While working with clients in Alberta, and more specifically Calgary, we often find ourselves helping our clients alter their presence. Sometimes, however, an alteration results in a complete re-branding where the old brand is destroyed in order to make room for a new brand. And while this is not a bad idea as consumers do love the new rather then the old, there are times where we feel that our clients would be better served by taking an alternative route.

Everyone knows that changing your brand is a gargantuan task. At times, it can be like starting all over again from scratch. Some of the tasks involved include informing your existing clients of the switch, designing a new logo, creating new websites with new designs and ideas, and finally launching your new brand to cheers from your customers who thrive on change and jeers from those who don’t.

The need for change

The first thing you need to determine is whether or not it’s worth your time and effort to change your brand. This is vital. Imagine the separation anxiety you must cope with while deliberating on this decision. After having devoted much time, effort and money to building your existing brand you are now going to spend at least as much time, effort, and money reinventing, re-engineering, redesigning what you have worked so hard to build. You certainly can not make this decision just because you “feel” like doing so. In addition, you have to consider the mind share that you have already acquired – it is going to take a lot of work to port that mind share over to your new brand if you already have a huge following with an existing brand.

Some key questions to ask

• What pushes you to think of changing your brand or aspects thereof?
• Are your reasons for changing your brand valid enough?
• Are there any solutions aside from doing the switch or to what extent do you
• think you need to change your brand or aspects thereof to meet your objectives?
• What about incorporation of new projects into your present brand or expansion?
• Do you have the needed resources, i.e. money, time and effort, to make changing brand possible?
• What are the possible ramifications?
• How it will affect your company’s sales in the short term and the long term0?

Creating multiple brands

Let’s say you have thought of multiple ideas that you just can’t afford to drop. Furthermore, they are conflicting in some ways so that a brand extension is simply not possible – these are two different brands and they should each have their own identity. In this case, changing your existing brand isn’t necessarily the preferable option, you can instead create a separate brand. Maintaining several domains each with their own brand could be a win-win solution. This way, you’ll be able to cater to your clients’ varied needs and present your ideas in a way that is appealing to two different demographics or psychographics.

Make no mistake, there are many downsides to this option so let’s talk about a few. First, you might need additional human and financial resources to maintain multiple brands – instead of a single brand now you have two. Though the initial effort may be the same as if you dumped your existing brand and created a new one, the effort of maintenance will be doubled which might mean losing focus. Being a one-man team might be an option in helping you reduce your costs but it’s going to take a bite out of your social life. Finally, you will have to exert more efforts because each one of your brands should stand out from the crowd. However, we can you could always hire us to help you  be that purple cow that stands out amongst the brown ones.