Rebranding can be a business owner’s most complicated and risk-prone challenge. You take a company or product that people have come to know, trust and love … and you change it. Risk? Yes. You screw it up and everything you’ve built disappears 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 blogging and home business circles.

The company recently pulled off one of the most difficult 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 process of definition. It’s about finding your essence. It’s about creating your identity.

Consider the following:

• Logos
• Slogans
• Color schemes
• Sources
• Company Name
• Brand promise
• Verbal descriptors of your company
• packaging
• Buildings / interiors

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

Here are some questions to ask yourself to get started:

• What is the emotional need that I satisfy for my clients? (Do not confuse this with your products or services)
• Do the solutions I provide (products and services) live up to the express and implicit 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 “How I want my company to be perceived” and “How I represent my company” consistent?
• Could my business be more profitable if I reevaluate my assumptions about what my clients are looking for?

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