Defining Your Business From the Inside, Out

A rebrand is more than just a new look, it’s an opportunity to make fundamental improvements to your business. Nothing great remains the same. If the times are changing, your brand should be, too.

Wear Your Heart on Your Sleeve

How you look should be about who you are. If you don’t know who you are, it will show in your brand. If you look at your brand and something feels off, take that as a sign that you need to revisit who you are. 

Your business is not the same as it was 10 years ago. By redefining your mission, vision, and values, you can reconnect with yourself and the people you serve. As a result, a rebrand will just make sense—elements like a new logo, website, and mission statement will simply fall into place.

At Fortress, our new look was motivated by our new mission. When our mission changed, so did we. Our daily operations have improved, the way we interact with clients has changed, and how we view ourselves has evolved. A new logo and website is only an outward expression of that.

Nice to Meet You, Again

Your brand not only represents you, but it represents your audience. If you fall out of touch with what your audience wants, you’ll lose them. Once again, this is about more than just visual appeal. Your ability to connect with your audience ultimately comes down to your ability to serve them.

That means that a rebrand is also a great time to take a look at the services you provide with a magnifying glass.

• Ask yourself what services are still relevant to your audience and which are not.
• Determine how the services you provide can change and improve to better serve your clients.
• Identify any new services that you are capable of providing and that your customers will benefit from.

The services you provide your audience will help to shape how your brand looks, feels, and sounds. As a result, you will be placing your customers at the foundation of your brand and will connect with them on a deeper level.

Don’t Wait for Your Brand to Come Back Into Style

Your brand is not like fashion, it won’t come back into style no matter how long you wait. If it’s been more than 5 years since you’ve revisited your brand, you might want to change that. If it’s been more than 10 years, you must change that. 

Not every brand will need to make drastic changes, but frequently checking in with your mission and audience gives magnetic confidence to your brand. Even if it’s changing something small like a line of copy on your website or the images that you use in your monthly newsletter, when your voice comes through in every detail, people will gravitate toward your brand.

Take a client of ours, Walner Law, for example. Jon Walner has been representing Chicago people for nearly 60 years. Over that time he became well-known as one of the city’s best personal injury lawyers. The problem was that his brand did not represent that rich history. Walner Law had used the same logo since 1988, and it was no longer resonating with the firm’s audience—the people of Chicago.

With the help of Fortress, Jon Walner was able to rebrand himself as “Chicago’s Personal Injury Lawyer” with a brand new logo, one that symbolized the firm’s commitment to Chicago, and a powerful ad campaign that communicated Jon’s passion and experience.

Regardless of the amount of success your business has had in the past, it can still benefit from a rebrand. You may discover a new audience, new services, or a more powerful voice—everything it takes to keep growing your business.

How to Rebrand, Step-by-Step

1. Revisit and redefine your mission.

2. Get in touch with your audience and seek out new audiences.

3. Reevaluate your services and add new services to better serve that audience.

4. Let the “new you” speak for itself through web design, logos, content, and social media.

In reality, the redesign aspect of your rebrand is the simple part. That is if you put in the work to truly know yourself and define your goals. Still, we know how important amazing design is to communicating that story you have worked so hard to develop. That’s where Fortress comes in. 

You are the hero in your story, let us help you tell it. Start a project with us today, or explore more of the brand transformations we have helped our clients achieve.