If you have the same hairstyle you had back when you went to that Salt N’ Pepa concert, you obviously need a change. Your brand is no different. It needs to keep up with the times and be a current reflection of what you’re all about.

A brand is the emotional and psychological relationship you have with your customers. Your brand’s visuals are communication tools that connect these relationships in the audience’s mind. Refreshing your logo or corporate colors could help to strengthen that relationship by visually enabling your customer to see the key characteristics of your brand. Making these elements work harder to communicate your brand message establishes a visual shorthand for your audience.

Age and appropriateness are easy touch points to assess your brand’s look. If you’re a technology company and your logo is from 1978, or even gives the impression it is, you need a new mark. Of course, you don’t have to be a technology firm to keep up with current design trends. Whether you’re a manufacturer of exterior siding or a purveyor of bottled beverages, it’s a good idea to evaluate your brand’s visuals on a regular basis.

I know what you’re thinking. What about those brands that have remained the same and became icons of industry? Like Coca-Cola or General Electric, even the most revered brands have modified their visuals over time to keep current and contemporary, although their core beliefs and values may have remained the same.

Other benchmarks for brand change could be a new product or service introduction, a merger, a change in leadership or a shift in the business environment. These are all circumstances that may require a brand assessment to make sure you’re keeping up with changes in your company and the world around you.

At the end of the day, it comes down to communication. Do your brand visuals reflect your brand message? Do they reinforce what you do and how you do it – today, not 20 years ago? If the answer is no, maybe or I don’t know, you might want to consider refreshing.