Do Brands need rebranding to achieve business restructuring?
The business goal of any brand is to create more users, new users or new uses by continually innovating to add value to customer’s lives. With great brands come great benefits — including higher customer loyalty, increased opportunities and elevated profits.
A corporate rebrand can be extremely powerful if created and communicated properly; it can unite employees behind a common cause and engender pride, symbolize a shared vision, break with the past, signal a future (direction) and create a difference that drives the top line and profit.
But if it does not achieve these elements, it can become a very costly “paint job” — a waste of a great deal of money.
The successful corporate rebrand is achieved by creating preference (e.g. Intel), building emotional bonds (e.g. Disney) which communicate a unique position in the marketplace (e.g. Gap), thereby creating shortcuts for customer decision-making (e.g. Caterpillar) that help insulate against competitive pressure (e.g. McDonald’s) by delivering efficiency to marketing and sales efforts (e.g. Microsoft) and unifying an organization (e.g. GE).
There are four definitive components for building and managing great brands. Each supports and enhances the other. And they’re all achievable by any organization (and they do not require new logos).
* Igniting a great idea
At the core of all great brands is a great idea that people inside and outside of the business can buy into. Great brand ideas are unique, true and selfless. They’re based on universal ideas, such as convenience, magic or individuality. They’re simple enough for people everywhere to “get” and they reflect real, living attributes of the organization.
* Dynamic leadership
Successful brands come from organizations that manage brands right from the top. Why? First, brands are valuable. Second, brands permeate all departments and must be managed where they all converge — at the CEO’s office. Third, great brands are actions, not just words. Marketers can talk about a brand, but unless it comes to life through actions, it’s simply not believable. Leadership psyche is the key to a successful strategy as it sets the example on the organizational style and the direction employees need to take for all brand actions and communications.
* The right talent
In a rapidly changing world, organizations must adapt and change. People are a brand’s greatest asset, and the most important thing a CEO can do is have a continuous recruitment strategy in place — even if you have fired one-third of the company — that constantly searches for new talent both internally and with outside partners. A good brand will only become great when the members of the organization believe in it and live it out as they work.
* Encouraging culture
How do you take your people forward through change? Building a brand that has clear meaning to your employees requires delivering short-term actions that can take the brand deeper into the employee relationship. Therefore, what are the rock-hard beliefs your people can hold on to? Why? True values extend far beyond the bounds of a brand book. Instead they are anchored in human emotions, concerns, aspirations and ambitions.
In summary, great brands are built by igniting big ideas, creating dynamic leadership, supporting the right talent and encouraging the culture. A mix that takes patience and time to achieve. Undertaking a rebranding exercise to achieve all this is whistling in the dark for a dog which will never turn up.
