Our Views
Brand Repositioning: Revitalise Your Brand
AT A GLANCE
Brands can stagnate when they no longer resonate with consumers or fail to meet evolving customer needs. Companies need to consider repositioning their brand when there is a misalignment between the brand and the market or consumer expectations. Innovation should be continuous to stay relevant, keep consumers engaged, and sustain long-term growth. To maintain growth and avoid stagnation, brands should clearly understand their market position and target audience while building a strategy to keep their product offerings and marketing efforts fresh.
Here are some examples of big brands that repositioned themselves to stay relevant to their consumers.
Stanley
Stanley, initially aimed at workmen and outdoors enthusiasts, successfully rebranded itself as a trendy choice for young women while still maintaining its core identity as a durable and reliable outdoor brand. To generate excitement in the market, the company undertook a major refresh by introducing new colours and modernised designs, making its products more appealing.
The brand leveraged social media influencers to reshape its image. Collaborations with influencers on platforms like Instagram helped broaden Stanley's appeal and reach a more extensive, younger audience. Additionally, the brand utilised limited edition releases to create a sense of exclusivity and urgency among consumers. This strategy capitalised on the "Fear of Missing Out" (FOMO), driving interest and boosting sales.
Oatly
Initially viewed as a niche product for those with lactose intolerance, Oatly transformed its image into a lifestyle choice for health-conscious and environmentally aware consumers. It captured consumer's attention when they launched a new communication strategy.
The brand adopted a cheeky and irreverent tone in its marketing. Slogans like "Wow, no cow!" and "Milk, but made for humans" captured consumer attention and differentiated the brand from traditional dairy products. This approach resonated particularly well with younger, more conscious consumers.
The brand revamped its packaging to feature bold typography and playful messaging, making it stand out on shelves. The new design treated packaging as a marketing tool, turning cartons into advertisements that conveyed the brand's personality.
Oatly engaged directly with baristas in high-end coffee shops to penetrate the speciality coffee market. By allowing baristas to experiment with and recommend Oatly products, the brand gained credibility and visibility among coffee enthusiasts.
Old Spice
The brand embraced a bold, humorous tone to shift its focus to younger consumers. This approach was exemplified by the iconic "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" campaign featuring Isaiah Mustafa, which used wit and absurdity to engage viewers and challenge the brand's old-fashioned image.
The initial ad quickly went viral, generating millions of views and sparking conversations across social media platforms. The follow-up videos, in which Mustafa responded to fans' comments, created a dynamic interaction that kept the audience engaged.
Alongside its rebranding efforts, Old Spice launched new product lines like "Swagger" and "Wild Collection," which featured fresh scents and modern packaging designed to appeal to younger consumers. By embracing pop culture references and current trends, Old Spice positioned itself as a grooming product and a lifestyle brand that resonates with modern sensibilities.
Just like Stanley, Oatly, and Old Spice, your brand might need a refresh. If you are looking to reposition your stagnant brand, consider the following steps:
Conduct a brand audit
A brand audit evaluates a brand's current position in the marketplace, focusing on its strengths, weaknesses, and overall effectiveness. This process helps companies gain better insight into whether the brand is resonating with consumers. The audit involves assessing the brand's values, mission, vision, and company culture, evaluating all marketing materials, and analysing the sales process and customer journey from awareness to purchase.
A brand audit should be done yearly to assess branding efforts comprehensively and to help companies make informed decisions to strengthen their market position. By doing a brand audit, you can create actionable strategies based on your findings to enhance brand performance.
Understand Your Target Audience
Knowing your target audience allows you to create marketing messages that resonate with them. This targeted approach increases the likelihood of engagement and conversion, as your messaging can align with their values, interests, and needs.
Businesses can allocate marketing budgets more effectively by identifying specific groups most likely to purchase your products or services. It helps companies tailor offerings to meet their customers' particular needs and preferences. They can set realistic expectations about what their products or services can deliver. This clarity helps reduce customer dissatisfaction and enhances the overall experience
A deep understanding of your target audience fosters stronger relationships. Companies can engage with customers more meaningfully, leading to increased brand loyalty and repeat business. By investing time in identifying and analyzing their target market, companies can significantly improve their chances of success in today's dynamic business environment.
