This insight explores some of the signs and signals that it might be time to consider rebranding your business, product or service.
Of course, this totally depends on the business that you're in and the kind of product or service you offer. For example, if you're an Architect designing bespoke housing. Your client might return to you in years time for an extension, but they're not going to need a new one every week.
Likewise, if you're a coach or consultant, a customer that doesn't return can indicate that you have successfully helped them to solve their problem.
However, if you're selling a consumable, a subscription service, or something that needs renewing frequently, there could be a bigger issue. This could be with the product or service itself, with the usability of your website, or that a new competitor has appeared in your space with a stronger offering.
Search for your "product / business name" (including quotation marks, as this tells Google that it must include these parameters within your results). Some example searches could include: review of "product name", issues with "product name" and has anyone else had problems with "business name"?
Trustpilot, Feefo, Google (if you have a business page), Facebook, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Better Business Bureau and Manta are some of the more popular ones that would be worthwhile to check. Reddit is also another worthwhile forum / discussion board to check.
The only issue with this is that people might not want to be totally honest with you, as not to hurt your feelings. Depending on what it is you do, you will likely want to offer something in return for their input - and I don't mean a 50% off voucher.
If I'm not satisfied with your product, then I'm not going to buy more of it and a voucher isn't an incentive to part with my the most precious resource I have - time.
When I'm working with a business to rebrand them, two of the most important things we can do is to 1. Understand who their customers are and 2. Get an accurate gauge on the sentiment of their employees.
It's ultimately the people in your business that determine it's success, and if they aren't waking up on a morning and looking forward to coming into work, then their performance and your customer experience will suffer.
Why should they care about your business, if the business doesn't care about them?
By purpose, I mean something that extends beyond the financial aspect of your business. Something that your staff or team can really get behind and rally for. This could be a charitable cause or working towards a more environmentally friendly product. Send a survey out to your staff and ask them what they think would be a good idea.
Some people prefer to go into the office, whilst others prefer to work at home. Some are more productive on a morning and some in the afternoon. Your employees are not just a resource, they are living, breathing beings with feelings and dreams. The more effort you make to cater to their needs, the more they'll make to meet yours.
If you are developing a new line of products, reinventing an existing one or are rethinking the way that you deliver and charge for a service, it would be worthwhile to assess your brand.
People get attached. You see it time and time again, when a brand redesigns their logo, or when a familiar household brand like Tropicana redesigns their packaging, they can end up alienating a significant portion of their audience.
This happens because when people feel a sense of ownership over your brand and will often identify with it on a personal level.
One of the biggest mistakes you could make here is to presume or assume you know what your customers want.
It's totally normal for us to get too comfortable in our comfort zones. "We have a good product, our product works, people keep buying it... Why would we need to change anything?".
There's truth to this in that there's no point trying to reinvent the wheel. The product itself may be the best that's available on the market. But we live in a world where we have access to huge amounts of data and it's possible for just about anyone to do anything. It's only going to get faster.
What's to say that a new product won't appear tomorrow and convince half of your customers to go with them instead?
Are you confident that your brand has enough gravity to keep your customers on it's surface, should another business come along with a better product?
Maybe the business and brand that you originally set out to create just isn't resonating with you anymore. Perhaps it feels a bit outdated, tired and lacking inspiration. Whatever it may be, you know that something needs to change.
If you haven't already, you might be interested to check out my insight on What happens during a rebrand? to get an idea of what we could do together. Otherwise, feel free to Contact me and arrange a consultation.
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