There are three main issues when it comes to branding effectively and efficiently in these pandemic days. These are rebranding, weighing marketing's value, and gauging the effect on customer experience when workers enjoy work-from-home setup privileges.
One challenge for business owners and managers is knowing how to address these three issues. After all, the pandemic isn't going away anytime soon. But these three issues are crucial for brand survival in a marketplace that is still competitive.
The good news is that, despite the pandemic and increasingly competitive marketplace, there is room for introspection amongst the groups that make up any company. The insights gained from reflection can help business owners and managers come up with solutions for brand survival.
The first issue, rebranding, bring Pandora's box of contradictions in itself. Some companies tie up with marketing agencies to rebrand the business, but rebranding doesn't always generate revenues. So it pays to examine rebranding more closely, emphasizing why the company has to conduct rebranding in the first place.
The truth is, that not every brand needs to be subject to rebranding. Some brands are strong brands in themselves, and rebranding may dilute or even break the strength of that brand when it comes to recalling in the minds of consumers.
Every brand has a reputation which is why people get familiar with specific brands. They have "front of mind recall" in the minds of consumers. Some brands can foster brand recall well, while others leave the market confused about what the brand connotes.
The rebranding experience has to foster that kind of brand recall to translate it into gains for the company. Rebranding can be pretty costly, so rebranding is not something to take lightly. A brand may need rebranding if the company is having trouble staying relevant in the market, especially when there are other competitors.
But some brands may already be flourishing with the recent brand experience and have a loyal customer base. A rebrand only becomes necessary when the company is having trouble remembering its role, needs to be reminded how it should serve the market, or alleviates the boredom of both company employees and the market. In this sense, rebranding can be a breath of fresh air that will rejuvenate the company internally and externally.
The market will influence how effective rebranding is perceived. And one company alone can have multiple markets in several countries yet perform differently in each one.
The rebranding may have to come in phases so that each market can have a unique rebranding experience suitable to the way the brand is already working there. And this will influence the momentum of the brand progression.
If you are a business owner or manager, one problem is realizing when marketing is necessary. Some have bigger marketing budgets than others, but they are all interested in one key element: return on investment (ROI).
Do you need to get in touch with your market? Should you invest in better advertising to communicate more with your customers? When do marketing and branding bring in better ROI? The answer is that all marketing and branding have to be balanced for investments and expenses.
These two efforts have to increase the value of the business because inevitably, all companies may face the prospect of being sold to someone else. If the marketing and branding efforts are useless, then it's a waste of money. And you can tell it's futile if no new customers are knocking on the company's door asking for additional products and services.
Some may argue that marketing and rebranding should be done because there are financial incentives. They may believe that something is missing in the customer experience.
They may also think that additional marketing and rebranding are beneficial. But this could mean that the company is not communicating value to consumers.
There are business owners and managers who may believe that marketing is unnecessary. They may have more faith in the value of hiring a salesperson to pay commissions to than the perceived worth of recruiting a digital marketing agency.
The appropriate reply to these concerns is "edutainment." You need to both educate and entertain the consumer in a particular market with the same effort. Edutainment may seem like a lighthearted comeback to the problem of market value, but it makes sense because an educated consumer is easier to entertain with the right content.
The term "market disconnect" describes when companies and marketing agencies perceive the consumer experience differently. The company owners and their managers may believe that their market perception is the only legitimate perspective. Ironically, the marketing agency they hire may also think that they have the correct market perception. Where does this end?]
These two sides must reconcile and become part of the same committed team to justify investing in marketing and branding work. There should be one vision and strategy for it. Otherwise, the investment (and usually it is a sizable investment) will be a waste.
The work-from-home culture is another significant development in the branding process. Although many workers may thrive personally from a work-from-home setup, it might not be healthy for the company brand.
The new experience of communicating with other employees and subordinates with devices only could be to blame. There could also be a difference in the scheduling of meetings that can affect the relevance and effectiveness of work. Some workers may also feel so relaxed that they forget about the urgency of communicating with coworkers and executives.
Some businesses do flourish in this pandemic despite the work-from-home setup. (Insurance sales are a good example.) But some brands do not do well in this kind of system. The factor that is affected the most is team culture.
It is up to company leaders such as business owners and managers to make it work. They have to think up a comprehensive bird's eye view of the company strategy that the whole company can believe in and adhere to. This situation becomes challenging, especially when new employees need to be trained in "how we work here."
In the final analysis, all these issues surrounding company brands boil down to one overriding concern - the company should always prioritize the customers. Without customers and the revenues, they bring in, no company marketing and branding effort will be worth it.
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