Does Your Company Need to Re-brand?
There are three main reasons companies change their brand before they need to. Be on the look out for new hires to a company as they will want to put their mark on the brand and will want to change it even if there is nothing wrong with it. This goes along with “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it” scenario. Brand managers may be impatient waiting for the brand to gain equity, which it will do but over time, and he/she will want to quickly change a working brand to one that may not work as well. This would prove fatal to an already growing business. Then there are companies who tire of the brand and assume the public is tired of it as well. This is not necessarily true, but the company will change their brand anyway, regardless of how well it is doing. If you change your brand too many times because of new hires, a restless manager, or because you’re tired of your brand, then you are more likely to lose business than the companies who stick with their brand and use it repetitively. Familiarity is the way to go and will attract more people as stability builds trust over time.
On the upside there are good reasons to re-brand your company’s image and they are:
1) Market Change – Trends in the market change frequently and if your business is affected by these changes you will need to grow with the market and therefore may need to re-brand to stay effective in your business.
2) Your company has been through a disaster that has left you with a bad image. – Say you start out well-renowned for customer service and you hire a new person who appeared to be customer friendly at the start but later turned out to be an embezzler and your company falls into a slump. Your customers suddenly withdraw their need for your company. In this case, you will need to rethink your business and how you can fix this problem. You will need to fire the employee who stole from you and the other is to re-brand.
Before you re-brand you should make sure everyone in your company understands that re-branding is not the simplicity of changing the graphics logo, or a new ad campaign. Changes may take place in the human resources department as well as in operational procedures. Mindset changes are pertinent and must also take effect. Think about what your business is about, what your customers will need from you in the years to come and then come up with an idea that joins each of these aspects and will work to drive the new brand. After you have done this you will be ready to work on making a new logo.
Make sure you have strong influential leadership at the start of these changes as well as long-term commitment to help grow your new brand. You will need to work out a budget that will provided you with the needed resources and help you find the right time to introduce your brand. You will need to have maintenance in order to embrace satisfactory brand integrity down the road.
Start within the company for your brand change and communications. Then when you feel it is secure and truly believe in your company’s new image, approach your best customers and from there go to your external markets. When you show your new brand you are in a sense, inviting your customers to re-evaluate their opinions. Your new brand will be sketchy at the start.
No matter what resistance you may face because of the changes it is normal. Hold out on the rocky ride and remember that it took time for your first brand to be acknowledged and it will be the same way for your new brand. Re-branding should be a positive venture and as long as you have patience and persistence for research your efforts will pay off after all of your hard work.
If you need more information on re-branding visit: www.rebrand.com.
