[SAM]:
Marketing a Practice podcast is part of the Practice of the Practice podcast network, a network of podcasts seeking to help you market and grow your business and yourself. To hear other podcasts like Beta Male Revolution, Empowered and Unapologetic, Imperfect Thriving, or Faith in Practice, go to practiceofthepractice.com/network.

Welcome to the Marketing a Practice podcast with me, Sam Carvalho, where you will discover everything you need to know about marketing and branding your business. To find out more about how I can help you brand your business, visit www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding. And if you’d like to see some examples of my design work, be sure to follow me on Instagram @samanthacarvalhodesign.

Hi there. I’m so glad you’re joining me on the Marketing a Practice podcast. We’ve been doing a series where I am answering your frequently asked questions on marketing and design. So, this is actually the final episode of the series. So, if you’ve missed the previous three, definitely go and check those out. The questions that I’ve answered so far have been, what colors and pictures should I use on my website that both resonates with me and my ideal client? The second question was, how much of your branding should you pull through to your social media? And the third question was, if you’re wanting to run two separate businesses; for example, a group practice and a second, non-therapy business such as a podcast, or workshop or retreat or consulting, what considerations should you take into account when branding? So definitely go and check those out if you haven’t yet. But so glad to have you here and look forward to spending the next few minutes with you where we are going to be answering question four. Again, these questions were taken from the Next Level Practice community. I basically posted in there and asked them what their most frequently asked questions are when it comes to design and marketing. Next Level Practice is an online community for therapists wanting to grow their practice. So, if you want to check that out, head on over to www.practiceofthepractice.com/invite.

But getting on to today’s question, is on how do you know whether you need to rebrand? So, again, this is a really good question. And definitely one that I’m sure business owners will want to address at some point or another. So I would say, rebranding is quite an undertaking, and it’s something that you don’t necessarily want to do unless you have to, or unless you’re feeling like you’re no longer attracting your ideal client, and you feel like your visual identity has something to do with it. So again, for those of you just starting out, I would really suggest or advise putting in the time and effort and money to set up a proper brand that is going to be timeless, and that is going to last for many, many years. The last thing you want is to spend money, even if it’s not a lot, on a logo that lasts for a year or two, and then you realize it’s not a good quality logo and you need to redo it. So, I would definitely say that setting up a proper brand from the beginning is vital and is super important and will stand you in good stead for years to come.

I would say, finding a designer that can design a logo and your branding in a timeless manner. So, making sure that the logo that you end up with isn’t something that’s going to not be relevant in a few months, because the trends change, or styles change. What makes a good logo is that it’s timeless, and that it’s simple and that it’s effective and that it communicates what your brand message is. So, I would say, yeah, definitely try and avoid rebranding. If, however, you’ve been going for five or 10 years, well, I’d say more 10 years than five years, but if you’ve been going for 10 years, and you do feel like you just want something fresh, that maybe your branding is outdated, then by all means rebrand, but there are a few things to consider when it comes to rebranding. So over and above feeling like your brand is outdated, or that it is no longer attracting your ideal client, other reasons to rebrand would be, if your business is undergoing a new positioning. So, if you are, maybe broadening your niche or narrowing down your niche. And also, if you are wanting to have branding that is maybe more relevant; if you’ve now narrowed down who your ideal client is, and you realize that your branding doesn’t actually suit them, then that would be a good time to rebrand.

So historically, though, there are rebrands that have gone really well, and there are rebrands that have not gone so well. One of them is FedEx. I wasn’t actually aware of this, but in 1994, they rebranded from Federal Express to FedEx, and do yourself a favor and go and check out their previous logo compared to what the logo looks like now. So, previously, if I can try and explain it to you, it’s basically in a rectangle and Federal Express is just written diagonally across. It’s not a bad looking logo. But I would say when you see it next to their logo now it’s insane how much better this new one is. And there’s of course, the famous hidden arrow, which I’m not sure if you guys know about but between the E and X, the white space in between, or the negative space, makes an arrow which is genius, and has definitely been praised within the design world. So, this was a successful rebrand. Definitely, anybody looking at these two logos would say that the second one is heaps better. But in the case of Tropicana, the juice, they did a rebrand in 2009. And it resulted in their sales decreasing by 20%. In the first six weeks after they unveiled their new look. Again, you can go and check that out.

So that’s kind of the risk you run. I would say if you’re a business that’s been going for a while, and people know your brand and are loyal to your brand, then rebranding is a bit risky. But, as I say, if you feel like you’ve gotten to a point where you are no longer attracting your ideal client, or you feel like your branding isn’t relevant, then by all means. So, there’s a few ways to go about rebranding, you can either do it subtly, over time. So, first updating your color scheme, and then updating your logo, then tackling your print material, then tackling your social media, or you can do a complete rebrand where, your designer, your web developer is working in the background and you build up the hype for launching your rebrand, and then everything gets launched at the same time. So, it depends how you want to go about it. I would say there’s pros and cons to both. Creating the hype around an entire rebrand can definitely give you that extra boost and might even attract people to your brand that weren’t even necessarily attracted beforehand. Whereas doing subtle changes can also be nice. It can keep that brand consistency in a way that people won’t hopefully notice too much change, but only improvement. Again, you can do a visual only rebrand where, like I say, you’re updating the color scheme, the look and feel of your website. Or you can do a renaming and visual rebrand where you’re actually renaming your practice or your business, or you can do a rebrand that goes even further than that, where you’re updating your mission and vision.

