SCORE business tips: Reposition your business by rebranding
One tactic you might consider as we come out of this pandemic period of hibernation is to reposition your brand with your current and potential customer base.
Your brand is how your company and products are identified by customers. It is a perception held in the mind of current and future buyers of how they connect with you. It is how they perceive the values that represent who you are, what you do and what is your offer to address the needs, wants and desires of your customers.
When you think of Cape Cod brands, what values come to mind? Cape Cod Beer, Cape Air, Cape Symphony or LoveLiveLocal.
Brand repositioning is when a company changes a brand's status in the marketplace. This typically includes changes to the marketing mix, such as product, place, price and promotion. It may include adjusting the organization’s image through its logo, tagline or even colors in its messaging. Repositioning is done to keep up with consumer wants and needs or take advantage of market opportunities.
Brand repositioning is about changing the way that customers view your company. This can be done in several ways such as changing your messaging, changing your brand personality or even changing your product/service offerings. Rebranding involves changing your brand identity completely by implementing a new logo or changing the name of your company. It’s a way for a company to refresh itself.
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Repositioning is a strategic decision and takes planning. The strategies define how the target customers will interact with the organization.
Consumer engagement: People want to be involved with the brand. Businesses have to work to customize their offerings to fit consumer needs.
Identity: Your brand generates your identity in the mind of the buyer. The goal of branding is to deliver competitive advantage where customers see no suitable substitute for you and your offerings. The brand is tied together through the logo, slogan, color scheme, marketing materials and employees. Everything about the company should be integrated to present a unified whole that is consistent across all channels.
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A great example of repositioning is Kim Fulton Marchand’s professional services business — MarchandCFO. Kim launched her “chief financial officer” business in 2010 as a support to small businesses.
Coming out of the pandemic, seeing the changes in the market and demand for financial services she decided to reposition her brand while maintaining the current values it has delivered. She first designed a new logo that would speak to the brand but be personal, yet universal in its message. It drove home feelings of being strong, smart, forward, fun, powerful and female.
Having a bright colored object (red high heels) as the focal point of the branding works well with photo/graphic delivery on social media and allows reinforcing the brand without using the logo by simply suggesting and reminding.
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The keys: Have a strategy, choose your tactics carefully, be flexible and allow for organic change. Select consultants and advisors who know what they know and trust your gut by having the courage to make the choice that may or may not be the most popular.
Marc L. Goldberg is a SCORE Certified Mentor. Sourced: Kim Fulton Marchand, MarchandCFO, www.marchandCFO.com. Visit SCORE Cape Cod & the Islands for free small business advice and mentoring at www.capecod.score.org, contact SCORE at capecodscore@verizon.net or 508-775-4884.
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod SCORE: Rebranding is an opportunity to reposition a business
