In today’s world of the internet of everything and big data, every executive and every business owner is more concerned than ever about the ROI of every activity. Marketing leaders have espoused the benefits of a strong brand for years. Recently, more marketers have been asked to justify their activities, including brand-building efforts. Business leaders want to know: What return can I get from a branding or rebranding campaign?
First, let’s examine what rebranding is not. There are components of rebranding that will, as standalone activities, likely have little or no effect on sales.
- Rebranding is not simply a logo change. And, a logo change in itself is not likely to increase sales.
- Rebranding is not just a name change. In fact, a name change may have a negative impact on sales, depending on the strength of your existing brand.
- Rebranding is not just creating a new tagline. Creating a new tagline is not likely to have an immediate impact on sales either.
When, then, does rebranding drive sales?
When more relevant messaging is delivered to the target audience. Delivering the right messaging to the right audience is the core success factor of any rebranding campaign. Your goal should be to increase awareness with your target market. Of course, this requires knowing who your potential buyers are. It also requires crafting a message that will make your product or service preferred over the competition.
When your media budget increases to support a rebranding campaign. It is important to note when other changes that are implemented with a rebranding campaign. Oftentimes, a rebranding campaign is a result of an increased marketing budget which includes other components, like increased media spend. Be careful not to attribute an increase in sales to one campaign component without contemplating how all components may have impacted results.
When quality SEO is implemented to counter a decline in website traffic. Google still owns the online search market and many online websites are still recovering from the so called Google Penguin update of 2012. With this update to their search algorithm, Google closed the loop on SEO practices that artificially increased page rankings by gaming the prior search algorithm. As a result, many websites have gone through a “rebranding” in an attempt to increase traffic. The effort, accompanied by quality SEO (and often a brand new website and URL), has been successful for many.
The good news is that with the right components, a rebranding campaign will increase sales. However, there is no magic formula for such and the process may be iterative. It is important to have a clear strategy and a sound measurement tools to build an effective rebranding effort.