As a business owner, you may understand exactly what your brand represents and how it supposed to be perceived by your consumers. However, how your brand is actually perceived by the consumers is not entirely up to you. Regardless of your messages, your brand is defined by whatever people say and think about it—the brand perceptions. Although your marketing strategy may affect many perceptions, consumers now have the means to create their own brand perceptions from their point of view.

Now take a look at your brand, do people still like it?

Is it still relevant?

Or could 2017 be just the year to rebrand your business?

Stalled growth
Of course there’s something need to be fixed if your marketing efforts can’t bring new revenues or sales. It’s especially not good if the quality of your products or services are constantly being questioned. Or even worse, your consumers turn to your competitors. All of these may indicate that your brand is no longer relevant to the consumers. To regain your competitive advantage and relevancy on the market, you can try to revisit your brand messaging. Then finally, counter a loss in consumers confidence and stalled growth.

Market expansion
Are you trying to reach new markets next year? If so, a rebranding might be in fact needed. As your business grow, a refreshed brand image can reflect the larger and more sophisticated company it has become. When reaching out to new, and larger markets, a rebrand will spread out a message of your business evolution to public, emphasizing that it’s ready for new growth and opportunities. This is not a bad problem to have, really.

Outdated image
On average, organisations and companies change their brand identities once every seven to ten years. This change may involve restyling logo, colour palette, visual and photographic style. The harsh reality is, there are brands out there who just fade into the background because they’re not willing to change. You don’t have to change your brand name entirely, but an updated logo surely can demonstrate that your business is moving with the time and stay relevant in the industry.

Need inspiration for your brand’s logo? Find it here!

Negative association
This may be the most glaring telltales of them all. Although sometimes negative publicity will run its course and things get back to normal again, there’s still a chance such association will stick to your brand forever. If your brand can’t seem to escape a negative association for sometimes now, find the source, then cut loose of those ties. Start fresh, project the new you, as soon as possible.