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5 ways VoC data can help you stand out (and stay ahead) in SaaS
Learn practical ways to use VoC data to help your SaaS brand stand out, sharpen your competitive edge and drive steady growth.
Articles
March 31, 2025
6 min read
When to rebrand: How to tell if your visual brand needs a refresh
Five signals it might be time for a rebrand
1. Your brand looks outdated
If your visuals are outdated or your design feels stale, it’s time for a brand refresh. A website with dated elements can make your brand seem less credible.
This is called the halo effect — when a few specific traits impact a prospect’s overall impression. A negative halo effect has a major impact on credibility, conversions, and even how much investors are willing to bet on your software, which makes branding a critical business decision.
This is especially true if a competitor has undergone a rebrand and now looks more polished, modern, and professional. Even if nothing about your brand changed (or, rather, precisely because nothing changed) your SaaS company now seems like the lesser choice by comparison. As your industry evolves, you don’t want to be the one playing catchup.
2. Your brand doesn’t align with your vision
A disjointed brand experience can leave prospects confused about your value. Your typography choices, brandmark, color palette, illustration style, and every other brand element needs to align with your overall vision for your SaaS company.
For example, if you’re the head of an industry-leading GenAI company, what typography do you choose for your website and logo? Serif typefaces (used by Rolex, Mercedes-Benz, Coach) are classic and timeless, whereas sans serif (used by Google, Jeep, Spotify) adds rounded edges to balance longevity with approachability. This small decision has a big impact on brand perception.
If you’re imagining a GenAI platform built for everyone, you might err more toward sans serif, whereas if you’re creating a premium or exclusive app, you might lean into serif (though these are just two of many, many choices and maybe neither is right for your company).
Just be cautious about improving parts of your brand without elevating the fulsome user experience. For example, if your website looks cutting-edge but your actual platform UI looks like a glorified Excel spreadsheet, users are going to be in for a jarring surprise during the demo. Consistency across touchpoints is essential for reassuring users and building trust.
3. You’re undergoing a merger or acquisition
A brand refresh often accompanies mergers and acquisitions. Your capabilities are expanding, and your website needs to reflect that. A rebrand can help clarify the new direction, present your combined strengths as part of a unified whole, and reassure stakeholders.
Without a rebrand, M&A can create uncertainty about who you are and what you offer. Customers may struggle to understand the full scope of your new capabilities, and prospects might assume you’re still operating as separate entities.
For enterprise companies, brand clarity isn’t optional — it’s essential for maintaining trust, credibility, and market position. A strategic rebrand ensures that you present a single, cohesive brand narrative to both customers and investors.
4. Your brand isn’t accessible
If your brand isn’t accessible, you’re opening yourself up to unnecessary risk. Some countries mandate specific accessibility standards — for example, in the U.S. and Canada, WCAG Level AA accessibility is the technical standard for federal, public, private, and non-profit organizations.
Decisions at the brand level, such as color palettes, typography, and contrast ratios, impact accessibility across every touchpoint, from your website to your product UI. For example, a poorly chosen color scheme — like teal text on a white background — can create readability issues. Ensuring your brand is accessible expands your reach, improves user experience, and reinforces your reputation as a company that values inclusivity and usability.
5. Your brand isn’t responsive
Responsive branding refers to your brand’s ability to adapt across different platforms, screen sizes, and mediums while maintaining its core identity. Responsive branding encompasses multiple elements, including flexible logo variations, adaptable typography, color schemes that work in different environments, and ensures readability and usability across all platforms.
For example, there are multiple logo variations that serve different purposes, such as:
- Primary – The full version of your logo, often horizontal (especially in SaaS), used in most brand applications (everything from your website to company t-shirts).
- Secondary – A simplified or alternate version of your primary logo, used when space or design constraints require flexibility.
- Stacked – A vertically arranged version of your logo that’s useful when the horizontal layout doesn’t fit well.
- Submarked – A minimalistic, often symbol-based version of the logo, used for watermarks, footers, or brand marks that don’t overwhelm UI.
- Favicon – A tiny icon, typically 16x16 pixels, used in browser tabs, app icons, or other small-scale brand placements.
Obviously, your logo is just one expression of your brand, but it’s a good litmus test for how responsive your brand truly is — and if it’s time for a brand refresh.
How to adjust for market expectations
Even if none of the above is true and your brand is technically sound, you might still need a brand refresh depending on your market. Customers come preloaded with expectations shaped by industry trends and competitors. Adjusting to market expectations requires you to:
- Know when to stand out vs. when to fit in – If every competitor in your space has a clean, minimal design, then going overly bold might feel jarring. But if they all look the same, strategic differentiation in color, messaging, or visuals can help you stand out. We experienced this firsthand during SeisWare’s website redesign — their personable and people-focused approach is an anomaly in the geoscience software space. Surfacing that side of their personality was a huge differentiator for their brand.
- Use brand signals your audience understands – Sometimes, your industry will dictate certain things about your brand that you have no control over. For example, cybersecurity and fintech companies are expected to have more conservative branding communicating strength, security, and reliability, whereas AI and marketing tech often reward bold or disruptive visuals. You need to know industry conventions before strategically deciding where and why to break them.
- Audit competitors regularly – If the big players in your space recently underwent a brand refresh and you haven’t, your brand may feel outdated by comparison — even if it worked for years. Keep tabs on changing trends but avoid knee-jerk reactions. It isn’t necessary to rebrand every time your competitors do but it’s good to know how the market is moving.
Worried that your brand might be holding you back?
If you suspect your brand is underperforming, don’t guess — assess. Here’s the step-by-step approach we recommend for proactively assessing when to rebrand:
- Conduct a brand audit – Critically examine your brand’s positioning, visuals, and messaging. Does it align with your growth goals? Does it align with customer feedback? How does it stack up against competitors? Even if you can’t fully articulate why something feels off, trust your instinct — if you’re feeling it, others probably are too.
- Gather external feedback – Talk to your customers, prospects, and peers to see if your perceptions align with theirs. If you know what you want to test (e.g., brand visuals or messaging) you can even gather comprehensive Voice of the Customer data from a lookalike audience that matches your ICP.
- Partner with a brand expert – A strong B2B SaaS digital marketing agency can help you diagnose issues, create a roadmap for improvement, and execute the changes. A good agency will justify every proposed change and back it up with data and best practices. This is an investment but it’s one that’s been proven to pay off time and time again.
Remember — your brand impacts your credibility, differentiation, and ability to scale in a competitive market. The brands that win make a strong first impression and keep that trust alive by showing up consistently across every touchpoint.
