Ep 4. How to Refresh Your Brand Without Starting From Scratch
Nourish Your Brand · Episode 4
Spring has sprung, and along with decluttering your wardrobe or deep-cleaning the kitchen, it's a lovely time to think about a brand refresh. So today we're looking at branding through the lens of a salad.
Picture a salad for a second. So many variations, but it comes down to three things. The leaves as the base, a variety of toppings, and a dressing to bring it all together. Your brand works exactly the same way, so let's dig in.
The three parts of your brand
The base is your brand strategy. Your core purpose, your values, who you serve, the space you're competing in. These are your greens, the lettuce and spinach and kale. Essential, but just the starting point.
The toppings are everything you've layered on since. Your logo, your colour palette, your photography, your illustrations and graphics. That's where your brand salad gets interesting.
And every once in a while, that salad needs a refresh. Something's gone a little stale, or your taste (or your client's taste) has shifted, and you want to bring something new to the table.
What a brand refresh actually looks like
A refresh can be small. Adding a new colour. Changing up a font. Swapping the photography. It doesn't have to be a full teardown.
It can also be a shift in your messaging. I talk about branding through food, for example. If that stopped feeling right for me or my clients one day, I wouldn't change what I do, I'd just tweak the angle so it stayed relevant. Same with your offer. Sometimes describing it a little differently, or changing one element, is enough to make the whole brand feel fresh again.
A real example: Rachel Emma Waring's refresh
This is exactly what I did for Rachel Emma Waring. She wanted a refresh to bring out the creativity in her brand. We looked at her strategy and foundation, and the core was all still right, so we didn't touch it. We just amped it up.
Visually, we made her colours bolder and kept it really colourful, and we updated her typography. Her logo design didn't change, we just changed its colour. The graphic elements largely stayed. But that one move, punching up the colour and refreshing the photography, gave the brand exactly the punch it needed.
How much can you change before it's not you anymore?
Here's the bit where a little culinary expertise comes in. Think about a Caesar salad. How much can you change it before it stops being a Caesar salad? Same with your brand. Change too much and it doesn't represent you anymore.
Introducing new elements is great. But how well it lands depends on how aligned it is to your strategy and your existing identity. If you already have a brand, your audience has associations with it, and often those associations are exactly what they come back for. So mix the new in carefully.
Refresh or full rebrand? Decide first
Before you start, get clear on what you actually want. A subtle refresh? Or a big kapow, everything-is-new transformation? Deciding upfront makes it so much easier to find the harmony between old and new.
A light refresh is something you can often do yourself by tweaking colour, type and photography. A proper 360, where we rebuild the whole thing from the strategy up, is what the Brand Kitchen is for. And if it's the foundation you want to get clear on before you touch anything visual, that's a Brand Recipe session.
Ask yourself this week
If you're tempted by a spring refresh, start with two questions.
Which ingredients are the core of your brand, the keepers? Figure those out first, because why throw out what's already working?
And what could you toss in to bring fresh flavour? Even the smallest change can reinvigorate a brand. A sprinkle of pomegranate completely transforms a salad. Same base, one new thing, and it comes back to life.
The bottom line
Keep your branding fresh and exciting, for you and your customers, but stay true to your foundations. Your brand is ever-evolving and it needs nourishing, so check in on it often. Most of the time that won't mean throwing everything out (please don't), it'll mean looking at what's there and tweaking what needs tweaking.
If you're ready to sprinkle new flavours into your brand but you're not sure where to start, I'm only an email or a DM away. You can also book a free Brand Pairing call and we'll work out whether you need a light refresh or the full Brand Kitchen treatment. No pressure, no hard sell.
Related episodes:
Ep 1. Brand foundations: the two ingredients every brand needs
Ep 2. Why your brand feels bland (and the ingredient that fixes it)
Ep 3. Is your branding all over the place? How to rein it in
Resources mentioned
The Spread – my email newsletter, with new episodes, branding nuggets, and a bit of what I'm loving lately
Come say hi on Instagram: @studiocoya
Here's More…
What's the difference between a brand refresh and a rebrand?
A refresh keeps your foundation and core identity, and updates the surface, think colours, fonts, photography, or messaging angle. A rebrand rebuilds from the strategy up. Most businesses need a refresh far more often than a full rebrand.
How do I refresh my brand without losing recognition?
Keep the elements your audience already associates with you, and change things carefully around them. Decide upfront whether you want subtle or dramatic, then mix the new in so it still reads as unmistakably you.
When should I refresh my branding?
When it's starting to feel stale, when your messaging no longer quite fits, or when your brand has stopped reflecting the level you're operating at. A light refresh keeps it current without the upheaval of starting over.
About the host
I'm Aiza, the brand chef behind Studio Coya, a branding studio with a food-themed twist. I help established coaches, creators and service providers brand their signature offers so their best work looks as good as it actually is, and sells like hotcakes.