Refresh visual identity
Refreshing your visual identity is a strategic process that can revitalize your brand and enhance its appeal to your target audience. By following these steps, you can effectively refresh your visual identity to better connect with your audience while maintaining alignment with your core brand values.
Update Your Colour Palette: Colours evoke emotions and significantly impact brand perception. Consider refreshing your colour palette to reflect modern aesthetics while ensuring it aligns with your brand's message and values.
Revise Typography: Choose fonts that enhance readability and align with your brand's tone. Ensure that the typography works well across different mediums, from digital to print.
Redesign Your Logo: If necessary, update your logo to make it more contemporary while retaining elements that reflect your brand's heritage. A well-designed logo should be memorable, versatile, and scalable.
Enhance Imagery and Graphics: Update the imagery used in your marketing materials to ensure it reflects current trends and resonates with your audience. Use high-quality visuals that align with your brand story.
Create Comprehensive Brand Guidelines: Develop guidelines that outline how to consistently use the refreshed visual elements across all platforms. This document should include specifications for logo usage, colour codes, typography, imagery styles, and more.
Conduct Market Research
Through surveys, focus groups, and industry analysis, we can understand current trends, customer preferences, and market gaps. This data helps us identify opportunities for new products or enhancements to existing ones.
Engage with Customers
Actively seek feedback from your customers about their experiences and needs. Utilize tools like customer interviews, surveys, and social media interactions to gather insights that can inform product development.
Leverage Technology
Stay updated with emerging technologies that can enhance your products or services. For example, integrating AI, IoT, or advanced analytics can lead to smarter, more efficient offerings.
Innovate your products and services
In today's fast-paced market, businesses must continuously evolve to keep up with competitors. Innovation allows companies to create new and improved products that meet changing customer needs. Innovation can help address customer feedback and expectations, enhancing a company’s reputation as a forward-thinking leader in the industry. This responsiveness can help attract new customers while retaining existing ones.
Here are effective methods to drive innovation in your offerings:
Prototype and Test
Develop prototypes of new products or features and test them with a select group of users. This iterative process allows you to refine ideas based on user feedback before a full-scale launch.
Analyze Competitors
Study competitors’ innovations and strategies. Understanding their successes and failures can provide valuable insights into potential opportunities for your products or services.
Utilize Design Thinking
Apply design thinking principles to focus on user-centric solutions. This method encourages empathy with users, ideation of creative solutions, prototyping, and testing.
Effectively Leverage Digital Marketing
An intentional digital marketing strategy is one of the most effective ways to enhance visibility, engage the audience more deeply, and drive growth. Digital marketing pillars include websites with lead forms, search engine optimisation (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), pay-per-click (PPC) ads, social media, email marketing and conversion rate optimisation.
Here are key strategies to maximise your digital efforts:
Utilize Data and Analytics
Leverage analytics tools to track the performance of your campaigns. Monitor key metrics such as website traffic, conversion rates, and engagement levels. Use this data to refine your strategies and improve future campaigns.
Embrace Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Incorporate AI technologies to enhance personalization and efficiency in your marketing efforts. AI can help automate tasks, analyze customer data for insights, and improve targeting through predictive analytics.
Diversify Your Marketing Channels
Utilize a mix of digital marketing channels such as social media, email marketing, SEO, and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Each channel serves a unique purpose and can reach different segments of your audience effectively.
Create Engaging Content
Develop high-quality content that provides value to your audience. Use various formats like blogs, videos, infographics, and interactive content (quizzes, polls) to keep users engaged and encourage sharing.
Leverage Social Media
Build a strong presence on social media platforms where your target audience is active. Engage with followers through regular posts, stories, live sessions, and customer interactions.
Implement Personalization Strategies
Use data-driven insights to create personalized experiences for your customers. Tailor messages, product recommendations, and promotions based on individual preferences and behaviours.
Optimize for Mobile
Ensure that all digital content is mobile-friendly. A significant portion of users access content via smartphones; optimizing for mobile enhances user experience and can improve search engine rankings.
The most successful brands are always prepared to pivot and reposition themselves to stay relevant to their target audience and grow. At Straits Creatives, we support brands by determining the most effective ways to rekindle interest and influence your audience.
Schedule a discovery call with Straits Creative to explore how we can help you reposition your brand for greater engagement.
Get in touch with us today. tisha@straitscreative.com
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