So, as I said, there’s various ways to rebrand and it kind of just depends… I would say, it depends on your reasoning as to why you want to rebrand, and then the way that you rebrand can come from that. I would advise keeping some existing elements to maintain brand recognition. So, I mean, again, this is just my advice but, you know, take it or leave it. You can obviously do an entire rebrand that bears no resemblance to how your brand looked previously, or you can keep certain elements and just update it. As someone who generally prefers to go the safer route, I would say that is the less risky route.

But again, going back to a brand style guide. So, if you have a brand style guide, and you’re wanting to update your brand, that would be a nice way to sit down with your brand style guide and make notes of what exactly you’d like to update and how you’d like to update it. And I would say you would then start with setting up a new brand style guide first, and then creating the new logo, creating the new website creating the new code scheme, and so forth. If you’re wanting to rebrand and you don’t currently have a brand style guide, then obviously creating a brand style guide for your new brand is step one. Setting up a consistent color scheme, fonts, you include your mission and vision in your brand style guide as well. Your logo, how to make use of your logo, all of that will go into your brand style guide and will just give you a good idea of where you’re moving forward. The brand style guide is also great then for if you are going to interact with different designers throughout your business; they can then just refer back to your brand style guide and ensure that you keep that consistency. I think a lot of times, businesses will maybe want to rebrand because they feel like their branding is inconsistent and it’s all over the place. So, they’ve had a business card created by this designer, they’ve had a website created by that developer, they’ve had a flyer created by a different designer and it all looks different. And so, then they want to rebrand to kind of bring together consistency. I would say, that’s great and that’s definitely a good idea. But in order to ensure that doesn’t happen again, your answer is a brand style guide that everyone can refer back to, and kind of ensure that that consistency is kept throughout.

And then I would say it’s always a good idea to modernize your brand but maintain what you communicate. So again, this doesn’t necessarily mean an entire logo change or website change, but maybe just making use of pictures that are a bit more modern or a bit different to how you used to… or pictures or used to use, or updating your color scheme that’s maybe… to one that’s a little bit more modern than one that you’ve previously been using. But essentially, unless you’re doing a full rebrand, where you’re changing what you want to communicate to people, then, I would say make sure that that doesn’t get lost with your new rebrand. So, make sure that what you were communicating previously, that you’re still communicating that. And obviously the hope of a rebrand would be that you’re communicating it in a better way. Like with FedEx, their logo now almost communicates more effectively what their business is about, than the previous one did. So, you definitely want to ensure that.

I would say, make use of your friends and family, or your colleagues, in getting their opinion before you spend the money on doing a rebrand. If you just map out what it is you want to do and then get the opinion of others and see if they prefer the new brand or they actually might suggest that you stick with the old brand. It might just be something that’s in your head that you’re thinking, you’re sick of your logo because you’ve seen it so many times, but it’s actually still a really effective, good logo. I would say definitely make use of the people around you to get that information and to hear what they have to say.

And another way to kind of modernize your brand, if you’re feeling that it’s outdated, is to just simplify it a little bit. So, I think a lot of times, businesses that have been going for very long, will maybe have quite a complex approach to branding. Maybe a lot of colors, or a lot of pictures, or a complex design. And if you’re wanting to just bring in some fresh, new looks, then try and simplify things. I think that’s definitely the more modern approach, is for things to be simplistic, a lot of white space, minimal design, minimal colors, and that’s something that you can do with your current branding. You know, it’s just a different approach to it. And again, it would mean finding maybe a new designer. If you’ve been working with the same designer for years and you’re not really happy with the look and feel that they’re producing, bringing on somebody new, who obviously has a different approach to your brand can then actually just be all that you’re looking for.

So, I hope that helps. I hope that answers that question. I’ve really enjoyed answering these four questions. If you happen to have any questions around branding or marketing, you’re welcome to reach out to me at [email protected] or head on over to my page, which is www.practiceofthepractice.com/design. I’d love to work with you. I’d love to help you with your marketing and with your branding. I hope you’ve enjoyed this series. And again, if you haven’t listened to the previous three questions, be sure to check that out. And I’ll see you in the next episode.

Thanks for listening to the Marketing a Practice podcast. If you need help with branding your business, whether it be a new logo, rebrand, or you simply want to have a print file designed, head on over to www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding. And if you’d like to see some examples of my design work, be sure to follow me on Instagram @samanthacarvalhodesign.

Finally, please subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on iTunes if you like what you’ve heard. Talk to you soon.

This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests, are rendering legal, accounting, clinical, or any other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.