As we approach the holiday season, it’s time to consider matching your branding to the season’s mood.
However, this kind of seasonable rebranding is not only restricted to the Christmas and New Year period but also any of the seasonal periods throughout the year, as well as across cultures. For instance, at Christmas time, others may be celebrating other religious festivals.
So the first thing to consider when approaching seasonal rebranding is to know who your customers are and what type of seasonal holiday you wish to focus on. Then, consider what else you should review in your seasonable rebrand to ensure you catch all those holiday sales.
Need some support? Here are our top five tips are below.
Five Tips for Seasonal Rebranding
1. Don’t Confuse your Existing Customers
An easy mistake is to lean directly into the typically recognised style of the season. For Christmas, you might expect garish red and green everywhere, with gold tinsel and red baubles, but this might be completely off-brand and do more damage than good for your business.
It’s important your customers can recognise you even through a layer of seasonal branding. This means looking for colours and tones that complement your existing branding and give the feeling of the season you are promoting. Pulling together a mood board with elements from both can help you visualise what will work well for your brand.
Be seasonal; just don’t be unrecognisable.
2. Display Your Seasonal Branding Online
After all the effort that goes into designing the perfect seasonal branding, it’s time to get noticed. Think about all the traditional places you consider in your regular branding and marketing activities. And although you need to ensure consistency with the seasonal experience across the brand, it may look different on each individual platform.
For instance, you may change your homepage on your website by adding festive banners and even a background effect. However, other pages on your website may be fine.
On your social media channels, updated logos, banners and bios about the holiday is a great way of using this prime branding real estate. Posts can then start to use the seasonal branding a few weeks before the holiday. You can also match the imagery and tone of the posts to play further into the seasonal theme. Finally, create a seasonal holiday marketing campaign to match the rebranding theme or simply reach out to your audience with a holiday message.
The goal is to ensure your customers see your updated branding.
3. Connect the Digital with the Real World
Companies with physical stores must ensure the online branding matches the in-store experience; even concession stands should be considered. This kind of rebranding will often have to be thought of months in advance to ensure the printing and construction of displays by a professional company can be done in time.
In-store, all displays, marketing materials and branding should match the seasonal rebrand for customers to enjoy the whole experience. With 70% of purchasing decisions influenced by the in-store experience, it’s key that everything feels consistent and executed well.
4. Create Seasonal Offers and Deals
To catch those holiday sales, companies often include seasonal offers to capture the customers’ attention. Discount deals can be either matched directly to the holiday season, i.e.‘XMAS22’, or they can be tied to the theme of a rebrand, i.e. ‘LoveEachOther22’.
Another way to ensure your rebrand catches their attention is to match products to the rebrand. Putting together items into seasonally branded gift baskets or sets is an excellent way of tapping into this trend. One of the most important aspects of this is to tap into what your customers feel at this time of year, whether it’s to add to their joy or remove any issue they may be facing. This can be further added to by hosting giveaways which fit in with your rebrand.
5. Collaborate with a Charity or Go Eco
Not all seasonal rebranding has to be about the visual impact, it can focus on what is being done by the brand, i.e. introducing a new element to the brand’s corporate social responsibility efforts. This can be done in a few ways, either by working externally with a charity or an environmentally friendly focused project. Not only will this collaboration do good for your brand, but it will also benefit the planet.
Alternatively, you can create a narrative for your rebranding to focus on solving a problem, i.e. committing to encouraging your customers to recycle and, in return, receive discounts from your company. As more consumers tune into the social responsibility of businesses, this is a critical area to focus on in your seasonal rebranding process.
Remember the Heart of the Matter
For any holiday period, the essential element is to ensure you are still on the same page as your customer, as discussed in previous blogs on branding. Whether it’s for Christmas, Easter, or Diwali, knowing what will appeal to your customers will capture their hearts at a special time of year.
Keep your rebrand simple, effective and of high quality. Utilise the power of a printing company to ensure your rebrand is a surefire hit this season.
Get in touch with Clone Media to discuss how we can help bring your rebranding to life.
