Most outward qualities of a brand are expressed
through tangible assets like the company name, the product, tag lines,
symbolism, iconography and even jingles. A good brand will tap into all
of the senses, reminding consumers what differentiates your product
from all the others. Your brand image is comprised of not only the
factual information presented, but emotional/ experiential aspects that
a customer perceives intangibly and understands it to be. It defines an
organization and distinguishes it from its competitors. These are
valuable considerations, especially if your current plan is no longer
servicing your goals.
How do you know if it’s time to reinvigorate your brand? Ask yourself
these questions:
1. Are you unsatisfied with the bottom line, sales, and growth?
2. Have you seen a lack of new business referrals from current clients
/ customers?
3. Have you noticed fewer and fewer repeat/loyal customers?
4. Are your competitors outshining your brand?
5. Do you feel it’s time to enter a new market?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, it’s time to
reinvigorate your brand!
While owners of larger established brands tend to pay more attention to
the care and maintenance of their brand image, periodic brand
revitalization or “face lifts” can help increase any business’ sales
revenue. Remember, success is measured through sales and strong sales
are a result of a strong relationship your customers have with your
brand. Thus, the need is great to reinvigorate your brand when sales
are flat. Investing in your brand is good health, with potential high
quality returns on investment. Here are some strategies for
reinvigorating your brand:
Refine and Define Your Brand’s Vision
One of the first rules of branding is: Great brands know themselves. In
most cases, companies do not revisit their vision once the business has
been launched. We know it’s a laborious task, but time invested in your
brand is not time wasted. In other words, “making” the time to
re-examine the overall vision, mission and business objectives seems to
happen less, or not at all, as the practice of actually conducting
business becomes the priority. However the reality is that over time,
visions shift and values adjust. New opportunities present themselves,
and new avenues are to be explored. Taking time annually to revisit
these things and make adjustments is an eye opening experience for all
stakeholders involved. This process tends to fuel both the external
relationship with your customers as well as reinvigorate and motivate
your staff. It's a “Win-Win” situation, I’d say.
* Review where you’ve been.
Review your brand’s history, heritage, beliefs and roots. Don’t forget
to include your brand culture.
* Rewrite your brand vision.
Your brand vision identifies your company’s purpose for existing. It
reveals a broader, deeper, viewpoint that enriches your customers, your
authentic purpose for doing business. Identify what brought you to this
point and ask yourself what has changed and what has stayed the same.
The answers to these questions will help you assess what actions need
to be taken.
* Redefine your personality.
Personality helps your brand come alive! It makes your brand accessible
and human, helping differentiate it and adding dimension to your
business. If strategically sound, there is inherent credibility and
likability present. Authentically define your brand personality. Are
you charismatic, loyal, playful or traditional? Your brand should exude
these characteristics.
* Reinvent your brand character.
Brand character is really about the culture of your brand. Take a look
at your organization’s value system that drives the way you do business
and how you interact with your customers, team members and suppliers.
The clues are found in your company’s principles and attitudes also
know as “brand characteristics.” It is also important to remember that
your brand is not a static entity, it should be fluid and able to grow.
It should flow and flex as your company does.
Know your Customer. Serve Your Base.
After doing business for a period of time, trends become more apparent.
It’s obvious which avenues of production, promotion and exposure are
working. It’s also obvious, which are not. Do not be afraid to confront
your customer. They will not hesitate to tell you exactly what they
want. Record their wants and needs and keep your information well
organized. Use your historical data wisely. Take time to ascertain why
your customers are responding to one avenue or the other. This tends to
provide a clue as to what your customers want. Analyzing these metrics
combined with readily available market research is one way to map out
the future of your creative campaigns as it relates to your overall
brand rejuvenation.
* Make new friends and keep the old.
This step is really about building new relationships and reinvigorating
existing customer relationships. It’s impossible to improve on any
relationship until you gain clarity as to where the current
relationship stands. It’s never too late to start, but first your team
must assess exactly where you are at in the minds of your customers,
ascertaining their perception of your brand and deciphering their
overall experience based on sales, feedback, past campaign and
promotional response. Here are 3 simple steps to rebuild and retool
your brand relationships:
a. Compare and contrast where the current and past customer / brand
relationships stand by defining the relationship traits. From the
customer’s point of view, are the current and past relationships to
your brand uplifting, empowering, growing, deep, lasting, ongoing,
consistent, accessible, responsive, and likable?
b. Define the traits of the type of customer relationships you would
like to establish.
c. Design a campaign including benchmarks for feedback to gauge the
successes of the effort.
Invite Everyone to the Dance.
It is highly critical to have a clean intention and genuine desire to
add value to your stakeholders. This enforces your organization's
positive brand positioning and perception. Inclusiveness is paramount
in the re-branding process. All the customers, shareholders, employees
and all stakeholders must be constantly invited to all management
meetings and functions and must have a stake in all company messages.
* Your new brand image.
There are two aspects of a brand image: how you “want” to be seen and
how you are “actually” seen. The challenge is to direct, shape and
focus how customers see you and how they feel about your brand. The
brand image is what is physically in front of the customer's eyes and
senses and the impressions that will ultimately effect the perception
of the product. It’s time to redefine and redesign!
* Take a new position.
Decide how you want your brand to be positioned in your customer's
mind. Marketers can influence how a brand is positioned in the
customer’s minds, but it’s your customers who actually position the
brand. Remember that. The challenge here is to help shape and direct
the positioning in a proactive manner. Brand position is about
integrated communications advertising, word of mouth, publicity and
in-enterprise experiences.
Set Goals, Track Results
The most important role on the management’s front is to measure the
results and compare them with the targets set at the start. The results
and reports must be analyzed to improve further progress and key
decisions must be taken with all the fallbacks being looked into as
well.
* Commit and deliver
Being 100% committed to your brand means being 100% consistent in
everything you do. This is critical in delivering a successful
long-term brand experience. Get your team on board. Dive into dialogue
with your team and customers about your new commitments. Get feedback.
Every time you change or revise your message to your customers or every
time you don’t deliver on the promise, you defeat your goals and prove
untrustworthy. That’s not good for morale, your bottom line, or your
overall brand equity.
Release Campaign
Overall the management functions of planning, organizing, staffing,
directing and controlling apart from a systematic coordination, are
necessary. Event sponsorship, door-to-door selling, engaging the
customer emotionally and providing rich ambiance can also turn out to
generate tons of money inflow.
Article Source:
http://www.articlesbase.com/coaching-articles/
reinvigorate-what-brand-health-maintenance-184752.html About the Author
jungle 8 applies our award-winning brand
communications and graphic design talents to the advancement of social
causes, the arts, non-profit organizations, eco-friendly and
sustainable businesses and those who simply prefer conscious business
practices.
We are passionate about what we do in the jungle. So passionate, our
designs empower you to do what you do best, your business.
Let us ignite your vision.
www.jungle8.com
http://blog.jungle8.com/
http://blog.jungle8.com/2007/07/14/reinvigorate-what-brand-health-maintenance/ |
