3 steps to repositioning a brand
How do the Top 100 companies adjust to changing market conditions?
They have a team of people devoted to constantly monitoring the market, and they adjust their strategy as they go. Sometimes, the market shifts so much that they must reposition their brand entirely.
Smaller brands may need to do this too but probably won’t have a big marketing department and an ad agency with strategic planners helping us.
We smaller brands, however, have the advantage of being more agile and responsive to our market. We tend to be closer to our customers, and our finger is on the pulse all the time. It’s that, or we don’t survive.
So when we realise that our brand is not connecting with our target market in a way that drives our business goals, it can be less of an expense to make the necessary changes.
Here’s an outline of the processes involved in repositioning a big brand to reach its target market more effectively. It looks complex because of all the business planning jargon, but it’s not really.
It just takes time and effort.
STAGE 1
Understanding and defining
Gathering and understanding information about the business, its competitors, customers and the industries it operates in.
Ideally conducted as a formal Strategic Brand Plan, it can otherwise be satisfied through informal interviews with stakeholders.
This is a critical stage for developing the marketing strategies and plans you require to grow sales faster. Part of this process is ensuring that the business has a solid brand foundation (and capacity) to handle the planned growth that our strategies aim to achieve.
Activities and Outcomes
+ Understanding business goals
+ Company strengths to promote
+ Competitor weaknesses to exploit
+ Customer behaviour to satisfy
+ Industry trends to pursue
+ Identify, research, quantify and prioritise the brand’s current and desired target markets.
+ Brand health check
+ Brand audit (how is the brand looking, is it 100% consistent across all mediums, how is the brand currently perceived by the target market?)
+ Identify the gaps between where the brand is and where it needs to be.
+ Define the desired brand traits
+ Build target market personas
+ Provide brand communication guidelines
STAGE 2: TACTICAL PLANNING
+ Marketing strategy
+ Marketing plan
+ Marketing tactics
+ Sales and advertising budgets
+ Internal and external resource management
+ Establish methods of measurement and control
STAGE 3: IMPLEMENTATION
A. Ensure the brand is campaign-ready
+ Brand communication established (copywriting, product imagery, art direction and campaign concepts)
+ A new or refreshed website with easily-managed landing pages
+ Content created
+ Ads ready to go
+ Social media channels set up
B. Media Planning
Understand which media is most relevant for target market and what their other points of influence and information gathering are.
Prioritise the media they are most engaged in and most responsive to. The aim is to generate maximum awareness and action with minimum wastage.
Ensure the creative is compelling and relevant.
Develop a marketing calendar.
C. Media Buying
Go to the respective suppliers identified in the marketing plan and negotiate the best possible value for the set budget.
Look for ways to ensure the media and message are integrated across the relevant channels.
Strive to achieve value-added opportunities, be it through promotional partnerships, performance-based incentives etc.
D. Roll out any brand identity changes
It’s best to try and do this rapidly so you don’t have old and new logo branding at play, which messes up your brand message.
E. Take your new messaging to the market
STAGE 4: TEST, MEASURE, REFINE
Looks exhausting, and you don't know where to start? Let us help you.