5 Easy Ways to Revamp Your Brand

5 Easy Ways to Revamp Your Brand
There are two ways to respond to a downshift in the
economy. You can sink, or you can start thinking
creatively. Many of the major corporate players are
revamping their brands to stand out in an even more hotly
competitive marketplace, and so can you.

The media recently reported the decision by Victoria's
Secret to revamp its brand by toning down products that
leave too little to the imagination and start embracing a
wider (read: more mature) market. With sales down,
Victoria's Secret executives announced plans to revamp its
brand to make it still sexy, but a little less flamboyant,
apparently hoping to attract older shoppers back into the
stores.

Cell phone companies, too, are searching for new ways to
revamp their brands. LG Electronics, the maker of the
Voyager and Chocolate phones, this year started holding
focus group meetings to dig deeper into what customers
really want that will allow the company to stand out among
so many choices. "We constantly have to be reminding
ourselves that we tend to be geek types, and our customers
are not," Ehtisham Rabbani, an LG vice president for
product strategy and marketing, told the New York Times.
"Our job is to be behaviorists and psychologists."

The Wall Street Journal reports that T-Mobile is
introducing test models of a new system that will allow
cell phones to connect with home landline phones. The
service, "Talk Forever Home Phone," is being introduced
first in Seattle and Dallas. It will allow the use of a
cell phone account in combination with any corded or
cordless home phone with multiple extensions for only $10 a
month after a one-time $50 router charge, the newspaper
reported. In this case, the goal was to be different and
also affordable.

Is it time to revamp your brand?

5 Easy Ways to Revamp Your Brand

1. Engage your own focus group. Gather a group of your best
customers and also new customers (and don't forget
co-workers, employees and mentors) to meet for at least one
hour to discuss whether it's time to revamp your brand, and
how this can be accomplished at little or no additional
cost. You might be surprised that a simple change in
wording or packaging or marketing is the answer. The goal
is to adapt ideas from these how-to guides to holding focus
groups to fit your budget and preferred group size.

2. Refine your focus group results. Once you have received
a set of suggestions, realistically study them to determine
what will best suit revamping your brand without major
changes or expenses. In a tough economy, zero in on what
will save customers or clients money (or be the best
value), and what can bring you new customers.

3. Zero in on extras. Revamp your brand to embrace "extras"
that will bring more old and new customers to your door.
Can you repackage your services to add a "bonus" or "free"
service such as a newsletter, calendar, or a 10-minute
mini-consultation?

4. Think compatibility. T-Mobile decided to revamp its
brand by experimenting with how to become more compatible
with traditional landline telephone service. Can you revamp
your brand by making it more compatible with another
product or service? If consumers are feeling rushed, can
you make your service more compatible by reducing the time
frame of your service? If consumers are less inclined to
drive long distances, can you make your services or
products more compatible to online availability?

5. Rethink your customer base. How can you revamp your
brand to appeal to customers outside your niche demographic
to make up for less business by existing customers?
Sometimes it can be a matter of just rephrasing your
marketing to appeal to a wider customer base, versus
introducing new gadgets or product lines.

If your brand needs to be revamped, any one of all of these
five tips should bring more customers to your door.

----------------------------------------------------
Ruth Klein, America's De-Stress Diva™, is owner of
the award-winning firm The Marketing/Time Source. With a
master's degree in clinical psychology, Klein, is the
author of the best-selling Time Management Secrets for
Working Women and five other books on business and
lifestyle topics. Sign up to receive Ruth's 7 Part
Mini-Course on Branding and Productivity.
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