Steps to a successful brand relaunch

It took countless hours, multiple internal debates, endless revisions, and board meeting after board meeting after board meeting for your organization to put together all the components of a new brand — a fresh strategy, powerful key messages, maybe even an updated mission and vision, and a beautiful new logo.   

Now the work really begins. 

That’s because a brand is more than words on a page or a pretty logo that gets slapped on the next donor newsletter. A brand is the entire essence of an organization and if it is not launched correctly, all that hard work will simply lead to confused and frustrated audiences. 

There are many moving pieces when it comes to a brand relaunch, all of which must be carefully planned and orchestrated. Jumping the gun with a leak (even a small leak like changing your email signature), or trickling out new materials as they’re ready, will dilute your big reveal. 

Here’s a quick cheat sheet of what you need to know for a successful brand relaunch.

Identify all audiences and their ‘need-to-know’ order

Determine all of your audiences and which may need a more personalized approach. Also identify the order in which each stakeholder will need to be introduced to the new brand and consider the best way to reach each audience. For example, staff may need a lunch ‘n learn presentation, media may need a press release, key funders may need a personal letter, and the community may need a gala event. 

It’s important to remember that staff will be your brand champions, so launching internally before externally ensures employees feel in the know, vesting them in the new brand. 

Develop a rebrand story to share your ‘why’

Those who worked on the process were privy to a lot of information and discussion not seen in the final results. To your audiences, the end result is just words on a page or a stylized new picture on business cards. Engage your audiences by crafting a rebrand story to demonstrate the value behind the rebrand. 

Create a communications plan and launch calendar for each audience

Each audience needs its own plan with release dates to ensure adequate time is allotted to create all of the necessary collateral. This may include preparing letters or email announcements, writing social media posts, and more. Once figured out, plot out all launch deliverables and determine the marketing collateral that needs to be created/re-created.

Redevelop all of your marketing collateral 

That new logo needs to be on everything you touch. Website (and if it’s been awhile since your last website refresh, now would be a good time for an overhaul), email signatures, business cards, social media templates, signage, banners, brochures, tax receipts, posters, swag, and more.

…and go…

Once everything is in place, go ahead and press that button — send out the press release, make the phone calls, and host the big event! But don’t be surprised if launch activities don’t cement the new brand in your audiences’ minds. It can take up to six months for a rebrand to fully entrench, so don’t be afraid to over communicate by continually re-enforcing your new messaging.