Nov 16, 2010

How to Successfully Rebrand Your Business

 

6. Rethink Your Customer Base

Part of revamping your business may involve targeting your product or brand to appeal to customers outside your niche demographic, versus introducing new products or lines to boost business. Appealing to a wider customer base can make up for less business by existing customers. Readily available for decades at specialty coffee cafes, kiosks, and food service locations, Seattle's Best Coffee added to its roster fast-food restaurants and movie theaters.

Dig Deeper: How to Diversify Your Customer Base


7. Improve Your Product Availability

There are rapid shifts in channels, Silverstein says. A mono channel player may not see in their data that they are losing share to a changing market. Don't limit your business to just one distribution channel. This also means making your service or product more compatible to online availability. Gass says exploring new channels for doing business is just as effective as coming up with an entirely new business idea. If your product or service can be utilized in a novel manner, this could lead to increased revenue as well as added value for your customers.

Dig Deeper: Distribution Channels


8. Determine Suitable Solutions

Here is where many people get stuck. Do not hesitate. Move forward. Once you have received a set of suggestions and you have figured out where the key issues are in your business, realistically study them to determine what adjustments will best suit your business. Do you need to repackage and reposition your brand? Do you need to identify new distribution channels? Or do you need to streamline processes? The overall goal is to respond with change, advises Silverstein. Analyze what expenses are to be incurred in implementing such change. Zero in on what will save customers money and/or offer the best product value. Identify what improvements are more likely to bring in new customers.

Dig Deeper: How to Develop a Business Growth Strategy


9. Create an Action Plan

Put down on paper what's wrong, how do you want to fix it, and what is your timeline for implementing that change? Specify the role of every individual team member in accomplishing that change. Engage in dialog back and forth. Do you have the diagnostic right?  Do you have all of the facts on the table that you need to make informed decisions? Are management and workers on board with the changes? Once you have created an action plan, periodically discuss where you are, what did you get right, and where do you need to make adjustments, says Silverstein. Track what works and what doesn't work.

Dig Deeper: Why a CEO Needs to Have a Plan B


10. Communicate Clearly and Effectively

Whether its evolution or revolution, if you are going to change, you have to tell the story why, says Gass. Communicate in a way that reflects your brand. "Rather than send out a press release saying that we have a new business strategy, we did a fun video (that can found on Youtube) for internal employees and external stakeholders, where we took over Starbucks headquarters and turned it into Seattle's Best Coffee building for a day," Gass explains.

"Change can be hard but you have to be willing to be bold and to be different," says Gass. "You have to have the conviction that you are in it for the long haul."

Along the way to revamping your business, you may make some mistakes. That is part of the process. Silverstein says the key is to accelerate through the mistakes, realize them and adjust them until you get it right.

Dig Deeper: 10 Tips for Communicating Change
 PREV  1 | 2