10 Best Brand Guidelines Templates (+Tips) | Visme
Thinking about rebranding your company but wondering what strategies to use? If so, you’re in the right place.
Your brand is one of your company’s most valuable assets. At some point in a brand’s lifecycle, rebranding may be a sound decision—especially if your company is looking to expand into other markets, scale growth and boost profits.
And if done well, a rebranding strategy could boost your reputation and ultimately affect your bottom line.
Whether you’re changing your company’s name and messaging or transforming your visual identity or other elements of your product or service, this guide will share the top five rebranding strategies you can use. We’ll also share famous rebranding strategy examples to inspire you.
Let’s get to it.
Before you dive in, watch this video to discover when to rebrand your business and the steps to execute this strategy.
Rebranding is the process of recreating or revamping a brand's identity to stay fresh and relevant. It's a critical component of your brand management strategy and entails partial or complete changes in these elements:
The purpose of rebranding can differ across organizations. But mostly, it’s done when a company:
Rebranding may be part of a company's strategy to acquire more customers, edge out the competition or increase market share. It may also be necessary to revise or recreate your brand if growth is stagnant or if it has a negative image resulting from backlash, a scandal or other public relations incidents.
Rebranding has one simple goal: to keep your brand up to date. Hence, it shouldn’t be considered a waste of money, time and effort.
Rebranding is an investment that can yield exponential returns for your business.
Below are some ways businesses can benefit from rebranding.
Rebranding modernizes a brand’s image and makes it more appealing to new and existing customers. Positive perception can increase brand equity and value in the market.
A rebrand empowers your company to reach a new audience and attract the right customers who may have overlooked it in the past. Better yet, it’s an opportunity for you to develop customer personas and craft compelling messages that attract the right audience.
A strong brand can make a huge difference in attracting and retaining customers, and rebranding can be just the thing to take a brand from outdated to fresh and exciting. A successful rebrand not only makes your brand compelling but also increases brand awareness, which can lead to increased sales and customer loyalty.
Differentiation is a key strategy that helps you stand out in a crowded market. Rebranding yourself spells out what differentiates you from competitors by highlighting your unique qualities, value proposition and competitive advantage.
Your brand’s strength and value are largely based on how customers perceive it. Rebranding can help a company improve its value and reputation, especially if it is undergoing a negative image or perception in the market.
Revitalizing your brand is more than just switching to a sleek logo and savvy tagline. It allows your company to analyze your SWOT and better align its branding with its current business strategy, values and goals.
Strong brands attract and retain the best hands, even from the most competitive job pool. Rebranding can attract spirited employees, boost company culture and foster trust.
Rebranding always comes with the risk of being a hit or miss. But it may be your best chance of staying relevant or scaling growth. With the right strategy, the possibilities are endless and the outcome could be even better than you ever imagined.
Here are five top strategies you can deploy when embarking on a rebranding project and examples from top brands.
If you are expanding your offering or catering to a new target audience, a rebrand may be the best way to communicate this expansion to stakeholders and the general public. It's also a chance to share your values and mission and even attract new customers.
Apple's rebranding is a great example of this tactic. In 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that Apple was dropping the word “Computer” from its name to become “Apple Inc.”
According to Jobs, the change was made to show that they were focused on more than just making computers but on other consumer electronics. This move helped Apple penetrate the larger consumer electronics market.
Dunkin is another big brand that has used this strategy.
In a bold move to rebrand itself, Dunkin' made a strategic decision to drop the word "Donuts" from its name in 2018.
This change reflected its growth and highlighted the brand's commitment to offering a diverse range of food and beverages beyond the traditional donut.
The world is moving at a fast pace, and staying relevant is key to business success.
If you snooze, you’ll lose big time. Your brand could fall behind due to cultural shifts, innovation gaps and failure to embrace technology.
Rebranding can be a strategic move to maintain or regain relevance in your niche. Essentially, you’re not only keeping your brand current and aligned with contemporary trends but appealing to new audiences.
Facebook's name change to Meta is a prime example of rebranding to stay relevant.
In 2021, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook/Meta, announced the decision to bring all of their apps and technologies under one new company brand—Meta.
The rebranding was a strategic move to reflect the company's expanding focus beyond social media into the broader realms of the metaverse, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and other immersive and interactive digital experiences. It’s also part of Facebook's broader strategy to position itself at the forefront of the emerging metaverse, AI, VR and AR technologies.
Meta’s new vision, focus and corporate identity position the brand as a leader in shaping the future of the Internet and digital interaction. It’s also a key step in ensuring it stays relevant, asserts its dominance and edges out the competition.
If you are establishing a brand, you want to aim for longevity. However, being a legacy brand doesn’t mean you should cater only to the old.
