How to Rebrand Your Business

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Whether your business has been open for a decade or just two years, only you can know when it’s time to rebrand. There’s no “time-limit” for successful branding, but at a certain point, you’ll likely feel the pressure to update your business. When it comes time to revamp your appliances, services or rethink your brick & mortar, you may want to go ahead and recreate your brand at the same time.  “Rebranding” is more than just updating your logo. While that can be a part of the process, the larger project can also mean changing your aesthetic, pricing, and services to realign your company with the business you want to be.  If you’re wondering whether it’s time to rebrand, keep your eye out for the following signs.

 Your Sales Are Declining

 One of the biggest reasons businesses decide to rebrand is to increase sales. Of course, when perfectly executed, a plan to rebrand can mean building on strong existing sales and adding a new consumer base to the mix. However, companies often see rebranding as a “Hail Mary” that can help them win back old customers.  Rebranding can be helpful when business owners want to reposition themselves in their current market. For example, if your restaurant has long been known as a fast and casual lunch spot, but now you see the lunch rush slow down, it may be time to pivot to another audience.  That can mean changing your menu to appeal to evening diners or highlighting fan favorites with new, better ingredients. It could also mean emphasizing your restaurant as a to-go spot and setting up a new local delivery service.  All of these ideas are factors that can contribute to your rebranding, but it will be up to you to identify the best ways to win back your customers.

 Ask Yourself These Questions 

 If you’re unsure where you’re going wrong, review the following ideas. Is your business’s “concept” still relevant to market trends in your area? For example, does your salon need to revamp any outdated or seasonal services?  Think about your guests, and try to define a common “guest profile.” Ask yourself why those guests visit your business and how you can attract more people like them. If you’re trying to appeal to a different audience, try to examine what parts of your business you can change without losing your current customer base.  Ultimately, you’ll need to think about your brand’s story as well. Does the story of how you launched your business still resonate with how you think about your brand today? Are you telling that story in different ways across different social media platforms?  Try to narrow in on exactly what you want your brand to say about your business and what forums you can use to say it.

 You Ran Into Some Horrible PR

 Whether that means toxic online reviews or a horrible local story, we get that these things happen. If you’ve been putting off addressing the incident, make sure to work with your team to create a message you can stand behind and then act as quickly as possible.  The longer you let bad press linger, the more your brand will suffer. To steer the focus away from the incident, emphasize to your guests that you are willing to learn and list how you are trying to improve your brand. Most consumers will resonate with transparency, but you may have to look into hiring a PR agency to put out the fire.  All in all, the chance to put distance between yourself and a negative story is a great opportunity to rebrand, so try to think about how the situation can help you build a better, stronger brand.

 Your Brand Needs a Facelift 

 Whether you’re trying to update your logo or attract new influencers, sometimes rebranding is as simple as hiring a graphic designer. Many freelance designers can create an affordable new logo for your brand, and it’s just a matter of reaching out to them via different platforms like Fiverr or Upwork.  Similarly, if you’re trying to create a new buzz around your rebrand, it may be time to reach out to an influencer. Keep in mind that younger social media “celebrities” prefer to work with brands that they see aligning with their own.  When it comes time to get the word out about your big moves, it won’t make sense to reach out to someone whose audience doesn’t resonate with the changes you’ve made — so try to act accordingly.  You’ll also need a strong social media presence to get their attention. Even if you plan to use the “collab” to boost your own social media standing, you’ll need to have your profile entirely built out so customers are impressed when rerouted to your page.  If an influencer tags your restaurant and their fans find you have six pictures of outdated products, you’re not going to win any new followers.

 Where to Advertise Your New Brand 

 Coupon campaigns are the perfect way to show off a new logo and incentivize new sales. Moreover, you can plug your coupons into a coupon-receipt campaign via grocery store advertising to get the word out.  This strategy will run your supermarket advertisement on the backs of grocery store register tape, so you know that every single shopper will walk out of the store with your ad.  Best of all, this means of hyper-local targeting helps you reach the people in your community. Many consumers assign a sense of “locality” to their supermarkets, so grocery store advertising can help you weave your brand into their daily lives. Other campaigns like Cartvertising allow you to run huge ads on the sides of shopping carts so you can really show off your new logo or aesthetic.  Depending on your business, it’ll be important to think critically about how you want to spread the word about your new rebrand — but grocery store advertising is a great place to start.  

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