Commitment is a critical ingredient for all successful brands, which means that they do not make brand changes indiscriminately. But, creating a brand is not a one and done activity. Even the best of the best need to make brand changes from time to time. Here are five situations that suggest it’s time for you to act:
If your customers see you as more of a necessary evil than a trusted business partner, it’s time to make some brand changes.
- Customers are persistently unhappy. If your customers see you as more of a necessary evil than a trusted business partner, it’s time to make some brand changes. Your brand should guide both what and how you provide what your clients need. If that’s broken, look to your brand strategy for guidance.
- The sales team is going rogue. If your sales team is not sticking to the script because they are not sure it will work, if they are throwing anything up on the wall to see what sticks, it’s time to make some brand changes. Leaving your brand positioning to chance is risky. Your brand strategy should articulate what makes you relevant and competitively differentiated from all the other choices customers have. That, in turn, serves as the foundation for all sales discussions.
- Keeping and attracting talent has become a challenge. People work for more than a paycheck, they work to be part of something they can believe and take pride in. If going away parties constitute the bulk of your social calendar, it’s time to make brand changes. Your brand promise—the why you do what you do—is the magnet that keeps and attracts the best and brightest talent.
- Course corrections are constant. If it feels as if you are shifting from one “best idea ever” to another, a brand change is in order. Changing one’s mind is not the same as innovation after all. By focusing on what you do best, and why, you have a litmus test for each new idea that saves time and money.
- Describing what you do takes forever. If your elevator pitch requires a skyscraper, it’s time to make brand changes. The brand strategy does nothing if not articulate who you are and why what you do matters.
Your brand promise – the why you do what – is the magnet that keeps and attracts the best and brightest talent.
For more guidance on when and how to make brand strategy changes, check out our white paper, “How to talk to your colleagues about your brand’s identity crisis.”
If you face some or more of these challenges, it’s time to consider updating your brand strategy. The updates might require a simple tweak, or they may require something more substantial. The sooner you address them, the better.
