As a strategic marketing agency, clients often ask us for advice on changing names. So we've rounded up a few pointers and a three-step guide that might help you out.

When you see your brand name all day, every day, it’s often easy to believe that it's getting stale and that it’s time for a change.

For the most part, you may find your organisation moving towards an entirely new direction than originally anticipated, which requires a brand name change.

Though most are equally great opportunities and the thought of coming up with a brand new name is exciting, a lot of companies don’t fully realise that they may also need to give up everything else that comes with the old name such as brand equity.

When changing names, companies tend to focus only on the upside, and forget to take into account what they could lose or fail to quantify the value of what they are giving up.

If you're considering a name change, we recommend you step through these three questions first:

1. How real is the problem?
2. What is the risk of disruption?
3. What factors would mitigate or amplify a name change?

Here’s a look at the Step Change 'Three-Step Guide to Renaming'. Download it here. 

3-Step Guide to Renaming

Step 1 - Path Analysis: How Real is the Problem?

The first step is all about analysing the problem. Recap all the issues, how long they’ve been ongoing, and the frequency of them happening. Validate and quantify the data as well as the cause. Can you fix these problems with a name change?

Step 2 - Risk of Disruption

The second step entails understanding all the potential risks for disruption. What are the worse-case scenarios over the next 12 months? How much revenue will be at risk? And what is the risk of your competition moving in and owning your current position?

Step 3 - Mitigation or Amplification Factors

The third step requires going into the factors that could amplify or mitigate a name change. How do you intend to educate your prospects? Do you have a memorable brand that stands out? How long do you plan to run the name-change campaign? Are there any other additional costs for re-educating your audience?

If you’d like to know more about how you can best rename your brand, give us a call and we’d be happy to talk it through with you.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in October 24,2014. This has been republished with new data.