Consumer preferences evolve over time, and what appeals to one generation may not resonate with another. To appeal to a new generation of buyers, expand your reach and increase market share, rebranding might be necessary.
Your rebranding strategy in this context will entail tailoring your messaging, visuals and tone to connect with specific age groups.
Established in 1870 with a rich history spanning over 150 years, the mattress manufacturing brand, Serta Simmons Bedding struggled to connect with millennial and Gen-Z consumers.
Simmons recently underwent a complete brand makeover to better connect with younger audiences and keep up with the competition from direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands like Casper and Purple.
In 2020, the company worked with the agency Burns Group to develop a new brand identity called “Just For Fun-ZZZ” with fun and energetic visual elements, including logo and colors. In addition, Simons launched a new DTC website with an e-commerce storefront and revamped its product design, pricing, social content and digital advertising.
But that's not all. Simmons also kicked off a TikTok social media campaign to win over the hearts of young consumers.
Rebranding isn’t only about making visual changes; it can also involve improving the overall customer experience.
Gathering feedback and insights from customers never goes out of style. It helps you understand how customers perceive your brand, what they expect and how they prefer to have it. These insights help you align rebranding efforts with your audience's needs and expectations.
When you show customers that you care about their opinions, they'll trust you more and become your loyal fans.
Domino Pizza is a noteworthy example of how to listen to your customers during the rebranding process.
In 2009, the company was struggling with declining sales and a negative image of its pizza quality. They decided to launch a comprehensive rebranding strategy that included changing their pizza recipe, logo and branding message. Their strategy was simple: they admitted their mistakes, listened to the customer’s complaints and made improvements.
In December of 2009, Domino released a video called The Pizza Turnaround with screenshots of customers criticizing their pizza on social media and video clips of feedback from an actual focus group. The company’s new CEO, Patrick Doyle, responded to the criticism and promised to improve the product.
The company also launched a new pizza recipe and invested in new ingredients, new equipment and training for employees.
Improving the product was just the beginning. In 2012, Domino got rid of the “Pizza” in its logo and branding message to cater to its expanded offerings as well as emphasize its commitment to quality and transparency. The new pizza recipe received positive reviews and the company’s reputation improved drastically.
No matter the size of your company, your reputation can take a hit—either from internal or external factors.
Rebranding can be a strategic move to improve or repair a company's reputation or boost your brand equity. It can distance your brand from negative associations, reshape public perception and demonstrate that you have evolved.
In our previous example, we saw how Domino created a series of rebranding campaigns to reshape how it is perceived in the market and create a more positive image.
Here’s another example that involved an acquisition after a bad turn of events.
ValuJet acquired and rebranded to AirTran, primarily as a response to a tragic incident and in an effort to distance itself from the negative publicity and safety concerns associated with that event.
In 1996, ValuJet Flight 592 crashed into the Florida Everglades, resulting in the loss of all 110 lives on board. The crash was attributed to the improper handling and packaging of hazardous materials in the cargo hold, leading to a fire. The incident raised serious safety concerns about ValuJet and the airline's reputation suffered a significant blow.
After a safety review by the Federal Aviation Administration and an indefinite grounding, ValuJet’s fortunes changed in a short period of time. To rebuild trust and overcome the negative perceptions associated with the crash, ValuJet undertook a rebranding strategy.
In 1997, ValuJet acquired AirTran Airways, a smaller airline with a better safety record. The new entity adopted the name AirTran, which was a fresh start for the airline.
Following Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in 2023, the platform has undergone incremental branding efforts. The new visual identity is a significant shift from its previous branding.
The platform is now called X, and accompanied by a logo change. Twitter's iconic blue bird is replaced with the X logo and features a simple black and white design that aligns with Elon Musk's vision.
On the face of it, this may seem like a simple makeover. But the move falls in line with Musk's bigger plan to transform the platform into an “everything app” for all business and financial needs, including banking, digital purchases, checking, credit cards, investments and loans.
The rebranding was received positively by many users. However, some critics argue that the rebranding was too drastic and didn't reflect the platform's core values. Overall, the success of Twitter's rebranding remains to be seen, as it is still relatively new.
Nokia was once the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer but failed to keep up with the rapidly evolving smartphone market. However, the company sold its mobile and devices division to Microsoft in 2014. It was later bought by another entity: HMD Global.
Since then, Nokia has focused on providing network equipment and services to telecommunications companies. As part of its rebranding effort to modernize its image and better align its branding with its current business strategy and goals, Nokia revealed its new brand identity in February of 2023.
The company has introduced a new logo, updated its visual identity and shifted its messaging to emphasize the change in operating model and its expertise in technology and digital transformation.
According to Lundmark, “Our new visual identity captures Nokia as we are today, with renewed energy and commitment as pioneers of digital transformation. We built on the heritage of the previous logo, but made it feel more contemporary and digital to reflect our current identity.”
