Empire Wedding Dresses store
It’s very tempting to fall into the trap of too much change, or too little. On one hand, it sometimes seems like the world is completely different every day. By the time you buy a phone, there’s almost certainly a newer and better model out. The trends you targeted yesterday may be old and tired by today. In the face of this kind of rapid change, why would you ever try to tie down a brand to one thing?
On the other side of the coin are the famous branding success stories like Apple and Coca-Cola, where brand activation has meant using their brand to stand for one thing almost throughout the entire history of the company. To Apple, brand activation means a promise to their customers — “beautiful products that just work.” To Coke, it’s that familiar taste and logo you can find everywhere.
Finding the middle ground for your brand means figuring out where you want to “anchor” yourself, and where you want the freedom to move around. Apple, for example, hasn’t always been about “beauty,” and for a long time the company sold only computers… but even when the firm was a shadow in the stride of Microsoft and IBM, they put their emphasis on delivering products that “just worked.”
Watch Your Data
As a company, you probably have access to great resources for telling you what your customers think. Regularly, at least once a year, go through what you hear from social media, your sales force, your research outlets, and your market research to understand the tone of the market. Analyze what it might mean for your business, and what the market’s opinion might say about future troubles and opportunities for your brand.
Ultimately you can’t simply wait for “the next big thing” to come around. You need to predict it, and predict its impact on your business.Flower Girl Dresses shop
Don’t Change Your Brand “Willy-Nilly”
A brand is one of your businesses’ most valuable assets. If you completely change your brand, you may destroy all that value and find yourself starting over again. Instead, define your brand from the beginning in a way that allows you to change where necessary without losing the core value… remember how the “just works” element of Apple’s brand is still the same, even after the company went from computers to music players to mobile phones.
If you need a cautionary tale, think back to “New Coke,” the Gap’s branding change, Abbey, or Everton FC. When those brands unveiled their new look, all of them found they’d made such a drastic change created outrage and alienation among their loyal customers.
Conclusion
As a business you need to be innovating constantly to stay ahead of the market. It’s a bit of a cliché, but it’s true. This applies to your brand as much as any other area of operations, with the caveat that you must find a middle ground. Failing to change your brand when the market has changed cause your company to lose relevance — but changing your brand too much when the market loves you can be even worse.
Kenneth Fabian, Founder & Owner of OGL Asia – a brand activation company specialising in Events, Exhibition and Design Communications since 1989.
With 27 years of experience, Kenneth was able to gather the right contacts, strategies and resources to ensure an effective brand engagement.eliteprom.co.uk