Rebranding Your Business for Long-Term Growth

Rebranding is the process of revising your marketing strategy with a new name, logo and design, hoping to develop a new identity among your customers. Rebranding is not a deliberate action; it is rather a natural process.

For instance, rebranding does not seem to be paying off because your sales have sharply dropped. You may want to reconsider your marketing strategy and conduct market research to identify the issues. However, if your company’s vision and mission have changed due to a shift in your target audience or a merger with another company, rebranding is worthwhile.

Your company’s vision, mission and value should reflect on your brand, and if they do not, rebranding can be a solution, but make sure you do not change the colours and appearance of your logo and designs because you are bored, which is obvious to be after some time, as it will decrease your market share.

The reasons why you may need rebranding

 Here are the reasons why you may need rebranding:

• Your vision has changed

The mission and vision are two important factors that companies must have clarity about. Mission reflects what you are doing now to achieve your futuristic goals, and vision suggests where you want to be in years to come. It is likely that you open a business with a product to offer, but after some time, you realise that it is not this that helps you achieve your goals.

For instance, you started a bookselling venture. You provided door-to-door books along with a free bottle of perfume. Later on, you discover that people are not interested in your books but rather in the perfume bottle. Of course, you will have to shut down your bookselling business and start selling a perfume bottle as your main product.

Since your vision has changed now, you will need rebranding. Your brand vision and mission must be congruent with each of your decisions. You will have to consider rebranding if your vision changes.

• The target audience is no longer the same

Your brand should always align with your target audience. For instance, your current product targets only women, not men and kids. You have decided to introduce a new product line, goods for men and kids too. Since your target audience demographic has expanded, you will have to change your logo, its appeal, design and message. The logo that had a feminine look is to be changed now because you are targeting men and kids along with women.

Likewise, if you are expanding your product in other countries and targeting people from different communities and ethnicities, you may have to think of rebranding. It will help you streamline your products and services across the board. Your logo and brand will spread the same message without discriminating between communities.

• You have merged with another country

Merging is one of the common and obvious reasons for rebranding. When two companies merge and keep selling their products under a new name, they will have to redesign their branding strategy. The new logo must reflect your new goals, mission and vision.

• There is a PR reason for the change

It is no wonder that you choose a name for your brand only to find that you are using someone else’s name. It can attract a lawsuit against you if you do not take it down. In fact, many big companies have ended up with a lawsuit because of a charge of misleading their target audience by impersonating another reputed company. It is not great for your business.

You will have to think of a new name, new logo, and new marketing strategy, which all are part of rebranding.

Ways to rebrand your business

Here are the ways to rebrand your business:

• Assess your brand’s vision and mission

Your branding strategy will take you nowhere if you do not know your vision and mission. The logo and strategy you choose for your business must reflect on your brand. If it fails to tell what you are doing, what you represent and who you are, you are going nowhere. At the time of rebranding, you should know the answers to the following questions:

• What are you doing?

At the rebranding, you must know your vision. It is not just where you want to be in the future but where you want your audience to be. A good brand is one that takes care of the audience. You should always develop a marketing strategy, keeping in mind the success of your audience. When you aim to deliver them high-quality value, you will be able to develop a better marketing strategy.

You will need an expert to help you design your logo and choose colours for it. You should contact lenders for small business loans with bad credit in case you need money to fund it.

• Why are you doing it?

You need to think about why you are doing it and why you are committed to your mission. Your company must be able to achieve its goals in the future.

As long as your mission, vision, and values are in agreement, your rebranding will help you a lot.

• Carry out your market research

Rebranding often brings failure because you do not do market research properly. You must know who your target audience is, what they want, and how you fit into the market. You must know the following information while rebranding for your target audience:

• The age, gender and where they live
• What they do for a living and their economic status
• Their interests and hobbies
• Their educational level
• Their personal and business affiliations

The CRM can give you all the answers to these questions. In addition, you can use social media analytics. However, you will have to spend some money on market research. You can be dependent on unsecured business loan lenders if you need any financial help.

• Figure out what sets you apart

Getting your customers to choose you over your competitors is the most important aspect that makes you successful. A successful rebranding strategy will help you attract more customers to buy your products and services. Here is how you can set yourself apart from your competitors:

• Make a list of all the features and benefits of your products and then highlight the unique ones. You should use them in your marketing material. Emphasise how they will benefit your customers.
• Identify what aspects of your products can be copied by others, and is there anything you can still manage to stand out?
• Define what emotional needs your products or services can meet. Emotional marketing helps attract sales.
• Identify the needs of your customers and find out how you can relate them to your product. While promoting your product, you will have to highlight that part to increase sales.

The bottom line

Rebranding can help your business pick up, but there must be the right reasons for doing so. It is a bad choice if your sales have dropped because you can fix the issue by changing your marketing strategy and identifying customer behaviour. Take the help of an expert if you cannot decide whether or not to go for rebranding.