When is the ideal time to do a brand refresh?
Have your sales plateaued? Are you finding it harder to attract new customers? Are you launching new products or services? Have you recently gone through a merger or acquisition? Does your brand feel inconsistent across different touch points?
These are just a few questions you can ask yourself to self-assess whether a brand refresh might be on the cards for you. For every business, brand is the heart of their identity. It is what customers recognise and trust. Ultimately, it’s the brand (not the product) that plays a crucial role in consumers’ decision-making processes when selecting one product, or service, over another.
But, even the most established brands can become stale, outdated, or out of touch with changing times and consumer expectations, leaving you at the bottom of the list or resulting in endless abandoned shopping carts.
So, is this where a brand refresh should be planned? Well yes, but there’s other key indicators to also consider in order to determine exactly what is required and when…
Some key considerations
Staying relevant
Markets are continually evolving. We’ve all heard and probably witnessed scenarios where companies have not kept up with changing landscapes and start to look and feel a little less relevant. Consumer behaviours and preferences change, and brands need to adapt to remain competitive e.g needing to shift from a bricks and mortar store to an online shopping experience.
New competition or competitors stepping up their game
As new competitors enter your market, established brands may need to differentiate themselves to better resonate with customers. This can involve updating or better articulating your brand’s messaging, visual identity, (along with a potential update to product offerings and prices) to stay competitive.
You look at your brand and it simply “feels” outdated
When you know, you know. A brand that has not been updated or tweaked in a while may begin to feel a little off the mark, outdated and irrelevant to consumers. A refresher, even an uplift can help bring the brand into the current age whilst ensuring it is still aligning and connecting with customers desires.
Your company has had a strategic change in direction
As a company’s business objectives and goals change over time, so does its brand identity. For example, a need to secure higher margins and appeal to a new/growing market segment could mean shifting focus from affordability to quality and luxury. This type of shift may result in a change to how the brand communicates and an uplift in the way it does this (the identity and brand systems).
If you’re finding negative feedback in how consumers respond and interact with you, it’s probably time to take a look internally at what might be driving that. When a brand lands a negative reputation, a refresh is almost always on the cards. It goes a long way in helping the business reposition itself in the market to regain customer trust and credibility. A rebrand can help distance a company from the past and refocus their efforts on aligning with their customers morals, values and beliefs.
Establishing a foothold in a new target market
As brands seek to expand their customer base, they may need to refresh their existing brand identity or introduce a new brand to appeal to the new target market/demographics. This can involve updating visual elements, messaging, or product offerings to better resonate with the new target audience.
So what does this actually look like?
Let’s explore these signals a tad more with some examples of brands that have refreshed their identity over the years. And before you say it, yes, most of these are well known. However, it just goes to show that no matter how large a brand you are, no matter how much of a market share you have, it’s important to keep your brand fresh and relevant with your audience.
Staying relevant:
Remember Blockbuster? Blockbuster was pretty much THE video rental store to go to… but they didn’t adapt to the shift towards online streaming and were eventually replaced by companies like Netflix, Stan and Hulu. And let’s not forget Kodak, a massive camera and film company, really missed the market signals and failed to adapt to the shift towards digital photography.
New competition or competitors stepping up their game:
Pepsi underwent a massive rebranding effort in 2008 to differentiate itself from Coca-Cola and appeal to younger consumers. The updated brand identity included a new logo and updated packaging design. Pepsi’s rebranding effort had a positive impact on the company, helping to revitalise its brand and appeal to a younger generation of consumers.
Outdated:
Qantas had been using the same logo for almost 20 years and was seen as outdated and lacking by many consumers, young and old. In 2007 they unveiled a new brand identity, which included a new logo, aircraft livery, and brand positioning. They also launched a new brand positioning campaign, which focused on the airline’s heritage and reputation for safety and reliability: “Spirit of Australia”.
Strategic change in direction:
Apple shifted its focus from computers to personal electronics in the early 2000s, prompting a refresh of its brand identity and marketing campaigns.
