Spring Clean Your Branding

It’s not so many years back that my mother’s generation would, around about this time of year, be preparing to tear down the nets, beat the rugs senseless and redden the doorsteps.

This ritual of Spring cleaning was inherited from their own Mothers. That make do & mend ethic was an accepted reality and making the best of what you had was the only option as money was tight. That quiet liturgy of cleaning and scrubbing, darning, and dusting until all was ‘spick ‘n span’ was played out by womenfolk across the land. (In case you are wondering…This term combines two nouns that are now obsolete, spick, “a nail” or “spike,” and span, “a wooden chip.” In the 1500s a sailing ship was considered spick and span when every spike and chip was brand-new. The transfer to the current sense took place in the mid-1800s.)

Once the mothership was fresh and tidy, well, smooth passage into the new Spring season could be sanctioned and enjoyed.

These days, we update our hair, our cars, our diets, and even our complete lifestyles. Those liberating moments of change, give us clarity, confidence, and a fresh perspective. Sometimes it’s difficult as instinctively we want to remain guarded in what we know or that which is familiar to us. But how many times have you read or heard that ‘change is good’.

It’s reasonable therefore to view our business branding in a similar fashion. Now, I hear you say, isn’t a brand built to last? Well, yes, of course it is. The best brands have longevity and continued resonance but even the best brands will periodically review their aesthetic powers. It may just be an indefinable ‘tweak’… ask ‘Shell’ all about that. But even under those terms, the refresh may just be the thing to subtly restore the visibility of the company within its market and audience.

On a smaller scale, there are those who choose to start up in business a result of redundancy, boredom or simply because they have a great idea. So much time, money and energy is put into creating their product or service that often the branding or marketing gets shunted down the ‘to do’ list and becomes an afterthought. It may be, therefore, that the brand never actually gets addressed at all. If you are an avid viewer of Dragons Den or The Apprentice, you’ll be aware as to just how critical your branding is. My goodness, what horrors we saw this year on the latter particularly. You may have a great product or business but if it says nothing to your audience, you are going to fall at the first hurdle.

Image is everything these days.

So, if you haven’t thought about your branding, or if you’ve got a quick fix logo and feel that it just does not do you or your business justice, maybe now is the time. Spring is round the next bend and what better time for a fresh start. If your logo is lack-lustre and your website fills you with woe, consider a Visual Spring Clean.

Ask friends and family, clients, and customers for an honest review of your brand.
Don’t just ‘make do’… make it marvellous!

Photo By Tracey Hocking on UnSplash

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