Rebranding Yourself

I don't think I've ever met somebody who sees themselves as the same person that they were seven years ago. It's not that we're a different person, we've just moved ourselves on as people in the same way that brands and trends move on around us. Whether you've changed your job, your area of expertise or your dress-sense, or completely and literally rebranded with physical logos and brand guidelines in the way that I have, in some way or another we all have to alter our image and positioning from time-to-time.

So if you're sat here reading this and thinking it's about time for change, either for your company's brand or for yourself, what are the things that you should consider? Surprisingly, the differences between rebranding a product and an individual are pretty small and here's why.

Do I need to rebrand?

I tested this by asking friends and people around me to name three things that came to mind when they thought of me. The challenge soon become clear, how do you get from being perceived as being a Digital marketing professional in a huge media organisation to being a YouTuber focussed on cars? When considering rebranding, you know it's time to make the jump when it feels like...a jump.

The gap between where I currently sat and where I wanted to be was too large to simply refresh a few pieces and be correctly aligned and it's the same for many companies. Most brands need to make the switch because their brand is perceived to be too cheap, too old, too behind in innovation or too cluttered to make sense of what's really important to take-away. When this is the case, it's time to rebrand.

What are your bridges?

I would argue that no brand can reinvent itself without carrying forward some of the progress that it's made in the past. Nobody is truly starting again and if we were we've lost all of the competitive edge that we have built over time. Instead, it's important to look for the small bridges that connect our new image and purpose to that of what we've spent years establishing.

For me, this came in the form of a few things:

• Futures - I've always been at the forefront of marketing, technology and innovation and that's something that I could easily compete on. On the reverse, there will always be somebody out there who has driven more classic cars, worked on more marketing campaigns or been on the planet for longer than I have so utilising tech and innovation needed to be a core part of my brand going forwards; documenting and predicting the future. The future of driving soon became key to my focus with digital and innovation being my bridge to it.
• Collaboration - I've never really struggled to make friends and largely I get most of my energy from being around awesome people. I'm known for being late to every party because I was tied-up leaving another and this is something that was more about being authentic to myself than claiming to be the person who did it on his own. Whether it's collaborating with some of the UK's best YouTubers or bringing my friends into the business to utilise their skills and spend more time with them, collaboration is who I am. From a rebrand perspective, this had two meanings. Firstly, the mission became to "Accelerate the move towards the future of driving, making friends on the way". And secondly, my strap-line became "Hello Car Friends"

• Simply premium - Admittedly, this is an easy segway into my last point and not something that I can take full credit for. I had a reasonably simple upbringing and found my career casting me into a world where the lifestyle was faster, finer and more exclusive than what I'd spent the first half of my life living. It meant two things; I had a taste for more premium experiences and really enjoyed accessing this and secondly, I hated exclusive language or anything that created a barrier between somebody else joining in. From a branding perspective this carried into ensuring that the partnerships I built were with some of the the best car manufacturers and platforms on the planet whilst also keeping the look-and-feel of the brand and the way I describe those cars simple. "Jargon-free driving" was born.

Surround yourself with the right people

I'd argue that this is the most difficult part of rebranding anything. How do you know what "right" is when building a team to rebrand? If it helps, for me it was when the agency I was working with, Pollitt & Partners in London, came back with a response that had gone beyond my own thinking.

The phrase "jargon-free driving" was something that the team at Pollitt & Partners had devised and used as a litmus test when considering whether the new creative was right. I'd provided them with some direction as to what I felt was best practice in my industry and a few values that I wanted to uphold for the brand but nobody up until that point had managed to summarise exactly what I was trying to get across. I would have never been able to articulate "jargon-free driving" as a mantra for the brand and for myself yet it had landed perfectly what I stood for. This was the point when I knew that I had a team around me who understood what I was trying to achieve and had gone beyond my own capability in that area; they were adding value immediately and I trusted them because of it.

Essentially, a check-list for finding the right people would be:

• Have they said something new that demonstrates that they understand what you're trying to achieve
• Could you have created what you're looking at given the same information or is this something that's beyond you?
• Even when you disagree on something, do you trust them enough that you feel you're heading in the right direction?

Whether you're a company, a product or a person the above will be true. If you're considering rebranding then chances are it's already time to start working on those changes and, from experience, you'll be happier on the other side.

I think my friend Carl summed it up perfectly: "It's only when you compare where you are now to where you were at the start of the process, putting the two next to each other, that you realise how much it was needed."

With friends in mind, let me know if this is something that's been helpful or if you have any thoughts and tips for rebranding. If you'd like to see what cars I've been driving recently, for me to review your product or for marketing consultation visit the Craig TV website or email me on [email protected]. You can also subscribe to the Craig TV YouTube channel here.

Thanks for reading

Craig