When to re-brand

Brand strategy is mostly about common sense. Some of the best strategic brand advice I’ve heard, read and received over the years has been simple and straightforward. But don’t mistake simple for shallow. Just because an idea is easy to communicate and understand, doesn’t make it any easier to execute in practice.

For example, the concept of revising your brand strategy can be enticing at many points of a company’s development. Hire a new CMO? She’ll want to revisit the brand. Reorganize the executive wing? Perhaps a new brand will turn this company around!

But what are the real reasons, and the right times, to rethink a brand?

Derrick Daye at The Blake Project gives a fantastic list of reasons to reposition your brand at the Brand Strategy Insider blog. For ease of reading I’ve copied the list below, but any questions about this list should go direct to Derrick.

Brand repositioning is necessary when one or more of the following conditions exist:

1. Your brand has a bad, confusing or nonexistent image.
2. The primary benefit your brand “owns” has evolved from a differentiating benefit to a cost-of-entry benefit.
3. Your organization is significantly altering its strategic direction.
4. Your organization is entering new businesses and the current positioning is no longer appropriate.
5. A new competitor with a superior value proposition enters your industry.
6. Competition has usurped your brand’s position or rendered it ineffectual.
7. Your organization has acquired a very powerful proprietary advantage that must be worked into the brand positioning.
8. Corporate culture renewal dictates at least a revision of the brand personality
9. You are broadening your brand to appeal to additional consumers or consumer need segments for whom the current brand positioning won’t work. (This should be a “red flag.” This action could dilute the brand’s meaning, make the brand less appealing to current customers or even alienate current customers.)