Rebranding is a big task but provides the opportunity for big impact. The rebrand process starts with strategy, re-aligning values and goals, repositioning the brand, considering impacts on the existing community and building appeal to a new audience. Brand evolutions help to re-excite, injecting a future focus and detaching from existing attitudes, creating space to evolve into new arenas. Like when your iOS updates or your favourite restaurant changes their menu, change can be hard as people cling to nostalgia. But with change brings opportunities to diversify and ultimately progress forward.
Implementing a national signage rebrand requires planning, taking ideas from conceptual vision and building them into reality. Once comprehensive work has been done around reinventing a brands values, identifying the audience and developing effective strategy, rebuilding the brands identity can be executed. A key factor in identity for physical large format retail brands is signage. Joining forces with a signage partner who has experience in implementing large scale national brand change is essential for a few key reasons.
- Remove the guesswork: experienced signage partners will ensure every box is ticked and a smooth flow of large scale change with incorporation of every small detail.
- Consistency is key: having everything manufactured under one roof ensures visuals, colours and designs all align!
- Doing things differently: your brand identity can be built through a number of new and innovative avenues. Whilst traditional signage is always imperative, diversifying signage options can be supported through professionals who understand emerging technology.
Integrating the update of existing interior and exterior signage and designs, branded digital signage and wayfinding, vehicles and other prints are all important considerations all the way from the planning phase through to the roll out. Choosing a signage partner that can assist you through every phase of concept development, design, creation and manufacture, installation and ongoing support can be imperative for national scale rebrands. Experience really does play a role in managing expectations around timing, delivery of a quality product and ensuring the physical rebrand is achieved in line with or exceeding the desired outcomes.
Whilst no one knows a brand better than those within it, having the same partner on board at each step ensures that no part of the vision is lost. Communication can be effectively managed as partners feel like another member in the team, not only understanding the vision but investing in it. The 2020 chaos might make a rebrand feel out of reach, but maybe this is the best time to re-evaluate and redesign for the new future.
