There are many reasons to rebrand your company. Perhaps your branding doesn’t match your business’s overall goals. Maybe your branding is old and stale. Perhaps you seem too similar to a competitor. Maybe your reputation needs to be cleaned up. Rebranding can be as simple as adding a new marketing campaign or as complex as renaming your company and coming up with new logos, advertising and materials.
Did you know that as many as 54 percent of consumers don’t really trust brands? One reason may be that your branding isn’t on target. Another can point to past mistakes that have damaged your reputation as a company.
Whatever the reason for rebranding, there are some distinct advantages to rebranding yourself. Consider doing one or more of the following to make yourself stand out from the competition and reach new markets. The effort will be more than worth it.
1. Show You’re Different From Competitors
It happens to most business owners at some point — you create an amazing branding campaign and set yourself up as the top company in your industry. Then along comes a competitor who says they are even better. It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but it can just feel like a competitor is stealing your ideas — and your customers!
Rebranding allows you to differentiate yourself from competitors. Take the time to really study your competition. What makes you different from them? What do you offer or can you offer that they do not? If you were a customer, why would you do business with you over the competition?
2. Connect With New Target Markets
As time goes on, your customer base may age or ebb and flow. One way to grow your business is to find new markets to connect with. Even as society changes, a product may appeal to one demographic more than another.
Doing some simple polling of your new customer base is a great place to start if you want to connect with fresh target markets. Find out just who your customers are. Next, look at who your competitors are reaching. Are there any markets being ignored that could be served? How can you rebrand to attract that new market?
3. Build a Stronger Connection With Customers
One distinct advantage of rebranding is that you can build a stronger connection with your current customer demographic instead of an outdated one. For example, you can complete independent research on your company and the clients you attract. This will give you a third-party view of how well you are reaching this demographic with your branding and allow you to make any needed adjustments.
If you don’t do some outside research, your company may have a distorted view of how clients see you. The outside research allows you to get a more accurate picture of how you come across to the consumer.
4. Increase Sales
Rebranding can allow you to increase your bottom line. For example, when Wholesale Landscape Supply rebranded itself as Big Earth and started using dynamic branding, it saw a sales increase of 200 percent in a single year. It points to some rebranding successes that helped achieve this, such as better retention of current customers and keeping the brand fresh.
5. Avoid Controversy
Remember the clown sightings that were going on throughout 2016? People were really creeped out by these mysterious clowns showing up and staring at them, popping up all over social media and just acting creepy overall. Suddenly, or maybe as it had always been, clowns just were not cool.
McDonald’s has long used Ronald McDonald as a mascot, and while it likely won’t ever completely do away with the red-haired clown, it did back off on advertising featuring him a bit last year. This was probably a wise branding strategy in the face of clown phobia.
If there is something about your brand or industry that is controversial, think about how you can back away from that element in your branding.
6. Show Off Innovation
Do you have new products or features to show off? This can be a good opportunity to rebrand and show customers just what you have to offer that is new and cutting-edge. Any type of growth or change should be reflected in your branding. It is key to keep the public aware of what you have to offer that is new.
If you don’t have a technological advance or new product, you can share changes such as company philosophy, charitable causes or new attitudes in your company. What makes you unique above all the other companies out there?
Rebranding takes time and effort, but is typically worth the extra work. If you approach rebranding with the right information and a skilled team of marketers, rebranding can increase sales and help you reach new customers.
About The Author
Eleanor Hecks is the Editor-in-Chief of Designerly Magazine, an online publication dedicated to providing in-depth content from the design and marketing industries. When she's not designing or writing code, you can find her exploring the outdoors with her husband and dog in their RV, burning calories at a local Zumba class, or curled up with a good book with her cats Gem and Cali.
You can find more of Eleanor's work at www.eleanorhecks.com.
