Rebranding Rollout: Navigating a Multi-Site Rebrand
Your brand is one of your most important assets. That’s because it’s the image you put forward for the world to see — and the identity you and your team uphold as an organization.
These elements combine to create the essence of your brand and help shape the experience that your customers have with each visit. When the time comes for your organization to rebrand, it’s essential that the process is managed efficiently. There are a few components to a rebrand, the first of which is developing the research, strategy, and creative elements. You’ll likely work with an agency or your own internal team to develop those assets. But once they’re completed, it’ll be time for the rebranding rollout.
In this phase, the new brand will be implemented throughout your footprint — whether that’s regional, national, or even international. Some organizations choose to do this in phases whereas others follow a multi-site rebranding strategy to get the rebranding rollout completed as quickly as possible and to eliminate any inconsistency in the marketplace. Whether you’ll be rebranding a few dozen locations or a few hundred, there are several aspects of the program that should be considered upfront.
How to Make Your Multi-Site Rebranding Program a Success
A Rebranding Rollout is an Opportunity for Change
As mentioned above, the first step in a rebrand is developing that brand. What does it mean to your audiences? What data and knowledge is it founded on? What does it look like going forward? Once those foundational elements have been established, it’ll be time to review how that brand is implemented physically at your locations. This is an opportunity to make meaningful changes at your locations beyond implementing new exterior and interior signage, changing out graphics, and updating paint colors.
Think back to what the new brand means. Is a pillar of your new brand focusing on delivering a best-in-class customer experience or some similar aim? If so, how do your stores or locations reflect that? Signage will certainly change, but this may be an opportunity to improve its appearance beyond new lettering and colors. Illumination, how the sign is installed on the structure, the way it’s angled, and other materials that are included in its configuration can create a more meaningful and engaging experience.
Additionally, the exteriors and interiors of your locations themselves should be updated to support what the new brand is looking to communicate. Flooring, fixtures, various finishing touches, windows and doors, exterior designs, lighting design, and more all impact your customers’ perceptions of your brand with every experience. When it comes to a rebranding rollout, don’t miss this opportunity to take your physical locations up a notch to showcase what your new brand is seeking to impart to customers.
Brand matters, inside and out: Learn how Stratus helped a major retailer complete an interior and exterior major remodel and overcame challenges along the way.
Capture Savings During Multi-Site Rebranding
In addition to the structural aspects of your locations, you also have a variety of energy-related systems operating 24/7/365. Interior and exterior lighting, illuminated signage and digital signage, heating and cooling systems, voice and data systems, and more all keep your facilities functional and your customers comfortable. As part of your rebranding rollout, you have another opportunity to take these systems up a level.
Whether it’s part of a refresh & remodel strategy or a standalone effort, making efforts to improve lighting, streamline energy usage, and more all have a positive impact on your brand and your customers’ experiences with it. For example, if your locations’ exterior lighting doesn’t provide sufficient illumination or is using outdated systems, replacement lighting or LED retrofitting will ensure ample illumination to keep employees and customers feeling safe and enjoying your spaces.
Control systems are also an important operational element of your locations. You may already have control systems in your locations that manage certain aspects of the building, but there are a variety of other solutions available that leverage even greater technology to make your facilities run more efficiently and ultimately help you save on related costs while still delivering a positive, memorable experience.
Good lighting drives results: Learn how our energy division helped a major tire retailer improve employee and customer experiences with its brand.
Once Implemented, Your Brand Assets Must Be Maintained
Developing the strategic and creative elements of your brand and seeing them implemented throughout your footprint is an exciting time, but it’s important to have a long-term plan in place to ensure those assets are well maintained for years to come. The last thing your customers and employees need to see is damaged, malfunctioning, or distressed assets like signs with flickering letters, parking lots with only half the lights functioning, and buildings with worn-out fixtures and surfaces.
A preventive maintenance strategy is the most proactive approach to keeping these brand assets in strong operating condition — not just at one site but at all of them. Properly developed by a reliable partner, a preventive maintenance program is executed on a recurring basis and evaluates assets like signage, lighting systems, and structural components to identify signs of wear or malfunctions and to rapidly resolve them. Assets are evaluated in daytime and nighttime, ensuring that every opportunity to keep them in good working order is captured.
Should there be any issues, work will be planned right away to resolve them and prevent customers and employees from having negative interactions with your brand. Ultimately, preventive maintenance — and even on-call maintenance for immediate needs — helps to protect your critical brand assets to ensure you’re putting your best foot forward consistently throughout your footprint.
Every detail matters: Learn how our preventive maintenance program for a major financial brand has led to a decade of partnership and brand success.
Work with the Best for Your Rebranding Rollout
As one of the leading brand implementation companies in the U.S. and Canada, Stratus understands what it takes to make your rebranding rollout a success — no matter how many locations you have. Passionate about brands and their physical implementation at every facility, our company supports rebranding efforts through four key service lines: signage, energy, refresh & remodel, and repair & maintenance. With capabilities spanning virtually every aspect of your rebrand, we’re the team you need to share its message with the world.
Our program management team will get to work right away, coordinating the production of your brand assets either internally with our in-house manufacturing capabilities or with our extensive network of more than 2,300 field partners. From there, our logistics and warehousing services centralize all of your assets for easy distribution to your locations, where our installation experts will make your rebranding rollout a reality. Everything is flexible, including working after hours and even during store hours without impacting sales. Post-implementation, we’ll always be available via on-call maintenance or to proactively protect your investment through our preventive maintenance services.
You’ve built a new brand. Now, we’ll help you build it throughout your footprint. Connect with our team today to learn more.