How Do You Know When to Re-Brand?

Why We Re-Branded StoryManager

Most small business owners hate the idea of re-branding. Fear of losing “brand equity” is typically offered as justification for not changing a brand. But frankly, customers will continue to find you ~ just send notices and update your contacts. Another common belief is that there’s no better way to communicate an existing brand, but that’s why professional communications people exist… they can figure out stuff that lay people can’t. Then there’s the reticence to change and the “I thought it up” ego side. Beyond all that, there’s very compelling reason for re-branding… here’s why we recently updated ours:

1. Social Media Avatars

Avatars are those little pictures next to your posts and comments in social media. They help viewers quickly identify you and your content. And they’re a great opportunity to keep your logo out there. Before Social, best practices for logo design encouraged Golden Rectangle aspect ratios (from the ancient Greeks). Now best brand practices are square aspect ratio to optimize Social visibility. This was the reason for refreshing the StoryManager brand: we loved our previous logo, but it was too long to fit into an avatar.

2. Get the Story Right

It’s amazing how you can always be a little more specific on story. Our previous logo was about growth. Sure we help customers grow their businesses. But that’s pretty general because so do all other consultants in their own way. In recent years we’ve become more honed as a consultancy that bridges business positioning with communications. And we’ve found that words have become our currency to containing and delivering strategy. This more specific story in turn provided visual symbols to create a more meaningful logo that’s specific to what we do ~ helping our clients Find The Tingle.

3. Your URL ~ Shorten It or Make a Bug

The longer your website name is, the harder it will be for viewers to remember and type it in. Reducing impedance in promotions is a key to making sales. URLs with less than 8 characters is ideal as that length can be spelled out in an avatar. If you end up with something longer, you should alternatively strive to create what’s known as a “bug” ~ a square logo that can be used independently from name typography.

Bottomline: you can notify people who know your business already, but optimizing your story right for the newbies is the way to growth.