How much can your firm benefit from a timely rebranding and revitalisation? When considering this question, one must keep in mind that rebranding does not necessarily address the wants and needs of the firm directly, but rather speaks to the wants and needs of that firm’s current and prospective customers.
Therefore, the important factors to consider when assessing the value of a rebrand include equity measurement; market differentiation and accessibility; brand awareness, relevance and vitality; and consumer personality, preference, usage, associations, and emotional connectivity. If your firm can improve relationship to its client base in any or all of these key areas, you may want to think seriously about revitalisation.
Reason 1: Competitive advantage
Your brand is the public face of your business. As the economic climate changes, it must change along with it. A well planned and executed rebrand will enable your firm to reflect current market dynamics and thereby gain competitive advantage, accelerate pipeline performance and become a leading voice of the industry. Sidestep the other financial services competition and increase your market share through an updated image. By revisiting your brand messaging, you can counter a loss in consumer confidence and/or decreased profitability.
Reason 2: Stimulate growth
Rebranding can serve to reduce the cost of operation and to cater more efficiently to current client demands. In markets where complex and confusing mixes of product portfolios frequently undermine brand impact via advertising clutter and media proliferation, a rebrand can combat incongruence and audience fragmentation to regain client impact and promote growth. As the firm continues to grow, subsequent rebranding will ensure that clients hungry for change will keep coming back to see “what’s new.” In this sense, the rebrand becomes a public expression of the firm’s evolution and a constant check to potential outgrowth.
Reason 3: Long terms market expansion
When a small financial advisory business prospers and expands, they and/or their service proposition frequently require a rebrand or revitalisation to reflect the larger, more sophisticated business it has become. Any emergent firm not employing this essential business strategy will inevitably be dwarfed by its competition. The modest brand offerings typical of the financial advisory firm and its contingent budget restrictions will ultimately prove inadequate as that firm grows and evolves. However, budding economic prosperity and subsequent operational expansion are not the only facets of business growth and evolution that necessitate revitalisation and rebranding.
Reason 4: Innovation = Profitability
Just as a firm’s brand must reflect changes in size and market position, it must also reflect changes in technological innovation. Constantly evolving at an exponential rate, technology and business prosperity are often inseparable from one another. Any brand associated with technology or technological advancement, must keep pace with the industry of which it is a part. Again, your brand is the public face of your business. When it fails to reflect the level of innovation your business has achieved, your clients will quite naturally assume that you have fallen behind the times. Competitors who consistently rebrand their products and services—even those competitors who have yet to achieve your firm’s level of technological acumen—will likely outperform you in terms of reputation and/or economic profitability.
Whatever your reason for rebranding—be it economic and operational expansion, technological innovation, or any other type of growth and/or change—your firm’s brand must remain consistent with the latest and greatest your business has to offer. Whether reflecting advancements in your product and/or service lines or the evolving nature of your business in and of itself, the process of rebranding is essential to communicate your level of quality to your audience of consumers.
Furthermore, although taking the step to rebrand your business will, first and foremost, revitalise your client base, the change can also have quite a rejuvenating effect upon the internal culture of your firm. As your brand evolves to reflect new innovations in a constantly changing marketplace, your employees will inevitably be swept up in the momentum.
Launching a rebrand will call for new levels of employee and adviser support, knowledge and feedback, as well as affording them the opportunity to join in the creation of a new, positive business culture. In this way, the process of rebranding not only brings the public face of your firm in step with its internal machinations, but also, in turn, actively engages your management team and workforce to contribute to the new business culture that your new brand represents.
The business rebrand is about a great deal more than making your business look good. It’s about making your bottom line look good, too. So what is it that makes a firm rebrand such a valuable proposition for your business? Please share your thoughts and comments.
Guest Post: Sookie Shuen is the community manager at Tomorrow People, a leading UK inbound marketing consultancy who provides free advice and updates through a five step inbound marketing methodology. You can read more of Sookie’s content on inbound marketing by subscribing to the Zoober Inbound Marketing blog.You can also find her on Google+ and Twitter
