How to Rebrand Your Business Without Losing Your Audience

Rebranding is often needed when the existing branding strategy needs a makeover with the changing times. It can also need a revamp if it is no longer in alignment with the latest marketing efforts. Rebranding generally involves changing the logo, name, design elements, brand colours, tagline, etc. However, it can be challenging to retain your customers as they may feel confused because of the modifications. Therefore, business owners need to make sure that rebranding does not push the customers away.

If you are planning to purchase a business for sale in New Zealand, you need to be careful with massive improvements in branding after the purchase. It should not disappoint the existing customer base or alienate the target audience. The buyers need to feel the same way about the business and its offerings even after renaming, which requires effort. Here is how you can achieve the feat without upsetting or isolating anyone.

Build a Rebranding Strategy

A branding plan is created at the beginning of the business operations and its guidelines are used by the marketing and sales team to maintain standardisation. Similarly, rebranding also requires a solid plan that covers changes in the branding strategy. Whether it is just a name change or a complete revamping of the brand, you need to put down the flowchart for the execution of the rebranding process.

Planning will help in creating a roadmap for the actions that need to be taken for rebranding and that it works out smoothly. It must be laid down clearly so that the team members can understand and execute the strategy. They know about the changes that need to be implemented and how they need to be incorporated within the given budget and timeframe.

Assess If Rebranding Is Necessary

When you are thinking about sprucing up the appearance and positioning of the brand in the market, you need to understand that it will affect your marketing, customer behaviour and communication strategy. It must be an absolute requirement, such as an outdated vision, negative publicity, change in management or failing marketing tactics.

Rebranding can become essential to wipe out the old image of the brand and reposition it as renewed, better and enhanced version. However, it should not be done without any reason because it can turn away the customers, employees and stakeholders. The reason for the change should be substantial as you do not want to lose your precious loyal customers.

Create A New Identity

If you are repositioning the business, you need to develop new products and have a renewed vision and mission. The logo and the slogan are the first things that people associate with the brand, so they will have to change according to the new branding. Do not go overboard with design elements and make it challenging to understand. Keep it simple and impactful and make room for changes because the design will go through rounds of discussions and improvisations.

Think about the future and make sure that the rebranding will work in the long term and will not have to be tweaked again. If there are some parts of your branding that were appreciated by the audience, you can keep them intact in the new design and website to maintain recognition.

Focus on your Existing Customers

While defining your rebranding goals and creating the guidelines, you need to make sure that your existing customer base will identify with the changes. The purpose of rebranding should be to retain the confidence and trust of the target audience and strengthen the bond between the business and its buyers. Thus, the strategy should be customer-centric and must help loyal customers understand the change.

They should be communicated about the rebranding in advance with personalised emails, phone calls and face-to-face interactions. Paying attention to feedback is one of the top business management tips that need to be kept in mind. The support team must work on making them realise that the core values and product quality will not be affected by the repositioning, and they will continue to get the same service and support.

Clear Doubts and Apprehensions

Many existing customers, stakeholders and employees may find rebranding to be puzzling. They will have a lot of questions and concerns that need to be addressed at the earliest. The business owner must appoint his close associates to take charge of informing the employees and their team members about the need for rebranding. Since employees will be communicating with the customers, it is imperative to make them understand all the details of the rebranding strategy.

The focus should be on reducing anxiety and panic among customers and listening to their fears. It is important to clear their doubts and assure them about the consistency of quality and valuable offerings. Help them understand that they are the most valued asset for the organisation and the business needs their support to take the next step.

Promote the Brand Change

Repositioning is often done to acquire new customers or attract a new set of target customers. Thus, promotion is vital in communicating about the changes in the branding to the diverse audience. It will also help in eliminating rumours that might be affecting the image of the business. When the message is communicated directly from the brand, it makes a higher impact on the target audience.

Thus, the step of rebranding must be publicised through all communication channels, including social media, the company website, below the line marketing material, national advertising and others. The message must inform them about the change in the vision and mission and how it will benefit the customers. The emphasis should be on creating a buzz in the market around the repositioning so that people start talking about it and become intrigued to try the products.

Monitor the Brand Sentiment

After the launch and the communication of the change, you need to monitor the reaction of the target market towards the rebranding. Getting feedback and researching the market is essential to know how the audience feels about the changes and do they want to buy from the business or not. Check if the communication and promotion have been helpful in conveying the new vision and mission and there are no distortions in the minds of the buyers.

You can conduct focus group discussions with buyers to get their suggestions and make improvements to the design and the images. However, this should be done prior to the launch so that you are not making changes again and again, which can put off the buyers and perplex them about the intentions of the business. Testing before the launch is vital to ensure that your move will be well-accepted and welcomed by the customers.

Conclusion

Rebranding is not anticipated by most entrepreneurs, but it can become inevitable in some circumstances. Thus, if you wish to purchase a business for sale in New Zealand, you must prepare the audience for the change and make sure that it resonates with them.