So you’ve gone through the intensive and arduous journey of crafting a new brand. You survived the brainstorming, the brain picking, and the deep exploration of what truly motivates you and your target audience. The final result is a thing of beauty, as well as a strategy of substance. You have it all in the palm of your hand, in a well-bound document, and now it’s time for the moment of truth.

Launching your new brand is a delicate process with a complicated series of moving parts. So you want to do it right. With care and precision, you can make a big splash and a memorable impact, strengthening the bonds with your audience.

In the following article, we’ll review all the elements of an effective brand launch, to help you make this important transition as successful as possible.

Define your brand: Image and personality

Before you launch your brand for the world to see, it’s important to be clear on what a brand is and what a brand does. When we talk about launching a brand, we aren’t just talking about sharing a new logo. But that’s part of it, and in most cases, that’s the first thing people will notice. Done properly though, your logo is the expression of something much larger and deeper.

You can think of your brand as the personality of your business. When you give that personality a face, you don’t just do so at random. You need to think like a novelist or a casting director. Who is this character deep down? What is their history? What are their dreams and ambitions, their hopes and fears?

When George Clooney or Meryl Streep enters the frame, the audience cheers. We love a pretty face, but that only gets you so far. We can’t wait to get to know their characters as well. And you notice how certain actors, say Paul Giamatti, tend to play a certain role. Because some faces are filled with personality. The face of your company, your logo, needs to do that, too, to excite people with expectations.

More importantly, the psychology of your brand needs to fulfill those expectations. If you have a shiny black and chrome loge with serifed lettering, people will expect someone regal. So you’ll have to speak with elegance and sophistication, and your services will need to dazzle them with luxury. Anything less, and they’ll be disappointed, and they’ll drop you like a scratched cufflink.

In all aspects of branding, consistency is key. So your logo needs to align with all your other elements. And that means you need to put some real thought into how your brand acts, speaks, thinks and feels, not just how it looks. Tone of voice, choice of words, use of humor, and style of dress all play a part in your brand’s personality.

Learn more about that process in our article on Brand Strategy: Your foundation.

Internal vs. External branding

Something else to be aware of, before you blast your new brand into the world, is the difference between internal and external branding. Again, many small businesses, and even big ones, fail to recognize this.

Going back to what I said earlier, your brand is so much more than just the image you project with your logo and your color palette. Those visual elements should be the expression of something more substantial, what we call your Brand Essence. This essence consists of the vision, values and higher purpose goals that your company stands for and believes in.

These are the foundation of your brand persona, so before you can step out into the world with this personality, you and every member of your team need a perfectly clear understanding of what these goals and values are. When you’re clear about these issues, you’ll not only attract the right customers, but you’ll also attract the right employees. This enables you to build a team that’s more loyal and effective because they share a common purpose. Like you, they should be showing up at work not merely for the paycheck, but because they’re getting paid to do something they believe in.

If members of your team don’t share those values and principles, they might not work out so well. And they probably won’t stick around as long. So don’t be shy about what you stand for. In the long run, it will help you put together a stronger, more reliable unit. And when it comes time to express those characteristics outward, they will shine through naturally and authentically.

Grand opening: Brand release parties and more

In some respects, it all comes down to this. But in other ways, it’s nothing to get so worked up about. Branding is about consistency and longevity. Even so, when wanting to start off on the right foot. And this should be a special milestone moment for you and your business.

Maybe you want a grand opening, or perhaps you’d prefer a soft opening. Do what feels right, and always do it with your brand persona in mind. That’s another great advantage of building a complete brand, it serves as a guiding star and helps inform all of your decision-making.

Whether you have an outgoing and playful brand, or a serious luxury brand, or a tender compassionate brand, the brand reveal should be an event worth celebrating in one way or another. For most B2C brands that do business with the public, an open house is one of the best ways to mark the occasion. Your brand and your business are all about serving the needs of your clients, so take this opportunity to show them how much you appreciate them.

For other businesses, a virtual event might make more sense. Maybe your customers are located all across the globe, or there’s a pandemic preventing people from leaving their homes. OK, let’s hope not, but we know how weird things can get. So be flexible, and make it as easy and convenient as possible for your customers. Feel free to tempt them with some cool prizes. Just make sure they’re getting something useful that’s not simply going to turn them into a walking billboard with your new logo screaming from head to toe.

You also want to take this opportunity to get as much publicity as you can. However you connect with your people, this is the time to do it. Send an email blast, write a blog post, and put some energy into your social media channels. And now is also the time to brush up on your press release writing skills. Try to get some mentions in the local media.

While you’re at it, maybe try something new. When’s the last time you sent out a direct mailer? I know, snail mail, so last century. Think about it though. A well-designed and attractive postcard that might include a special discount offer will probably stick around longer than the average email.

But be careful not to turn your open house event into a blatant platform for sales and self-promotion. It’s about having a good time and celebrating the growth of your brand, which is essentially based on the relationships you’ve built with your audience. It’s not about bombarding them with marketing messages.

At the same time, don’t hide from the fact that you’re still a business and that as a new brand, you’ll continue to offer the same great services as well as a few new ones. Just don’t go around the room making endless sales pitches and asking people for their credit cards. Let the QR code on the poster or at the corner of the screen handle that.