It is important to note that this rebranding effort does not affect the use of the original logo on mobile phones.
Mailchimp started as an email marketing platform but has since evolved into an all-in-one marketing platform for small businesses. In 2018, the company announced it had built a new brand identity to reflect its expanded range of services.
Mailchimp refreshed its logo, colors, wordmark, typeface and imagery, such as photography and illustrations. They selected Cavendish as their new color and used Means, a custom drawn typeface with a bold word mark. They also tweaked the Freddie icon to make it look great at any size.
In a blog post, it was revealed that the name originally came about as a playful metaphor: a chimp that delivers your mail. The company has since evolved from "MailChimp" to "Mailchimp" with a lowercase "c."
Intuit acquired Mailchimp in 2021 and has since rebranded its name and logo to Intuit Mailchimp.
When rebranding your company, you’ll need to create or update a wide range of materials. Visme offers an extensive library of templates to help you maintain a consistent look and feel across various brand elements.
The best part is that you’ll have access to a myriad of intuitive features and tools to make the entire process a walk in the park.
Creative briefs serve as a roadmap that help to ensure rebranding efforts are aligned with your company's vision, mission and values. Whether you’re looking to revamp your brand's overall look and feel or your client's, this template will increase your chances of success.
It highlights the goals of the project, public perception, needs, timeline and changes you wish to see—likes and dislikes, look and feel, tone or image.
Feel free to use the template as is or make visual adjustments as you deem fit.
Creating a one page logo design brief is a great way to communicate your branding goals and preferences to a designer or design team. This template distills your vision and requirements down to their most essential elements. It concisely captures your company name, overview, contact details, target audience, primary and secondary color palette and design style.
Give your company’s brand image a new look with this trendy logo template design. The prominent icon or symbol takes center stage, commanding attention with its sleek and contemporary design. It also has a vibrant blue and cool white color palette that not only enhances its modern appeal but also infuses it with energy and dynamism.
Together, these elements create a cohesive and effective logo design that represents the brand in a unique and memorable way.
Infuse your brand personality and add flair with icons and images from our stock photo library.
Choose from our terrific range of diverse fonts to add visual interest and personality to your logo. Experiment with different styles and sizes to find the perfect combination that speaks to your message and audience.
This is just one of the many logo templates you’ll find in the Visme library.
Logo Templates
Create beautiful logos online quickly and easily by getting started with one of Visme’s premade templates. Impress your audience with beautiful brand logos. Find a free logo template that you can easily customize for your own brand.
Choose any of the templates below, and fully customize them with your business name and an industry icon or illustration so you’ll have the perfect logo for your rebranding project.
Download your logo on a transparent background and save it to your Visme brand kit for all your other marketing materials, presentations, infographics and more.
Provide direction on your brand's visual and messaging elements with Visme’s brand guidelines template.
This gorgeous brand guidelines template comes with a stunning design layout featuring Visme’s high-res images, fonts and icons. The template also includes pre-designed pages for the brand mission, logos and variations, typography and colors — everything you need in a well-rounded style guide template.
For brands that need rebranding, this is perfect for laying out all of the elements involved in the transition.
Easily insert your information, upload your logos and graphics and apply color schemes with one click.
If you’re looking to communicate modifications to your brand guidelines with top executives and stakeholders, this template is the perfect pick. It conveys your brand's mission, vision, style and personality in a streamlined format.
By incorporating elements such as logo placements, color schemes, typography and images, you can ensure that all your business communications align with your brand's ethos.
And if you need unique visuals for your presentation, tap into our AI image generator to create one quickly. Just input your prompt, and select your preferred style, then watch as the tool produces incredible results.
Get the edge you need to engage clients using this beautiful branding proposal template.
With this template, you can outline the proposed strategy for developing a new brand or rebranding an existing one. It includes an overview of the company, your services, customer testimonials, happy clients, branding proposal and budget. The template’s design features accent colors and visual elements that capture the essence of the project.
Mockups are powerful tools for rebranding products. Use this modern mockup template to visualize what your new product, website or app design and brand identity will look like in the real world.
You can use them to test and refine your new brand elements, such as your logo, color scheme, typography and packaging design, before you fully commit to them. Share this mockup design with stakeholders and customers and get their feedback before finalizing your design.
With our intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you can easily upload your own visuals and place them on the mockup design. If they need editing, you can use Visme’s AI Touch Up tool to edit, touch up, unblur and upscale with a single click.
In Visme’s template library, you’ll find an extensive library of mockup templates for various branding materials, including business cards, brochures, social media graphics and more.
Here’s another business card mockup example you can use for your next rebranding project.
Rebranding a company can be challenging, but with the right tools and strategy, it can also be an exciting opportunity to refresh and revitalize your brand. Visme offers a powerful design platform to help you create stunning visuals and cohesive branding materials for rebranding efforts.
