Re-branding can be hard to get through without your team being onboard with it, and by “team” I mean your decision makers in your company. Here I wanted to share 3 steps for a successful team transition when re-branding.
1) Say goodbye to the old.
It’s hard to do, but necessary. In order to evolve you must sometimes throw out some of the old, or all of it all together. Concerns can be, “what if they don’t recognize us after the change?”
But ask yourself, “Do they even know who you really are now?” It’s easy to think you are bigger than you are, but a reality check can be done when asking for a testimonial from your customers. If they struggle to remember what you’ve done for them, or are thought of as, that place then maybe a change is in order.
Getting rid of the old for the new is a good way to kickstart a new campaign that, if creative enough, can go viral and gain a lot of PR. Without change your brand becomes stale and no one wants that.
2) Help them understand why and what.
Change for the sake of change is not something that is acceptable to everyone, especially when the statement comes up, “we’ve always do it this way, why change?” But as I just wrote on my first point, your brand can become stale after a while.
Look at Pepsi above and you’ll see the history of how the brand has evolved. It’s not just a change in their logo or adding more colors, it’s the message and how they present themselves that has also changed.
Your brand evolves with each new team member added and each passing month as the market also evolves. Have you heard the phrase, “evolve or die.”? Without change in response to how customers, and potential new ones, react to your brand they will simply choose someone more attractive and modern looking.
3) Understand and embrace the new beginning.
Now that steps 1 and 2 are complete, the is more work to do. Once you get the old out of the way and everyone understands why you need to change, now let’s embrace it. Most of the time at this stage things can fall apart. Chasing rabbits, pushing back and resistance are all expected at this juncture.
It’s important to realize this is not the Agency you have chosen to “go with” responsibility (unless your paying a consultant to restructure you internally). You are responsible for your brand. It’s important to let the professional take point and not subvert once the ball is rolling.
Change is hard and if it were easy more would do it. Take inventory of who in your organization has a dated view of marketing, web and technology and make a decision to exclude or limit their involvement if they begin to resist the change. Otherwise you will be spending more time, money and resources convincing and not doing.
That’s the 3 tips we have come up with and certainly there are more, if you have any to share, please let us know in the comments below. And if you like this post or any on our blog please share!
