When a brand reaches the end of its shelf life, everything slows down. Sales gradually drop off; inquiries start to become less frequent and even digital traffic suffers. When this happens, it’s time to consider your options. You could close and stop trading altogether or you could spend some time reinventing a brand that will enliven your product and excite your customers. This isn’t something to be taken lightly and it involves more than just rehashing your existing ideas. Here are Probella’s top ten tips on rebranding in 2019.
1. Prepare to Answer Questions
Your customers, suppliers, partners and everybody else who is involved in your business will no doubt have several questions when you break the news that you are planning to rebrand. It makes sense to prepare some answers well in advance, so you don’t create unnecessary problems or pressure for yourself. Try to make your responses as positive as possible, focusing on the potential for growth and how you plan to overcome any challenges that lie ahead. It is also a good idea to avoid making any definite announcements until you have a solid, well researched and costed plan firmly in place.
2. Ask Yourself What You Want to Achieve
Why are you deciding to rebrand? Without a clear set of goals to accomplish, any rebranding exercise becomes nothing more than a minor cosmetic change in the eyes of your customers. Set out clear, specific and measurable targets so that you rebrand looks like a cause for celebration, rather than a half-baked, last minute idea. Be specific with your goals. Are you hoping to attract new customers from different sectors? Do you want to capitalise on some existing elements of your branding to drive sales on certain lines? Whatever your reasons, make sure you have a clear and realistic plan that focuses on growth and measurable success, rather than vague, underdeveloped ideas.
3. Give Your Staff as Much Information as Possible
So many rebranding exercises fail due to a lack of clear internal communication within an organisation. Whether you are a sole trader or a large business with multiple premises, you need to make sure that everybody involved fully understands what the rebrand entails. Set time aside to brief staff members fully on why you are making changes and how you expect this to affect the business in the future. Give them the information they need to answer questions from customers as confidently as possible. If your own answer about an element of the new branding comes across a little vague or fluffy, there’s no way your team will be able to explain this to a layperson. Be clear and specific about the new direction of the brand and don’t be afraid to ask for feedback. Even the most independent and driven company leaders can benefit from a fresh perspective at times.
4. Budget for More Than You Expect to Spend
Call it Murphy’s law or just an inconvenient coincidence but rebranding exercises often cost a lot more than the first budget projections may suggest. Trying to cheap out on design, content or strategy will inevitably harm your brands reputation. Quite simply, quality work costs money. Though spending too much for its own sake doesn’t make any sense, allowing for anomalies and additional costs means that your project won’t be stopped in its tracks before completion.
5. Use Customer Feedback to Guide You
Though customers can’t really advise you on conversion rates and which keywords to use to improve the SEO on your site, they can tell you, in no uncertain terms, what they like and what they don’t. One of the biggest mistakes so many companies make is ignoring customer feedback. It’s easy to become very detached from the real world when you work in marketing, so pay close attention to what real people are saying about your products or services. Engage with them, ask questions and most importantly, let them know you’re happy to have them on board. You may have to filter out a few negative or snarky remarks but reading reviews will help you to understand what you can build on and which areas need to be improved.
6. Don’t Ignore the Competition
Even if your closest rivals present themselves in a totally different way, it’s important to observe how they do business and how they present themselves to customers or clients. Learn as much as you can from them and try to view their brand through the eyes of a customer as well as a marketing professional. Though you might want to take a totally different approach, understanding the conventions and trends within your industry branding is critical if you want to be taken seriously.
7. Check for Cultural Insensitivities
Whatever you think of political correctness, its influence on marketing and branding is still significant in 2019 and this looks set to continue well into the next decade. Avoid any potential embarrassment or hostility by checking that your branding is in keeping with the cultural values of your audience or customer base. Though nobody wants bland branding with no personality, always be mindful of your own cultural position and the inherent biases that come with this. Its surprisingly easy for an innocent mistake or clumsily worded phrase to ruin a whole campaign.
8. If it isn’t broken…
Change can be exciting but it’s also very easy to get carried away with new colour schemes, logos, strap lines and even mission statements. Be realistic and listen to the people around you. If you only need to make a few minor changes to bring your branding up to date, don’t risk ruining what you have by implementing a complete overhaul. Understand that radical change can be extremely difficult for customers to accept, especially if you have been established for a long time. In some cases, after clear analysis of things like customer service quality, delivery times and other practical considerations, many businesses realise that branding may not be their main problem after all. Always be sure that change is necessary before you act.
