Complete your Accounting Firm Rebrand the Right Way
Five elements you must define during your rebrand process
Like a building well-constructed house, pulling off a successful accounting firm rebrand takes time, energy, and a willingness to do things the right way without cutting corners. The rebrand must lay the solid brand foundation so the brand can stand strong long into the future. Below are the ingredients for that strong foundation.
How do you Find Your Accounting Firm's Authentic Brand?
The Brand Identity Discovery Process
The ideal process begins with a brand workshop, where a brand consultant works with the leadership to uncover the organization's purpose and values. While a universal step-by-step guide is impossible due to organizational differences, there are five key stages in discovering and expressing your brand's authentic identity.
Discover your why
Your why determines your purpose
Your purpose defines your values
Your values create your vision
Your vision sets your goals
1. Discover Your Why
The deepest reason your firm exists
Your firm's brand starts with why. It's the reason you exist. It's where your identity — including values, personality, and overall story — finds its roots. Your firm grasp on your reason for existing fuels your firm's branding process. Not only that, it brings your team and your customers together. Keep asking why until you figure out what your firm wants to bring about in this world.
2. Determine Your Purpose
The difference you're trying to achieve in the world
Like a basketball team fighting through a tough season, your accounting firm needs a common driving force. Individual motives alone aren't enough. Your firm's shared desire to achieve your unique definition of winning is what fuels cohesion. Purpose derives from your team's fundamental beliefs and aspirations, representing the tangible way you solve problems in the world. Identifying and aligning with your purpose allows your firm to thrive in good times and bad.
3. Define Your Values
The beliefs your firm won't compromise
Values are the core beliefs that your accounting firm can't live without. They guide ethical decisions, shape the firm's character, and establish boundaries. Identify distinctive values aligned with your purpose. When defining values, consider all of your stakeholders (not just team members and clients) and what sets you apart in your industry. Authentic and unique values inspire your team, earn customer respect, and permeate all of your operations.
4. Create Your Vision
The impact you hope to have over time
Your firm's leadership is responsible for the vision of your accounting firm. The vision goes beyond plans and hopes, painting a picture of a fulfilled purpose and upheld values. Imagine the world when your firm achieves its purpose and lives out its values. A strong vision is bigger than company size, awards, or profit. It inspires and makes success seem achievable. Think long-term and then set goals to bring your vision to life.
5. Set Your Goals
The concrete steps to achieve your purpose
Clarity of action starts with goals. Well-defined goals show you where you want to be. That, combined with know where you are today, helps you see the distance you need to travel and the arrangements you have to make. Goals should come from your why, your ultimate vision, and your values.
Next Step: Fine-Tune Your Firm's Brand
Your rebrand translates the above into actionable steps
Uncovering your firm's authentic brand involves exploring its purpose, values, vision, and goals. But translating these elements into actionable steps or marketing decisions takes experience. To define your brand to be unique and useful, fine-tuning is necessary. Fine-tuning your brand provides additional tools to refine, enhance, and ready your brand for the real world.
Rebrand Resources for Accounting Firms
Masterclass
The Remarkabrand Masterclass
for Accounting Firm Marketers
The Remarkabrand Masterclass for Accounting Firms helps you refine what your accounting firm believes, how it speaks, and what it says.
2023 Remarkabrand Index for Accounting Firms
The most comprehensive analysis of accounting firm brands ever conducted. With insights from nearly 1,500 U.S. accounting firm brands across 40 data points, the Index can help accounting firms in the rebrand process know how to differentiate in the crowded accounting marketplace.
Our Book on Branding
Our book, You Are Remarkable, helps accounting firms unlock their authentic, genuine, real brand identities and express them effectively to your clients to fuel long-term firm growth.
Need Help Rebranding?
Use our deep knowledge of the branding in the accounting industry to make your rebrand a success
We're here to help and we love working with accounting firms on this stuff. In fact, we've been helping accounting firms with unlock their authentic brands for nearly a decade. Check out some of our work below or start the conversation now with Mike.
Accounting Firms We've Helped
Awards We've Won (For Us and Our Clients)
“They didn’t just give us a pretty logo, they really looked inside our firm to understand our clients, our team, and our reputation in the community. Working with Resound on the firm rebrand was a great experience. They made the whole process (from brand audit to launch) run very smoothly. Their team is creative and professional. I am very excited with the final product we received from Resound.”
Jaimi Koechel, Principal at Henry+Horne