Is it time for a brand refresh? Signs your brand is feeling stale

In a world where consumers are presented with hundreds of brand options every minute of every day, one thing is certain – your brand needs to feel exciting, dynamic, and current to stay relevant. While it’s important to maintain some form of consistency around your brand’s identity and community, it’s also key to know when things are feeling stale and when a brand refresh is in order. 

The problem is that many business owners and long-time employees will stop being cued into the modernity of their brand with time. Similar to rereading a passage hundreds of times, they become immune to realizing when change is needed, and brand aspects that could use a fresh set of eyes often go unnoticed and unchanged. If you think this is happening to you and your brand, I’m here to help evaluate whether it’s time to refresh your company’s look, feel, and tone. We’ll go over things to look for in your brand audit as well as how to get started on a successful brand refresh. Let’s dive in.

Signs your brand is outdated

When we become extremely familiar with something, it can be hard to take a step back and honestly evaluate it with a critical eye. This is especially true when it comes to brand design, tone, and feel. While it can be difficult to analyze if your brand’s messaging and look are feeling stale, there are things you can look for that will help you determine if it’s time for a change. 

First, it’s key to look at your sales, engagement, and community growth over time. Has there been a steady decline of interest in your brand or are you retaining less and less consumers each month? There may be a variety of reasons why your engagement is falling, but stale brand content and tone can definitely account for a noticeable decrease in consumer interest. With new brands popping up seemingly every day and companies investing heavily in strategies to keep their brand feeling fresh and current, consumers will gravitate towards content that feels trendy and relatable – and if you haven’t updated your brand’s feel in a while, your audience might be getting bored. 

Another thing to consider when auditing your brand’s identity is just how long it’s been since you’ve updated graphic design across your brand’s logo, website, social media, and marketing materials. Are you still using fonts or color schemes that were popular 10 years ago? With today’s design tools that make it easier than ever to create modern, aesthetic content, such as Canva or Figma, using older, more traditional typography or design styles can quickly age your brand and make it seem outdated in the eyes of your consumers. Consider bringing in a fresh set of eyes to audit your brand’s design or sending out a survey to your most engaged members to get a sense of the right direction for your company. 

Last, but definitely not least, perhaps your brand has found a new niche audience that requires an updated feel to match the targeted demographic. If you’ve entered a new market but kept the same design, content, and tone, it may be time to turn the page and give your brand a makeover that will better align with this new audience and help drive engagement and conversions. 

If you’re struggling to separate your identity from your brand’s identity, you’re not alone. Many founders hold on to old versions of the brand that they built and grew but remember that change can be a good thing – especially when it comes to brand growth and staying current in today’s times. When in doubt, ask an outsider to evaluate your brand’s look and point out things that feel stale or could use some updating.

Getting started with a brand refresh

So you’ve decided that it’s time to update your brand and start a new chapter – what now? It can feel overwhelming thinking about changing everything from your website to your social media to your tone and language, but don’t panic! A successful brand refresh comes from having an organized strategy to audit, update, and roll out a new version of your brand across all platforms and materials. 

Before you start changing everything, don’t. A brand refresh is an opportunity to take a step back and evaluate your brand’s performance, content, and design with intention. Do a deep dive into your engagement metrics and find areas for improvement that updated messaging and visuals can help with. Perhaps there are brand aspects that already perform well that you can keep in your new versioning.

While evaluating your brand’s metrics, also take time to rethink your audience strategy and how you can incorporate this into any brand update work. Ask yourself whether your brand refresh will allow you to target new audiences and support any growth goals you have for your business. 

Finally, don’t get overwhelmed by the idea of changing everything all at once. Your brand refresh does not have to happen immediately across all of your materials to be effective. Create a plan to start with high-visibility materials first and slowly introduce any updated copy and design across other platforms over time. It can be helpful to create a weekly rollout schedule to make the process much more manageable. 

Conclusion 

A brand refresh can be a great way to keep your content current and bring in new growth, but it’s often difficult to know whether giving your brand a new look and feel is the right thing. Take a good look at your brand’s performance, visuals, and content over time to determine if a brand refresh is right for you, and if it is, take it one step at a time. Remember to be intentional with your decisions, keep your audience in mind, and create a strategy that will keep you on track without making the process overwhelming. Rome wasn’t built in a day.