7 Things to Fix About Your Company Before You Rebrand

Your brand needs some help, but it isn’t the only thing that needs some extra love and care. When you want to conduct a brand overhaul or rejuvenation, you need to look at the bigger picture. You should be asking yourself several questions regarding the state of your organization, the products or services that you offer and the overall morale of your employees.

Here are seven things you need to fix about your company before rebranding.

1. Your Product/Service

There are often cases of misidentified problems within an organization. These include, but are not limited to, the quality of your product/service or the misguided reach for your target audience. You may be thinking things are fine with you, but it’s everyone else that needs the fixing.

Your work is great so maybe everyone else is just not getting the message? Well, the answers could lie in the quality of your product or the lack of correct advertising.

You wouldn’t sell steak in a vegan restaurant so why are you selling pants at a nudist convention? It may be the material of the pants or the location, but either way, you aren’t going to get very far.

Evaluate Who You’re Trying to Reach

Instead, try focusing on what is important. First, you need to make sure you are connecting with the right people. If you are a clothing company that specializes in baby clothes, would you want to advertise in locations where teens are prevalent? No. You want to reach the expectant mothers and women who already have children. You need to define your target audience even more precisely through and following through a clear strategy to reach them.

Evaluate the Quality of Your Product

Second, it’s time you think about the quality of what you make or do. Say you’re a salon that caters to brides and you need to be on the cutting edge (here we go with the puns) of beauty, but almost every time you cut someone’s hair you receive a review that is flat-out negative.

[bctt tweet=”Bad product or service? No amount of branding can save you.”]

Have you thought about the way in which you evolve with the times? Sure, it probably worked for you in the 90’s, but is it working for you now? Giving your audience what it wants is important. Be persistent with yourself by making your organization a constant work in progress. If you need to stay up to date or constantly improve on what it is that you do, then go out there and get it done.

2. Your Understanding of Your Customers

The golden rule of marketing is: Know Thy Ideal Customers.

If you don’t know who you are trying to reach, your efforts are most definitely going to be wasted. More often than not, organizations go after the customers who are trendy or after people that are impossible to reach. If you’re phone case company that specializes in cases that help you take better selfies, you aren’t going to direct your marketing efforts towards senior citizens. That type of product is most likely going to do well with a younger crowd.

Get to know your ideal customer by doing extensive research. Begin the process by starting with the smallest market first. You will get a better feel for your immediate audience. You want to narrow your focus. This way you’ll be able to define your product in a way that appeals to your audience—showcasing it from their point of view.

3. Your Team and How You Treat Them

You need the ideal team around you. They should be people who are willing to work together, encourage one another and they need to be skilled. If not, then you need to cut dead weight. While it may sound harsh, it’s a reality that many organizations face, but are too afraid to consider.

Cut the Dead Weight

A good example of a dead weight employee is someone who does not want to challenge themselves, but believes their barely-there work is worth more than gold. This can happen when someone allows their pride to get in the way.

If someone isn’t willing to challenge themselves, keep up with the times or collaborate, it may be time to let them go. Now, this doesn’t mean you can’t work with someone who can be difficult, but if it seems like they’re dragging everyone down, a change may be necessary.

Treat Your Team Well

On the opposite side, there are times when employees aren’t being treated fairly. You should be treating your team with the respect that they deserve and it should be given to you in return.

If this isn’t the case, maybe you need to think about how you interact with your team and clients on a daily basis. Is there something that needs changed? If you answered yes, then go out there and get it done. Constant evaluation is a good thing. You should be able to evolve and grow.

4. Your Internal Communication

There are times when organizations seek the advice of consultants to help with their internal problems only to scoff in their faces. One of the biggest issues with poor structure is a lack of communication and more often than not, organizations believe their communication is one thing they don’t need to fix, but it is a big issue that needs to be resolved as soon as it is identified.

A tale-tell sign of poor communication is the confusion that can take place between departments. Once the confusion begins, the whole makeup of the organization can take a hit.

The effects will trickle into each department and can create immense difficulties—especially with marketing. A perfect example of this would a nonprofit organization that has inconsistencies and uses different logos for different across several platforms or mediums. It confuses the audience and distracts the organization from its ultimate goal.

Start by getting out here and doing something about the problem. There are countless resources out there just waiting to be used. Whether you are using a consultant, a book or a course, give it a chance and see where it could take your organization. Proper communication is essential to a fully functioning company.

5. Your Lust For Competition

A little healthy competition never hurt anyone, but if you’re letting that get in the way of your work, you need a reality check. One of the most important things you can be doing is staying on the cutting edge of your field. This is why it’s good to look at competitors on a regular basis. Sometimes, however, this can turn into unhealthy competition.

You should be focusing on your own brand and how you can make it better. Take a look at your practices and see if something needs a tweak or an overhaul.

While you can look at the competition all you want, it’s not going to change anything unless you are trying to better yourself. Give your competition the credit they deserve and give yourself the praise you ought to have every time you accomplish something great.

6. Your Pessimistic Attitude

A negative attitude can go a long way.

You may not realize it, but you could be hurting your coworkers, employees, clients and organization by exuding a pessimistic attitude. It doesn’t take much work to turn a negative outlook into a positive view of the future. Underlying issues have a tendency to pop up so it’s crucial that you remedy any negative feelings while you can.

You may be under the impression that your company doesn’t need to keep up with the times. You’ve been doing the same thing for so long that it has worked for you, but what if you are missing out on the countless opportunities out there?

Not only do you owe it to yourself, but you also owe it to your coworkers and employees to continually evolve. This means you need to redirect your focus when things aren’t looking bright. Instead of sticking with that negative attitude, be positive about change and try to fix what you can.

7. Your Perception of Branding

Branding is much more than a logo, colors and an upbeat slogan.

There are millions of people out there right now that have no idea what goes into the branding process. They think they can go it alone or pick and choose parts of the processes when that isn’t the case.

You may in a situation where you either think you don’t need branding help or that you know everything. Branding influences everything. It should be dispersed across the entirety of your organization and not just the areas where you think it’s important.

With that being said, what do you think you could be doing better? Your company should always be in a constant state of evolution. You will see later on in the branding or rebranding process that a good brand is able to change with the times but can still maintain it’s original integrity.

If you can keep this in mind while focusing on the well-being of your organization, then that’s already one step towards a brighter future.