I keep repeating the word ‘brand’ in my posts, but what actually it is? A brand is an expression of product, design, name, symbol, or any other feature that are developed to collectively represent core values, ideas, and even personality or tone of voice. While in an ever-changing marketplace that is bewildering in terms of competitive clamour, it has eventually become important to create and sustain trust among people. This is where building a strong brand can help. But, if a brand is no longer coherent, consistent and loyal in front of its viewers, then there is a little choice but to rebrand. It’s remarkable what rebranding can do to refresh your whole business.
Rebranding can show a company’s progression with an evolving market, infuse your marketing efforts with relevance, or perhaps surpass you from the competition.
It can be hard to know when it’s time to rebrand. So, here are 7 key signs that it’s a time to rebrand.
1. When you don’t have a brand identity
Your audience knows you by your business or company name, but not by your brand identity. After all, brand identity is something that not only reflects what you stand for but showcases the personality of your brand as well. That’s the determinant of how your audience is perceiving you. For example, if you’ve to picture a smartphone, you’ll immediately picture it with Apple logo. That’s because Apple is authentic and rooted in your brand promise. And that’s called the power of brand identity, which makes Apple stand out from the competition.
So, when all you’ve got is a famous name and not a specific image that comes to your consumers’ mind on hearing your brand’s name, then you need to put all your weight behind aggressively rebranding.
2. When you want to shed an old image
This isn’t quite as big of an issue these days if you’ve outgrown your current brand. It is often crucial to shed off an old image behind to give a more upmarket image to your brand. One of the best examples of image makeover is Maruti Suzuki. When Maruti tried to make a space into bigger car segment and launched luxury cars like Baleno, Kijashi, and Vitara, it didn’t get enough buyers. It didn’t meet with much success since Maruti was considered the low cost, high mileage car manufacturer. So, Maruti attempted to shed the dad’s car image as being only an economical or small car manufacturer.
A key element of the makeover was Nexa outlets. These premium sales outlet networks completely changed the Maruti’s image on perception front. And now the brand association of this leading car manufacturer has gone up from 74% to 85% earlier. Thus, Nexa not only successfully built the cool image for Maruti but also helped it in acquiring a leadership position in the market.
3. When you hope to move or expand your geographical presence
If you are planning to move or expand your business beyond your original geography, then the rebrand is necessary for the growth of your business. More often, regional businesses are faced with the reality of rebrand when they see a market opportunity to reposition their regional name for national or international relevance. Does it bring to mind the renaming and personality you’d like your brand or business to occupy?
4. When you are not differentiated enough from the competition
Of course, branding is all about competitive differentiation. So, when you feel like your brand doesn’t stand out or is just lost in a sameness of marketplace, you’re failing to differentiate yourself from the competition. It could be perhaps easy to accomplish this very feat with rebranding. But, don’t just do it, just for the sake of doing it. You can perform a mini brand audit to have a better sense of brand’s differentiation. Take a look at how you can take your brand in a new direction without alienating your consumers. Identify the opportunities for differentiation like message, colour, logo or capitalize on your unique value propositions. This will exponentially increase your brand’s visibility among the consumers looking for unique solutions.
5. When your company is undergoing a merger
More often than not, people fail to recognize the repercussions of merger or acquisition activities. Not until it’s too late. Which thus results in poor performance for both the parent and acquired company. So, take a big picture and figure out how the acquired brand fits into the brand architecture of the parent company. Always consider mergers and acquisitions as the opportunity for rebranding.
6. When the market needs have evolved
If the market you’re in has drastically evolved, then its time for you to rebrand. Take Apple as an example. This brand has not only kept its standards high but perhaps even surpass the competition with its brilliant branding. Innovation is a key driver of changing market habits. Even the companies with cutting-edge services are left behind due to the their lack of brand associativity with evolving market.
7. When you are struggling to restore your brand’s reputation
It doesn’t take long to associate any brand with devastatingly negative connotations. A simple rebranding process works to unearth the unaddressed issues. It requires some key changes, including giving the whole new look and feel to the organization. A rebrand in such cases will serve as a way to create a unified identity as well as attract new customers and enhance relationships with existing customers. This is an effective remedy to repair the online reputation of your brand.
Also read: top 7 digital marketing ideas for brand promotion
Some other signs of Rebranding
Apart from the above 7 signs of rebranding, there are a fairly large variety of reasons that can help to trigger the need for a rebrand. It’s likely your existing brand is a bit dated. Or perhaps you aren’t able to appeal the type of customer that you wanted to target with your efforts put in initial branding.
Often the first sign of rebranding is that you’re wondering if it is required. It’s not about trying something new and see if it works well. So, whatever evokes you to get in touch with a branding agency in India, you can rest assured to have the measurable benefits with the rebrand.