Fresh & Relevant vs. Familiar & Trusted

Even independent of one another, the issues of building brand recognition and keeping your brand interesting are a constant battle for any business. Then, on top of that, focusing on just one of those two concerns can negatively impact the other. You could update your brand to the point that it is not as recognizable, or you could be so concerned with maintaining an image that your brand stagnates. These two facets do not necessarily need to be at odds with each other, but that can become the case if a business focuses too heavily on one and lets the other go by the wayside.

Fresh & Relevant

It’s no well-kept secret in the business world that consumers enjoy exciting, up-to-date content. You don’t necessarily have to reinvent the wheel every month in terms of your brand (in fact, that could be detrimental). It’s just important to make sure that your content continues to make sense in the context of the current cultural and business landscape, and that your consumers remain invested in your content and/or product.

For example, Americans are becoming more concerned about where their meat is coming from and what the animal was being fed. As a result, a restaurant would do well to either change how they source their meat, or to address this potential concern of their customer base on their website.

Keeping your brand fresh and relevant does not necessarily mean large-scale redesign or expensive gimmicks. It can just mean staying closely dialed into your customer base and what their needs and concerns are. It can mean a small tweak in your UI to make it easier to use. It can mean posting regular content on your website to keep your audience invested and push your business higher in search results.

Familiar & Trusted

It is also worth noting, however, that familiar things about your business can keep your customers invested as well. For example, if you run an Irish-style pub, much of your business probably comes from people who enjoy that aesthetic. In which case, it would likely serve you to continue to emphasize that ambiance, and base your advertising on how classic it is.

Furthermore, brand recognition is hugely important. Customers are often hesitant to take a chance on a business that they don’t know and therefore don’t trust. In fact, according to one global study, about sixty percent of respondents said that they would prefer to buy a new product from a business they are already familiar with.

This supports the idea that freshness and familiarity can coexist in a business—with successful results. Your brand recognition can be a cornerstone on which to create and advertise new product.