What really is Rebranding?
Rebranding is a method for restyling how your company, products or service is perceived. A rebrand can include the reinvention of everything from a brand’s name and tagline to its logo and visual identity to its website and marketing collateral. It can be as simple as a small and subtle facelift. or a change in tone and messaging.
Even the strongest of brands have a shelf life. Customers are fickle, competitors are ruthless, new technology comes along…all out of your control. Before you start, ensure:
You have management buy-in.
Define your budget, goals and timeline.
Build your internal team.
Hire the right agency who will work with your internal team.
What are the Reasons to Rebrand?
You’re undergoing a merger or acquisition.
You need to minimize redundancy, inconsistency and confusion with newly merged brands, services and products. One product, one brand.
You need to distance your brand from negative associations
Cancel culture, bad reviews, upset employees…it seems today it doesn’t take much to change a brand into one with a negative image.
You don’t stand out from the competition.
Back when you started your business, you were pretty much the only game in town. Now, competitors have moved in, reducing your market share and possibly undercutting your pricing, providing better service or a newer, shinier product.
Maybe you’ve added additional amenities, better service, upgraded products and even providing more customer options they’ve requested. But your old messaging, tagline, logo, color scheme, advertising all look and feel the same. Tired, not updated, not showcasing who you’ve become.
A new rebrand will help you showcase and identify your competitive differentiation. You need your existing and new customers, along with your employees all understanding why your brand is superior to the competition.
Your brand identity has become outdated.
If your company’s branding strategy hasn’t been updated in a while, an outdated brand will make your company appear behind the times. Outdated fonts, you don’t have a responsive, mobile-friendly website, your prospects don’t understand what you do, your graphics lack meaningful visuals, your ads are cluttered and no meaningful messages, all signs your brand has become outdated.
Your brand is only as fresh and relevant as your market, competition and customer priorities shift. Rebranding should be evaluated frequently, to remain relevant, you need to refresh every five to ten years.
You want to reach a new audience.
Remaining at the forefront of figuring out who is that next demographic ready to spend money in your marketplace. You need to continue to foster brand loyalty by ensuring your brand is relevant to their needs, preferences and habits. A refreshed brand helps you redefine yourself with the goal of reaching new, untapped audiences.
You’re not attracting talent
This is usually one of the final signs it’s time to rebrand, you can’t retain or recruit top employees. The best talent wants to work at the best brands. You need top-tier candidates to grow your business. It’s those motivated and talented recruits you need to align with your values and help you deliver on your brand promise.
Other Reasons to Rebrand:
Your Brand identity no longer reflects your company’s values, positioning or customers interest.
A Change in Ownership or Management.
You’ve branched out to other states, jurisdiction or internationally.
A Quick-Glimpse into Our Casino Rebranding Approach
The best rebranding campaigns are done after researching what your current brand perceptions are, by your players, competitors and internal departments. This helps you realize what your players needs are and the opportunities you may have in your current market.
The next step, is to use your research to come up with a strategy to elevate your brand and reposition it according to your players’ needs and opportunities. The intent? To create a strong brand. Strong brands get more loyal customers at a lower cost per acquisition who will stay and play more often.
We also realize, yesterday it was the Baby Boomers, today it’s Millennials tomorrow it’ll be Gen AI. There’s always another demographic interested and willing to give you a share of their wallet in your marketplace.
We’ll work with your internal marketing team (designers, data analysts, hosts, etc.) to help foster brand loyalty among existing and new player segments by ensuring your brand is relevant to their needs. Allowing you to redefine yourself with the goal of reaching new untapped players.
We’ll review past and current ads, outdoor, social, digital, web, mobile, direct mail, signage and look at the layout, the messaging, the tone, the template, fonts and see where there are strengths, opportunities and weaknesses.
Are you over promising and under delivering? Are you showcasing your property for the future, new amenities, upgrades, better service in mind?
Rick Harshman is the CEO of H2R Agency, the leading marketing agency specializing in inspired creative and results-driven strategies in the gaming industry. For more information, call (720) 226-3229 or e-mail RickH@H2RAgency.com.