As a marketer, building a new brand for your company is one of the most important things you can do to help your business grow. A successful new branding campaign will allow you to differentiate your company from other industry competitors by presenting a unique image, a voice that is memorable, and a specific identity that will resonate with your target customers. By establishing a solid strategy, adopting a forward-thinking mindset, and fully preparing for your rollout you can successfully launch your new brand into the stratosphere.
Here are five things to remember when launching your new brand:
1. Time Isn’t Always Money
When you first start a campaign re-positioning your current brand or introducing a new one, it’s tempting to try accelerating those changes by investing a lot of money right from the beginning in an effort to get your message across. That can be a mistake. While the frequency of messaging and marketing can be critical in driving your message, message duration is important, too. Instead of investing funds in trying to build frequency quickly, don’t waste money–use it to build a consistent message for the long run and give your audience time to connect with your new positioning.
2. Send One Strong Message
Consumers rarely react well when faced with multiple messages from one ad. At best, they may absorb one specific primary message or call to action. Expecting consumers to connect your brand with an abstract concept, or to pick up on a secondary message is not going to be successful. Your marketing team needs to connect the dots for your consumers and make it easy to understand what is new or unique about your brand or product.
3. Include Multiple Touch-Points In Your Campaign
When it comes to brand advertising campaigns, synergy works. When your consumers are exposed to multiple touch-points such as digital, print, television, social, video, and other formats they are more likely to respond positively to your campaign. Ensure that you’re spreading your marketing spending across multiple media channels and vehicles to drive your message home and to lessen the risk of over-saturation in any one media form.
4. Long-Term Efficiency Is More Important Than Short-Term Effectiveness
In order for your consumer’s perception of your brand will require a lot of exposure to your campaign. The key reason a campaign is successful is often due to generating adequate exposure frequency over time. Instead of jumping in and buying prime-time premieres or high-profile sporting event roll-outs, ensure that you’ve built a steady foundation of frequency in the media. High-impact prime and sports can definitely bring in a tremendous exposure, but hold that off until later–it’s easier and more affordable to first accumulate exposure across a broad audience through Cable TV when you get your campaign ready for release.
5. Don’t Set It and Forget It
Track your results! In order to be confident that your new brand campaign is working, you need a measurement mechanism in place to give real-time feedback. You can use that information to tweak and improve your campaign while it’s still in progress, and you’ll be able to show key stakeholders that the campaign is making progress. When you invest millions of dollars to create and run your branding campaign, brand-tracking gives you the knowledge and conviction to follow through.
Above all, take it slow. You may face the temptation to rush through the process of entering the market by starting to sell your products as quickly as possible, but how you initially introduce your new brand to your customers impact your potential future sales drastically–as the saying goes, you only have one chance to make a first impression.
