Changing a business’s logo or brand can bring a number of feelings to the surface. It can spark debate, raise opinion and change feelings amongst staff, clients and competitors alike, this leads us to the question of ‘how often you should change your logo or your brand’. There can be many factors to why change is necessary as well as a number of reasons why a company should re-evaluate or even audit their brand rather than a complete change. Global brands take the Twitter spotlight when a significant logo/brand change is made. Via Twitter or Facebook the public are able to cast there two cents behind a keyboard force field and give a critique on how the logo looked before and what it looks like to them, now – all very black and white with no real focus on the reasons that business decided to make the change.

There can be many factors in making the decision to change an organisations logo/brand. A shift in the marketplace is a common phrase we here in the studio – ‘customers just aren’t the same anymore – our target market has changed’ – this sort of market behaviour can make or break a business and is an element that must be addressed in the branding. For example, if you’re family business has had the same logo or brand identity for 30 plus years and you are about to make a change in how your business operates or even what it sells then its time to re-evaluate how your brand communicates and more importantly who it communicates too. Your logo has the power to do this for you. To follow on if a logo which was designed 30 years ago suited the market at that time, and the market has changed since then, how could a logo still do what you need it to do in today’s climate? To answer the question let a creative brand & design studio look at it for you. If aspects of your business are changing i.e. Your staff, your offering, your USP, your location, your customers, you’re moving online – these are all triggers for when you should consider changing your logo and or your full brand identity. A good analogy is this – Imagine pimping out your car – new wheels, new engine, new leather interior, fancy new stereo with subwoofers in the boot… and leaving the paintwork as it was. The paintwork is what people see and what people think of first – the engine and interiors are irrelevant if there is no first impression or draw from the bodywork. Your logo/brand is what people see first before they look under the hood or sit in your passenger seat. Your logo/brand is what draws people towards you as a business the same way you may be drawn towards the exterior of a Ferrari or Lamborghini. Of course, the engine and interiors are all perfections inside an exotic sports car but without the exterior and that initial sale would you still want to know what was underneath?

How often you should change your logo really depends on what your business is doing. Have you new competition whose offer is the same but the brand communicates more effectively? Have you ambitioned of increasing reputation or profits? We notice that around every 3-5 years its certainly worth evaluating how your brand communicates, whether that be through a brand audit, a change of your logo, or even a complete re-brand. It’s important to keep moving with the times and always communicating correctly to the right type of client if you want more of them.