Brands mean big business. This is equally true for one or two-person companies as it is for global corporations. Brands help products or services stand out from the crowd, deliver increased sales and allow businesses to charge a premium.
But brands matter most to consumers – they’re a recognisable and trustworthy badge of origin and a promise of performance. So when a consumer opts for a particular branded product or service they’re assured it will not just do the job, but they’ll feel good about the purchase too.
SUCCESSFUL BRANDING STARTS WITH PEOPLE
First and foremost, products have to perform and meet a need but brands should deliver so much more. Be clear about your features and benefits, define your values, personality and your brand promise and you’re already making a stronger connection with consumers.
Branding should be a commitment – a way of life touching every part of the business – but it’s people that create and consume brands. And it’s people that make a difference between successful and ‘me too’ brand experiences.
We’ve all bought airline tickets – often paying ‘top dollar’ and expecting a service to match – only to find cabin or checkin staff who are rude or unhelpful. Or we’ve phoned a company which claims to put customers first but then forgets that being kept on hold for ages isn’t the best way to start a conversation. Any brand that builds expectation is bound to cause disappointment when it’s not delivered.
Getting the promise right and helping customers select your product is one of the founding principles of branding. So when market share data suggests you’re losing your edge, it’s time to seriously consider the pros and cons of a rebrand.
NEED A BRAND REFRESH OR TOTAL OVERHAUL?
There are lots of good reasons to consider a rebrand. Brands have a natural lifecycle. Their value can erode through new or more aggressive competition, they become ‘locked in time’ with consumers ageing fast, or there’s a significant new market opportunity that needs to be addressed.
But it’s amazing how many companies get dazzled by the rewards and forget one small word as they wade into renaming, repositioning or repackaging themselves. Trust.
Trust is fundamental because brands are about strong emotional bonds with customers. They give customers a degree of certainty that the product or service bought this week will be the same as it was the previous week.
Do anything that undermines the ‘trusting relationship’ and you run the real risk of damaging the business. Some companies have invested large sums of money in rebranding programmes only to go backwards, and for some the adjustments have proved fatal.
But it doesn’t have to be like this. Rebranding is a high-risk strategy but with the right mix of expertise, sensitivity, insight and, above all, clear thinking it can deliver stunning results.
There are six priority areas to consider when debating the merits of making the change, but these ideas apply equally to initial brand creation and development as well as rebranding.
1 CLEAR THINKING AND ACCURATE MARKET INTELLIGENCE
The challenge is in using the right research to accurately read the brand and market situations and then in judging the degree and nature of change required. Does the brand need refreshing, fine-tuning or a major overhaul? Get the research wrong and companies can attempt to ‘bolt on’ a value that customers simply cannot connect with. Or, many companies have attempted to introduce a new visual identity that is completely out of step with their acknowledged brand values.
One company, Bespak, offers end-to-end drug delivery – everything from initial design concepts through to highvolume manufacturing – but externally it was perceived as only offering part of the process. The company rebranded in 2003 to communicate the full end-to-end service to its stakeholders, but before committing itself to doing anything conducted a series of in-depth focus groups. The goal was to ensure that the values the company subsequently communicated were aligned to its customers’ needs and expectations.
2 REBRANDS STRENGTHEN TRUST AND BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
Consider Skoda, which 10 years ago was dogged by reliability problems and was the butt of thousands of jokes. The company has undergone an extraordinary brand transformation, leaving behind its previous reputation for poor design and engineering, to the point that Skoda is now Europe’s fastest growing car brand with a significant share of the budget car sector.
My own company, SNS Group, was a £3m-turnover advertising agency specialising in the electronics sector but found itself under pressure when the advertising and electronics sectors both started to suffer in the late 1990s. To address this, the agency started targeting new market sectors directly and then changed its name and corporate identity to better reflect this new positioning; and all at a time when many competitors were in survival mode. This shift has helped attract more business from new markets, as well as increase confidence and strengthen relationships with existing clients.
3 ENERGISING THE ‘FACE BEHIND THE BRAND’
The outcome from any rebrand should be that a familiar name will be seen, consumed or experienced in a fresh and more positive light. And that can only happen when the people behind the product are energised by the changes and committed at all levels to seeing them through. The internal communications component of any rebrand is vital in motivating corporate and staff enthusiasm and behaviour.
Incentive programmes are widely used to motivate frontline sales teams but they often fail when the rules to qualify are too complicated or schemes are structured to reward only the highest achievers. This was exactly the situation TNT International found itself in when it decided to replace its existing programme with Quest – a new scheme that was easier to understand, more inclusive and got staff qualifying and winning awards earlier.
Sales staff now feel more motivated and better rewarded, but from the business viewpoint, they are now in a stronger position to ‘live the brand promise’ in their daily customer contact.
4 SUCCESSFUL REBRANDS MAKE COMPANIES MORE ATTRACTIVE TO EMPLOYEES
The key battleground for many companies is attracting and retaining the right quality of people. So, theoretically if a company can clearly articulate its vision and values, both internally and externally, then a rebrand should make it a more attractive employer. The last rebranding of BP is a great example of this.
When considering their potential employers, tomorrow’s energy engineers and technologists saw BP solely as an oil company rather than an organisation with interests in solar, wave or other alternative energy forms.
The new visual identity – the lower case bp surrounded by the green and yellow ‘petals’ – has started to reposition the company as a total energy provider, literally beyond petroleum, and with an environmentally-sensitive approach.
5 CORPORATE TRANSPARENCY IS VITAL
Brand changes need to be both credible and easily understood in the market. Royal Mail has certainly tripped up here and earned itself a place in branding history, but for all the wrong reasons. The general public was left totally bemused – and stunned by the costs involved – when the group decided to rename itself as Consignia. Why waste money when the Royal Mail seemed to be a perfectly good name? And in the end, following a high-profile, disastrous launch the company reverted to renaming itself as The Royal Mail Group PLC.
6 BEING GEARED UP INTERNALLY TO DELIVER THE NEW BRAND PROMISE
This is the last but probably most important area to consider, and it’s a critical reminder that all employees are essential in creating positive brand impressions with customers and the general public. Marketing communications can ‘tell’ customers what to expect but fundamental corporate changes are vital to ensure consistent delivery of the new brand promise by all employees.
It’s almost pointless kicking off a new communications campaign by claiming to be good at X or Y if customers don’t actually experience this when they’re in direct contact with the organisation’s employees. Internal communications and training are an essential part of any branding programme to ensure that the promise extends into every possible customer interaction.
There’s only one exception to this and that’s when the company’s offer – and therefore its employees’ performance and behaviour – has already out-stripped its existing identity. For example if a business has evolved its core values and proposition while its name and corporate image haven’t kept pace with the changes.
REBRAND ON A SOLID FOUNDATION
Rebranding isn’t about giving an existing product or service a new name, a new logo, devising a snappy slogan or changing the corporate colours and expecting the sales to roll in. It’s about challenging the very values of an organisation, whether you’re operating in a specialist niche market with a handful of employees or managing a ‘mega brand’ within a global corporation.
Taking the decision to rebrand can be a difficult choice to make because it is such a high-risk strategy, but getting it right can occasionaly deliver stunning results. The focus should be on regaining clear differentiation between your business and the competition and then actively articulating a revitalised brand promise to your customers. Good solid research, a carefully thought out strategy and a total commitment throughout the organisation to seeing it through are all essential for ultimate success.
