BrandWorks writes:
With Dragons' Den having been on our screens since 2005, our appetite for startup businesses shows no sign of waning. But, while you hear about the success stories, unsurprisingly, you tend to hear far less about brands that are struggling. It can sometimes seem as simple as: start-up a business, overcome some challenges while you get going and then, having established your brand, you simply reap the rewards.
If only it were that easy!
Every day, brands are succeeding, stalling, growing, contracting, relaunching and sometimes fading away.
Now I know starting-up is tough, but keeping a brand growing once it’s established is a real challenge, whether you’re brand leader with competitors trying to steal your share or one of many challenger brands vying for growth.
For the majority of these guys, driving continued growth is particularly hard. They don’t tend to have mega-bucks marketing investment. Nor are they starting-up from zero with plenty of growth opportunity in front of. No, they have to work really hard to develop growth strategy, address competitor challenges (big and small), make forays into new sectors and keep focused on addressing ever-demanding customer needs in order to maintain, let alone grow, their brand.
If your brand is struggling to keep growing in a stagnant or declining market; being impacted by shiny new competitors making your market seem more exciting and by default you old-fashioned and dusty; or you’re simply realising that the rules changed somehow when you weren’t looking and now you’re not sure of your direction…you need a brand tune-up.
Like when your laptop gets slow and sluggish…you give it a spring clean. Remove the apps that you don’t use, delete unnecessary files, ensure it’s running the latest operating system and sometimes take it to an expert who can diagnose and suggest solutions to help it run even more efficiently. Often, the issues aren’t drastic; it’s just about focusing on the right areas to improve your efficiency.
At BrandWorks we help clients tune-up their brand by addressing critical questions in three stages:
- Get Clarity
- Set Direction
- Grow
Get Clarity
- What’s our current situation?
- What’s working?
- What’s not?
- What issues and opportunities are we faced with? Which ones do we need to address?
Set Direction
- Where do we want to go?
- What does this destination look like?
- When do we want to get there and can we measure our progress towards it?
- What steps do we need to take to reach our destination?
Grow
- With our destination in mind, do we have the resources needed for a successful journey?
- A team with the capability to deliver our plan?
- Investment to bring the plan alive?
- The ability to measure performance and course-correct where needed?
While the approach may seem simple, a well-executed brand tune-up can accelerate growth and even turnaround a declining brand.
If you’d like support in reinvigorating your brand and accelerating growth, feel free to contact me at BrandWorks for a chat about how I could help.
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