Brand Repositioning As a Necessary Process to Maintain Profitability

Rebranding is a process that involves changing a brand’s identity. This generally means changing most or all of the brand identity elements such as the name, logo, colours, type font and tagline among others. The process of changing the brand identity might also entail repositioning the brand.

Repositioning Varieties

However, a brand can undergo repositioning without necessarily altering its identity. Repositioning is primarily focused on adjusting how customers view the brand. Typically this entails a transformation in the brand’s values and its personality.

As a result, taglines often change with brand repositioning, in order to adapt the new message transmitted to its audience. Sometimes the identity itself is updated or refreshed to reinforce the change in the brand’s fresh positioning. Considering that repositioning processes don’t entirely change a brand’s identity, the brand name will stay the same.

Brand repositioning is undertaken in order to increase a brand’s competitive position and therefore increase sales volume by capturing additional market share from rivalling products. During repositioning, companies can change aspects of the product, change the brand’s target market or both.

Alternative options available for brand repositioning:

• Image repositioning: In this case both the product and the target market remain unchanged. The purpose in this scenario is to transform the image of the product in the eyes of the current targeted audience.
• Market repositioning: While the product stays unchanged, the efforts go into creating demand in a new market segment.
• Product repositioning: In this case the product is fundamentally changed or some of its features are tweaked and served to the target market.
• Complete repositioning: This alternative involves an overhaul of target market and the product specifications.

When to Consider Repositioning Your Brand

The following are a few reasons why you might want to consider repositioning your brand:

• You want to target a different audience. The audience you were initially targeting may no longer be viable. You may have targeted a specific age group that has grown up and no longer uses your product or service. Perhaps there’s more potential in another audience than the one you are currently targeting.
• Your products and services have evolved. Over the years, you may have begun adding new products and services or you may have changed the products and services that you’ve offered.
• Your competitors are offering better value. New competitors are going to pop up every year. At some point, you may notice that they are offering better value propositions than you. You may need to change your value proposition to avoid losing customers.
• Your sales are trending downwards. One of the most obvious reasons to consider repositioning your brand is if your sales are trending downwards. At this point, a change has to be made to prevent the trend from continuing.

Establishing your brand and increasing brand awareness is hard work; however, there comes a time where you may need to consider repositioning your brand to help ensure your continued success.