When should you sit back and evaluate your brand?
When you own a company that's running smoothly, you can get tunnel vision when it comes to your brand. You're so engrossed and invested as well as being extremely busy, that you cannot see your brand from an outside perspective.
Even if your business is growing, it doesn't mean your brand is as good as it could be and is often overlooked when it comes to a marketing strategy.
Let's take a look at when you should sit back and take the opportunity to evaluate your brand.
Brand Age
The age of your brand is an easy way to know if you should take a look at your brand and decide if to make changes. Most businesses rebrand every 7-10 years, the results are usually small tweaks to the logo and to the website to keep up to date with the modern times as we live in an ever-changing environment.
However, one crucial element that is often overlooked is your brands messaging and communication. This is the story behind your brand, what sets you apart and the feeling someone gets when they see your brand.
It is important to not only look at the design but take an overall look at your brand and how it comes across to an audience - a simple change can be extremely effective.
Ongoing Negative Activity
This could be a decrease in sales or an ongoing lack of engagement - any activity which is having a negative effect on performance. Now if you do find a decrease, you don't need to evaluate your brand right away! You should only consider developing your brand if the negative activity has been going on for quite some time and other efforts and marketing strategies haven't prevailed.
Changing your brand can potentially mean losing all recognition, be careful, and don't jump into it right away if you see sales falling.
Company Values have Changed
As a part of developing your brand, it's vital you find your core values and clarify what your mission statement is. In the business world, things can change rapidly, and sometimes your original mission statement and core values don't represent your brand today.
If this is the case, you will want to consider evaluating your brand and figure out what you are all about now things have changed. Once done you will want to change your marketing material based on the new values and mission statement you found and created.
Entering New Markets
Entering a new market is a big task and if your current brand doesn't resonate with the new market, then you should prepare to fall flat on your face.
Different countries mean different cultures and cultures are diverse with etiquette, rules, mannerisms, understandings, and perspectives.
You will need to develop your brand to appeal to the new markets you enter, not just by translating your text, but developing your brand so the new market can resonate with your brand.