In the early months of 2020, the pandemic promoted governments to impose shutdown orders across the world. Businesses across industries began changing their work organisational structure. For example, large retail businesses like Apple, Nike and Patagonia have brought their companies online, while some smaller companies have had to shut down.
It is a truism now to say that the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc across the world. But as lockdowns and stay-at-home orders are lifted in stages and business resumes, there will be a “new normal” to which businesses must adopt. To emerge on top, brands have to differentiate themselves on how they navigate the new landscape as restrictions ease. Some important questions to ask then are: what will this mean for your company? How will you approach your rebranding strategy?
Rebranding will be essential because your brand is not just a logo or a catchy tagline. These are not what makes your brand valuable. Instead, your company’s brand is a promise of value that you make to your customers. Indeed, it reflects the experience your customers can expect to have with your business. Any good brand communicates what your company offers while establishing trust and credibility. Branding helps elevate your business to an experience, something more than a product or service.
As needs continue to change with the foreseeable end of the pandemic, it is critical that your business adopts a quick and effective rebranding strategy. In this article, we outline some trends in and methods of rebranding your business can adopt after the pandemic.
Looking At The Trends
As in-person interactions become less attractive, companies that were furthest along on the digital transformation journey prior to COVID-19 will benefit. Digitisation will allow your business to adapt to new customer demands more quickly. Now is the time to establish a strong and long-lasting digital presence. Having this online presence will help you engage more by keeping you connected to your customers.
Businesses should look at the post-COVID-19 relaunch as an opportunity to adapt to evolving consumer demands. It will have to be the case that businesses will accept payments online, and make it easier for contactless transactions. Furthermore, brand leaders should effectively communicate with customers to experience long-term gains. This will also allow them to establish a long-term brand identity.
What Can Your Business Do?
With any type of branding, solutions need to come from all the involved stakeholders. This will ensure that the branding approach is holistic and inclusive of all interests.
The first stakeholder to involve is your employees. Following the design thinking process, you can brainstorm with your team to get the best solutions. For example, some important questions to tackle are about what ideas they have to rebrand, and how they can reimagine your existing services. These questions work well because your employees are likely to know your business best.
Next, you should engage with your existing customers and vendors and find out what their expectations are from your business in the near future. This way, you can understand the real concerns of your target audience and address them before trying to penetrate new markets. Engaging with customers will be key in starting your business rebranding.
Lastly, you can also engage in industry networking groups. This will enable you to find out how your peer companies are rebranding. Furthermore, it will allow you to make meaningful business relationships with new businesses and strengthen existing ones.
Key Takeaways
As part of rebranding, your business will need to build trust with both customers and employees. Reopening is an opportunity to rebuild your business and carve out a new future. After surveying the landscape to know what your customers’, employees’ and vendors’ expectations are, you are ready to implement tactical solutions. Most importantly, you should think from multiple stakeholder points of view.
In conclusion, rebranding can be difficult, and you may lose your earlier brand recognition, but Luxeveda’s digital branding and marketing services can make it easier, helping your business adapt to the changing landscape and uncover new opportunities for growth.
Team Luxeveda’s years of branding experience can help you rebuild your brand with a positive image that will attract your ideal customers and inspire loyalty for your business. Contact us to know more.