The registration process is simple. Just input your details and click on Create an Account. There's also a Facebook and Google sign up option. If you have an existing account, just log in with your account and you'll be redirected to the Visme dashboard.
One of the most critical steps during rebranding is defining your new brand identity and messaging. This includes your brand values, mission statement and target audience.
Once you clearly understand your new brand, you can use Visme to create a new logo, color scheme and typography that reflect your brand's personality and values. Start by setting up your brand area. This empowers your team to keep your designs on brand. It also saves time as team members don’t have to select design assets manually during design.
Head over to the left pane of the dashboard and click on My Brand. Under the Brand Assets, upload your logo and font or search within Visme’s library for thousands of fonts. Then, establish your color palette and name them accordingly.
Alternatively, you can set up your brand area with the help of our AI-powered Brand Wizard. Just input your URL and the tool will scrape your website and automatically populate your brand area with your logo, fonts and colors. The tool will also recommend beautifully branded templates that align with your brand vision.
Under the brand area, you can also set up custom theme colors and fonts. This allows you to change color themes on your templates with the click of a button.
Under the template section, you can search and save ready-to-use template designs for your team. In the Brand Links section, you can set up default links to your company’s website, email address and social media channels.
Now that you have established a new brand identity, you’ll need to completely overhaul all of your visual marketing materials. You can use Visme to create a range of branded marketing materials to boost your exposure and amplify your reach, including social media graphics, website banners and graphics, business cards and more.
Besides the templates we’ve shared in this post, Visme has an extensive library of templates spanning several categories: presentations, infographics, documents, charts and graphs, web and social media graphics, printables, brochures and press releases for your rebranding announcements.
Make your branded materials engaging and drive interest with interactive features such as pop-ups, hover effects, cool transitions and animated graphics.
Keep in mind that you’ll need to accompany changes in branding with messaging and content that resonate with your customers and capture the interest of new ones. Use Visme’s AI text generator to whip up unique content or use it to refine your current messaging.
Rebranding involves making major changes to your company's visual identity, messaging and positioning. It’s an activity that can make or break your business.
So, to ensure everyone is on the same page with the new brand direction, it's essential to include team members from different departments, such as marketing, design and sales.
Collaboration can happen in various forms. And Visme has different tools to help manage the entire process.
Tap into the power of Visme’s infinite online whiteboard for brainstorming, review and feedback sessions.
With our design collaboration feature, team members can tag each other, leave feedback on designs, draw annotations, reply to comments and resolve comments.
For example, your design team can collaborate with the marketing team to ensure the new logo and visual identity align with the company's messaging and target audience. The sales team can provide valuable insights into how customers will perceive the new brand and how it will affect their sales process.
When working with multiple teams, effectively manage the rebranding project using our workflow management tool. Think of it as a project management tool that helps you assign tasks to team members, set up an approval process, set deadlines and track progress, deadlines and corrections in one place.
The beauty of using these tools is that you can complete the rebranding process in no time—without back-and-forth emails or Slack messages.
In addition to collaborating with internal team members, it's also important to involve external stakeholders—such as customers and partners—in the rebranding process. This helps your company gain valuable insights into public perception of the new identity and make necessary adjustments to ensure its success.
Launch a beta version of your website or products with your new identity and gather insights from stakeholders and customers using our interactive online feedback form builder.
Start with one of our feedback form templates and customize it to match your brand using our stunning design assets and 3D characters. Share the feedback form as a link or embed it on your website to collect feedback in no time!
Once you’re sold on the outcome of your rebranding project, you can publish and share your brand materials in different formats, including JPG, PNG, GIF, PDF, PTX or HTML5 files.
If you added audio, animations and interactivity to your presentation, we recommend sharing it as an online link or downloading it as embeddable HTML5. These formats will preserve animations and interactive effects.
With our analytics tool, you can easily track how many people have viewed your branded document or project, what sections they spend more time on, and how much time they spend on it.
Rebranding can be a powerful game plan to refresh a company's image, attract new customers and increase brand recognition.
As you can see in the examples we’ve shared, it’s also a brilliant strategy to differentiate your brand, highlight its uniqueness and improve its reputation.
To pull off a successful rebranding exercise, you need a tool that streamlines the entire process.
Whether you’re updating your entire visual identity, doing a name change, a package redesign or all three, Visme has everything you need, including an easy-to-use editor, an extensive library of design assets and templates, brand design, AI-powered tools, animations and interactivity, collaboration and workflow management tools.
Beyond being an all-in-one design tool, it saves you time and money by eliminating the need to hire a professional designer.
Ready to revamp your brand? Sign up for Visme to create engaging visual content and give your brand a fresh, exciting makeover.
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