REBRANDING BEST PRACTICES: When and why should you rebrand a brand.

It should go without saying that branding is important to any business—the initial introduction to an audience, the affinity building, the generation of loyalty is all key to achieving short and long-term success. And of course, brand building, as my partner, Rio Phior, so elegantly explained in a recent article on Branding 101 , is so much more than a logo, a color scheme, or graphics.

But that does not necessarily mean you have to blow up your entire brand. Establishing brand identity at the time of a company’s initial launch is hard enough. So, what goes into the rebranding process when a legacy brand realizes it is time to adapt and evolve their image and messaging in order to improve and rise to new market challenges and realities? How can an old brand evolve into a new form that has the ability to stand out from market competitors and begin a new chapter in its corporate history? That is exactly what I am going to examine in this post.

REASONS TO PURSUE A REBRAND

The most common fear about rebranding amongst legacy brands is the anxiety associated with losing name recognition, stature, and ultimately… customers.

There are a variety of reasons why a brand might pursue a rebrand. At Sagon-Phior, we typically partner with brands on such a process when they are facing some of the following situations:

• The brand is losing money and getting hammered by new market entrants and competitors.
• Customers have lost interest, and loyalty has diminished, because the brand does not meet changing consumer needs, or its perceived value has faded.
• The brand’s messaging has become stale, unappealing, or irrelevant.
• There are inconsistencies in the brand experience or customer service, which has caused negative feedback and unhappiness amongst audience members.
• The brand (or its leadership) has experienced a public scandal or crisis that was handled sloppily and/or inappropriately.
• The brand made some improvements—but those improvements have gotten buried in the same old marketing/sales messaging or user experience.

All good reasons to go through a rebrand for sure. However, even though a brand may be experiencing a decline in its reputation or stifled performance in the market, the concept of a rebrand can also be scary and feel uncertain. After all, the most common fear about rebranding amongst legacy brands is the anxiety associated with losing name recognition, stature, and ultimately… customers.

Regardless, updating or evolving a legacy brand can often be the best thing that a company can do to reverse poor sales performance, accelerate awareness, boost engagement, optimize conversions, and most importantly, grow revenues.

And I speak from a place of experience.

Over the last three decades, Sagon-Phior has been at the forefront of many rebranding projects for companies operating in myriad industries—from technology, healthcare, and real estate to luxury, banking, lifestyle, and wine and spirits. As such, there is a common set of guidelines that consistently apply to each successful rebranding assignment we have taken on.

THE STEPS TO TAKE IF YOUR BUSINESS IS FACING A REBRAND

The brand story should talk about the needs, challenges, beliefs, and the experience your customer faces on their journey...making them the hero.

Start by updating your brand story.

First things first, your brand story serves as the foundation for all marketing, sales, and PR. The brand story is the journey that your audience (the hero) engages in as they interact with you—they are facing a challenge, they are seeking a solution, and it is your brand that is leading them, giving them the tools and ability to scale their own personal Everest and come down the other side.

Your brand story is not about how your brand has been in business for a hundred years or how your brand is an industry leader. Nor is it a narrative on your products’ features and benefits. Rather, the brand story should talk about the needs, challenges, beliefs, and the experience your customer faces on their journey, making them the hero in the narrative.

Therefore, when re-establishing your brand story, provide some honest answers to these questions:

• Is your brand story authentic and relevant? Does it address the needs of your industry and your customers?
• What part of the story resonates best with an audience? Why should they care?
• Is your brand story different from similar brands but far more memorable?
• What is the key takeaway for your audience?
• Is your mission and vision clear? Does it humanize your brand?
• Does it communicate the ultimate value? And is that value incorporated into the brand’s primary messaging strategy?
• Do your employees and stakeholders believe in your brand story?

During rebranding, it is imperative to re-examine your corporate brand story and think about how it can evolve to connect in a more relevant and “human” way, addressing customer needs and validating it captivates the very essence of your company’s culture.

RE-EXAMINE THE BRAND POSITIONING.

A brand must prove its value and define what makes it not only different, but better.

The market is constantly changing, and new competitors are always developing and deploying new products that offer an expansive variety of features and benefits—and this all happens faster than it ever did before!

Therefore, differentiating a brand is challenging but inherently necessary. A brand must prove its value and define what makes it not only different, but also better—this is accomplished through effective brand positioning.

Positioning is a succinct statement that describes the competitive, relevant, and differentiating place—the “white space” if you will—that a brand occupies in its defined market. Brand positioning reflects and supports the brand story as well as insights gleaned through research. Furthermore, it must always align with the company’s business goals and vision.

In that regard, answer these questions:

1. How will your company address marketplace trends?
2. Have you reviewed competitive messaging? What are your findings?
3. How similar is the competitive brand positioning to yours?
4. Is there an opportunity to improve or realign your brand positioning against that of competitors?
5. How focused is the positioning on defining outcomes and value?
6. Is brand positioning driving marketing strategy and customer messaging?
7. Will it help elevate the brand story and messaging?
8. Is it appropriate to major audience segments and varied geographic markets? Or is adjustment needed for different segments and groups?

