Rebranding is an essential task that all successful businesses must confront at some time. On average, a brand will have a 7-year cycle before it needs to be updated. Real rebranding is about more than changing your logo or updating your social media profile, it is about market analysis, audience awareness and values assessment.
Before the rebranding, much research is required. You need to understand why you need to rebrand, who your target audience is and how to compete in your market. Your accounts, sales, marketing, manufacturing and distribution, as well as customer service departments all need to contribute to your repositioning strategy if it is to be effective.
So what are the rules of rebranding?
There are three simple things that you need to keep in mind when rebranding that can help you achieve optimal results.
Rule #1. Discovery
Discovery is the initial phase of any effective brand repositioning. You need to ensure that you have defined the difference between product (features and cost) and the brand (purpose and promise). Without a clear understanding of how the two are different, your message can become unclear. This is a particular pitfall for B2B brands that often fail to distinguish between the two clearly.
You can discover your identity by asking questions such as:
- What is your unique value proposition?
- What motivates your sales?
- Which pain points do you solve?
- How are you different from your competitors?
- Who is your target audience? Is there an untapped market?
- Has your customer persona changed?
Asking these and other questions can help you discover the qualities that set your business apart.
You also need to identify:
- Your core purpose.
- Define your mission.
- Your vision.
- Your values and brand promise.
These are the essential pillars of your brand that form the basis for all your marketing. During a rebranding, you might update your vision and mission, but your UVP should remain the same. Some of the most enduring brands have never changed their core proposition, such as Chanel that promises to deliver classic elegance, or Nike, which offers accessibility among its 4 core values.
“In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.” – Coco Chanel
Rule #2. Creation
If your products or services do not meet with your value proposition, vision and promise, your rebranding is not going to be successful.
Your research and development team need to assess the quality of your product/s, analyse feedback, develop solutions and ensure that what you offer meets with the high standards you have set.
Depending on what your product (or service) is, creation is a good time to consider reinventing your goods and services. For example, if you operate in B2B logistics and have the opportunity to release a major overhaul of your operations, rebranding is a great opportunity to retrain customer service teams to deliver to the next level that your competitors do not.
Rule #3. Communication
After the discovery and creation phases, your marketing team should be ready to develop communications. This is the creative part of the process that sees your marketing team working closely with creative teams to launch a unified message.
This is the final phase of your brand repositioning. Once you have identified who you are and what you have to offer your customers, it is time to reintroduce yourself to your customers and help them become familiar with your new image.
As you roll out a new product line or service or make significant adjustments to your business structure, it is a good time to launch your new image so that customers can see you are working with a plan and that you want them to be part of those changes.
- Your content strategy should be carefully planned to meet the expectations of your brand vision.
- You should develop a clear style guide.
- You should have a comprehensive omnichannel marketing strategy.
- Your business should be reaching those who were identified in the discovery phase using the strategies that are proven to best target that audience.
Repositioning is essential for all businesses at some point. If you do not update your brand and image, you fail to grow and connect with your target audience. Your customer persona will change as your business changes, so it is important that you regularly assess your competition, market, values and mission to reach potential leads.
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