Tuesday, February 5, 2013

The Importance of Branding & Rebranding {Lifestyle & Wedding Photography} Marin, Napa, Sonoma County Photographer...Shelley Hohe

A few months ago I won a year subscription to SHOWIT an amazing website creation/hosting for photographers to customize their own flash websites.  For this reason I thought it was perfect timing to give my brand a fresh new look without changing too much!  This process I am in inspired me to blog and share the importance of branding & rebranding your business.

Whether you are self employed running a small business or the CEO of a huge corporation, brand recognition is one of the most important aspects of developing top of mind awareness and setting your business apart from others.  Top of mind awareness simply means a brand or specific product coming first in customers minds when thinking of a particular industry.  Branding your business gives you identity and credibility in your industry.

Rebranding your business can be very important as well, not only to give your company a fresh new look but it also sends a message to your audience. It's never a bad idea to improve your brand over time to give it a modern look...it's important to have your brand relatable with your target audience and industry trends.

Another reason why rebranding is important is to define what you want your business to portray.  For example let's say you are a portrait photographer and your target audience are families and children...you would want your brand to reflect this.  As years go by you decide you want to photograph weddings it is then you would want to rebrand your business.  Maybe before your brand was fresh and fun with a pop of color, now you might want your brand to be elegant and sophisticated with softer colors.  There are so many different reasons why you would want to rebrand.  For me, I am that photographer who wants to start shooting weddings and after many years I feel I have finally found my style.  I LOVE shooting in natural light and because of these two reasons I wanted to not only change my brand to be more sophisticated, but I also wanted to lighten up my colors to go with the theme of shooting in natural light.  

Here are a few of my favorite brands that grab my attention...

Of course one of my favorites is my husbands...Doctor Detail
The business card we designed speaks for itself!



SusieCakes Bakery...I just LOVE their branding (anything VINTAGE :)!!
"SusieCakes is an ALL-AMERICAN bakery offering CLASSIC DESSERTS
made entirely from scratch using simple, natural ingredients"



My favorite Candy... Peanut M&M's....Mmmm!
"Melts in your Mouth, not in your hand"



A few businesses/corporations that come to mind when rebranding are...


Disneyland...Our favorite family fun place to go!! 

This is one great example of rebranding to send your target audience a clear message.
In the old branding Disneyland wanted to portray a HAPPY place and they did that  by adding color and the the waving flags.  In the new branding they wanted to let the public know that Disneyland is "Where Dreams Come True"  so they added a light blue color  which to me reflects Cinderella, the clouds which reflect dreams and the castle which is the centerpiece of Disneyland.



Chevron Gas

Here is an example of rebranding to keep up with modern trends.  This rebranding subtle yet effective!


Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope this blog post has been helpful for those of you that are in the midst of branding or rebranding your business.  I would like to thank my husband Robert who helped me with this post today, he has so much knowledge when it comes to branding.  To find out more about his business check out his website Doctor Detail or visit his business page on Facebook.  
Stay tuned  for tomorrows post,  where we will share how to build your brand from scratch.







Lifestyle, Portrait & Wedding Photographer serving Marin, Sonoma & Napa Counties

415.827.9646 ~ www.shelleydeephotography.com
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16 comments:

  1. Great idea to show how others are branding their businesses. I def get a lot of my business ideas by looking at other great companies and how they are marketing themselves

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  2. Excellent blog post, Shelley! This is a process I'm currently working on. Thanks for sharing this information with your audience!

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  3. Brilliant! I think branding is a struggle for many. Thank you for sharing!

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    1. Your welcome Angela. Thanks for your kind words!!

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  4. Thanks for sharing! My designer friend is doing an incredibly affordable branding package and she does amazing work! http://mylittlebuffalo.com/ in case you or anyone else wants to hire someone for this process!

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    1. Thank you Christen. I actually do logo and branding design besides my photography business.

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  5. Great ideas in this post....now can your husband come to Indiana and detail my Jeep?? :-)

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  6. Great post! I need to work on my branding but the cost in branding is unreal. Hopefully soon!

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    1. Katrina if you need any help I would love to help you out. I have done marketing and graphic designing for both my husbands and my business. I also design logos. Our prices are not unreal too :)

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  7. Love the examples! I think you're going to have an awesome brand with the amount of detail you're putting in!

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  8. Congrats on the Showit for a year!!!

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  9. Can't wait to see what you create!

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  10. Rebranding is so much needed in a business, especially when you're running a venture for a long period of time now. Of course, your clients want to see something new with your service or products, so you might as well give them what they want. However, it's important to think the ideas you want to put up carefully. Improving your current brand is better than modifying it to a whole new package. And before you come up with something, consider the response of your target audience first.

    Vernia Soriano @ Onesixtyfourth

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  11. Thanks for tackling the importance of rebranding in business. This kind of strategy is needed if you want your business to stay in the industry and challenge the giants. However, if you're going to rebrand, make sure that you're using the same trademark so that your product would be distinct from the others.

    Clint @Franchisematch.com

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