Your business has been operating for over a year, and you have not gained the international success you expected. Could it be your company name?
Often, a bad business name is to blame for initial poor performance of an otherwise solid business plan. While your company is still young, you have the option of rebranding with a new name to improve growth — but should you bother? Here are a few good reasons you might need a new name and how you might go about rebranding for success.
Good Reasons to Ditch a Bad Business Name
There are plenty of reasons to resist a rebranding initiative. First and foremost, rebranding is expensive; small businesses can spend anywhere from $90,000 to $180,000 on brand transformations, which often take the better part of a year to achieve. What’s more, rebranding is risky. There is no guarantee that the new brand will be any better for business, and it could cause old customers to become disengaged. These two obstacles to rebranding are the primary reasons why so many businesses opt to stick with their current underperforming brand.
However, if your organization is suffering from issues that outweigh those listed above, rebranding might be the last chance you have to achieve success. Some incredibly important reasons to initiate a rebranding include:
You Are Struggling With the Trademark
A trademark is absolutely essential for business operations. If the name or logos associated with your company cannot be wholly your own, customers will become confused about some of the most essential details of your business — where you are located, what you sell, how to contact you, etc. Even worse, trademark troubles could escalate into legal battles, which will certainly cost your company time and money. Trademarks are so important that researching how to trademark a business name should occur during the brainstorming process for your brand, to ensure that your name and logo ideas do not overlap with any other company in any other industry. If you skipped this step initially, you might be struggling to obtain the trademark for your business now, and it might be easiest and best to rebrand.
Your Name Doesn’t Define Your Business
There are plenty of stories of company names with little to no meaning that are seen as outstanding and overwhelming success. Pepsi, Kodak, Xerox, Hulu, Etsy, Spotify — these words were not present in any lexicon before they became associated with certain companies, and now they all but define their respective industries. Still, it generally is not advisable to select a company name that has little to no connection with your products or services. Doing so creates much more work for you and your marketing department, who must not only build visibility of your brand but continuously clarify your offerings to consumers. If you have a meaningless name and are not seeing immediate success, you should seriously consider a rebrand.
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