The Wisdom Or Lack Of Wisdom Of Changing Branding

Changing Your Branding 

Making a change in branding can be expensive so one should think it through first. Why do you want to change your branding? Do you just want a change or is there a purpose to it?

I often lament over people who buy a business and change the name. Why? You bought a bar called Poofies it because it was profitable. It was profitable because it had clients who recognized that name, even if it was a crazy name like Poofies. If it is a small business, it is likely they are coming because they know the owner. So you buy it, then you change the name to Muffies because you like it better, or because that is your name, or your cat's name. Don't be stupid. That just made a huge declaration that the bar has changed ownership and all of your current clients that you paid for are not coming to Thursdays wing nights anymore. The cost is HUGE. Now you have to change the sign out front, and get a new logo, and change the menus, and remake the website and buy a new URL. You lost 60% of business overnight by making a name change. Seriously if Poofies was working, why do that?

Here is a better idea. Spend some time asking questions and doing some research first. Ask your existing customers what drew them to you? What are they expecting more of? Is there something you could do to make you more attractive to people like them? Then look at your existing branding and give it a facelift. Go with a little different theme or extend the existing them. Then you may not have to change everything that went with that name.

A little over a year ago I was looking at one of our programs called mastermind. This was successful for the members who participated. Over the years we have had some great stories come out of our mastermind of people who built an empire, others who profitably sold their business, and more who grew their bottom line revenue. But over time things changed. Coaches started using the term mastermind a lot, and "experts" from the US had better access to selling their programs to Canadians (due to CASL giving them an unfair advantage) and these things were causing our prospects to diminish. Our new sales people were having trouble explaining why we were different. The program was still working for those who came but the intrigue was being compromised mainly by new competition in the market.

The answer - We did a branding facelift. A few pictures on the website were changed and we made some test videos. We went back to an idea that worked well in the past and this time really capitalized off it because of recent trends. The number one show on television is "Game Of Thrones," and the movie series for "Lord Of The Rings" has been a huge hit in recent years. We realized that adults now read books and play video games that are focused around kingdoms, castles, and don't forget that one of the best business shows on television is "Dragon's Den."

The Excalibur MasterMind was reborn. We had used the term before, but now we really went to town on it. We added some really cool paraphernalia to the mastermind meetings which made it seem more old world, with a knights of the round table theme. We changed some of the wording on the website. After the initial test videos were put up on YouTube we did not see too many numbers sharing it or watching it, but we did not need to. Our existing mastermind members started attending with more fervor. Our new Sponsors showed an increased interest immediately. Most importantly, the phone started ringing. People were asking about the video they watched that came out in an email. These were the signs we were looking for. One year later, we have a robust Excalibur MasterMind Program or EMP for your business.

What Can We Learn About Rebranding?

A small business needs to think branding through before they begin. If you already have made significant investments in a name, a logo and a look, try instead to brighten things up. What pictures can be added? Can more blogging be done to make if found better by Google? What videos could we make that got our point across clearly? What pieces of marketing can we create, that we can use, and use again and again?

We get ideas thrown at us every day and we need to count the cost before we begin. Rebranding is expensive. If we are not yet billionaires then we shouldn't experiment with anything that has such a huge increase to immediate costs.

There are a few good reasons to rebrand such as:

• You are going through a divorce and your business is named after your spouse.
• The business you have purchased has a bad name in the community.
• Your name no longer reflects what your services are.

There are some really bad reasons to rebrand:

• You want to name your business after your kids or your pet. They would rather you had the money to spend on them than the name on a business they don't understand.
• You change the name of your business on a whim every year.
• You are making too much money and it is time to sabotage your business.
• It is time for a change. There is no good reason for one. You just want a change. Try Tinder instead, and save your business.

Just think it through. Why are you wanting to rebrand? Is it really necessary? What if you just sharpened things up a bit and saved yourself a lot of trouble and costs?