The Fundamentals of Brand Repositioning
Brand repositioning is sometimes an essential step in keeping up with consumer wants, needs, and ever-changing buying patterns. Moreover, many enterprises have had to pivot their offering in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic as a means to stay afloat. These brands will need repositioning in order to keep their messaging consistent with their new offering.
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When to Reposition your Brand
The key question many businesses ponder is whether or not they should reposition their brand, and if so, then when?
Repositioning may be helpful if you feel you are no longer connecting with your customer base. Additionally, a repositioning is highly beneficial if you are expanding to a new, broader market or adapting to competitive forces.
If your market seems to be overtaking you, a solid brand repositioning strategy may be your lifeline. If your enterprise is experiencing periods of little to no growth, it might be time to reframe your offering to (re)appeal to your audience.
The Kellogg School of Management notes that “[brand] repositioning typically takes considerable time and financial resources. Nevertheless, modest changes in a position are sometimes warranted to better align a brand’s frame of reference with its point of difference”.
While lengthy and potentially costly, brand repositioning is critical if your brand’s existing position is failing to gain traction. Brand reframing is an absolute necessity when your services or products have changed or been updated.
Your customers should know what you are offering at all times so that they can buy into your brand. Your brand is more approachable and your audience will more easily spend money with you if your customers are informed.
How to Begin
So how to begin? Firstly, you need to consider the industry landscape your enterprise functions in. Within your business, you also have to take stock of your goals, courses of action, and plans for the future – this then has to be considered in light of what your competitors are delivering. Be sure to highlight your differentiating factors, future-proof your growth strategies as far as possible, and stay up-to-date with what your competing enterprises’ movements.
Similarly, it is essential that you listen to your customers and do the necessary market research. Brand repositioning is of no use if you pivot in the wrong direction. Once you understand what your clients need, you will need to re-look at your brand messaging and internal functioning. Your cross-platform messaging should address your updated offering, (re)connect with clients, and foster trust within your audience.
Next, it is critical that you update and reconsider your marketing touch-points. Every single interaction and offering your company delivers should align with your repositioned brand’s message. It may be difficult at first, but you have to commit to your new message across all your brand’s touch-points. Slipping into old patterns is easy for business owners but confusing to customers on the receiving end of the messaging and should thus be avoided.
There’s No Need to Rush
Finally, brand repositioning is relatively scalable and can be implemented over a period of time. While most businesses want to reposition, or even relaunch, at full-speed with guns blazing, this may be difficult to justify financially. Instead, you can revise your brand positioning bit-by-bit. For a time-sensitive approach, start by re-looking your social media platforms and advertising copy, then move on to website updates. Eventually, you can roll out your remaining touch-points.
A marketing agency with a holistic, results-driven approach can help you achieve effective repositioning by walking this journey with you and strategising to meet your needs. We work with many clients to refine their brand transformation process. Get in touch to see how we can help you.
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