How to do a Brand Refresh Strategically? [+Checklist]

If you're wondering how to do a brand refresh, you've found the perfect place to learn about it.

As the name suggests, a brand refresh “refreshes" the elements of your brand. This includes the logo, slogan, typography, tone of voice, photographic style, and color palette, among others.

But why do we need to refresh branding? Don't these changes just complicate tasks for your marketing and design team?

According to Varief Setyawan, Design Manager at 24Slides, adopting a brand renovation strategy is essential to connect with your target audience and generate awareness in the market:

“A well-executed brand refresh strategy can breathe new life into a brand, enhance its relevance, and strengthen its connection with customers, helping the company achieve its marketing and business objectives.”

However, he also notes that not all companies need a brand refresh; there should be a good reason behind the change. For this, it's crucial to start treating your brand as an asset, which requires investment and strategic decisions; in other words, decisions based on an action plan.

In order to give you a panoramic view of this type of brand management, we'll talk about different topics:

Now, let's dive into the world of branding!

Brand Refresh vs. Rebrand: What’s the difference?

Brand Refresh, also known as 'Brand Restyling' or 'Brand Renovation,' involves updating your brand's visual resources or messages.

These alterations will improve your company's identity and the image you want to communicate to your audience. Its goal is to keep your brand up-to-date and appealing in today's fast-changing market.

On the other hand, a Rebrand involves structural changes to these resources, such as partially or entirely reinventing your brand identity.

A rebranding process is much more complex and, consequently, more expensive than a brand refresh. According to Varief, this bold move is usually made when the company faces significant challenges, like a reputation crisis or the failure of some brand strategy.

So, in summary:

Brand Refresh: modernization of the brand's visual identity and messages while retaining its core elements and values.
Rebrand: a complete overhaul of the brand's identity and marketing strategies.

Example of Brand Refresh: Fiverr

Fiverr is a global marketplace that connects freelancers to people or businesses looking to hire. After over 10 years in the market, they wanted to refresh their corporate design identity.

Alongside Koto Studio, they refined their visual identity by updating their logo, expanding their color palette, creating a new tone of voice, and modernizing their brand elements.

Fiverr's Brand Refresh Project aimed to showcase the brand's evolution without losing its essence, and we believe they made it happen.

Fiverr Brand Refresh: Before and After

Example of Rebrand: Airtm

Airtm is a digital wallet with a presence in 190 countries. Being part of a highly competitive sector such as fintech, the company wanted to stand out and establish a lasting impression on users' minds.

Based on their new ideal: “Liberating your global potential, empowering Latin America to ignite a fairer financial future,” they started a rebrand. In collaboration with Design Studio, they chose a prism and a beam of light as their main element, representing "the potential that got magnified" through the company.

This Airtm Rebrand is characterized by its bright colors, new custom typography, and 3D effects that set the brand apart from other fintech players in the market.

Airtm Rebrand Strategy, example of rebrand — Airtm Rebrand: Before and After

Keep reading; we have more to tell you about this type of brand management!

How do you know if you need a Brand Refresh?

Embarking on a brand refresh sounds and looks cool, but like any branding action plan, it must have a clear objective to avoid confusing your customers (or wasting money).

Here are some "warning signs" that might indicate your company needs a brand refresh strategy:

1. Lack of message consistency

Fiverr modernized its tone of voice to reach its target audience effectively. This is a highly strategic decision, as any company can face changes (internal and external), and it's necessary to reflect them in our brand.

The idea is that a brand refresh process can convey these changes through your communication resources, which can entail a complete tone of voice change or modifications to your key messages.

Are your social media metrics not performing well? You may need to refine your brand's visual identity, or perhaps something in your customer journey needs to be fixed.

Naturally, you'll have to evaluate whether a brand refresh suits you. However, we must acknowledge that a company's social media presence will be more successful when its aesthetics follow current design trends and adapt to the characteristics of each platform.

3. Targeting a different audience segment

If you plan to reach a different audience segment, starting a brand refresh project can enhance your success. Moreover, there is the possibility that your current audience changes or expands, so your branding should follow those transformations.

As you may know, each audience segment has specific tastes and habits, so you need to evaluate whether your brand identity fits their current interests.

4. Planning to raise your prices

When a product raises its prices, there should be a good reason. The most common is when your product is related to values such as exclusivity and greater status.

Improving your customer shopping experience can also be a factor in price increases. This can include your delivery service speed, an exclusive and catchy benefits program, new eco-friendly packaging, etc.

