Rebranding on a shoestring

Two things happened after I published my last post, about what I consider – from my own experience – to be six steps to a successful rebrand.

The first is that I was taken to task by employees at one of the businesses I work with – Community Fibre, a full fibre broadband company in the UK where I am Executive Chairman. Having just gone through a successful, low-cost revamp of the Community Fibre brand that has accelerated the company’s sales momentum, they (rightly) pointed out that my sixth step, “put a decent budget behind it”, is not always necessary. So, to everyone at CFL, I hold my hands up, apologize, and say congratulations again on some great work.

The second is that another brand close to my heart – EE, also in the UK – has refreshed its identity and relaunched with a mission to play a more meaningful role in customers’ lives. From what I’ve seen, New EE looks fantastic, and while I suspect it wasn’t done on a shoestring ??, it ticks all the boxes I spoke about last time.

Coming back to companies that don’t splash out, until recently Tesla was famous for not spending any money on advertising. Ok, so this is about communicating your brand rather than defining or updating it, but choosing to put everything into the product itself and basically using word of mouth to build a world-leading business is an interesting strategy.

So when can you succeed with this sort of approach? In my mind, there are some key factors to consider here.

1. First of all, you must have a brilliant underlying product whose promise is already proven. Take Community Fibre as an example, which has better reviews on Trustpilot than I’ve seen for just about any other broadband provider. As well as offering a top quality product, its pricing and speed of installation also make it stand out. And I’m not on commission to Tesla, but I have been driving one of its Model S cars since 2015, and have nothing but good things to say about it.
2. What’s in a name… well, quite a lot, as it happens. In my view, there are two main routes you can go down here if you want your name to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Either it’s something that explains what you do or what you promise (for example, Community Fibre, Snapchat, Under Armour), or it’s easy to remember and/or becomes memorable in its own right (e.g. Google, Apple, Xerox). I mean, does anyone actually do an internet search anymore, or do they just… google something? When they’re not on ChatGPT, of course.
3. It’s important to be clear what you are trying to do. Sometimes, what you need is more like a coat of paint rather than a full house renovation. Maybe your overall strategy is sound, but it’s time to develop the brand story in a new direction, create a stronger visual presence, or your brand execution is simply outdated. Sharpening or re-focusing an existing brand is obviously going to be much less expensive and time-consuming than a full rebrand, where literally everything is up for grabs.
4. The publicity stunt is a veteran tactic of the brand update – the bigger, louder, and bolder the better, so long as it accurately reflects your company’s position and values and draws positive attention as a result. Can you do something crazy without burning your entire marcom budget? I mean, I have no idea what it cost to send that Tesla Roadster into space, but I guess cross financing was probably an option… Going viral is probably the holy grail here, if you feel you can get the reach of, say, an ice bucket challenge, or Tinder’s fake height verification feature.
5. Sometimes, all you need to do is streamline and simplify how you appear to customers. For example, yallo, a former prepay operator based in Switzerland, previously took the unusual decision to feature ant characters (“small and strong”) in its advertising, but upgraded its brand and product, a move that has paid off. HIGH in Germany and TALKTALK in Switzerland are other good examples of the fuss-free approach. [Full disclosure, I am Chairman at Mobilezone, which owns these MVNOs, and was previously connected with yallo during my time as CEO at Sunrise.]
6. If you are saving on branding and marketing communications, this should make life better for your customers in some way. In the Tesla example I mentioned earlier, the millions not pushed into ads were instead directed into research and development, which gave people like me a superior product. Another option is to offer the lowest market prices for the same or better quality than your competitors, which can then become part of your brand identity in its own right. Aldi, Costco and Tele2 (later bought by Telia Company) are all good examples of brands built on customer value.

So, is it possible to rebrand on a shoestring? Based on my experiences, I still maintain that you have to invest significantly if you are doing a full rebrand. But refreshing elements of your identity to adapt to the times doesn’t necessarily mean refinancing the company. You just need to make some smart decisions.

What are your views?

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Photo credit: QuinceCreative, Pixabay