Introduction
Branding is the feeling that your business evokes in your audience. It’s how a customer perceives your law business and the value it can bring to them. A brand isn’t just a logo, motto, or design theme. It’s the image your audience associates with your business and it’s crucial to business success.
Rebranding is the process of reshaping the way your law company is perceived. In other words, it is an opportunity to alter your brand message to better suit your business needs. It can include the reinvention of everything from your brand’s name and logo to your website and marketing collateral.
Rebranding your law business at the right time can breathe new life into your marketing and improve your brand image. Furthermore, it can help you reconnect with lapsed customers and reach whole new market segments. Finally, a successful rebrand will bring your business closer to its goals.
Why rebrand?
A strong brand makes it more likely your customers will choose your service over the competition. Furthermore, it attracts more customers who are willing to pay more and will buy more often. Strong law brands deliver more revenue-building brand equity. Moreover, it also helps attract and retain your business’s employees.
Due to the market evolution, the shifting priorities of customers and other circumstances, a law brand is only fresh and relevant for five to ten years. In other words- a rebrand is part of the natural cycle of every strong law brand. But how do you know when is the right time to rebrand your law firm?
Check out these signs to recognize the right time to rebrand your law firm:
Signs it's time to rebrand your law firm
1. Your brand name no longer reflects your brand vision
A strong name is the foundation of your law brand story. It’s your brand’s name that appears front-and-center on every touchpoint your customer engages with. Therefore, it should be unique, differentiating, and, above all, memorable.
Sometimes changes in cultural context can change the meaning of a name. Or the name just doesn’t feel appropriate for the brand’s next iteration. As the result, you should consider rebranding your law company name.
2. You’re failing to differentiate yourself from the competition
When you don’t have clearly articulated differentiators, business growth can be extremely challenging. A rebrand can help you identify and redefine your key differentiators, including your competitive advantage. Your competitive advantage is the differentiator that defines your brand against all others.
A strong brand enables you to compete whether you have a tangible advantage over your competitors or not. In situations like this, rethink your product positioning and identify how can you stand out in a crowded market.
3. Your brand has become overly complicated or diffuse
Keeping a brand focused over time is challenging, but a lack of brand focus has a serious impact on your brand’s effectiveness. Unfocused brands often resort to diversifying their offerings or outright copying the competition. They’re marked by weak or undefined value propositions and a general lack of relevance.
A rebrand can be a great way to refocus your energies, remove what’s not necessary and excel at what is necessary. This is a great way to take stock of where your business is at. Moreover, to remind yourself of where you want to be, as well as the best way to get there.
4. Your business model or strategy has changed
If your business model or strategy changed, so must your brand. When changing your brand to adapt to a fundamental change in your business, start with solidifying your company’s purpose and values. Build your new brand strategy to completely align with these elements and position it perfectly to meet your goals.
Clearly articulating these guiding tenets is the starting point for any rebrand, especially those inspired by a change in business strategy. It will serve as the foundation for many other components and charts a course to your brand’s future success.
5. You’ve outgrown your brand
As your business evolves, your brand may no longer represent the business it has become. In this situation, rebranding focuses on refining the brand to better fit your evolving identity and support ongoing growth.
When rebranding to accommodate for growth, you don’t have to leave all of your old brands behind. While there are likely weaknesses in your brand, there are just as likely strengths you’ll want to continue to leverage moving forward.
One of the best ways to measure those strengths and weaknesses before you rebrand is with Brand Report Card tool. It’s a simple way for you to score your brand on 10 attributes shared by the world’s strongest brands. That way you can ensure your rebrand is laser-focused on areas where your brand is struggling while strengthening the areas where it shines.
6. You’re undergoing a merger or acquisition
If you’re undergoing a merger or acquisition, you will need to consider involving rebranding at some level. If your business has been acquired or merged with another company, rebranding can help you assimilate into your new organization.
Coherent brand architecture is critical to the performance of any company, but especially those involved in mergers and acquisitions. Rebranding with a meticulous focus on brand architecture is the best way to ensure the lasting success of all the entities involved in the transaction.
If you have purchased a business from somebody else, then rebranding it to suit your own goals can be a great way to take ownership and align the business with your own goals for it. A rebranding can represent this change in direction and help get across the message of what your business can offer.
7. You’ve Expanded Beyond Your Original Location
Another sign of when to rebrand your business is if you’ve moved or expanded beyond the city or state where your business started. As your business grows, you may want to be able to open up new sites in different locations or service different areas.
This may mean rebranding your business entirely, or it might mean simply creating new branding for an international division. Regardless of your brand name, though, expansion into a new region will always entail new customers with yet unknown needs. And the only way to understand new customer needs is by conducting customer research.
8. You’re trying to connect with a new audience
If you’re trying to attract the attention of a newly profitable audience, it’s time to rebrand your law firm. Fostering brand loyalty among new customer segments starts with ensuring your brand is relevant to their needs.
Rethink your brand message and align it with your new customer’s wants and needs, if needed. Research your new target audience and create a target customer profile. Redirect your rebranding efforts to this new profile in order to connect to your target audience. Check our 6-Step Guide on How to Rebrand Your Law Firm.
9. The Marketplace has Evolved
Regular rebranding is a crucial part of staying competitive and appealing in a competitive and changing industry. If you feel like customers are looking for something different from what they were when you first began operating, it may be time for a change. Similarly, competition can also drive changes in the marketplace and force you to react. Therefore, consider responding with the new offerings.
10. You need to keep up with changing trends
As time goes on, technology advances and trends change. For example, logos have evolved as graphic design capabilities have improved. If your branding was designed years ago, it may come off as “behind the times.” When your branding is outdated, customers will assume your business is, too. Therefore, it’s important to stay innovative in messaging and appearance.
11. You Don’t Stand Out Enough
Blending in with your competition is a sign your branding needs to be adapted. Only that way it will allow you to stand out from the competition and grab your customers’ attention. Define a way to appeal to your ideal customers while being authentic to your brand’s identity and values.
Think about your unique selling point (USP) and show your customers and potential customers why they should choose you over your competitors. This will deliver strong results in the long term and help you position yourself in control of your market.
12. You’re introducing a new service or changing your business’s focus
A new product launch or deviation to a new business model is another excellent opportunity for a rebrand. If you’re making a significant change to the way your business functions or adding important new services, signal these changes to your audience through rebranding.
This will alert your customers that something about your business has changed and help them to re-establish connections to your brand. When market opportunities change, strategic objectives shift or you’ve developed new offerings, rebranding can give you the fresh and cohesive identity you need.
Conclusion
Your branding should be optimized for your business and your market as they stand today. If it’s not, it is time to rebrand your law firm. A rebrand requires a significant amount of time, energy, planning and strategy. However, when done well, it can help you accomplish ambitious business goals.
In most cases, a thorough rebranding takes at least a quarter or two- but the results are well worth the investment. By overhauling your brand, you can prepare your law firm for the most successful chapter yet. We advise you to consult experts when rebranding your law firm in order to get the best attorney branding.