Keep in mind that "everything goes through the eyes," and, many times, your brand's visual identity and the experience you provide to your customers can be related to what they are willing to pay. There is when a brand refresh can play a part.

5. Declining sales and the need to resolve it

According to a study by NIQ, declining sales is the most common variable that prompts a company to consider a brand renovation. In fact, "65% of marketers identify this as one of the most frequent restage triggers."

If you've identified that your sales aren't performing as desired, refreshing your brand can be an influential action to improve your indicators. As mentioned earlier, you must evaluate whether this is the most appropriate route for your company or if it should be complemented with other actions.

6. Looking to stay relevant in the marketplace

An outdated brand doesn't capture attention. While a company might be very modern operationally, this should also be reflected in its brand identity. If you want to stay relevant in the marketplace, your changes must be comprehensive.

Note that your brand is your "calling card" to the world and the most accessible reference for potential customers. Don't forget that!

By this point, a brand refresh strategy not only expresses more professionalism through visual changes but can also help you increase your market share and generate a higher engagement with your audience.

What should a Brand Refresh Strategy include?

A brand refresh project involves a substantial amount of strategy. Essentially, every change must be justified and linked to your company's objectives.

Below, we'll summarize the essential elements, from our perspective, to achieve a successful brand refresh process:

1. A good team in charge

A brand refresh strategy can be conceived, executed, and monitored by two different agents: your in-house design team or a specialized partner (agency, design studio, or freelancer).

If you decide that a third party should lead your brand restyling, there are some points to consider:

Research the specialized partner thoroughly

Numerous branding services are available in the market, so you'll need to research and find a match that aligns with your brand refresh objectives. Keep in mind that each service has its own conditions and working methods.

Request examples of their work

In order to execute a successful brand refresh project, it's crucial to review their portfolio carefully. This will allow you to analyze the reasoning behind each update and thus choose the ideal partner for your project.

Balance cost and quality

After looking into different refresh partners, you must balance cost and quality. Some aspects to consider include:

The quality of their portfolio
The feedback they have received from clients
The prestige of their clients
Their work methodology
The flexibility they are open to show
Their customer service

2. A deep brand audit

To establish an effective brand refresh strategy, it's crucial to identify your strengths and areas for improvement. In the world of branding, this process is called a "brand audit."

Typically, agencies or specialized partners offer brand audit services. However, if you choose to handle it independently, consider these points:

Questions about your current brand

Does your mission and vision reflect what your company is now and what you want to be in the future?
What brand image do you want to project?
What is your current value proposition?
What are your values?
What brand archetype and tone of voice do you have?
Who are your customers, and what are their main characteristics?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of your brand?

Questions about your competition

What branding actions have your competitors taken?
What type of connection do your competitors generate with their customers?
What makes you unique in the market and how can you boost it?
What are the trends in your industry at micro and macro levels?

Questions about your website

Is your brand information updated?
Do your visuals communicate your current brand essence?
Can you improve the journey of your customers?
Is your social media visible at first sight?
Does your website take time to load?
Is your website responsive? (work well on every device?)
Is your website optimized for SEO?

Do your visuals adapt to new trends?
Do you follow the new formats for each social media platform?
Which publications stand out the most and why?
Do your metrics perform well?
What type of audience consumes each social media, and how does your content adapt to it?

Questions about your marketing assets

Are the elements of your brand applied consistently?
Do your marketing assets match the image you want to convey?
Do your marketing assets have a fresh design that fits your current brand essence?

Questions to be answered by your customers

What do they think about your brand?
Do they like your logo and other brand elements?
What do they think about your customer service?
Would they recommend your brand to an acquaintance or relative?
What aspects would they improve on your brand?

The main objective of a brand audit is to identify which elements of your brand need to be refreshed. This information is essential for building the foundations of your brand refresh strategy.

Naturally, any brand refresh process will take some time. In order to be successful, you need to work with clear goals based on data!

3. A brand refresh brief

A design brief is a document you need to present to the creative team in charge. It will be their basic guide for starting work on your brand renovation and ensuring your team is aligned.

Are you wondering how to do a brand refresh brief? Here we share its main elements:

General information about your brand

History of your company
Mission and vision of your company
Values of your company
Main product or service and what problem it solves
Differential in the market
Profile of your clients or buyer persona
Main competitors

Brand refresh project objectives

What do you want to achieve with this brand refresh?
Which elements of your brand do work and which don't?
What kind of language do you want to use or refine?
What is the archetype or personality you want to adopt?
What attributes do you wish to be remembered for?

