Businesses need to have adequate sales and high profit margins to stay afloat. When a business is on the decline, the brand manager needs to come up with a brand turnaround plan. When coming up with the plan, you need to incorporate marketing advice and develop business strategies that will help put the business back on track.
Before you come up with a plan, you need to assess the situation in your business. This will help you fully understand your brand situation. After doing an assessment, you will know what is dragging your business down. After you assess your brand situation, you need to come up with a short-term and long-term solution. The short-term solution will act as a quick fix for your brand to prevent the business from collapsing. The long-term solution will put the business back on track.
When it comes to turning a brand around, there are business strategies that have been known to work. These include:
Redefining the brand
You need to visualize the brand in new way. The best way to redefine your brand is by reframing the context. Changing the scope of the brand is the first step towards redefining your brand. Here are things you should know when redefining the brand.
- Sometimes changing the appearance is all it takes. For instance, beer on tap and beer in a bottle are priced differently though they are similar products. However, changing the appearance alone will not work for a valueless brand. You need to ensure the appearance complements the value of the brand.
- When you redefine the brand, you get a chance to use it to gain value with existing and potential clients. A good example is how Starbucks made coffee more individualized changing the global perception of coffee.
- The same applies to the name of the brand. You should change it to something unique. the name should provide customers with a feel of the brand distinguishing it from other brands.
Packaging the brand
How you package your brand will determine the customers you get. For instance, the different kinds of red eat are tailored for the needs of varying clientele. The same goes for organic foods. Packaging should appeal to the customers' needs. The customer will be willing to pay more for goods and services that appeal to their unique needs.
When packaging the brand, you should ensure that it is offering the customer something more than other brands. Look for something that is unique to your product and use it in your brand. That way, customers will know what to identify your product with.
Marketing and distributing the product
Marketing is essential to getting your brand out there. How you market your brand will determine the customers you will get. The best marketing advice for a brand that is coming back is to create a storyline for it. People are more likely to get products that have storylines since they can identify with them. Use everyday situations to create a storyline for your product. This will increase its value since it will become more personal.
Once you have effectively marketed the product, you need to distribute it through the appropriate channels. The product needs to be available for the consumer when needed. This will ensure they do not move to other brands since yours is unavailable.
Pricing the brand
Price the product differently to widen the customer base. Use different value points of your product to guide you on the pricing. Make the consumer see that they get the best value for the price. This will make it easier to put a high price on the product that offers the most value.
Get a new perspective and keep improving
Sometimes the biggest change you need is to change the team. After making all these changes, the brand will not be successful if the same people are there. You might need to get new people who give a new perspective on the business. Sometimes you find that the team you have will incorporate the old ideas leading you back to the dark hole you are trying to get out of. You need to get a team that brings new and creative ideas for the brand.
All brands have a best-before date. However, if you want to ensure that your business stays long, you need to be innovative. Find ways you can repackage your brand ensuring that it stays up-to date with the evolving technology. Your brand should appeal to current and future consumers for it to stay alive.
