A major fear for businesses considering a rebrand is losing their existing customer base. This fear can lead managers to:
- Abandon the re-brand project
- Water down the strategy so it resembles the existing approach or
- Meddle in the professional advice being given and waste the investment
To avoid all of the above, I’ll ask you to consider one fundamental question.
Do you want to retain your existing customer base?
“Of course we do!”, I hear you cry
And this might be the right approach. If your existing customers give you joy and provide you with a healthy profit, approach your re-brand with these customers at the core of your strategy.
- Profile them carefully
- Understand their problems
- Empathise with their position
Know their needs and wants even better than they do and complete this work FIRST as part of your re-branding process.
However ….. I also encourage you to consider why you may want to move away from your existing customer base. They may offer a low profit margin - especially if you’re in a service industry and you count up the amount of time you ACTUALLY spend with them. Or there may be a new and more lucrative market for your product or service. One that will pay more and be less time consuming. This could be the case if you’re moving your business online or expanding your brand to an online audience. Or if you’re planning for the long term, your customer base might be dying …. actually dying.
If your existing base and your new targets are diametrically opposed, you need to make a decision. If, for instance, your existing base consists of 60+ year old females, and you want to target yummy mummies, you probably can’t do both. If you’re targeting family business owners about to retire, and you want to attract business owners starting on their journey, you probably can’t do both.
It's important to consider this issue before you appoint a marketing agency to conduct a brand strategy.
If it’s important to retain your existing customer base, you want to make this very clear to your agency. A part of your brief might be as follows (and feel free to copy and paste).
Target Customers:
Our business has a strong relationship with our customer base. These customers are represented by the following profiles:
Customer group 1:
Average age / family status/ household income / profession / interests / political leaning /
Customer group 2/3/etc:
Average age / family status/ household income / profession / interests / political leaning /
The re-brand should seek to reinvigorate this target audience and not alienate them. We expect any major movement in brand strategy should be accompanied by robust rationale behind the creative direction presented.
If you want my ultimate worksheet from The Flaunt Flip, designed to transform your marketing results, follow the link below. You’ll have all the questions many agencies hope you won’t ask. It puts you in a position of power and ensures you’re b.s. proof.
