With the market constantly evolving, it is not uncommon to see major brands undergoing rebranding processes to adapt to new demands and expectations.
The real challenge is keeping your business relevant to the public long enough for your brand to:
- Become profitable;
- Become an authority;
- And then become a megacorporation!
Whatever your synonym for success, every company faces the same challenge to stay relevant as the years go by, especially in a saturated market like Digital Marketing !
From Twitter — which underwent a radical rebranding under Elon Musk and became something new, called X — to Itaú, have you noticed how these brands seem to be on a trend characterized by emerging with entirely new identities and work cultures , and in ever-shrinking spaces of time?
Have you noticed an increase in the number of symbols and logos with rounded corners? From “eco-friendly” companies? Or in customer service with casual and intimate language? And what about emojis in transfer notifications from your bank?
These practices were not common ten years ago! What has changed, and what ended up forcing this update in the brands you already knew, is that people today spend almost 24 hours a day glued to their cell phones.
In the quest to optimize relationships with leads, campaigns have diversified ethnicities, professions and styles. After all, this has become the best way to communicate and sell the same services that have been used for decades (and used by the parents or grandparents of the current generation) to a new group of buyers: young digital people!
Since irrelevance freezes sales, and an out-of-context comment can become a negative meme and fuel a rumor capable of “cancelling” your business on the Internet, I came to present you with a solution.
Rebranding is a way of recycling a brand’s goals and image so that it:
- Stay relevant to new consumers;
- Stay up to date with styles that can represent her identity over time (and to the right audience);
- Or to gain a second chance after the damage caused by scrutiny from competitors, the media, or customers!
My name is Guilherme de Bortoli, I have been working in Marketing for over 16 years, and in this article, I will share seven essential tips for a successful rebranding, helping your company to reposition itself in the market in an effective and impactful way.
Let’s explore together how to transform this challenge into an opportunity for growth and renewal!
Branding e rebranding
First, I need to explain the difference between branding and rebranding:
- Branding is a set of tools, strategies and actions, applied by Digital Marketing to establish a brand as an entity in the market ;
- Rebranding is the repositioning of a brand in the market, a redirection of actions towards a new audience, or a makeover in the culture and representation of a business for consumers!
Branding is used to define the identity that best presents a brand (and its products or services) to the ideal customer profile: the one who buys from it.
Branding involves:
- Develop the brand’s unique value proposition (also called PUV );
- Create, or identify, one or more personas to understand the needs, routine and behaviors of the ideal buyers for such a proposal;
- And the identification of a persona for the brand itself (so that it has a symbol, a tone of voice, colors that individualize it, and a culture that contributes to employee productivity).
Once all these elements are planned in a brand management strategy (i.e. within the branding strategy), what we know as a “brand” is formed, specifically:
- A figure we feel more or less trust in;
- With the potential to act as a social force that influences human behavior;
- And an entity from which we can buy a solution or a product!
A posteriori, rebranding revolves around taking the branding already done by a brand and:
- Rework it, with the intention of updating it;
- Recycle it, to remove damaged parts and focus on the ones that work;
- Or rebuild it (even dividing it into other brands), maintaining a fixed executive structure, but culminating in a complete re-presentation to the public, partners and employees!
The importance of brand management
Brands are a way for companies to seduce and, consequently, sell:
- Ideas;
- Products;
- Services;
- Or experiences!
They represent different types of approaches to approaching different segments of a target audience, and selling the same type of product or service to these different tribes.
Let’s say you own a winery. You can use branding to define the different categories within the target audience that are likely to buy the wines you produce, and sell the same product under different labels and logos to maximize your reach to your target audience!
In this example, your brand management (i.e. your branding) could be separated to target a younger and an older audience, creating different sections on the website or in the online store with styles, labels and texts that are completely different from each other:
- One aimed at people between 25 and 35 years old with an annual income of 36 thousand reais;
- And another aimed at an audience between 36 and 56 years old, but with an annual income 4 times higher!
This is an extreme example, but it illustrates well the importance of branding as a tool for inserting a brand, a product, or a service, within the market segment of greatest interest.
As this market of greatest interest tends to change over time, especially after a company has consolidated itself as an authority, it is natural that rebranding takes place to maintain existing customers and to attract new ones!
With such high competition on the Internet, if your company does not have a personality that reflects the way of thinking and acting of the public it wants to reach, it will be left behind by the competition that displays the personality it lacks.
