The Rebranding Process…From BEGINNING to END
How do businesses go through a rebranding process without alienating their customers and losing the trust they’ve built?
As businesses change, the brand may need to follow suit. Whether through setting up extensions to the existing brand or making design changes that reflect the services and products the business offers, there is a balance to strike that engages existing customers and helps to attract new customers. That balance needs to be a gentle evolution rather than a complete revolution.
Straying too far from your existing branding will give your existing customers a reason to reconsider their loyalty to you, which you obviously would want to avoid.
Your customers may query why your business is making branding changes. Firstly, you need sound reasons for rebranding. It should be because there is a business benefit in doing so. It could be a costly process. If you are convinced that the branding needs to evolve, make the rebrand something your customers should be excited about. Create a rebrand launch date. Use social media to advertise your rebrand and maximize your exposure through PR. Your energy and passion for your business will be the biggest factor in delivering a positive message.
Adding an additional product or service may require attracting a different type of customer. You need to balance keeping your existing customers and attracting new ones. You should start by analyzing the habits of your new customer base. Do they operate in the same circles as your current customers or does your business need to market to that new customer base in a different way? Then consider how you can attract your current customers to your new products and services. It’s much easier to keep a customer than it is to attract new customers.
If you use the dropship method try utilizing suppliers that have warehouses in the US to increase customer service and shipping time. These companies allow US suppliers, branded invoicing, etc.
Existing customers may feel alienated by a rebrand or by the business focusing on a new market. But you can use the opportunity to show how your business is growing, thriving and expanding. Don’t give the impression that your business is moving in a new direction because you’ve exhausted your existing customer base, even if you have. It’s important to recognize and respect that your business has the opportunity to move into exciting new directions because of the engagement you’ve had from your existing customers, so don’t forget about them. Show them, love.
Your business should really focus on why the rebrand is important and what you expect it will deliver. What new opportunities does it open up? A business rebrand is a significant investment. It’s much more than a logo. It’s about perception, language, identity, and belonging. Give your existing customers plenty of reasons to stay engaged with you and potential new customers a reason to be a part of your project.
Tom Jullings
Director at onefoursix Digital Marketing Agency
Being Organized & Methodical
Talk about your rebranding publicly on different forums. Use social media, press releases, and other public platforms to communicate with your customers and the general public. The more your brand is heard and seen, the more you’ll see an increase in your traffic. People will develop an interest in a brand that cares about its customers and is so sincere and honest with them. This will help in attracting new customers.
Hamna Amjad
Community Manager at Ridester
Options to consider when “Rebranding”
How to present (launch?) the new brand to the public? There are a number of strategies for this, the slow roll, (an introduction in ads and on packages as a specialty sub-brand of the parent or existing brand [Glow Wax, an S.E. Johnson company]), the gradual take over,(where one old brand is gradually taken over by the new one. The old one gets smaller and appears less often, and the new one gets larger in packaging and in ads and marketing as the old one fades away) the band-aid method, (where the new brand is launched in every media, in your face, all at once and the old one just disappears). Which one you select depends on the reason for the rebrand, and the level of expediency needed to accomplish the change. The slower you go, the more time the existing customer base has to adjust to the change and the fewer you will lose as long as the product QUALITY and FUNCTIONALITY remain the same.
Remain Loyal to your Customer Base
Keeping the existing audience is largely a matter of maintaining the core qualities that attracted them and making sure that they are shown not to have changed. Quality and functionality should remain staples of the brand to retain the audience they attracted initially, but can be updated and refreshed, potentially by adding new uses for the product or category, or by partnering with another brand to create a combined product (Cleansers of many different types containing Clorox comes to mind as an example).
Dave Poulos The Marketing Doctor
The main thing is, well two things...
1) Validate with market research and Time.
2) Do it in phases. Begin to phase out the old branding and incorporate the new branding. Del Taco did this recently with their focus on freshly made food. They are slowly changing their consumer perspective of a fresh and affordable brand rather than another fast food taco shop. But by doing it in phases it hasn't been a shock to their current customer base. When you shock the current customer base they can feel alienated and stop patronizing you.
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Rolling out the Changes to your Customers & Clients
All too often, rebranding is taken in a negative light; however, the move can actually open doors to a new customer base without dismantling the existing users. But, it's important to understand the consumer psyche, if you want rebranding to go in your favor.
Any customer, in a rebranding scenario, can get intimidated by one or the following things:
· Confusions about the changes happening to your brand.
· Resistance to the immediate change as they have established an emotional connection with your brand already.
In my experience, if you break the news overnight that you are rebranding and these are the changes to accept; your customers can get a bad impression or even get furious. It's like after spending so much of emotional currency on your brand, they don't have a say or involvement at all.
So, keeping them in the loop about the changes in advance and providing consistent updates during the transition can help your customers stay on the same page with you. This way, you are going to keep their trust. But, there is a caveat to the strategy. Simply keeping them in the loop isn't going to help. You have to assure them the change is only going to enhance their lives and there isn't going to be a single disruption whatsoever.
Narendra Kumar Founder, The Digital Education
Make It Public, Make it Known!
Talk about your rebranding publicly on different forums. Use social media, press releases, and other public platforms to communicate with your customers and the general public.
