Ever get the itch to purge your life of clutter? You know — all that unnecessary stuff that just isn’t “you” anymore. Sometimes it’s just straight-up junk taking up space. The same thing can happen to your brand over time. Occasionally you just need to take inventory of your content and reassess. Lessing-Flynn’s brand refresh checklist can help.

We want to make sure you look and sound good, so let’s get started. Does your company fit into any of these categories?

  1. Your look is outdated. No one wants to be the loser still wearing a cummerbund or shoulder pads at the party. A company logo, website and subsequent social channels can (and often do) go out of style or become stale. Color choices and trends in particular tend to change frequently. In many cases, a fresh look for your brand could bring renewed vibrancy and excitement to your company. Logo updates usually have reinvigorating effects on employees as well as customers and could add a jolt of long-overdue vitality to your organization.
  2. Your vision has changed. If your organization’s goals, services, target market, partners or mission statement have changed, you may want to reflect that in your branding. At its core, the company branding should illustrate who you are as an organization. It’s your first introduction and the lasting impression of your company that consumers and key industry leaders remember.
  3. Your company has grown. Has your company acquired new sub-brands or additional businesses under its umbrella? Brands get complicated when there are multiple logos representing different products, services or segments of their business. You don’t want to have five bumper stickers on the back of the minivan. Brand alignment can help set new standards for logo use, clear up brand confusion and provide an opportunity to refresh campaigns.

Simple brand refresh checklist

If your company falls into one of the buckets above, obviously our first suggestion is to contact yours truly here at Lessing-Flynn for a creative overhaul, but if you’re a do-it-yourselfer (or maybe you’re in denial about the severity of the problem), we suggest that you at minimum review your website content and social media accounts to make sure your brand voice is the same throughout and everything still works/is accurate. Here’s a quick brand refresh checklist:

  • Click through links throughout your site to make sure they work.
  • Read every live blog to make sure it is still relevant and search engine optimized.
  • Check that your products, services and contact info are up to date.
  • Review your core value content to make sure it aligns with current company goals.
  • Update employee biography pages.
  • Make sure website copyrights and trademarks are listed correctly.
  • Watch all YouTube/Vimeo videos to make sure they are still relevant and reflective of your brand.
  • Update social media accounts to make sure images, graphics, headers, contact and about info are all correct.
  • Double check that your company biography matches your current brand voice.
  • Inactivate any social accounts that have not been kept up.

Don’t be a hoarder

Sometimes removing outdated content that can’t be refreshed or scrapping an old logo feels like you’re wasting resources or removing/deleting brand history. FIGHT THAT FEELING. Keeping things because is feels like you might use or need them later, or because you’re emotionally attached, is called hoarding. Keep your eye on the future, not the past. Your audience deserves the best, most current version of your brand. You can do it!

 

Originally published April 1, 2016