Restyling. Stay On Top
Many people confuse rebranding, restyling, and redesign. For ease of memorization, there is a convenient analogy. If a person has changed their worldview, underwent plastic surgery, and completely changed their clothing style, this is an analog of rebranding. If they changed only the style of clothing and hairstyle, this is restyling. Well, if you just changed your old shoes to new keds — this is a redesign. Restyling and redesign are special cases of rebranding. They are carried out both in a series of measures and independently.
There is another misconception regarding restyling and redesign. Some believe that only rebranding needs serious reasons, cause the ideology of the brand is changing. And you can change the corporate identity or make a redesign just to refresh the face of the brand. This is the wrong approach. For restyling and even just a redesign, there must be reasons that we would like to talk about.
1. Values of the audience
Each generation has its own values embodied in images. Yesterday it was jeans and a Вluetooth speaker in the hand of a young man, today it’s an electric scooter and wireless headphones. It doesn’t matter, what exactly, this means that images are changing. The target audience is growing up and being replaced by another generation with different image values. If a brand is late and looks old-fashioned for newcomers, it loses that audience. Matured users change tastes and interests and move to another target audience, and newcomers aren’t interested in yesterday’s goodies. Older people are more conservative, but their tastes are changing too. If the company deals with goods for young people, it should monitor market trends and updates especially closely. The psyche of young people is tuned for novelty with all radars.
Changes don’t happen in one day, but the modern world is dynamic, and to remain a player in the market, you have to stay tuned constantly.
Timeous restyling and redesign is a guarantee of maintaining contact with the target audience.
2. Brand values
Each brand represents some kind of human values, whether it’s status, caring for people, or satisfying their needs. These values don’t change, unlike trends and fashions. Love always remains love, and care remains care. However, ways to express these values are certainly changing. If your brand communicates universal values, then restyling shouldn’t change their essence, but make it more understandable to users. Some brands are proud of their traditions; their conservatism is their zest. Therefore, you must focus on the ideology of a particular brand and understand that you need a balance between keeping the essence of the brand and the need to meet the requirements of users. The brand should be close to customers, and this is the main criterion for the need or, on the contrary, the undesirability of change.
You need restyling if:
- The visual representation is outdated in the market and in the eyes of users.
- The current visual representation doesn’t match the brand’s market segment or positioning.
- The brand isn’t recognized by users, is forgettable, or causes undesirable associations.
- The original style has mistakes, its elements are non-uniform.
- The brand image isn’t unique and does not differ from its main competitors.
Any of these points is the basis for changing the brand style. However, many successful companies don’t wait for sales slowdown and open boredom of customers and carry out restyling during a steady period. The lack of desired sales dynamics is a reason to make the product more attractive.
What restyling includes?
Basically, restyling is a change in the visual identity of the brand, updating, and actualization of its appearance. Restyling affects only the style and attributes of the brand but doesn’t change its ideology and positioning. So what is changing?
Corporate identity
Corporate identity reflects the visual and semantic unity of the brand image and includes the following:
- product name;
- logo;
- trademark;
- design of packing and label;
- corporate colors;
- slogan;
- mascot;
- style and colors of employees’ workwear;
- documentation and other intellectual property objects;
- information carriers — brand website or application.
Specific elements of visual identity
The unity of style means that all elements are in harmony with each other and are parts of a single whole. Sometimes a complete change of style is financially inappropriate. For example, you need to change one or several elements or make minimal adjustments. This doesn’t imply a thoughtless approach, such as “just redo the logo a little”, “make the packaging design more beautiful”. Professional designers are needed exactly in such cases. Only a highly professional specialist can change an element so that it fits into the style and doesn’t destroy the brand image.
Packing
Packing is sometimes considered separate from the brand style, which is essentially wrong. It happens because, for small companies, packing is the only advertising medium that consumers come in contact with. For such companies, the design of the packing is vital. To make it more attractive timely means to increase product sales and customer sympathy. In any case, the packaging design must be consistent with the corporate identity and brand message.
Logo
Requires changes if it:
- doesn’t match brand characteristics
- doesn’t reflect the expanded range of products and services
- has poor quality compared to competitors
- looks outdated in the eyes of users
- poorly readable and unrecognizable
- poorly scalable and not suitable for use on certain advertising mediums
- causes unwanted associations
- requires simplification
Website
Some companies contact the audience only through their website. Decreasing traffic and conversions, user complaints about the inconvenience of the interface, the lack of a well-adapted mobile version mean that now it’s time for a change.
There are no little things
Sometimes it’s easier to create a design from scratch than to remake an existing one and not break its integrity and aesthetics. Probably everyone faced a bad design even by well-known manufacturers. However, what is permissible for Jupiter is not permissible for a bull. Small players in the market aren’t forgiven for mistakes, and they won’t succeed in justifying their lack of professionalism with a particular vision. Therefore, look for high-skilled designers, examine their portfolio and work experience. Even if the upcoming changes seem minor to you, don’t assign them to amateurs. For example, a person’s nose is a small organ. However, an unsuccessful rhinoplasty can turn them into a freak, and a successful one — make them even more attractive. The same holds for design, even if this is about a small element.
There are different kinds of changes
One brand needs a radical change of style, for another one, it’s better to change step by step.
Changes in the style should be cardinal and clearly noticeable not in every case. This is especially true for packing. If consumers don’t recognize their favorite product, they can decide that it has disappeared and purchase another one. This happens if the target audience has formed long ago and is used to a certain image of the product.
If such a risk exists, then restyling should be carried out gradually. At each stage, the design retains key elements that users like but adds something new bit by bit. The brand remains recognizable, and new details only add to its appeal in the eyes of users.
Testing
Testing of the new style allows you to avoid risks. You can’t rely on your own opinion, the opinion of your colleagues and acquaintances, cause it’s subjective. You should test the best variants of design and choose the one that users liked more.
Instead of a conclusion
There are different kinds of restyling, but the most successful are united by one thing — the correspondence of design implementation to the main marketing goals of the brand. In the work of our team, we try to rely on this very principle. Restyling is primarily a marketing tool, and visual design is a way to make this tool work for the main goal.
