Why Rebrand? The Essentials.
When you hear the word branding, it is possible that you are thinking of a rancher holding a red hot metal rod bearing his mark ready to stamp his initials on the hide of a cattle. Well, things are not any different in the business world. Branding is all about making your business unique and giving it an identity that consumers can recognise anytime, anywhere.
Let us dive into the murky waters of rebranding. Murky because most people get lost somewhere in the middle of rebranding, while some simply totally fail to understand the reasons behind rebranding. In simple terms rebranding refers to the change of a brand for a number of reasons (which we will look at below). The changes can be in the business’ name, logo, slogan, communications strategy, collateral materials and anything that currently identifies the business.
You will either be rebranding your entire business or your products and services to serve a certain purpose. Regardless of what you are rebranding, the process will fall into proactive or reactive category. Before you start ‘Googling’ these terms let us have a look at what they mean and how they affect your rebranding campaign.
Rebranding Proactively
Proactive rebranding is the kind of changes that you will need to make because of what you expect. Most growing businesses must go through this phase as a result of miscalculations during the initial branding but some of the changes are unexpected and therefore there is nothing to worry about during your first branding.
Business Growth
When most business owners are branding a small business, they overlook the fact that their businesses might grow to a level where they are not servicing the small target consumers they initially projected. With success comes expansion and expansion means that you are no longer focusing on the location you started in and your branding might affect your business if it is tied to the location. If you are expanding, then this is one of the main reasons why you should go back and reevaluate all your branding strategies to make sure that they are in line with the new territory you have conquered.
Diversification
Diversification purely lies on the products and services your business deals with. At a given moment, you might want to add or change the products and services your business provides. Rebranding is the process that will assist you into smoothly adding the new products and services. You will need to change a few things to ensure that your brand fits well in the industry you have just entered while keeping the original business line recognisable.
Different Target Market
You can be in a situation where your current target consumers are profitable but you are willing to take the risk and focus on a different target market for expansion purposes. This is where rebranding will come in handy when you are fighting to attract new customers. A good example is where you are selling products to individual consumers and you want to take your business a notch higher by selling to the corporate world. The right rebranding strategy will help you a great deal in winning some important deals that can help you in growing as a business.
Rebranding Reactively
Reactive rebranding is rebranding that is driven by a reaction to changes in the business or in the market. Some of these changes are unavoidable and require strategic and fast rebranding that will save the business and give it a new platform to operate on.
Competition
Competition is one of the main reasons why you branded your business to make it unique and will still be a reason to rebrand. Your direct competitors might make changes in their businesses such that your brand is rendered dated or ineffective. This means that you will need to pull up your business socks and follow the trend. With these changes you need to learn how to swim according to the business tides or your establishment will sink like a stone in water. At this point, you will need to go back to the drawing board and start rebranding the crucial parts of your business that might make you look old school in a negative way. If done properly, you will stay head and shoulder above the cutthroat competition that exists in your line of business.
Management Changes
Changes in the management can come in form of an acquisition or a merger and is part of the most common reasons why you need to rebrand a business. The philosophy of the newly created business might differ from the previous business and this means that you will need to change the brand through a careful rebranding process.
Negative Reputation
Negativity can be the undoing of a business you have spent a lot of time and money to build. The problem with a negative attitude towards a brand is that it is contagious among the consumers and what begins as a small issue can grow into a big elephant that will crash your business if you do not take the necessary steps. The best way to deal with the elephant in the room is to rebrand as quickly as you can before the negative reputation takes you down with it. Changing your name, logo and everything related to the initial brand will help a great deal in giving you a chance to start over again.
What You Need To Do
Well, it would be rude if I gave you all the reasons why it is important to rebrand and not tell you what you need to do to ensure that you are on the right track. Understanding the reasons for rebranding will put you on the road to success but if you just stand there, something will run you over. You simply need to work with a branding team that understands this field and can incorporate all your ideas and your business aspects into a rebranding strategy that will work positively towards moving you to your goals. The team will assess your business model, and look at all the internal and external aspects that influence your operations and come up with a rebranding campaign that will work within a reasonable time frame. You just need to sit, relax as we take the driver’s seat in the rebranding bus; destination–success.
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