Your brand strategy serves as a “North Star” to align the front and back end of your business as you scale. But how do you know if what you’re doing is working?
In this episode of the Real Food Brands Podcast, host and Brand Strategist Katie Mleziva goes over the difference between a product and a brand, the difference between a brand refresh and a rebrand, a quick 3C’s review and six signs you should rebrand your food business.
Here are the six signs you should consider rebranding your food business.
1. You Aren’t Excited Anymore
The food and beverage industry can be tough, so when you get up every morning you need to have a high level of energy around your mission and vision in order to make it happen. Have you outgrown your original goals for your business? How does what you’re doing fit with your beliefs and core values?
Consistency with your message and your tagline is a good thing, and we definitely all have days where we get a little tired of all the repetition. But if you feel embarrassed to share samples or tell your story, or the business model just doesn’t feel right anymore, it might be time to consider a rebrand. If you’re not excited to shout about your brand from the rooftops, something is out of alignment.
2. You Get Feedback From Your Stakeholders
Consumers don’t always take the time to tell you if something isn’t working, but it’s always important to find a way to get an outside perspective. You can monitor your calls, emails, and social media comments for trends, but it’s also valuable to solicit feedback from buyers and other industry experts who know your category or work with brands at a similar stage as yours. If you’re actually hearing feedback consistently from others, don’t just write it off. It could be a sign you need to make a change.
3. You Feel Like the Market Is Shifting Around You
If you feel like the market is moving quickly around you and you’re not sure how to adjust, you can look at your 3C’s to see if your brand is still relevant given these market shifts. You shouldn’t change just for change’s sake or to chase trends, but if your relevance, message, product or visuals aren’t keeping up with the times it’s important to be honest and not rely on past success to get you where you want to be in the future.
4. You’re Trying to Shake a Bad Reputation
Let’s face it: things happen, and sometimes you need a fresh start. You can’t run away from a bad reputation or hide from your past, but sometimes what you really need to do is make changes internally or revisit things to make sure they are aligned with your future vision. A rebrand can help support those changes and help you focus on where you want to go instead of where you’ve been.
5. Your Story is Not Clear
If you’ve done your brand strategy homework and are clear on the V and three C’s of your brand (that’s Vision, Competitors, Consumers, and Company), then you know how you want to tell your story. Now’s the time to ask the hard questions: are you actually telling that story clearly enough? As Katie says, “Your brand strategy goes deeper than your brand story, but the story is the way that strategy comes to life.” Now’s the time to step up, so if your brand can’t tell that story it may be time to rethink and rebrand.
6. You Need to Align Your Portfolio
In cases of acquisition, having different leaders over time, or when you’ve simply been moving quickly, there can be a lack of strategy at the umbrella brand level and/or within the sub-brands. How does each sub-brand fit into your bigger vision for your company? Take a step back and think through how all the pieces fit together, and whether or not each piece of the puzzle comes together to form a clear picture of the whole.
What got you here may not get you there, so give yourself permission to acknowledge that you’ve done a really great job to come so far, but that in order to get to the next level you may need to make some changes.
The important thing is to not jump into a rebrand without really identifying the fact that this is what your brand needs at this time. It’s a big undertaking to rebrand and Katie would be happy to talk with you if you’re trying to figure out if it’s the right time.
If you want more on this topic, Katie is offering a brand strategy JumpStart Workshop using her Brand Strategy Workbook followed by a 1:1 meeting to talk through it and take your thinking to the next level. You can learn more at realfoodbrands.com/work-with-me, or you can always send Katie an email at katie@realfoodbrands.com.
Now, let’s go shake up shopping carts!
In This Episode:
- Why a great brand strategy starts with the three C’s: Competitors, Consumers, and Company.
- The difference between a product and a brand, and a rebrand versus a brand refresh.
- What to do if you just aren’t excited about your brand anymore.
- How to listen to feedback and when it’s time to consider a rebrand.
- What to do if you feel like the market is shifting around you.
- When you need to rebrand to align your portfolio.
- Why you shouldn’t jump right to a rebrand without careful consideration.
Quotes:
“Your brand is so much more than your logo and your visuals, it really is that North Star that helps guide your decisions throughout everything you do on the front and backend of your business to deliver on your promises to consumers and other key stakeholders.” – @RealFoodBrands
“You need to make sure it’s the right time and that you’re going to go through the right amount of rigor in order to make rebranding or refreshing worthwhile.” – @RealFoodBrands
“If you’re not excited about your brand something is probably out of alignment.” – @RealFoodBrands
“Your brand strategy goes deeper than your brand story, but the story is one way that strategy comes to life.” – @RealFoodBrands
Resources:
- Podcast Ep #27: How Brand Strategy Brings Consistency, Efficiency and Value to Your Company
- Podcast Ep # 45: The 5-Minute Food Business Brand Strategy Formula
- Ep #23: How to Find Your Unfair Advantage
- Connect with Katie on LinkedIn
- Real Food Brands Brand Checkup Scorecard
- Real Food Brands Marketing Roundtable Facebook Group
- Real Food Brands website
- Nosh.com
