Naming a business and creating a new logo have got to be the shiniest part of starting a company. Most business owners don’t put much thought into it beyond that.

The reason behind this is the fact that we don’t truly understand the definition of what a brand is.

A brand is the sum of all experiences that customers gather through every interaction with the company. The way the phone is answered, the experience and ease of use on the company website, the consistency of the brand from vehicle wraps to business cards. These are all contributing to brand equity. Every company has a brand. Good or bad.

Your company’s brand is the sum total of the experience your customers and prospective customers have with your company.

A good brand is on message. Telling the client what it is they do and how they do it all while building trust and integrity.

That being said, identities are not static. They are in flux and change throughout the life of the brand for diverse reasons.

A company may change the breadth of work they do, the value system of the company may change, or new market opportunities may present themselves . When these types of changes happen, then the logo mark may not always convey the message of the new found variable.

The matter of fact is that if a company is around long enough, it will find itself in a position where they will need to rebrand more often than not. A great example of this is UPS, UBER, and even more recently…FACEBOOK.

Reasons for rebranding

New Locations or Markets:

If you’re expanding to new geographic area, and especially internationally, you will need to consider whether your brand is a good fit for those new markets. oftentimes, you’ll need to create a new business name and new indentity/logo to sell products or services in those markets.

Market Repositioning:

If you reposition your company to go after a different market segment because you’ve changed the quality of your product, pricing, your product offerings, or your target demographic, you will need to consider a rebrand to gain market share. Market repositioning is a common reason to rebrand because your old marketing materials and visual design will be useless or much less effective if you reposition your brand.

Mergers and acquisitions:

When there is a merger of two or more companies, they must decide whether to operate the brands separately or combine them. If they want to combine the brands, there must be a decision either to operate under an existing brand identity or create a combined new brand identity to build trust, develop new brand recognition, and prevent confusion.

New mission or vision for your company:

If you’re mission, vision, or values have changed, you’ll need to reevaluate your brand and modify it accordingly.

Overcome a public relations crisis:

Although this is rarely a good idea, a rebrand can help you overcome a public relations identity crisis that tarnished your existing brand and diminished your market share. Comcast did this when they created the Xfinity brand to overcome an identity crisis with its original brand, and Uber recently did this to overcome a ton of bad publicity relating to the way its management operated the business.