The more your brand is heard and seen, the more you’ll see an increase in your traffic. People will develop an interest in a brand that cares about its customers and is so sincere and honest with them. This will help in attracting new customers.
Hamna Amjad
Community Manager at Ridester
Event Planning 101: Start to Finish
When is the right time for your business to have an event? Business owners must remember event planning is a very big part of their marketing power, especially when combined with social media prowess. In financial services, as an example, I recommend scheduling your marketing plan over a 3-month (or 12-weeks) period and making certain it includes all of your events.
Think this through from the CLIENT'S perspective for it to be most strategic.
Questions to ask yourself, and answer them while planning
· How small or large do you want the event to be? Intimate soirees garner a system of inclusivity while larger events allow your client to bring a friend.
· What would your client's like to do? Would it be an event that supports a non-profit in your area (making your event more about others than yourself)?
· Would it be an event to support another client's business - a new restaurant that's opening and you have a wine and appetizer event to support local businesses while introducing new possible patrons?
· What RSVP system/process will your client prefer to use? Is it easy and straightforward? Does it require a bunch of steps they have to surmount just for them to let you know they are going to be there!
· Will your RSVP system/process be shareable through the client's social media presence (such as Eventbrite which allows your client to tweet out their attendance or Facebook Events which allows your client's participation in an event to be seen by their connected audience).
· When you're at the event - how do you intend to make every client feel connected? How do you plan to meet new faces - and how to remember their names? (Name tags help!)
· Who will be there to take pictures of the event to share on your social media sites? (Hint: NOT YOU - hire someone or ask a friend you trust to focus on this.)
· What is your follow-up process with the client? Not only about the event itself (great events need to be repeated!) but also to get referrals for a new business or new appointments? What is your follow-up process for marketing? Are you going to write a blog article or a follow-up post? Were there clients at the event who have a venue or offering to do another event at?
Think every detail through because there are tons of marketing nuggets that fall to the side of events - missed opportunities to make your brand bigger, bolder, and more amplified if you fail to pay attention. The ROI is about the Return on Impact which will affect your Return on Investment!
Sheryl Brown. CEO
BIONICsocial, LLC
@BIONICsocialite pretty much everywhere online!
Event Purpose...
In my years of experience with leveraging events as a marketing tool, I have found many tricks to leverage the data received at events to drive present and future sales.
Events can be used to build a brand long term by making available to your desired
Customers; a platform to interact with your brand face to face with a positive experience. People are more likely to remember the last event they attended rather than the last website they visited. HOWEVER, when you pair potential customers who have attended your event with the correct marketing funnel, you can mine for gold!
Having different places and things for your potential customers to interact with while at your event, giving them the opportunity to ask questions, and play raffle draws for a chance to win SPECIFIC prizes, is another avenue to segment your marketing strategy to retarget for the CORRECT kind of relevant content your desired customers will love and appreciate because it's relevant to them! Every event should have a way for people to be tagged with their specific interests, so the follow-up content can be as relevant as possible to them. Even if people miss your event, send them a follow-up email the next day saying you’re sorry you missed them and show them some fun pictures of the event (this will make them less likely to miss the next event.)
If anyone signs up that day/makes a purchase, they should be given a special bonus gift they can carry around which shows the other potential customers in the room that other people are saying yes, so they should too! Be sure to have plenty of extra staff to take care of these customers so they will be more likely to make EVEN more purchases with you in the future.
In the past, I have always aligned my events with charities that are relevant to my marketing client’s goals for a few reasons.
1) It feels good to give back and help a charity
2) They usually have an email list and will invite their supporters
3) If a portion of your proceeds from the event are going to a charity, you can usually get alcohol sponsors and other companies to donate to your event
4) It’s a great way to network
Emily Paige
Director of Operations and Creative Services
EKOH Marketing- emily@ekohmarketing.com
After the Event: Make it Known that you Will Be Utilizing Media Coverage
Create a media opportunity for the guests to repost and coach them up on how to tag your business and the event on Instagram. You can also create custom Snapchat filters for your event that is geographic specific to within a mile of the location, so your brand can overlap fun photos taken. We specialize in event videography to showcase the event for our customers as a package when taking on the event project management.
Post event depends on the preparation of information gathering prior to the scheduled event date and the man hours to follow up...key:personally! Consumers hardly read all the way to the end of an email. Branding is about your dedication to your business industry and market. New relationships are forged at events, especially when unexpected B2B or B2C networking happens. It has the most gravitational pull away from our smartphones and tablet gratification when we connect with people again.
Branden Zavala
Owner of Open44,an events + media company in Arizona.
Do’s & Don’ts
1. Don’t add them to your email drip campaign without asking first. Seriously. In a way, you probably stand out by not doing this.
2. Connect on relevant social media if appropriate for your industry - real estate, for example, can generally be pretty comfortable regarding this.
3. Don’t harass people with calls, texts, and emails. People get freaked out - give them time to respond. Be courteous and have it in mind that they have their own lives too.
4. Follow up on any promises you made to people you spoke to. If you put someone’s email address in the margin of your notes because you said you’d send them something they requested, do it. Think hard! First impressions are important, and you’d be better off surprising someone that completely forgot they asked you for something than have someone left waiting and disappointed that you dropped the ball.
Devin Beverage
Business Growth Strategist at Dev Bev Co.
Dev Bev Co., Digital Marketing Agency