A few years later in 2015 McDonald’s refreshed its brand identity to reflect a shift towards healthier menu options and a more modern restaurant design. This came as they recognised their audience and primary consumer was growing up forcing them to do the same in order to maintain a monopoly in the market.
Negative brand reputation:
Yep… we’re digging up Volkswagen and their diesel scam! Come on… it was a massive “faux pas” and yet look at them go now! Volkswagen underwent a realignment effort in 2016 following the “Dieselgate” scandal. (Remember… where they installed illegal software on diesel vehicles to deceive us all about their high emissions?) The company updated its brand to distance itself from the scandal and shift consumer perceptions toward their new stance on sustainability.
In the early 2000s, KFC faced criticism over the health implications of its menu, which was high in calories, fat, and sodium. In addition to introducing healthier menu options, they rebranded, dropping “Kentucky Fried Chicken” to a simple “KFC”. The company believed that the word “fried” had negative connotations and wanted to distance itself from that image. While KFC still offers its classic fried chicken, the company’s efforts to offer healthier options and rebrand itself as KFC have helped to keep the brand relevant and appeal to a broader range of consumers in an ever-changing market.
Establishing a foothold in a new target market:
Long before “woke” was a “thing” Mattel faced criticism over Barbie’s representation of beauty standards and its impact on young girls’ self-esteem. In 2016 Barbie underwent a major rebranding exercise in an effort to make the brand more inclusive and diverse. The new Barbie line included dolls of different body types, skin tones, and hairstyles, as well as new careers and interests. The new dolls also featured more realistic proportions and facial features, aimed at promoting a healthier and more positive body image which helped to emphasise Barbie’s commitment in promoting diversity and inclusivity.
The new line of Barbie dolls and the rebranding effort were well-received by consumers and were seen as a positive step forward for the brand.Mattel was able to create a more positive and inclusive brand image for Barbie and to a larger, more diverse audience.
So where does this lead us?
We started with what seemed like a simple enough question: “When is the ideal time to do a brand refresh?”
And our thoughts are this; established brands need to consider how a brand refresh could help them grow, influence and build positive associations with their brand. This could be after a merger or acquisition, when sales are declining, or when launching new products or services. Sometimes it’s about building relevance, other times it’s about attracting new customers and re-engaging existing ones. And sometimes, it’s just about changing the conversation.
In conclusion, if you are experiencing declining sales, finding it hard to attract new customers, and struggling to re-engage with your existing customers, it may be time to consider investing in brand refresh.
Need help?
You don’t have to navigate this challenge alone! We help existing businesses, startup ventures, spaces and places shape bold brands worth talking about. Our focus is on helping brands communicate with more clarity to bring purpose and meaning to the forefront of the conversation.
We have developed a tried and tested 12 week Brand Delivery System to make this happen. So if you’d like to learn more, email us, phone us (+61 7 3556 5329), send us a message via LinkedIn or download our free Brand Audit Workbook.
Break your Advertising V-Card: Getting the most out of your agency.
As a business owner, with every decision, no doubt at some point you’re asking the questions. How long will it take? What’s the cost? And what resources do we need?
This may elicit a very complex spreadsheet, project timeline or list of new requirements for resources for the task to be achieved. In some cases, partnering with an agency can feel like a natural extension of your team in order to fulfil the endeavours of your business at a much more effective cost.
From the minute we leave our homes, we’re instantly being flooded with information, content and some good, but also some very bad advertising.
Which makes competing in any market for such a small percentage of share in your customer’s mind can be very difficult, time-consuming, overwhelming and for some, very expensive.
But it doesn’t have to be, you just need to find the right partner with the right advice to help you find somewhere to start.
Unfortunately, in a lot of industries, there are individuals or organisations that paint an ill-picture for the majority of service providers with poor execution, blow-out of initial budgets or an un-promisable understanding of what you want to achieve in your business.
