The following answers are provided by members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
1. Consumers Will Lose Interest
“Brand identity was created as the outward representation of your company‘s thoughts and ideas. It’s what your customers see, feel and identify with when they see your product or service in the wild. If you’re unwilling to change that identity for the sake of “sticking to your guns,” you’ll find out fairly quickly that yourbrand is more important to your consumer than it is to you.”
Blair Thomas, First American Merchant
2. People Will Mistake You for Someone Else — in a Bad Way
“I once worked with a company that had the same name as another with a questionable reputation. My client, which was a terrific business, got mistaken for this other company all the time and was sometimes negatively impacted. Although my client was reluctant to change an established brand, in the end it was best to cleanly separate the two entities.”
Alexandra Levit, Inspiration at Work
3. You’ll Lose to the Competition
“Market and customer trends are constantly evolving. If you’re unwilling to expand your business’s way of thinking and innovate within the ever-changing landscape of your market, someone else will and your competition will pass you by. You should always be strategizing on how to innovate your brand.”
Stanley Meytin, True Film Production
4. It Gets Boring
“We are getting addicted to change, and if your brand does not keep up with the times, then you are at risk of becoming not relevant. Your brand is a direct representation of your product, and if people get the impression from the brand that you have not innovated and taken pride in being relevant, then they will likely assume this is the case with your product.”
Finn Kelly, WE LOVE NUMBERS
5. You Won’t Be Able to Reach the Same People
“Customers in every industry change their tastes, and if your brand identity is solidly attached to an identity that is no longer relevant, then your company will face a problem with creating compelling and relevant communications in the future.”
Aron Susman, TheSquareFoot
6. You Lose Relevance Online and Offline
“Depending on the scenario, a rebrand is occasionally vital for a company‘s continuance. If that business refuses to change their identity, they not only take the risk of losing search relevancy online but offline as well. Successful businesses are able to smoothly evolve their brand identity while conveying a consistent level of relevancy.”
Anthony Pezzotti, Knowzo.com
7. You’re Serving an Irrelevant Niche
“You may find as you grow that the market you initially identified doesn’t permit a ton of growth. Often, small businesses will heavily brand around serving a particular niche. Once you have outgrown your niche, you often have outgrown part of your brand as well.”
John Rood, Next Step Test Preparation
8. You Lose the Emotional Connection
“When you don’t change your brand identity over time, you may lose that emotional connection you once had because people’s feelings change over time. They may not feel the same connection they did to you two years ago now that their needs or perspective have changed. If you don’t change with them, what you are offering and what your brand represents will no longer hold any meaning for them.”
Drew Hendricks, Buttercup
9. You Lose Value
“Companies grow just like people do. I don’t think I know any entrepreneur whose company does exactly what they planned for it to do when they started out. Different markets open up, and different contracts demand different specialties. Keeping a stale brand identity may be costing you the difference in the new value you develop as your company gets better at what it does.”
Adam Steele, The Magistrate
10. Customers Feel Like You Aren’t Paying Attention
“Simply put, refusing to change your brand identity gives your customers the impression that you’ve lost touch with them. Most businesses have a target age group that makes up the majority of their customer base. As time goes on, those customers will inevitably be replaced by the next generation of that age group. Companies either evolve with their customer base or die off with them.”
Brandon Stapper, 858 Graphics
