Changing the Story: Why, When, and How to Change a Brand.

The Why:

1. Sales

- Decreasing or stagnant sales. 

2. Marketing

- Conflicting, negative, or confusing brand perceptions. These can be voiced publicly, on social media platforms, review websites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, or via the company's telephone/email systems.

3. Customers

- Little or no customer retention. More new customers than existing. 

The When:

- Easy answer:

For new brands, 3-5+ years. 

For established brands, 15-20+ years. 

- Hard answer: It depends.

A good marketing, accounting, human resources, and management team should provide you with monthly and quarterly data to understand how your business is doing. How heavy an issue is impacting your brand depends on what the issue is and how much or often that issue affects your customers. However, leaving an issue undealt with can have long-lasting impacts. But, a product or service that needs to be improved does not always necessitate a brand change.

A brand change is needed when the product, service, or business change is outweighed by the perceived benefits from existing customers. A business’ worst mistake is to lose existing customers during a brand change in order to attract and satisfy new ones. 

The How:

1. Conceive

- Know what the problem is and be open to how the solution will impact your brand. Know how your current customer and ideal customers differ, if they do. Perhaps your ideal customer is simply a current customer that spends more, is more engaging, or is more likely to be an unsolicited brand ambassador. 

2. Consult

- Consult with your internal and an external team. Employees should be notified about the changes being undertaken and how it may affect them. Will there be a new location? Will there be new positions opening up? Will there be weeks of construction that require the entire store to close? Will there be online sales or an e-commerce platform? Depending on the depth of your internal team, you may need to contact an external team to carve out the best way to move forward.

3. Communicate

- Communicate to your customers. Emphasize more stages of change than others. Will there be reduced store hours? Will the store be closed? For how long? Will delivery still be available? Customers don't need to be notified when every decision has been made, but they do need to know basic pointers that affect them.

While the numerical ordering of these steps create the idea that things should be completed one at a time, they should nevertheless be completed as closely as possible. Employees need to know, as soon as you know what the issue is and what you propose to do about it. Customers should know what they can expect from you during this transition period but also how things are going to become better.