With any organisation, your clients choose you based on your story, why you exist and what’s in it for them. Which begs the question, are you telling the right story?
We’ve put together some tips for a few things to remember when hiring an advertising agency, so you don’t get caught up in something you can’t break free from. Hopefully, these tips will help you have a more meaningful and prosperous relationship with your agency partner.
Be clear on your budget and actual spend.
Your budget will always be the cornerstone of a decision, particularly with advertising so try to be as transparent as you can on what you can budget for your creative and media spend. It’s up to the agency to let you know what they can and can’t do within that budget — if their response doesn’t sit well with you, find another agency that aligns more with where you’re currently at in your business.
What if you don’t know what to spend?
List what you want to achieve out of your advertising and prioritise it. From there you’ll be able to establish a list of goals and reasonable outcomes. However, as a rule of thumb and depending on the health of your business, around 7–10% of your gross revenue would be quite a nice and healthy budget to get you moving towards some real results.
“I don’t know what I’m asking for, but know what skills I don’t have”
Ask if the agency will provide you with a workshop. This is a great way of establishing a relationship, but more importantly provides you with the opportunity to gain insight as to how an agency can help with your business, especially if you’re unsure on where to start. Remember, the insights and materials you gain from a well-run workshop won’t go to waste as you can use the information internally to better your own processes. A great workshop will draw out what you want to achieve and what your new business goals. For example, it could be that you need a better digital and social marketing strategy put in place to boost user engagement for your products, or you might need to run an integrated campaign for an event you’re trying to launch, or maybe you need to go right back to basics and find the true essence of your brand to better understand the value that you offer your clients.
Ensure to have a totally transparent and honest conversation
Firstly, if you’re the business owner, lose the ego and be ready to be vulnerable. A good advertising agency isn’t trying to trick you up on what you’re not doing — but there to help you plan and implement what your business might be able to achieve at every stage in the buyer’s journey to create a better and more memorable experience for your customers.
Ask questions about any technical terms, write them down and use as a reference for future use. Request reports and data on a consistent and accountable time frame. For example, each Monday of the week or the last business day of the month.
Consistent reporting of the data captured will help you to make better decisions and provide you with the insights you need to scale and grow your business.
This will ensure you have a trusting an open relationship with your agency if they’re representing your brand — you want them to be telling an honest story and that comes from your willingness to trust their creative process.
Clear briefing is essential.
As the client, you may have an account manager who will work collaboratively with the strategists and the creative team on an internal brief based on your discussion. The creative brief is a critical document in the creative process that links the client’s expectations with the agencies creative.
Talk about some bad outcomes that could happen from a bad brief and that spending the time to get a creative brief right is time well spent because it controls the creative process. A lot of (most times) times though, a client won’t ever see a creative brief. It really depends on how clear the problem is stated in the beginning.
Using an advertising agency is an excellent way to supercharge your brand story. You open a door to an expert team with skills and capabilities that helps you stay ahead of the curveball (and your market) without the expense of finding, hiring and managing an internal team of your own.
Want to know more?
Get in touch, the coffee’s always on us…
How to Define a Budget for Advertising
[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overflow=”visible” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_spacing=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” column_position=”default” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” animation_type=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]
We always see a fair bit of confusion when it comes to advertising budgets.
This poses the question: What’s the difference between Advertising, Marketing and Sales? They’re all the same thing, right? Well, no.
Marketing is essentially an umbrella that covers the overall selling of the product or service which includes market research, product planning, sales, distribution and pricing.
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Put simply, while advertising can still fall under your paid, earned or owned media banners, it is still a message where you’re in control.
Marketing and Sales are very different, marketing is about the consumer needs of the product/service and selling is about the transactional cycle of the product/service.
It’s easier to break down if you think of your budget as three separate components within your organisation.
When you think Advertising, think what are we trying to say? And how/where are we going to say it?
When it comes to Marketing, we’re asking the question: What are our consumer’s needs in order to see these messages? Promos, Offers, Referral fees, Discounts etc.
