Reduce your rebranding costs using technology & AI

Most companies would go through a rebranding or a brand refresh exercise once every 7-10 years. Whether the reasons are market evolution, modernization or more trigger-based reasons such as a merger or an acquisition, rebranding is hard.

Marketing teams commonly spend about 6-12 months to complete the project and up to 20% of their annual marketing budget. Some expenses include:

• Strategy & testing costs (brand, competitive landscape, surveys)

• Design costs (logo redesign, business cards, website, collateral like brochures and banners, email signatures)

• Production costs (workwear, product packaging, signages on office buildings, cars, flags)

• Indirect costs (loss of productivity)

• Marketing costs (Social Media updates, press releases, ads)

• Communication & Training costs (content creation for employees to communicate the WHY of the new branding)

• Legal costs (trademarks for logo, slogans, updating documents & templates)

• Indirect and hidden costs (such as delays, loss of productivity, additional or unforeseen expenses)

In this article, we explore the use of technology & AI to reduce costs and improve the quality of your rebranding exercise.

Logo design

Assuming you’ve engaged a reputable brand agency to run the overall strategy, it is recommended to use advanced AI-powered tools such as Design.com or Looka.com which can help you create new logos in seconds serving as inspiration, and digital competition for your agency. It helps keeping them honest and pushing them to their limits.

Business cards

Reprinting large quantities of paper business cards can be expensive and wasteful (more than $250k for every 10,000 employees!). Instead, this is the perfect time to opt for a digital business cards solution instead of the outdated paper cards. Digital solutions such as Haystack, are more environmentally friendly, fully automated (remove all the ongoing admin overhead), and will cost a fraction of the cost, delivering an immediate ROI and reduce the rebranding costs dramatically. 

Brochures

Rather than reprinting marketing collateral, consider hosting your brochures, whitepapers & case studies online instead. You can host them on your website and link to them from your digital business cards. This will increase traffic to your website, while also being more cost effective and faster to implement.

Email signatures

Use digital providers to automatically update your email signature with the new branding, eliminating the need for manual updates. The leading digital business card providers will also offer an ‘email signature’ version of your digital cards, so you don’t need to manage two solutions (one for email signatures and one for business cards). This presents the perfect time to consolidate vendors, and further the cost savings.

Workwear

The most cost effective and sustainable method is to consider leveraging the natural replacement cycle by updating logos during routine uniform replacements as much as possible. You can also engage specialists like Renewt.com, who use heat transfer or seam sealing techniques to replace logos on existing apparel without compromising garment integrity.

Packaging

You can now employ VR and AR technologies to create 3D models of your new branding on physical products. With this technology, you can simulate different packaging designs, enabling you to identify potential issues early. This ensures precise alignment, color accuracy, and material compatibility, thereby avoiding costly production errors and accelerating the rebranding process.

Employee Communication & Training

To reduce costs such as employee training and time investment during rebranding, leverage digital platforms like Udemy for Business, Coursera or LinkedIn learning, as well as your existing knowledge base or Intranet. On these platforms, offer extensive online training modules about your new brand to streamline the training process. Keep in mind to repeat the Why of the rebranding in your communication over the course of the next 6-9 months to strengthen the new shaped identity and manifest it into organization and employees.

By harnessing the power of technology, you can significantly reduce both the time and costs associated with your rebranding exercise. Significant advancements in AI, VR/AR, software, and online platforms have already profoundly impacted the industry. Those who strategically implement these technologies will realize considerable financial benefits and productivity gains going forward.