Before You Do Anything Else, Perform a Brand Audit
Your brand says everything about your company. You worked hard to create a brand that captures the essence of what you want to people to know about your business. But sometimes, businesses outgrow their brands.
Perhaps the company is expanding their offerings or pivoting to a different audience. Whatever the reason, there will come a time when you’re considering a rebrand.
Before you do any activity to update your brand, you first need to perform a brand audit. A brand audit is a series of exercises that lets you evaluate where your brand currently is. It requires you to evaluate how well your brand is performing.
Considering a rebrand? Start here first.
Create a framework
You should conduct a brand audit before you consider making any changes to your brand identity. The first step is analyzing why you’re considering the rebrand. What do you hope to achieve that you feel your current brand cannot do? What changes have occurred that your brand no longer represents your organization? Are you looking to update external materials or completely reshape the company’s mission? Outline a framework for the brand audit to keep you focused.
Collect assets related to your current brand
Assemble all assets related to your brand in a way that makes them easy to explore. Assets include anything that conveys your brand’s visual identity or written descriptions. This includes internal documents like brand values and brand guidelines. It also includes external assets like logos, sample print and online marketing materials and social media handles and hashtags.
Evaluate your current brand
Now that you have your branding materials in front of you, look at everything together. Identify patterns that run across content types. Look for visual differences that might be confusing customers. See where you’re maintaining your brand guidelines and where you can do better. You’re used to looking at the separate pieces of your brand, but when you see them as a whole the results may surprise you.
Analyze the data
Visually studying your brand can be revealing, but you’ll also need data. You shouldn’t invest in a rebrand if your brand is already performing well for you. Data to gather and analyze include:
- Web analytics : Look at bounce rate, conversion rate and referral traffic to see how people interact with your site.
- Sales data: This may have been what encouraged you to rebrand. Have this data handy to see how branding might be impacting sales.
- Social data: Gather feedback to learn how customers are talking about your brand on social media.
Compile a report
Once you’ve completed your analysis, compile a report with your findings. You may realize that you don’t need a full rebrand. A few tweaks may be sufficient to achieving your new goal(s). Or, you may discover that a rebrand is necessary to reflect where your company is today. Either way, you can make a decision with confidence knowing you conducted a brand audit first.
If you’re considering updating your brand, video content is one asset that can quickly announce your new identity to the world. That’s where Spin Creative can help. Say hello!
About Us
Spin Creative is a video production company and creative agency helping marketers create winning video and creative strategies that engage, inspire and activate targeted audiences. Spin is headquartered in Seattle with offices in San Francisco and London, serving brands around the globe.