And, sales. What are the steps being taken during lead generation in order for it be a paid transaction? A phone call, Email, Follow-ups — i.e. Communication methods of nurturing, engaging and creating a commitment with the client.
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
So how are you now going to allocate and define your advertising budget?
Here’s 4 methods used by successful independent businesses and our take on them:
A fixed percentage of sales
Begin with the total gross sales of last year or the average sales for the past few years. Allocate a percentage of that figure for your marketing budget (a lot of small to medium-sized businesses try to set aside about 7–10% of annual revenues for marketing).
For your advertising component of the marketing budget, this needs to align with your business goals and possibly the lifecycle of your business.
For example, a business goal might be that you want your product to expand your audience reach or it might be that you want to focus on social networks like Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn. The weight of each advertising goal is going to impact the percentage you set aside.
Let’s make up some numbers.
Your sales are $4million annually and you’ve decided to allocate 10% on your marketing, creating a $400,000 budget where you might choose to have 40% ($160,000) go towards your annual advertising initiatives.
The benefit of this method is that it’s easy to understand and relatively safe as its based on previous sales.
Comparable to the competition
Have a look at trade associations or any industry publications as they can normally provide an average amount or the percentage companies are spending on advertising, and you could adapt this to your company.
With this method, you need to be wary that you’re comparing your company to a similarly sized business in terms of both resources and revenue.
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Objective and task-based
Workshop the specific objectives you want to achieve and map out the tasks required to meet those objectives.
Then determine your budget by estimating the costs of carrying out those tasks. If you can’t afford to do them all, prioritise and focus on the top few. Advertising can be a long term investment, your campaigns can be forward thinking so that your objectives can be achieved over a number of years, with the previous tasks all being a building foundation.
With a method like this, you would want to allow for some contingency in case your estimations aren’t accurate. The other thing to note is that this method takes a lot of trust and belief in the risk because if an Ad flops, it can be pricey.
The All In — Max it out
Set aside just enough money to sustain the business or enough for the family, then spend the rest on marketing.
Lots of fast-growing businesses go for the age-old “you have to spend money to make money” but it can be risky.
If you don’t set aside the appropriate operating costs to sustain your business and then rather than creating a proactive energy for your business’s growth, it becomes a reactive environment (safe to say, we don’t love this method).
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Personally, we’re in this industry to see businesses flourish with the help of our Advertising Creative Agency #hatchetagency. We love being part of an organisations’ story and seeing a business grow from strength to strength, which ultimately takes time — there’s no quick fix. The best method we’ve found is to be more proactive about where you want your business to go and how you’re going to achieve that.
Obviously, everything in business costs money, so getting your budget to align with where you want to see your business grow in 2, 5, 10 years is crucial in setting a budget that works for you and your business. We take a consultative approach to this important stage of any business — whether you’ve been in business for 10 years or 2 years, a business workshop can be a great way of being proactive towards your goals. So come time for budget-setting, you are equipped with the knowledge of where your headed and can prioritise and allocate your funds accordingly.
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Want to know more?
Get in touch, the coffee’s always on us
[/vc_column_text][vc_raw_html]JTNDZGl2JTIwc3R5bGUlM0QlMjJ0ZXh0LWFsaWduJTNBY2VudGVyJTNCJTIyJTNFJTNDYSUyMGNsYXNzJTNEJTIyaGFCdG4lMjBkYXJrJTIyJTIwaHJlZiUzRCUyMiUyRmNvbnRhY3QlMkYlMjIlMjB0YXJnZXQlM0QlMjJfYmxhbmslMjIlM0VJdCUyN3MlMjB0aW1lJTIwd2UlMjBtZXQlM0NzcGFuJTNFJUUyJTg2JTkyJTNDJTJGc3BhbiUzRSUzQyUyRmElM0UlM0MlMkZkaXYlM0U=[/vc_raw_html][/vc_column][/vc_row]