Escaping the "Sea of Same": Considerations for Franchisors Planning a Brand Refresh

In the early stages of every franchise opportunity discovery phase, prospects will always compare the franchise brands and opportunities they’re interested in with their direct competitors. From the outside looking in, franchise opportunities can be difficult to tell apart, especially when there isn’t a clear or memorable distinction between franchisors within a particular industry.

The best and most obvious way to escape the “sea of same” is to establish a brand identity that is both accurate and honest to your franchise brand’s vision for the future. For legacy brands with long histories, this can mean revisiting your existing brand identity and deciding if those visuals and messages are still serving you. If the need exists to readjust, it may be time to prepare for a brand refresh.

Evaluating your current identity – is this the right move for my brand?

Planning a brand refresh is a large and expensive undertaking that usually consists of months of deliberation. From my experience with Home Franchise Concepts’ brand refresh, we felt revisiting our logo, color palette, vision, and core values could help us redefine our brand identity to align with the shared purpose and vision our franchisees and associates work toward each day. We chose the tagline “Building Futures Together,” because it’s an empowering message highlighting our unique role in fostering financial independence and success for individuals and families.

Name, visuals, messaging

Once you have decided a brand refresh is the route for you and your company, the next step involves determining the right messaging and visuals to tell your new story. In our case, we knew that by being a franchise platform of home service brands, we wanted to incorporate visuals of a home and a heart in our updated logo to bridge the association of our industry with our people-centered approach to franchising.

Apart from updates made to logo and brand messaging, other considerations can include revisiting your brand’s tone of voice, color palette, imagery, and even the name of your business. Every rebrand will be different in its own way, but the assessment that goes into determining the visuals and brand messaging you will move forward with should be comprehensive and thorough, and it should speak to your organization’s unique goals and qualities.

What do your franchisees and customers consider important to them? What makes your brand stand out among others in the industry? What do you want this new brand image to say about your business? Remember that by pursuing a rebrand, you are reintroducing your organization to an audience that is larger than just your franchisee and associate network.

Timing and implementation – picking the right moment

Having a structured timeline from start to finish is one of the most valuable resources a marketing team can have when planning a rebrand because it allows teams to foresee deadlines and keeps cross-functional collaboration on track. When working with partner organizations, it’s important to ask questions related to timing to ensure the successful completion of all deliverables and moving parts.

Another consideration is picking the right moment and right activation to launch your rebrand. We partnered with the International Franchise Association to unveil our new brand identity in the form of a sponsorship at the IFA Annual Convention in February. With this partnership, we drove awareness among a very engaged audience – the franchising community – capturing the attention of our peers at a time and place dedicated specifically to our industry.

While unveiling the rebrand, we also launched interactive elements, including a scavenger hunt and the debut of our first official Instagram account, to create more excitement around our refreshed identity. Picking the right time and place to introduce a rebrand can help franchisors make the impact they seek when implementing a new brand image.

Ultimately, while the choice to pursue a rebrand can be arduous, it can also be very rewarding when it is done right. By taking a thoughtful approach – assessing your brand identity, refining your messaging and visuals, and executing a well-planned launch – franchisors can create a brand presence that differentiates themselves from competitors while resonating with franchisees and customers alike.

Marci Kleinsasser, CFE, is vice president of franchise development marketing with Home Franchise Concepts.