direction of your brand refresh. From there, take a look at all of the building blocks of your brand identity including:

1. Brand name

2. Logo

3. Tagline

4. Tone of voice & brand personality

5. Color palette

6. Visual assets (graphics, photography, iconography, illustrations)

7. Typography

How to Present a Brand Refresh to Your C-Suite

You’ve decided that there’s an appropriate use case for a brand refresh, now you just have to get decision makers on board. Easier said than done, right? Well, in our experience, if you come equipped with the right information, a brand refresh that makes sense will, well, make perfect sense.

1. Show the “why.”
   This brings us back to the common justifications for a brand refresh. Be ready to explain the reasoning behind your recommendation and why investing in a refresh is a strategic business decision.

2. Bring the research.
   Come to the table with internal and external feedback, market research and competitive landscaping. This information is a powerful tool in supporting your “why” by showcasing the market position and sentiment surrounding your brand versus the industry.

3. Do the math.
   A brand refresh is estimated to cost ~10-15% of an annual marketing budget. When proposing a refresh, bring a list of assets that will need to be updated with the new branding and an estimate of what it is going to take.

4. Propose a path forward.
   Be ready to speak to your desired process to address the rebrand strategically. Define the plan, timeline and approach to ensure a seamless project forward and align with stakeholders on their involvement.

5. Be ready for questions.
   A brand refresh is an investment for your company, and oftentimes there are emotional ties to the current brand. So be prepared for questions and, potentially, pushback with data-backed reasoning.  

The key to a successful c-suite pitch revolves around connecting the need for the refresh to the impact it can have on brand growth. Allowing a brand to deteriorate over time can incur increased expenses when putting it off is no longer an option, so staying on top of the branding of your company and reinvigorating it at strategically chosen times can capture current and new audiences’ attention and drive the bottom line.

Does your brand need to be revitalized? Reach out to Concord’s branding experts to learn more about your brand story today.