The Do’s and Don’ts of Brand Repositioning

This article is part of the Take-Away series; where AI is applied to the Puddding database of marketing stories to identify key insights and learnings from our community of professional marketers. These insights are then summarized with clear actions for you to apply to your marketing efforts.

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There is no single indicator for when it is time to reposition a brand. It is often a combination of several factors, and it is a marketing professional’s job to notice these signs. Whether it is due to a decrease in sales, or a lack of engagement with your audience, the time to reposition you brand can be a major opportunity to strengthen the foothold you have in your current market or find a completely new area to grow into.

This week, our Puddding AI searched through thousands of marketing stories from the Puddding community of market professionals and identified several important points regarding when a brand should reposition and how.

If you are going to reposition, aim for the stars!!

If you determine it is time to reposition your brand, do so with the goal of becoming an industry leader. Your industry could be mass or niche; regardless, repositioning can be your opportunity to solidify a leading position within it!

Rebel, one of Australia’s largest sport equipment chains, reached out to Watt International to reposition their brand. After partnering with Nike, they saw an opportunity to truly be seen as the undisputed leader in their market. The strategy Watt introduced was multi-pronged, with a refocus towards the customer’s journey. Rebel became a place where runners and outdoor enthusiasts could start ‘right’. They used a storytelling method to create captivating graphics, reorganized retail spaces based on gender, category, brand, and added new “zones” that spoke to customers on a personal level.

Watt helped Rebel create a brand voice that focused on performance; empowering and challenging their customers. Rebel experienced a 20% increase in sales in 2020 even during the early days of the global pandemic when foot traffic was down by 50%!

“Perception is Reality”

“Perception is reality” is a saying with more truth in branding than almost any other industry. What your audience sees and understands is what matters, especially if what they are seeing is not the reality.

Smartwool, an outdoor apparel company, was attempting to re-enter the marketplace using 3rd party sellers. However, in doing so, a lot of the front-facing information and customer experience was left to third party retailers. After investigating this situation, Retail Bloom - Smartwool’s agency, saw that what was hurting the brand image was numerous pieces of inaccurate product information and poor user experience. It became clear that they needed to reposition with a focus on brand integrity. Retail Bloom optimized 380 product listings, and also assisted in shutting down unauthorized sellers. Once the public face of Smartwool’s products was back in their hands and “up to snuff” Smartwool saw a 60% growth in sales compared to the year before!

In this case, repositioning the brand was not about reinventing something new, rather, it was about changing the brand position around accurate and truthful information. Repositioning from misinformation to truth not only repaired trust with their customers, but also led to better internal infrastructure and communication.

“Positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect.” - Al Ries

Take-Aways

• Are there any obvious signs that repositioning is necessary? (Is there a downward trend in sales? Is your audience engagement shrinking?)
• Is your current messaging in line with what your audience is discussing and cares about?
• What potential audience have you not identified or written messaging for?
• Are there frequent questions regarding how to use your product, or ambiguity about product information?
• What are the pros/cons if you were to reposition or rebrand?
• Are other brands in your industry also considering repositioning
• and rebranding?

References

https://puddding.com/retailbloom.com/smartwool
https://puddding.com/wattisretail.com/rebel
https://puddding.com/solutionstream.com/young-living
https://puddding.com/akersdigital.com/turner-bikes-relaunch