It is at these times that branding (or, if necessary, rebranding) puts the brand that takes Digital Marketing seriously at the forefront, because it is:
- By voice;
- Dear;
- And your company’s presence on the Internet!
Without branding, how will your audience know when they’re looking into the eyes (or behind the scenes) of your company? How will they distinguish you from the crowd?
When is the right time to rebrand?
More than protecting a company from controversy or revamping its style to attract a more contemporary audience, rebranding is useful in many different scenarios, serving to:
- Reflect significant market changes;
- Mark the periods of evolution of a company;
- Recover strategic positioning as a pioneer;
- And reverse the natural process that leads to a brand losing relevance!
In my opinion, there are two main reasons to rebrand. The first is when the company is not what it claims to be. You know when you see someone who seems one thing, but is actually another? This can happen to companies too. The brand needs to reflect the truth of the business!
The second reason is when the results are not as they should be . If the company is losing its audience, failing to communicate or moving away from the market, it is time to rethink. Rebranding goes far beyond changing the visual identity or logo — it is like redefining the soul of the company!
So if your business shows painful symptoms such as:
- Competitors winning over the public’s preference;
- Competition gaining dominance over your positions on the Internet;
- Certain negative connotation surrounding the brand or the niche in which it currently participates.
It’s a sign that it’s time to rethink your brand’s universe!
This process affects everything from your visual and verbal identity to your advertising and marketing. So if your company is looking like a ship adrift, becoming dated, or drifting away from your target audience, it’s time to adjust your sails!
Rebranding could be just what you need to get back on track with confidence and direction.
Even so, before moving forward, other factors must be considered…
Is it time to reposition your brand?
The first factor to note is that the moment to reposition your brand will depend on how much of a change in behavior, presentation, or even audience, is necessary to keep your business above water!
With this determinant clear, rebranding is applied as a revitalization of that identity already maintained around a company through a continuous process involving both the internal culture of the business and the Digital Marketing campaigns themselves involving texts, videos and graphics!
As a revitalization, rebranding is a strategy aimed at solving problems, such as:
- A drastic update in company culture;
- The inadequacy to meet current market demands;
- Public rejection of real facts or rumors;
- Or a change of objective, product, or service, on the part of the business.
If none of the problems listed above are an issue in your company, it means that branding is the toolkit you may need right now to achieve more sales online, not rebranding!
Because it is applied when there is a need for radical adaptation to some change in the way of selling and profiting, there is no specific regularity for me to recommend that a company plan a brand management initiative.
In fact, and to eliminate any remaining doubts you may have, I have listed some points for you to consider if applying a rebranding now could really be the best choice to increase the profitability of your business in the digital environment. Check it out!
1. Assessment of the brand situation
Before starting the rebranding process, it is essential to assess the current situation of your company in relation to:
- Strengths of current positioning and identity;
- As well as the weak points of this same situation;
- And the unique opportunities of current branding;
- Compared to the unique opportunities generated by rebranding;
- Including an analysis of the public in relation to the brand;
- Customer feedback;
- Financial performance;
- And the market perception!
Just by answering these topics you will have an obvious idea of whether or not rebranding is necessary for your business at the current moment.
2. Check for consistency
Another indication that you need to rebrand is the consistency of your brand : does it show signs of contradicting itself, or failing to take advantage of an opportunity for expression on the platforms on which it interacts with the audience?
Places like your website, your business’s social media channels, and the marketing materials you produce are all points of observation when it comes to maintaining a harmony in which your company’s personality interacts with the public (and even employees)!
If your company’s identity is spread unevenly across channels, a rebrand can help by conducting a fresh analysis aimed at unifying it and driving recognition — and sales.
3. Consider changes in the market
Not all trends are important for your business, but all trends are relevant in the market! I mean, you need to stay alert to every movement the market makes: from the calm to the radical!
If the changes are so radical that your company seems behind the times when it comes to your target audience’s behavior —and why they’re choosing your competitors over you—a rebrand can give you a competitive edge in the battle for attention.
Remember that the focus of a brand is to sell a product or service to make a company profit in an extremely competitive scenario.
How this brand will present itself to the ideal customer profile of the moment is a characteristic that will change from year to year, even if the products or services remain the same!
Basically, when it’s impossible to swim against the tide, use rebranding to learn how to surf and adapt your company to new waters!