Brand transition: The tectonic shift

When the party is over and the confetti’s been swept up, it’s time to get down to business. Review everything your company does and everywhere it appears. Your open house or grand opening event is probably the time to unveil the new signs and maybe go live with your new website. But you’ve got a long way to go.

Be thorough and be consistent. The last thing you want to do is confuse your customers with conflicting messages and images. After you update the logo, the colors and the layout of your website, you still need to go through and revise every mention of the business name. If you have an elaborate website with lots of pages and blog posts, you’ll need to set aside some time or money to make sure this gets done right. You should probably create some kind of explainer page as well, to let people know there’s a new look, and maybe there’s a new owner or manager, but it’s still the same reliable service.

Of course, all your physically branded material will need updating as well. That includes uniforms, if your team members have any, or possibly the company dress code. Then there’s business cards, brochures, menus, name tags, and all manner of signage. There’s a good chance you’ll need to repaint the office as well, or at least the waiting room, and switch out the decor to match your new color palette and keep it all on brand.

Then you have to scour the internet. This could be a slow project that takes weeks. Update your Google Business page. Find referral pages that share a banner linking to your site. Update all those points of contact, and keep track as you go. Remember third-party services, too, like Calendly with client-facing features that you rarely see. It might not even be possible to find every mention of your brand on other websites and convince them to update their sites in a timely manner, so you’ll have to be vigilant for months to come.

This is probably the least enjoyable part of your brand launch. And it underscores the fact that you want to be very sure about yourself when creating a brand or conducting a rebrand. It’s not something you want to do every six months, or even every other year. Revising your brand, on the other hand, and refining some elements is important, and you should actually do that every year. (See our article on Brand Strategy Review.)

Transitional brand

Some rebranding projects can be more massive than others. When the ownership changes, you might want to make a big deal out of it. Although sometimes you want to keep that private to minimize any sense of disruption. If you change the name of a business, it could also be confusing to customers. They might think you went out of business and got replaced by some Johnny Come Lately.

To make things easier and less disorienting, you might prefer to make a slow transition. When Soto’s Market in Cambria changed ownership and changed their name to True Earth Market, we created a fantastic new brand and logo for them. But it was a radical change, and not everyone is so adaptable to new things. So they transitioned as Soto’s True Earth Market, and that actually lasted a couple of years.

Similarly, Rutiz Family Farm recently changed ownership. They’re in the middle of a rebrand now (spring 2022), and they’re temporarily calling themselves Rutiz Halcyon Farm, soon to be Halcyon Farms. Rutiz was such a beloved pillar of the community, it was important to let people know that the transition was happening smoothly and positively, and that they hadn’t sold out to some corporate farming conglomerate. In fact, the new owners live right next door and they’d already been working together with Rutiz for over a decade.

Put the audience first

Branding is all about building and maintaining lasting meaningful relationships with your customers. It’s great to be proud of yourself and your new image. But don’t make it all about me, me, me.

At the end of the day, your brand’s goal is to strengthen the ties between the business and the audience. It’s about tuning into the needs and desires of your audience, and letting them know you’re there to support them, guide them, and lift them up. How is your new brand going to make things better for them, why should they be excited about it, and why will they want to rally around you?

Change isn’t always easy for people. The last thing you want is for loyal clientele to feel like you’ve somehow betrayed them. Reassure them that you’re still the great company they’ve grown to know and trust.

Brand stamina: Play the long game

The brand launch, with your grand opening and the big media blast, might make you feel like you’re at the top of the world. But don’t let the hype go to your head. This is no time to rest on your laurels. Brand success demands consistency and staying power.

Where will you be when the party is over?

Implementing your brand is a long-term project. This is where you need to be vigilant about sticking to those brand colors, fonts and phrases that you spent so much time choosing. It takes more than a festive launch party for your brand to leave a lasting impression. A bond that’s fashioned overnight is libel to break off just as quickly, so be patient. Don’t assault your audience with every story and message in your toolbox, but allow time to make gradual, multiple impressions that will sink in slowly and live on for the long haul.

Your brand, with all its promises and characteristics, is meant to create certain expectations for your audience. If you fail to live up to those expectations, then all that work was for nothing. It won’t take long for savvy consumers to see through the facade.

You’ve done the research to understand your target audience’s deepest fears and desires. And you’ve crafted a brand to communicate your understanding of those needs and your unique ability to address them. Those promises should attract the right people to your door, but your delivery is what will keep them coming back.

Dive in and make a splash

Ready to get started? Or curious to learn more? The Brand Strategy Workbook will give you a good starting point to answer some questions regarding your brand. And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out for a Discovery call or join our online community. It looks a bit confusing and overwhelming, but if you take it one step at a time, it all makes sense in the end. You got this! 

• Schedule a Discovery Call with Pacha
• Join our brand strategy Facebook Community: Balanced Brands
• Get professionally designed and curated content for your social media channels: Sign up for Social Stream

Dive deeper and take a look at these related articles.

• An Introduction to Brand Archetypes
• Adopting Brand Personas
• Speaking with Brand Voice
• Building Company Culture
• Issues with Ethical Marketing