Even though we all know it’s incredibly important to maintain a slick, professional brand image these days, many companies are still reluctant to re-design their marketing materials.

Price-led decision-makers worry about the potential cost of re-doing and re-distributing brochures, posters, or even a brand new website. And those who struggle to find the time to focus on their marketing activities may see it as a ‘pointless’ exercise that’s only going to add more tasks to their ever-growing to-do list.

But if your company has undergone significant changes, it makes sound business sense to freshen up your brand’s identity with better, more relevant visuals that enhance your message, not hinder it.

If you find yourself in any of the below scenarios, you absolutely must update your marketing materials.


When you have decided to rebrand

Successful marketing is all about consistency. If your assets are all over the place, packed full of mismatched colours, varying fonts and clashing copy, you can take it from me that this is going to have a negative impact on your company’s image (and ultimately affect the customer’s trust in your brand).

If you have consciously decided to take on a different brand identity – complete with the introduction of an updated logo and a sparkling new set of brand guidelines – your marketing materials need to reflect the new and improved ‘you’. This will simultaneously save customer confusion and help to establish you as an organisation that really means business.


When you’re changing direction

Perhaps you’ve been meaning to target a different demographic for a while now, or maybe industry trends, or even emerging legislation, have forced your hand. Either way, you’ll definitely need to readdress your marketing materials if they are no longer relevant to the audience you want to target.

You need to move with the times to make sure your message is still resonating with the people who are likely to buy from you – and part of this process involves reviewing all of your printed and online assets to ensure they’re accurately reflecting your products, your services and your company’s unique selling proposition.


When your materials are looking tired or outdated

In many cases, businesses will go for years – sometimes decades – without freshening up their brand graphics. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? But what these companies forget is that graphic design trends move so quickly nowadays. Something that was fit for purpose even twelve months ago may not quite cut the mustard anymore; it may be regarded as old-fashioned, uninspiring.

If you get the sense that your digital and printed materials are looking a little lacklustre, chances are your customers are thinking the same thing, and that’s going to reflect badly on your brand. Now is the time to take back control by re-designing and re-writing some of your most important marketing tools to ensure they are as impactful and as attention-grabbing as they have ever been.


When you want to explore new and exciting ways of advertising

Everyone is having to work harder to get noticed, which is why businesses are constantly taking advantage of emerging marketing technologies and much more creative approaches within their promotional strategies.

If you have previously stuck to traditional advertising approaches, such as printing brochures and flyers, you may find that these methods alone aren’t bringing in as much of a return as they used to. In this case, it could be time to capture more of a market share from your web activities – and that means investing in a beautiful, functional website, complete with all the trimmings.


When your competitors are upping their game

For any of the reasons listed above – and for many more – your marketing materials could be lagging well behind those of your rivals. Would you want to lose out on a huge contract because another organisation spent more time perfecting their brochures? Thought not!

Companies that put an emphasis on design are thought to out-perform their competitors by as much as 200%. So why leave your business trailing behind when you could become the trailblazers? The quicker you get your graphics up to scratch, the sooner you’ll be enjoying healthier sales and a newfound sense of respect from your peers.

If you’ve been inspired to revamp your graphics and develop a more unified image for your business, rest assured that as an experienced brand identity design specialist, I have the skills and the know-how to create marketing visuals that will ensure you’re the talk of the town. Call me today on 01206 751800 and we can discuss your ideas and requirements in more detail!