Is It Time To
Refresh
Your Brand?
By: Kathy Thomas
Community Strategies
Kathy @ com-strats. com
How do you know when it’ s time to rebrand your company? If you answer yes to any these questions, it’ s time to look at a brand refresh.
• Are you losing work to competitors?
• Are you struggling to clearly articulate how your company is better or different compared to your competition?
• Has it been five or more years since you evaluated your brand look and messaging?
• Have you updated your company’ s business strategy and goals?
• Has your leadership changed?
• Are you planning to expand geographically or add new products / services?
• Are you struggling to attract and retain top talent? A CASE STUDY
Moody Bank, one of the top 10 community banks in the greater Houston area, decided in 2017 that it was time to refresh its brand, marketing and communications. Leadership had updated the bank’ s business goals and was looking for a brand refresh to support those goals.
Community Strategies worked with bank leadership to develop a rebrand plan with the following objectives:
• Ensure that brand messaging, marketing, internal and external communications, and brand look and feel reflect the bank’ s vision, strengthen its culture and strongly engage employees and customers
• Align employees with Moody Bank’ s vision and goals
• Grow the business
• Emphasize the benefits of working for Moody Bank to recruit and retain high-quality employees
Moody Bank began rolling out its brand refresh this January. It includes a whole new look and feel to convey the bank’ s personal customer service and broad range of products and services.
As part of the rebrand, they’ ve also introduced a new signature statement to reflect the bank’ s history, its competitive strengths and its regional service area:“ Building relationships in Texas since 1907.”
And, of course, logos are a central part of a company’ s brand. When we talked with customers and employees about the old logo, they told us that they liked the palm tree and the orange. Among the changes to the logo, we dropped the MNB and replaced the black with a crisp navy blue. Even in Austin, folks told us that they liked
the palm tree because it reflected the bank’ s island roots. One Austin employee said that it’ s also a conversation-starter with potential and new customers who ask“ What’ s with the palm tree?”
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO DO A REBRAND?
A rebrand is much more than redesigning your logo. It means diving in to evaluate your goals, strengths, opportunities, gaps, culture and competition with internal and external research.
Based on that solid foundation, you can build a plan that includes new messaging, communications and marketing, and look and feel – all to truly reflect your brand and competitive advantages.
• Provide consistent, clear marketing messages to target audiences