Rebranding can be one of the most complicated and risk-prone challenges for a business owner. You take a company or a product that people have come to know, trust and love… and you change it. Risk? Yes. You screw this up and everything you’ve built is gone and you have to start from scratch.

Ask Wendy Piersall.

Wendy launched eMoms at Home as a hobby. Now, just a few years later, the site is a seven-channel blogging network and a legend in home business and blogging circles.

The company recently pulled off one of the toughest tricks in business: rebranding. The eMoms blogging network is now known as Sparkplugging, so named because the site’s bloggers and readers are “Spark Plugs,” people who make things happen.

Branding is more than logos and slogans. It is a defining process. It is about finding your essence. It’s about creating your identity.

Consider the following:

• logos
• tags
• color schemes
• sources
• Company Name
• promised brand
• Verbal descriptors of your company
• packaging
• buildings/interiors

Each of these is an important part of your brand. But before you get started on logos and taglines, take a look at things like the brand promise. Words and images are symbols. How can you choose the symbols that represent what you stand for if you don’t know what you stand for?

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to get started:

• What is the emotional need I satisfy for my clients? (Do not confuse this with your products or services)
• Do the solutions I offer (products and services) live up to the express and implied promises I make to my clients?
• If my company were a person, how would you describe its character?
• How should I position my business to better attract customers who are most likely to invest in my product or service?
• Are they “How do I want my company to be perceived” and “How do I represent my company”?
• Could my business be more profitable if I re-evaluate my assumptions about what my customers are looking for?

Once you’ve started answering these questions, your copywriters, graphic designers, and other marketing team members will be better equipped to create or redefine your brand.