Written by: Wayne Elsey, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
When your brand no longer connects with your current and potential customers, it's time to reinvent and reposition it. In a dynamic and changing environment, the worse thing you could do is do nothing. In fact, you can't afford to do it for the profitability of your business. So, what does it mean to reposition your brand, and how can you do it effectively?
The tasks of rebranding and repositioning involve examining everything about your company, from its core values to its marketing strategy. Doing so helps you identify what’s worked well and find ways to keep things going. Once you identify the areas that need improvement, look for ways to add value. Moreover, create a stronger connection between who you are as a company and what you want to become in the future.
Define who your brand is and who it wants to become.
Before you assess your strengths and weaknesses or find added value for your customers, get clear on what your brand is today. It’s essential to understand what you’ve done right—and what could use improvement. Next, brainstorm what you envision your company becoming to customers and the industry. Doing so helps you transition from one phase of your company's life to the next. As you transition, consider your brand as a living entity. When you do it, you empathize with the brand and reposition it to address its wants and needs.
Decide what matters most to your customers.
Next, as a business leader, you want to identify what matters most to your customers. This process helps you identify the most critical issues to your target market. From here, you can assess your strengths and weaknesses relative to these issues. And you could also find ways to add value for your customers. Use various methods to determine what matters most to your customers. Once you identify the issues important to your customers, you can start looking for ways to add value for them.
Assess your operations before you reposition your brand.
After identifying what matters most to your audience, consider your operations. While the sales and marketing teams are forward-facing, you need operations to sync. You increase the chances of great success by identifying what will happen in your operations. For example, the chances are that you will have to change processes. So, make it a point to gather vital data and determine what it will take to make adjustments and reposition your brand. Also, make it a point to add a realistic timeline to make the transition once you're clear with your plan.
Find ways to add value for your customers.
As you know, your customers are the core of your business. So, when you think of how to reposition your brand, make it a point to keep them always in mind. Determine what’s valuable to your customers in advance of repositioning your company. One of the best ways to reposition your brand is to address the overall customer experience your customers have when they interact with your company. Focusing on the customer experience creates a stronger connection between your brand and who you want it to become.
Add edge initiatives (e.g., sustainability).
Finally, it's vital to add edge initiatives that help your brand stand out from competitors. As we know, the world’s moving away from fossil fuels. Moreover, companies are shifting their efforts toward sustainability (every business can become sustainable). So, you could add edge initiatives related to sustainability. For instance, you could invest in environmentally friendly practices like renewable energy or sustainably using logistics. Doing so adds an edge to your brand over the competition. And that has the potential to cause customers to choose to buy from you.
Create the right strategy and do the work.
You can reinvent and reposition your brand with the right strategy and hard work. Ultimately, repositioning your brand and doing it in a memorable way for your customers is a great way to relaunch and reinvent yourself. So, when repositioning your brand, the key is to thoroughly analyze your company, who your customers are, and what makes them tick.
Once you're clear on your customers and business value, you can identify the areas to innovate. But remember that what you aim to do when you reposition your brand is to re-create a company your customers actively and enthusiastically want to support. So, the idea is to reinvigorate and reposition all elements of your company. In sum, consider it a rebirth and renewal of your company to when it was in it was a start-up. Tap into that energy and movement.
© 2023 Wayne Elsey. All Rights Reserved.
Wayne Elsey, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Wayne Elsey is the founder and CEO of Elsey Enterprises. Among his independent brands, he is also the founder and CEO of Funds2Orgs. This social enterprise helps nonprofits, schools, churches, civic groups, individuals, and others raise funds while helping to support micro-enterprise (small business) opportunities in developing nations and the environment.