Brand refresh project deadlines

What is the expected timeframe for this brand refresh?
Are there specific deliverables needed? If so, what are the expected deadlines?

4. A holistic brand refresh launch

Now you have your brand refresh strategy on paper, but what's next? A company only needs to implement the changes, and that's all?

It's advisable to carefully plan the launch of your brand refresh. Experts suggest adopting a gradual approach to help your audience seamlessly adapt to the changes.

Rolling out a brand refresh can feel overwhelming, so we’ve created a few tips to guide you through the process:

Update all your communication channels

During the implementation process of your brand refresh, you must update each touch point in your customer journey.

This includes marketing assets (templates, brochures, flyers, etc.), website visuals, social media visuals, communication via email, physical signage, and uniforms, among others.

Update and promote your new brand guidelines

Updating your brand guidelines (or brand book) is something you cannot forget. This document will be helpful for your internal operations, especially for your in-house design team or any team that generates content for your company.

After having your guidelines in a manual, verifying their implementation in practice is crucial. For this step, Quality Assurance Managers (QAs) will assume a fundamental role.

Announce the changes to your audience

Making an official announcement of your brand refresh is also really important. It will raise awareness among your internal teams and stakeholders.

Remember that your employees are ambassadors of your brand. If they don't know about the changes, they won't know how to transmit it to your audience.

Here you will find an example of how Fiverr announced the changes after refreshing their brand:

5. A monitoring and evaluation strategy

When launching something as important as a brand refresh, you need to monitor the action plan and evaluate the results.

Some actions you can take are:

Perform a baseline

This information will help you compare the metrics before executing your brand refresh with the results obtained after launch. Your brand audit process is the perfect source of information for this endeavor.

Follow up on your action plan

Basically, you need to follow up on the relevant milestones or metrics established in your brand refresh strategy. That way, you can adjust or execute new branding actions when required.

Social listening embraces analyzing your audience's reactions following the launch of your brand refresh campaign. Your social media is an excellent source of information that will help with this.

If you notice, this information could be used like a brand refresh checklist. Use it wisely!

Brand Refresh Checklist

If you are considering outsourcing your brand refresh process, you must read until the end.

Want to update your presentations or templates after a Brand Refresh? We got you!

At 24Slides, we specialize in creating custom high-impact presentations.

But among our superpowers, we also update other marketing assets/marketing collateral, allowing you to refresh your brand comprehensively.

Here you'll find our available services:

Custom presentations (PowerPoint and Google Slides)
Major projects and rebranding
Branded master templates
Social media visuals
Display ads visuals
Website banners
Posters
Brochures
Infographics
Custom illustrations
Branded documents (Word and Excel)

We'd like to encourage you to look at our website and explore our design styles. If you're looking for a more personalized service, feel free to try us for just $1 —yes, one dollar, you heard that right!

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions about Branding

What is the best definition of a brand?

According to Insights Magazine, a brand embodies the personality of a company as perceived by its consumers. This perception goes beyond the logo and visual content since its meaning also includes communication messages and marketing strategies.

A strong brand captures your company's mission and beliefs through different elements and channels. It also effectively conveys the emotions you wish to communicate to your audience in a coherent and integrated manner.

What are the four elements of a branding strategy?

The main elements of a branding strategy are:

Brand Architecture. Referring to how you structure your products or services. For instance, you can opt for a Corporate Brand, governed by a single brand and identity, or a Product Brand, which creates different brands based on your products, generating distinct identities.
Brand Positioning Statement. A sentence or paragraph describing your brand's position in the market. Consider elements such as the target audience, product category, benefits offered, and evidence (the reason to believe).
Brand Personality. If your brand were human, how would it be? Humanizing your brand helps maintain a consistent tone in your communication messages and visual identity. There are popular brand archetypes that can serve as a starting point.
Brand Promise. Referring to the commitment you make to your audience. To create it, you must deeply understand your audience and analyze their language and the aspects they value most. This promise should be reflected across all touchpoints, from your messaging to customer service.

How often should you refresh your brand?

If you are wondering how often you should refresh your brand, it may be a sign that it's already needed.

Since every company has unique stories and needs, generalizing a timeframe is unrealistic. Instead, consider these points to evaluate if you need to elaborate a brand refresh plan: