Your company’s most valuable asset is the brand. Your brand creates the emotional connection between your customers or prospects, and it’s how they perceive you. A brand is why you buy coffee from Starbucks or a Costa.
The coffee is very similar, but the perception you have of holding a cup of Starbucks coffee is very different to hold a cup of Costa. The green logo makes you feel cosmopolitan and a bit pretentious. While Costa, feels less expensive and more authentic coffee.
So you should agree that branding is one of the must-investments a company should make — especially if you are after business grow — and keep it up to date.
Here are ten signs that you should keep an eye to identifying when you should invest in branding.
1. When you keep getting the wrong customers knocking at your door
If you have a business that receives calls from potential clients that come for the wrong reason it possibly is because your brand is telling them that. A classic one is that your price isn’t aligned on how you look.
2. When your competition is doing better than you
If you see your competitors getting more clients than you, it can be for various reasons, one of them could be price or business offer, but also could be because how their brand looks. If your competitors look more approachable or more professional, it’s likely that when people do their research, they might consider them instead of you.
3. When people don’t know what you do
If your customers don’t understand what you do, it might be time to look at your brand and communications. Sometimes it takes as little of adding a tagline under your logo. Be clear not fancy.
4. When you look old and tired
Branding is an asset that comes along with your business if you neglect it will get outdated. Make sure you don’t get stuck on an old trend.
5. When your business offer has changed
Businesses evolve and sometimes they have to change what they offer, make sure you reflect that on the brand. Apple dropped the ‘computers’ from their name when they started doing smartphones.
6. When people don’t trust you
When you purchase online, we blindly trust Amazon. However if the brand isn’t well known, we go with the gut feeling. If the site and the logo look trustworthy, we go for it if.
7. When you spend too much in Marketing
If you have to spend too much on advertising to convince your customers, you need to reassess your brand. If your brand is designed for the right target market, your communications should just follow and be as effective.
8. When you haven’t manage to increase prices
If you are trying to raise prices and not succeed is a good sign that you might need to rebrand or update the brand.
9. When people can’t spell your name
At times, you see a clever logo that just uses initials or merges parts of one word with another. But when it comes to Google that company you can’t remember what is the order of the letters.
10. When you come out of a crisis
Businesses sometimes get into trouble and it’s good that when you come out of them, you clean your face and start fresh, leaving any issues behind. Make sure you learn from it and apply that knowledge to your refresh company.
Conclusion
Branding and rebranding are an investment, not cost. It pays off over the lifetime of your business by helping you to attract better customers and higher prices for your services. Loyalty is not something you can buy, is something you must build and you have to do it for and through your business and your brand.