How to Eliminate Customer Confusion: Avoid New Brand or Bust Pressure.

How to Eliminate Customer Confusion:  Avoid New Brand or Bust Pressure.

Attention C-suite:  Change isn't always good.  In a recent Mediapost online Travel article "Sometimes It Ain't Broke," Gary Leopold writes about being leery of "blowing up your brand."  What he does, however, is use messaging and slogan examples.  It's worth the read because this is not a concern limited to B2C or travel.  I've seen it too often in the B2B world. 

How many of us has lived through an expensive and volatile branding change only to live through a poor attempt at reclaiming the intent of the replaced branding.  Seriously, execs- can you really afford a multi-million dollar mistake, employee confusion, and customer and prospect and alienation?

The problem is that someone says the image, or brand, needs updating.  Someone else hears "change."  And frankly, it is relatively easy to persuade a company executive to make a wholesale change when revenue is flat or down over an extended time.  New management feels pressured to show movement in the right direction and making a brand change can buy a couple of years of cover while ignoring or fixing the real issues.

The prudent course is, as Mr. Leopold suggests in his article, that you need to ask if there is any real value or upside to changing a brand image, catch phrase, slogan, logo or primary message.  We aren't talking about updating.  We are talking about full-out, writing big checks change.

Collect and analyze some data.  Tweak and test.  I can almost guarantee you can integrate some split testing into your daily sales activities and marketing material at minimal expense without applying any major changes.

Ask, "Why change?"  Expect responses that support your company mission and reflect your prospect and customer needs.

Ask, "Do we need to change everything or just modify/update those things that support our brand?"

Show your leadership ability and resist the pressure to change just to show employees and shareholders that you are "doing something." 

Sometimes, crossing the road to get to the other side the chicken gets run over by an eighteen-wheeler of reality.  Flattened. Feathers flying.

Instead, take a look at your message, your offer, your proof, your guarantee.  Your brand might be okay and you just need to support it a little differently.

Of course, if your message, your brand, your slogan, really needs changing to convey the right message to the right audience at the right time...  make the change.

Be the Hero.

Mark H. Daniels
mark@mysaleshero.net  | (732) 417 - 0680

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