4. Audience research
I often say here on the Orgânica blog that the public is the most important element in the entire process of learning how to sell more on the Internet — and I’ll repeat that here!
If you understand the exact type of person you want to convert into a buyer, out of the hundreds of thousands within your target audience, you will know exactly whether it is time to adapt to their expectations (and profit much more for it) or whether it is okay to leave things as they are.
Ask for feedback from customers, analyze what your competitors are doing differently, and encourage ongoing communication between your audience and your brand through social media. They, more than anyone, will know what to say to help you transform your company into an authority!
5. Redesign of the visual identity
All internal changes involving ideal customer profiles and other metrics that translate into profitability through increased sales will result in a new way of presenting your brand through all means of contact with the public — especially through visual means!
Redesigning the visual identity (including the symbol, lettering style, colors and other graphic elements) is an essential part of rebranding as it is able to “give a face” to this new communication initiative.
Think of rebranding as that person who went through a divorce and decided to cut their hair to look more youthful. This is the equivalent of a “glow up” for companies that take ROI (return on investment) very seriously!
6. Communication and engagement
More than presenting a new face to the public, it is communication that needs to undergo a reformulation, and it is essential to become:
- Clear and consistent, both for the audience and for those involved with the internal objectives of the business;
- And an explanation of the reasons behind the rebranding (including what changes to make to the brand structure to make this investment worthwhile)!
7. Launch and monitoring
Rebranding is more than just a new incarnation for a company looking to increase sales. This moment is a colossal event in the brand’s history and needs to be treated with extreme priority because of this.
I mean, you will need to prepare your teams to generate, nurture and deal with customer expectations (and even those of other employees) around this transformation, and maintain continuous monitoring after the launch of this new phase!
This monitoring will cover audience reception or sales figures, so you won’t be caught off guard by results that are below expectations , and you can turn things around with the necessary adjustments to ensure your brand’s lifetime success once and for all!
Big brand rebrandings
At the beginning of this text, I commented on the tendency of big brands to apply a strategy of re-presentation to the public based on rebranding, specifically citing Itaú bank and the social network X.
I also want to mention some remarkable cases!
Burger King, which simplified its graphic and architectural look to highlight the evolution of the company and even the market in recent years. According to the brand, they chose to highlight improvements in food quality and the removal of artificial ingredients (setting it apart from other fast food restaurants).
In order to avoid having personal hygiene products abandoned on the shelves due to young people’s difficulty in recognizing the company’s logo, Johnson & Johnson adopted a more legible design that is easy to recognize on mobile devices (a platform that concentrates a large part of the target audience that the brand wants to reach).
That Pepsi’s 125th anniversary celebration brought a massive opportunity for the soft drink distributor to stay fresh and lively in the eyes of a younger, hipper audience, embracing the trend toward nostalgia and exclusivity so celebrated by Generation Z (the generation that thinks soft drinks are cooler than alcoholic beverages).
And that HBO Max will now become just MAX, so that the streaming service can maintain a separate branding strategy from HBO itself while expanding the content available (ceasing to be just a channel for unique quality cinematic content, to become an entertainment hub with sports and news).
The reasons for investing in rebranding as a reach strategy come down to communicating with the public, in a language they understand, to convey the following message: “this product or service was tailor-made for you — buy it before you run out!”
Define a position for your brand!
The first step to planning a sales strategy that takes advantage of the tools that Digital Marketing has to offer is to know your ideal audience.
The next step is to monitor all the metrics that indicate whether the strategy being implemented is being successful, whether your brand is fulfilling the role that the audience expects, and whether this role is bringing enough return to lead to the success of your business!
For this reason, closely monitor the numbers that represent the health of your brand in the market and don’t be afraid if the scenario requires a radical change in your business’s behavior towards potential customers.
- After all, using what you learned in this content about brand management, you can:
- Improve the clarity of communication inside and outside your business;
- Change the way your target audience sees your company;
- Start a more specific sales segment among your current leads ;
- Identify errors that have harmed your sales in the past;
- And even dominate a new niche as soon as a demand arises that you can meet with the products or services you already offer to other segments!
To learn more about branding, how to improve your company’s positioning in Google results, or how to find the perfect type of buyer for your business, read more guides made on this Enjoy Minder blog!
The clock is ticking to your company’s chance to become the next big brand — and it waits for no one! Take advantage of our free resources and get ahead of your destiny!
