BE CLEAR ABOUT YOUR OBJECTIVES
Be single-minded in doing this. Do you need to change existing perceptions? Do you need to increase market share? Have you changed your products, your structure or your operation and need a new brand positioning to reflect this?
CHECK YOUR EXTERNAL PERCEPTIONS
If your brand has been around a while, check that your view of what you stand for correlates with that of your market and your customers’ or clients’. Research how they see you, your strengths or potential ways you could improve. It’s easy to assume they know what you’re about and that’s not always the case.
DON’T FORGET YOUR INTERNAL PERCEPTIONS
A brand workshop with your management team is an invaluable way of debating internal opinions regarding your brand essence and desired positioning. There are proven interrogative techniques you can use to achieve this in a structured way.
It’s surprising how people working in key positions within the same company can develop their own ‘take’ on the vision, strengths and aspirations of the business.
This can lead to a degree of conflict or contradiction around the table but far better to establish a ‘single voice’ at this stage and go forward with a united mission.
PREPARE TO FACE THE TRUTH
Apart from the potential surprises facing you at the internal brand workshop, customer research may expose some unwelcome comments but take them on board and set out to counteract them in a positive manner.
KNOW YOUR COMPETITORS
You’ll no doubt know who they are but look closely at how they’re marketing themselves and what they believe their strengths to be. Independent research and analysis is objective and can be beneficial in determining your competitive advantage and differentiators.
SET CLEAR TIMESCALES AND BUDGETS
The results and findings from the above should provide the basis of an informed marketing strategy. However, it’s important you’re clear in the timescale and affordability of this so the various elements of the marketing campaign can be costed to meet your budget.
TEST THE SOLUTION
Once the brand identity and creative collateral has been presented, it could be useful to test this with your audiences. This could simply be achieved with your key clients or through independent focus groups.
SHARE YOUR NEW VISION WITH YOUR TEAM
It’s vital your team and employees understand the new branding and the thinking and criteria that led to it. They’re the ambassadors of your business and so it’s vital they project the same, cohesive messages externally to your customers and suppliers. This is what helps to achieve a clear, distinctive brand platform.
TRACK AND MEASURE THE EFFECTIVENESS
Ensure the proposed strategy is working and tweak or fine-tune if necessary. Your agency will no doubt have measurement processes in place but it’s important for your company to be involved in this also and pass on information, which is useful to the measurement data.
COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR AGENCY ON A REGULAR BASIS
Bringing a new or repositioned brand to life and ensuring it’s growing healthily is very much a team effort between you and your creative agency. It’s important they keep you informed with any information they discover but equally important you should keep them up to speed with any feedback from your clients or customers.
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