For over 20 years, I've been working with companies to rebrand themselves beginning at about their 7th year (or older) in business. The key to rebranding is understanding the company's ongoing changes in culture, product lines, services, clients (target audience), competition, company size, and, most importantly, their people.
How a firm presents itself in its first years is very different from how the company talks about itself 7, 15, or even 20 years later. In my experience, many companies have yet to take a laser-sharp view of where they are now compared to their initial branding. For continuing success, it's essential that businesses, on an annual or biannual basis, review their direction, internal and external, so that they are in sync with who they are today and where they want to be.
Re-evaluating your company's brand strategy is critical to the message review.
Do the values, market position, promise, and other essential communications still resonate?
Are they "believable" to clients? Is your market changing, and are you evolving with your business? Are you keeping up with the competition, or must you change your approach? Answering these critical questions is essential to winning customer battles and being a strong market competitor.
Lastly, do your brand elements, especially your logo, represent who you are today? Updating or changing a logo (and brand elements) after seven years or more tells your audience something is different about your company. It says your company is keeping up with the times, and you understand businesses change with the market.
Changes are all around us in life, and to stay up-to-date and contemporary, we evaluate and evolve. Businesses cannot be different to be successful.