Ultimately, brand positioning must support the brand story as well as the audience’s needs—and it should be synched with messaging strategy.

DON'T FORGET ABOUT CUSTOMER PSYCHOLOGY.

Emotions always drive the decision making process, and a company does not have to the emotional DNA of Tesla or Apple to be successful.

This next part of the rebranding process is especially important. Why? Because many brands are guilty of not thoroughly researching or seeking understanding of the behavioral or emotional dispositions and decision-making processes of their customers. And if you are a legacy brand, then you are missing out—big time. I’ll explain why.

Over the years, customer psychology and behavior tend to change. And these changes are based on everything from socio-economic factors, the competitive landscape, new customer service strategies, and even how a user experiences a website.

Therefore, understanding the psychology of customers is critical. Consider the following:

• Do you understand the behavior and emotions of your customers as it relates to their needs?
• Are your customers segmented based on individual needs or market conditions? Or do they share in the same traits?
• Is the brand humanized and connected through powerful stories and content?
• Does the user experience support their behavior and address their needs?

Remember, as I noted previously… it is the customer who is the hero, not your brand or company. This is about their story and what they are facing—and how your brand helps them navigate a challenge and fill a need.

BRAND MESSAGING AND OUTCOMES.

The most successful brand messaging conveys humanity, and communicates the outcomes of that experience in a meaningful and memorable way.

Effective brand messaging usually includes a lexicon, messaging themes, and copy customized to each targeted audience and industry you serve. The most successful brands convey humanity, supporting their brand story and positioning, and communicating outcomes and value in a meaningful and memorable way.

Of course, it is also important to realize that messaging is not “one-size-fits-all,” nor is it about selling features and benefits. Rather, the best messaging connects with an audience in a way that inspires action as it communicates the outcomes that your organization delivers.

Identify answers to these questions:

1. Are your organization’s outcomes clear or do you focus too much on features and benefits?
2. Do outcomes meet customer needs? How are examples presented and communicated?
3. Does messaging copy intuitively and seamlessly lead a customer toward achieving their goal? Or is it confusing, disjointed, and hard to follow?
4. Is the messaging style and tonality conversational or overly technical, and does it get bogged down in the minutiae?
5. What kind of story are you telling? Is it unique, emotional, and memorable?
6. Is the tone reflective of the brand experience a customer expects?
7. Are you asking questions or are you making statements?
8. Is messaging presented long form or short form? Is it bold or passive? What resonates the best with customers?

Your messaging is the voice of your brand, and if done well, it offers an opportunity to capture a person’s attention, and have them accept your invitation to experience your brand firsthand. This is about starting a meaningful conversation and ensuring the consumer walks away remembering who you are and what you said.?

THE BRAND PERSONALITY AND BRAND IDENTITY.

Wherever your brand is visible, the authentic brand personality must shine through and be consistent—no matter what medium, tactic, or environment.

I mentioned aesthetics at the beginning of this article—and now I will touch upon them again and explain how they fit into the brand personality.

The brand personality should support the story, positioning, audience, and messaging. It is an intangible that has the potential to make a brand memorable and relevant to the lifestyle and behavior of audience members.

This is where you should carefully examine the way your brand is visually and aesthetically depicted. Consider the following:

• Does the brand personality support your brand story and culture?
• Is it similar or different when compared to competitors?
• Does the aesthetic reflect the vision, personality, and attitudes of the founder, employees, and customers?
• Do graphics, visuals, colors, videos, typography, and content connect with customers? Are they unique and to be remembered? And are they consistent no matter the channel or marketing platform?
• Do you employ original visuals that stand out? Or are you relying too heavily on stock images?
• Are you using video or unexpected visuals to provide a more dynamic backdrop for storytelling?
• Are you confined to an overly restrictive or dated corporate style guide?

Wherever your brand is visible, the authentic brand personality must shine through and be consistent—no matter what medium, tactic, or environment.

REBRAND YOUR COMPANY AND EMOTIONALLY ENGAGE YOUR CUSTOMERS.

Successful rebranding positions a brand ahead of competitors, reinvigorates sales, and brings new audience members into the fold, while also encouraging existing consumers to stay the course.

The end goal of rebranding is to create a new and exciting brand identity and better appeal to customers, investors, prospects, and employees. Sagon-Phior has deep experience leading rebranding efforts for companies that include Microsoft, McCormick Distilling, Nuvision Federal Credit Union, Eagle Eyes Optics, Nevada State Bank, Graphisoft, Agilent Technologies, Inogen, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and more. I’d love to learn about the challenges your brand is facing and offer a few insights. I invite you to connect with me or send me a message to start a discussion.