By Kathy-Ann Fletcher

Every day I read about the dire financial situation of our country. Those of us brave enough to continue business in this environment face the task of establishing our brand on a meaner leaner budget. I thought I would share these ideas that would help facilitate establishing your brand on a budget.

Network- There is that dreaded word again. This blog has several articles focused on networking in its offline and online forms. However, one must not underestimate the benefits of keeping yourself and your company’s name in the minds of others who can use or refer your company to family and friends based on the relationships developed with them through networking. This includes social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn which are great ways to establish two-way communication with prospective and existing customers and partners.

Database – A database helps you develop relationships with your customers by emailing them updates about company and products and services. It also allows you to get reviews and suggestions especially from those who would have purchased from you previously. This will help discover gaps in the market and find your niche. Additionally your communications would be more efficient and cost-effective as you would understand exactly what appeals to your target instead of having a trial and error approach.

Use friends and Family – enlist the support of friends and family to wear branded t-shirts, place stickers on cars and any other item that would be viewed by others such as pens, laptops etc. Encourage them to generate conversations about said stickers and by extension your company and its products and gently sell your brand to their circle.

Events – These are a great way to have specials for specific products or service. These can help you become the go-to person for your industry especially if you use these events to share solutions to problems your clients may be having that your company is able to alleviate. Some restaurants may be willing to allow use of their space for such an event in able to develop foot traffic.

Leave behind sales flyer – This helps keep your company in the mind of your prospects long after you have gone without continuing to build the cost for this memory. In certain cases, it can also get new prospects as well, if you are able to encourage clients and associates to display in their spaces. For example, a leave behind flyer for maternity clothes at a gynaecologist/obstetrician’s office has the possibility of being seen by many of that product/services target audience.

Many companies do it. Whether it is for one brand, to add an additional line or to change the corporate image, there is a long history of rebranding. However, for one reason or another, people equate this change with a failure of the previous brand strategy. However, I choose not to view that each product or corporation rebrand has been due to failure. I see some instances of rebrand including the ones below as being quite strategic.

1.       Change of corporate direction. – A business that has changed direction either as a function of corporate initiative or customer demand may change the brand to reflect the new image. For example a soup maker may change direction to provide only healthy ingredients in the soup and feels that the brand needs to reflect that shift.

2.       Wider focus – A company may widen the scope of its offerings and feel that their brand is too restrictive considering their new aspects. Take the case of a communications company who may widen their product offering to include entertainment and therefore uses a brand change to help make the market aware of the additional service.

3.       Change to target market/niche – While some brand changes may be corporate driven, others are customer lead. The product may have the chance to appeal to a wider audience and therefore in response to the change in customer demand the brand may adjust itself or transform altogether to reflect this new customer base. For instance, a clothing company may be working with a religious niche, however, there is the chance to have an impact on a wider scale and change the name to one that can appeal to non-religious segments of the market who may not have understood the brand name and message.

4.       To reflect operational changes – The company may become increasingly efficient or change the capabilities in some areas of its operations and feels the brand needs to match these adjustments. For example, a company may move from producing handmade accessories to machine operated manufacturing. Therefore, this company would no longer carry the handmade stamp in their brands.

I believe that a rebranding strategy is simply an attempt to appeal to a wider audience or change the view of your company in your current market. This change is by no means an indication of failure but simply a shift of priority and as your priority changes so does your image.