Every company that wants to reach a new level sooner or later has to rebrand. This procedure is useful not only for beginners, but also for experienced business sharks. It is a time-consuming and versatile strategy to keep your brand relevant. In this article, you will learn what rebranding is, its types, when and why it is used.
Rebranding. What is it?
Rebranding is an attempt to increase consumer interest. This is a set of specific actions aimed at changing and improving the brand. With its help, you can maintain a leading position in the market and "modernize" the positioning of the goods. Some people confuse rebranding with restyling, where only the graphic component of the brand is transformed. In fact, restyling can be part of a rebranding program.
Brand renewal can be major or partial. Major rebranding - a complete transformation of the company and a change in its assortment. It can be difficult to recognize companies that once decided on a major rebranding. In this case, there is a change in the name, design, logo, restructuring of the site, rejection of certain products and services, product improvement, etc. Partial rebranding implies a change in a specific part of the brand. This could be a change in style or product range.
When should you rebrand?
It is important to regularly monitor consumer preferences and respond to them in time. You also need to analyze changes in the market and competitors. If you do not do this, it is unlikely that you will be able to achieve great success.
Rebranding is carried out in the following cases:
- The brand has ceased to achieve previously set goals. If so, it's time to urgently change something.
- The emergence of serious competitors on the market. To be in demand in the market, you need to analyze the most important competitors and how you can differentiate from them. In this case, a development strategy should be developed so as not to lose old buyers and attract new ones.
- Changing the needs of your target audience. The tastes and preferences of potential customers can change for a variety of reasons. If customers have lost interest in products that previously sold well, then rebranding is urgently needed.
- News feed. If you need to remind consumers of yourself and bring back the old popularity back, you can rebrand.
- The company changes or expands its activities. In this case, you simply cannot do without the rebranding procedure, because new and regular customers may not understand in which direction you started to move. Successful companies that value and care for their customers make changes quite often.
- Significant deterioration in the company's reputation.
- Entering foreign markets.
- Initially incorrect brand building.
- Change of target audience.
- Legal reasons.
Rebranding. Its objectives and goals
Rebranding allows you to increase the growth of your target audience and make your brand unique. The main goal of rebranding is to make the brand work more efficiently. Rebranding is useful when you need:
- scale up the business;
- increase profits;
- make the image of a company or brand more modern, recognizable and unique;
- get closer to customers;
- highlight the advantages of the product, promote its competitiveness;
- attract new customers and interest old ones.
A brand is a holistic image that should evoke certain associations and be understandable for customers. It is the image of a company that is sold thanks to the trust of its customers. Even if the number of sales suits you, you shouldn't stop growing. New competitors do not stop appearing on the market, and if you do not keep up with the times, sooner or later they will move you. Take the rebranding procedure seriously and trust the professionals.
How is the rebranding procedure carried out?
First you need to do a SWOT or brand analysis. If this procedure is really required, follow these steps:
- Analysis of the target audience and research of the modern market. First of all, you need to study the current customer base and competitors. An analysis of regular customers will make it clear why customers choose you, what turns them off, their demographic characteristics. Analysis of competitors will allow you to understand what to pay attention to, what mistakes you should not make. With the help of a competent audit, it will be possible to find out what type of rebranding is necessary for your particular company.
- Developing an effective strategy. Once you've got all the data you need, start building your rebranding plan. It should indicate the timing, planned budgets, stages of changes.
- Renewal of brand components. At this stage, the company's external appearance is transformed.
- Interaction of the updated brand with the target audience. At the very end, you need to bring the rebranding results to life, familiarize consumers with the updated brand, and attract their attention. It is important that products with new and old designs are not on the shelf together. This can confuse buyers.
Don't rebrand at random. Rushing or ignoring some stage of rebranding often leads to undesirable results.
What mistakes should be avoided
If you do not want to ruin your business, waste money and time in vain, trust the rebranding to experienced specialists. For rebranding to be effective, avoid the following mistakes:
- Lack of in-depth analysis of the brand and the competitive environment. It is necessary to clearly find out what tasks need to be solved, to understand the strengths and weaknesses of competitors. This will preserve the company's image and not waste money.
- Incorrect goal setting. Your company needs to clearly define what it should focus on.
- Incorrectly implemented brand. No company will be able to successfully develop if a brand implementation program has not been properly worked out beforehand.
- Irresponsible marketing research. Even the best professionals cannot predict exactly how consumers will perceive the renewed brand. Testing can be done to avoid many mistakes. This will allow you to understand the reaction of the audience.
- Lack of interaction with employees. If changes are planned, each employee of the company needs to be informed.
Rebranding examples
Not all companies succeed in rebranding. It is best to learn from examples, so look at good and bad examples of rebranding and draw conclusions for yourself.
- It's about the Old Spice brand. At first, Old Spice produced deodorants for women, but after a certain amount of time, there was a change in focus. The brand's fragrances were associated with older people, so young people rarely bought the brand's products. The company realized that it was time to change something and developed an effective marketing strategy. She managed to boost sales without changing the flavor of the product. Only one video was shot with the brutal tanned actor Isaiah Mustafa. The video reached the audience, resulting in an increase in the number of sales.
- The Pepsi brand has a completely different story. The brand spent $ 1,000,000 on a logo redesign that ultimately failed. This amount was not enough to buy the success of the consumer. The logo itself has hardly changed. The slope of the typeface and the shape of the gap between "blue and red" have been slightly changed. Apparently marketers were expecting a positive reaction from the audience. The updated logo was more reminiscent of the prototype of an overweight person.
- Kraft once made a gross mistake while rebranding. She updated the logo and made it bulky. You must admit that logos with an overloaded design do not reach the audience, are difficult to perceive and rarely remembered. The old logo was recognizable and had a simpler design.
- Previously, most consumers associated McDonald's with obesity. Although some have not changed their opinion about this corporation. Once the McDonald's company rebranded. This fast food chain added fruits, salads to the menu, and also began to indicate the BJU composition of dishes. As a result, sales have increased.
Output
In order to be in demand in the market and have a large number of customers, sometimes you have to resort to a rebranding procedure. This is a rather laborious and demanding job. With the help of rebranding, you can find a way to the pinnacle of success, increase the interest of regular customers and attract the attention of new potential customers. If you correctly approach the rebranding, the result will definitely please, but even professionals are not immune from mistakes.
