Wondering how to and when to upgrade your brand to attract new customers, or stay in sync with the existing ones? MarketinGrow, brings you a blog that will help you decide how and when to upgrade or change your brand approach. Let’s start!!
What do Netflix, Amazon and Apple have in common? They’ve evolved with changing times. Change is a common part of any business cycle, irrespective of whether you are a small large business. And some hard times such as the current virus pandemic and also bring with it a good business opportunity.
Most small businesses and entrepreneurs start off as an idea and idea that converts to profit. But to make it sustainable and succeed in today’s economy if your brand can’t share the same values as your audience it’s non-existent to them. Given that you face competition not only local but global and your customers are often lured either directly or indirectly through different means, making it your responsibility to make your brand stand out.
And that’s exactly why a business reinvents itself. This doesn’t mean the core values of the business or the brand have to change but just changing how you offer the product can be a good enough strategy for a small business.
According to Shawn DuBravac, a Small Business expert and author of “Digital Destiny” DuBravac says, “it’s important for a small business to constantly innovate and re-innovate the organization, from what they offer, the value it provides to how they treat their employees” especially if you are an e-commerce or technology-based firm that fear larger corporates overshadowing your product innovation and re-innovating what you offer keeps your customer profile growing.
When should a business rebrand itself?
Typically, a firm would be advised to rebrand or renovate every 5 years to stay in sync with their customers. But there are other scenarios that may be a no brainier such as image crisis or financial crisis.
But one time a small business can re-innovate their existing product or services is when there is a global slow down. This is the time most small businesses take a hit but a smart brand would know how to be a winner in such situations by providing value and need.
How do you reinvent for a small business?
If you choose to reinvent and rebrand it’s a crucial step. In requires a strategy, goal and finances and most importantly time to support a successful rebranding. We will give you a step by step approach to doing this below:
- Know when to change – for a small business timing is everything. Change or reinventing doesn’t have to be just because we told you so, but also based on calculated facts. Like your personal finances such as paying for your children’s college tuition or a new mortgage. Things don’t come easy and rebranding halfway is never a good idea. Make the changes subtle and scale up accordingly to what you think you can handle or hire an agency that understands your market and its demographics to help you with it while staying on a budget.
- Know your customers – both existing and the target audience. Knowing how to get your existing customers to accept a new image of your business is half the war won. Since we want to grow the business you have to take into account the existing customers and survey their needs and wants and strategies ways with your marketing team for an approach that will be accepted by the existing customers. While it also is able to lure potential customers in.
- Make use of technology – An easy way most firms are able to evolve their brand image is to do this is via social media talk to your audience see what they like and what can be incorporated in your brand image and voice keep evolving with technology and use it to benefit your brands such as videos ads or AI. This doesn’t have a direct impact on the customers but subtle enough to encourage new audiences and traffic to convert into loyal customers.
- Make the transition smooth: evolution did not take place overnight nor does your brand growth. Constant evolving and renovation are the laws of nature too and is most easily accepted rather than an overnight change in the brand itself. This will also help you handle the transition in a much-organized manner on a personal level instead of feeling overwhelmed.
- Stick to the plan – often even when customers seem to take the new brand image quite well it’s the owners, we notice finding it hard to let go of old habits or approaches. Given that some companies have been doing business a certain way for a number of years change can be hard. As owners feel they are letting go of a part of themselves and often tend to switch gears, this is directly counterproductive to all the effort you have put in so far and leaves your customers employees and partners confused as to what you are planning which is never a good sign for a brand image.
Easy ways to reinvent your brand
Change your voice – instead of selling your product sell its value, people will remember stories, not the slogans. What customers look for online be it through SEO or social media is for products similar to their likeness. If your product matches what they are looking for you have a sale. Send a message that resonates with the target audience, make your new voice acceptable and engaging with its viewers.
Change the medium – businesses are never constant, imagine you are a café owner your menu would have to incorporate those items that your customers are most likely to buy or include take-away options. Similarly, while reinventing your brand if you often opted for traditional advertising opt for new mediums such as social media, email and blogs that are more engaging and get a lot of traction required for a business to keep growing.
Incorporate technology – the biggest gift 21st century has to offer is the constant evolution of technology, for a small business in Brampton or Mississauga this may seem like uncharted waters but with the right team and approach incorporating AI as chatbots or analytics, studying your customers and what’s engaging them the most can be life-changing. Technology and level the playing field for all businesses big or small. So, use it in the best possible way that can benefit your business.
Hire a digital marketing agent or agency– most of our clients are those who have been in the industry for close to a decade or more looking for a wider visibility and access to their clients. Being in the field of marketing made us understand how a marketing agency is able to access, define and strategies your business plan in order to make a smooth transition with the least amount of stress or confusion.
Start with simple transitions – rebranding doesn’t have to be hardcore, simple subtle changes can make a lot of difference when we speak of a small business. From changing your website look and feel, creating an app to a simple logo and graphic changes can help customers engage with your brand much better than a complicated or out of date approach. Start simple keep it subtle to see how customers react and scale up gradually.
How much does rebranding cost a business?
On average, rebranding would cost 10-20% of your marketing budget. In Canada, rebranding can cost a small business anywhere between $1000- $20,000. The numbers may and will differ depending on what your idea of rebranding is? Is it just a simple website change or adding technology and social media to the mix or changing the logo? Starting off may sound risky and scary since you have put in so much effort creating your business but with the right marketing team and approach this risk would very well translate into a good business investment that translates into bigger more visible profits for your business.
Want to know how to start the evolution of your brand? We have it all covered for your contact or book a consultation with MarketinGrow to know-how.
