How do I determine when a makeover will become one of the few powerful rebrands to attract more new customers?
It has to do with one factor: Will the new brand actually exceed expectations of the current landscape my client is competing in and does it differentiate my client in their marketplace?
This uncovers two of the most fundamental mistakes when it comes to rebrands:
Mistake 1: Assigning a committee to drive the rebrand.
96% of the time, a committee is comprised of people who have the responsibility to steer a decision or important project yet lack the leadership, independence, and absence of “internal politics” to make an independent decision that’s right for the company.
Mistake 2: Treating the rebrand as a cosmetic enhancement.
Rebrands are NOT in the “nip and tuck” business enlarging one part of someone’s anatomy or tightening up their appearance so there’s “less droop or sag.”
These two mistakes alone account for well over 90% of the dismal rebranding failures one sees in the world today.
Powerful Rebrands Aren’t a Stroke of Luck. They’re a Stroke of Genius and Planning.
This is why I recently unveiled a brand new video because the rebrands we were completing were breathing so much new life into these companies.
Just in the past few months, I already know well over $3 million in new sales has already been generated as a result of these rebrands.
Just so you’re not wondering which powerful rebrands I am talking about, here’s the video that shows them:
Here they are up close and personal starting with the luxury expedition camper rebrand for Nimbl.
The previous brand meant little as a brand and had some “baggage” from its prior incarnation.
To give them a fresh start and a whole new customer base, I developed Nimbl, Freedom to Roam with a whole new narrative, and a whole new aesthetic as you can see in the article link above.
FIRST SEARCH
When First Search needed a refresh for its recruitment services they’d been doing for 40 years, I was able to help them make a “smart hiring decision” by choosing us as their rebranding partner.
Here is how they evolved (and they’ve already reported having their highest-ever monthly billings in their history):
SMART HAIR SOCIETY
When it comes to “noisy categories,” there are few as noisy and competitive as hair care and beauty products.
So this required reinventing this brand and creating a whole new category and business model.
Why? Because the “hair care business model” itself was the cliche we had to avoid.
Here’s how dramatic this change was:
But it wasn’t just the new category, new name, and new brand, this also needed to overhaul the product line itself:
UNBREAKABLE BONDS
Dental labs are a dime a dozen.
Little distinction if any.
Which means you’re stuck competing on price.
No distinction = competing price.
So, when RVDA came to me, I decided they needed a new category to bust through the “sea of sameness” so prevalent in this industry.
Here is their transformation (pay attention to their incredible tagline):
“Patients are like teeth. Nobody should lose either of them”
And of course, when you’ve got such a powerful name, you need a ride to go with it.
LET’S ROLL
I love it when a company with an avidly enthusiastic audience is ready to elevate its brand to the level of legendary.
That’s what happened when Let’s Roll approached us.
They manufactured the best lifts (to raise the motorcycle) and cruisers (used to move the motorcycle to wherever you wanted in the garage) for motorcycle owners when storing their prized possessions.
I needed to transform this brand into something that showed its motorcycle owner community some respect.
That took center stage when we positioned this as
Perfect Motorcycle Storage
Along with the new tagline and new design:
“Showing motorcycles the respect they deserve”
PRODIGY INVESTIGATIONS
Investigations firms aren’t inherently sexy.
Which means they’re ripe for reinvention and telling a tale nobody else bothered to notice.
The most startling part of this rebranding exercise was discovered (during the research process) that firms hired to provide irrefutable evidence for their client all committed one common crime: none provided proof when presenting their brand.
Instead, they provided “hearsay,” which not only wouldn’t stand up in court, it didn’t stand up when marketing their firms and skill sets.
This oversight turned every one of their brands (a legitimate opportunity for presenting their case during the sales process) into a crime scene.
And none of them had an alibi.
Which gave Prodigy the perfect opportunity.
To top it all off, we secured the domain: FactsNotFiction.com
ASSET SHIELD
I love when three words can earn a client millions in new sales.
And that’s exactly what happened when we transformed this client’s category and brand name.
The three words? Industrial Asset Protection.
Every other competitor is talking about sandblasting and industrial coatings and painting.
So, how sexy can this category get? See for yourself.
StoreConnect
“Stop selling what every other company is selling” is one of the most common things I tell clients.
In the tech space where subscription models are the standard these tech companies offer, finding a distinct place to communicate is vital.
That was the breakthrough here. Want all the details? You can find them here.
OUTSHINE THE CHANGE
The hormonal imbalance associated with menopause, mood swings, and hot flashes is frustrating and hellish at its worst.
The widespread approach of addressing hormones is not only the incorrect target for tackling the change, it’s also a trial-and-error approach that fails to handle menopause troubles for one key reason: hormonal imbalance is the symptom, not the cause.
What if there was a natural, proven, drug-free program that reliably handled the actual cause of menopause problems?
Instead of addressing the symptoms accompanying menopause, a female naturopath developed a program that provides natural remedies without the prescriptions and their side effects, so you tackle the actual source of the trouble.
All so women can reclaim their lives, and regain their shine.
And besides the new name, the real kicker is the slogan:
“Screw menopause. Naturally.”
INTELLECTABILITY
How do you take a suite of companies and align them under one unified brand architecture that unifies them so they convey the same DNA?
By finding the strand that connects them all.
When it started, they all looked like unrelated orphans, nothing cohesive bringing them together.
So we started with isolating what the brand collectively stood for and then created a brand architecture that unified them creating a visual eco-system all under the narrative of “replacing risk with health and wellness.”
And the magic happened first with the new name, IntellectAbility (instead of HRS), and then, even more, when we went from a domain that read hrstonline.com (impossible to remember, and even harder to say) and introduced this in its place:
ReplacingRisk.com
NAPA FRESH — FOOD FOR DOGS
What if you could help a company triple its business, even during the epidemic?
That’s what happened with Napa Fresh (read their full story here).
The goal? Turning a local company into a local hero with man’s best friend by your side.
It all began with connecting with the values of their audience: when people hear “Napa,” they immediately think of quality, pleasure, taste, beauty, and life’s finer moments come to mind.
Then everything fell into place.
Sound impossible? Then you’re barking up the wrong tree.
Think your brand can work harder to attract more new customers?
Let’s talk.
(In the meantime, grab your own copy of Brand Intervention at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Books A Million.)